"Blue Light" Adventures

My friend Dave helped me again with some work on the electrics today

It was quite a successful day before it stated getting cold so we decided to halt and do a test of the new features. The reversing camera cables were run underneath the vehicle and in through an existing gromit in the battery bx and then up to the plate I had fitted to hold the screen. A switch was added as we used a feed from the leisure battery rather than messing with wiring to the ignition

The reversing camera works just as expected ..

The connections to the leisure battery and camera were all tidied up ..

The Fog lights work  just as expected ..

The Spotlights however have been wired into a spare switch on the dashboard and when we turned them on this was the result (Click the picture or the link below)

"Blue" Lights on my Land Rover Ambulance

That will be great for car shows, but we will need to make an adjustment before they are useful at other times. 

True Colours Again

Since we found pictures of Katy in uniform I have been considering adding some markings back to her

The decision was helped by the reaction we got when we dressed her up for the South Wales Land Rover club annual road run last year

Actually she needs a full respray which may happen this winter, but as there is another road run coming up we wanted to do something a bit better than we did last year. So we went to see Dave and Wendy of Designs and Signs Cardiff and they made us some adhesive vinyl stickers to replace the originals that would have been on there

We decided not to go for the full red cross and the word Ambulance on the front panel as this could confuse people who saw her on the road. Therefore we have opted for the outline of a red cross and her name across the front instead, but still the UN letters on the doors.

You can see that the cross is smaller than the original and placed in a different place. The crosses can't go where they were originally as the windows have been put in

There is a similar problem on the back door as one door has been removed and the gas bottle cupboard has been added. So this is a compromise

We think that she looks great and we are looking forwards to showing her off properly on the Road Run 

Did Katy go to Rwanda?

When I bought Katy there were a couple of the eBay pictures that leapt out

The ones that were obviously from Africa, but a question arises below as to whether this was her first time on "The Dark Continent"

As readers of this blog will be aware it's not just this post conversion history that I've been researching, but also her Military history and I've been able to confirm that she was used as an actual ambulance in Croatia

Since then I have been looking into another event on her history card which says from 29th July 1994 to 29th November 1994 she was allocated to 23 PARA FIELD AMBULANCE

So what is this

I have determined that 23 PARACHUTE FIELD AMBULANCE RAMC did humanitarian work in Rwanda in 1994 in OPERATION GABRIEL in what sounds like an awful situation. It is recorded here  http://www.paradata.org.uk/units/23-parachute-field-ambulance-ramc and with a fuller write up http://www.paradata.org.uk/events/rwanda-operation-gabriel.

in that write-up it is noted that

On 30 July, after only 5 days preparation in Aldershot, the advance elements of the contingent, arrived at Kigali airport on the outskirts of the capital.

and later

Op GABRIEL lasted until November 1994, after which it was withdrawn

The dates of that action ties up well with the date of Katy's allocation to that unit. It would be wonderful if she was involved there as well.

Just like Croatia the actual events seem horrible, but to know that Katy was a lifesaver makes it even more important that she's on the road and that in places like this humble blog there is continued recognition of the humanitarian works our Armed forces have done

If anyone reading this has any actual information please leave a comment or use the contact form on the right if you would prefer to make a personal rather than a public comment

Ice Cold in Cardiff

OK we'll it's not really, but it is time for my annual round up, but this year I quite admit that it's been a bit boring

The reason - simply work a change in the ownership of the company I work for, and changes in responsibilities meant that I really needed to focus on that for a while so plans got put on hold

Incredibly this meant that I have spare parts here ready to be fitted since November 2012 and I still don't have them out of their boxes

OK so what have we done ..

Actually there has been little maintenance because of the lack of use, but i was not happy with the brakes even though they passed and MOT and therefore in February, with Help from Steve I changed the brake adjuster on one of the rear wheels

I took out the fridge I had fitted in June and isolated the electrics that were causing me problems

In July we dressed up and also dressed Katy up for the SWLRC Road run. I like the idea of putting these markings back on when she has a respray even if just ghosted in. Also that month we managed to get away for a week and had nice views through the new skylight and a nice time camping at Chatsworth House campsite, and visiting the house where we met a kindred spirit

Since then I've fitted some bonnet security in September before using her to visit the 2014 Hidden Earth Caving Conference where we managed to cause quite some chaos

Since then in early December I managed to meet up with an active service Pulse ambulance in the Brecon Beacons

For Christmas I had some more Land Rover information and amongst them was another copy of a picture that I have seen before, but this time in colour.

In the book  Modern Military Land Rovers: In Colour, 1971-1994 by James Taylor & Bob Morrison there is a copy of a picture that I had only seen in Black and white as reported in January 2013 this time it is clearly printed and it it possible to see a number of details not visible in the B&W copy

From this I can now be sure that Katy had a window on the drivers side and that the panel that has been riveted on that side is clearly a new panel added during the conversion to  a camper as the camper window is a lot smaller than the original window would have been

So finally summary. Not much of a successful year, in terms of adventures, however plans are being made for more fun next year

And the Ice Cold in Alex reference 

I had not seen it for many years, but  this classic British WWII film was on again over Christmas

I had not realised that the ambulance in that Film is called Katy They apparently mounted a body off an Austin K2/Y ( Officially "Ambulance 4x2) and stuck it on a Canadian Military Pattern 4x4 chassis so it would be more capable during filming in the sandy conditions. These Austin Ambulances were known as Katies which is fairly obvious reading the K2/Y definition

Nice to know the name has some heritage as an ambulance. Harry Andrews claims in that film "Katy weighs two tons!" whereas the actual weight of the K2 exceeded three tons. Nice to know ours is a bit lighter


If you want to see the actual Ambulance used in that film it's in the hands of the Ambulance Heritage Society

As this is a Land Rover Blog this screen-grab I have found from the film shows a classic continuity error that a Series I Land Rover is parked up in the closing few seconds of the film. In the foreground is Anthony Quayle - a Lancastrian of Manx Heritage playing a German posing as a South African ...

If you want to see the Land Rover in moving pictures look at the last 15 seconds of this (about 7:13) HERE

It's Official

It's Official

Katy did do military service and I have photographs to prove it :-)

I found some old information that commented on an ambulance 63-KG-65 being featured in a book Land Rover Military Portfolio by Bob Morrison. This was Katy's military registration so I had to get a copy of that book. I ordered it, but the weather in the UK has been dreadful and delivery was delayed which was quite frustrating.

Anyway it arrived today and on page 90 and 91 there is an article reprinted from a Land Rover Owner International magazine in October 1992 (where it was pages 38-9 if you have an old copy and want to look).

It has pictures taken by Laurie Manton (former assistant editor of Soldier Magazine) and in the article there is a front view and a rear view of a Marshall's 127 Crash Rescue Ambulance and in both pictures the registration number is clear and it reads the magic 63-KG-65

I am so happy to have confirmation of this. I've always hoped I would find definitive evidence that she was a true working ambulance and I now have it

In the article it states that the 127's were being taken out there to replace the "worn out" 101's that had originally been deployed. The Article say that they were deployed to 24 Field Ambulance, RAMC whic accorring to one military history website was deployed 24/6/1992 to Croatia. Operation Hanwood 1992 Zagreb, Knin Split, Sarajevo and various other locations. The date is consistent with the questionable date on Katy's Military History card

In the picture you can definitely see she had no side window on the Passenger side which was one thing that had confused me about the camper conversion as the camper windows are smaller and I could not see a logical reason why to replace them. It is now clear it wasn't a replacement.

I know that inside Katy there were brave men (and women I don't know, but the officer in charge of the unit was a woman so I don't see why not) doing hard duties in an extremely difficult places, I'd like to think in looking after her and doing this research I've done a little to help keep the memory of that hard work alive  

There is a lot more in the book than this simple picture as there are a number of articles by Bob that talk about stockpiled 127's and political intervention from Paddy Ashdown to ger them released. There is clearly a lot more to learn about this

I would of course like to thank Bob and Laurie for taking the pictures and writing the article. without that I would still be in the dark on this

I've included only a small thumbnail of the article as I've not had permission to reprint it so it's not fair to put it in at a scale that would be usable under "fair use"

Update 11th April 2015, I now have permission to share the pictures from this article so here they are

Katy's History again

I've recently had some information regarding Katy's history that I would love to look into further and try and get to the bottom of

As is stated on the About Katy page there is a question regarding whether she served in the former Yugoslavia. This has been commented upon by Clive who left a useful comment on the Anti Roll Bar Linkages page which put that possibility at even more question as he did not remember 127 ambulnaces when he seved

Purely by chance this weekend I was reading a book called Land Rover 90, 110 & Defender 83-94 Gold Portfolio by R M Clarke from Brooklands publishers which included a picture of a 127 in full UN paint stating it was taken in Bosnia by Carl Schulze who I find mentioned on the Internet as a photojournalist  .

 The print is not sharp, but I think the registration is 63-KG-63 whereas Katy is 63-KG-65, but it looks like  real confirmation that 127 ambulances were out there, and if one was... maybe another was

I've sent the publisher an email but if you know any contact details for the Author or for Carl himself I would be really pleased if you could pass on this post in the hope he may get in contact with me

Spanish Señorita's

Not a trip for Katy a she would have needed more than one seat on the plane, but we recently headed off to Teneife to do some Lava Tube exploration with the Wessex Cave Club of which there are pictures on my photo website if you want a break from Land Rovers

But back to the main topic, whilst heading up Mount Teide we spotted a couple of Santana Land Rovers, the first of which was this very smart 2.8 turbo diesel military vehicle. It was was a mostly pristine later model being driven by the Army who were out on what looked like a training exercise. Luckily the men with guns were in a god mood and did not mind me taking a few pictures.

This one was of course fully fitted out with radio and other kit inside so no pictures of that I was told, but the outside looked very nice, and if you look carefully you can see the leaf springs showing at the bottom. Santana never changed over to coil springs.   

These later models have a large number of developments made by Santana which many people think very highly of, however there are quite a few coments on the internet about issues with spares and parts in the UK and an eventual ending of the Santana / Land Rover relationship so I don't think I'll be buying one unless I move to Spain

Next we headed up tthe Mount Teide cablecar and I spotted a very tired old badge on the back of what looked like an old Series Land Rover, and it was of course another Santana.

This time one of venerable age which  has clearly had a hard life as you can tell from the state of the badge, but as it't been living in a pretty dry climate (it's often above the clouds here) it's not looking too bad on the outside  

 What was looking bad was the inside of this poor "Landy"... It was being used as a rubbish truck and all tho oil and mess from liquid rubbish was leakin gout of the back door.Still it's acheived a great age and is still being useful so it's not a bad advert for the Santana's

Expensive Alternatives and Ideas

We were heading north with a team from work to have a quick walk up Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon (known as the Three Peaks Challenge) We stopped off in the motorway services near Carlisle for fuel and food

As we drove in one of my colleagues said "I think there's something that will interest you", and he was right

This is an Azalai 130 Camper which is an incredible vehicle in terms of specification, but even more so in price.The companies website states "Vehicles are built to order and to the customer's specifications so it is not possible to give a firm price on the website."

Anyway it was very nice to speak to the owner and to be able to take a good look around it as I've been thinking of Flatdog Azalai Camper springs for Katy and it was great to be able to take a look at the set-up which included double shocks which some of the members of the 127 group have adopted for their own vehicles

In the chat I had with it's owner he was not complimentary of the fact that the 1st engine he had had in it had lasted only 1000 miles which is not much for something that's going to have cost so much. even so he now really liked it and it performed well and did everything he wanted to in getting him and his radio kit ( he was a ham) up to interesting places such as the Shetlands which is where he was heading

He was complimentary of the performance, handling and build so I guess you do get something for all that money

After that we headed up to Fort William to start our walk and whilst waiting (interminably) for the organizers to get around to it I went outside for a walk and found this being driven by some artillery guys on their way back from the Hebrides to Southampton.

As an alternative these are starting to come on the market, but at £21k it's a lot of money so Katy is safe for now (she also looks nicer)

Katy's Military Record

Having seen posts about just emailing DES for the vehicle information on the EMLRA forum I did so on Monday and I got the Merlin Management information sheets today – very efficient and no charge

ERM                        63KG65 I knew this
Designation              Amb Crash rescue 2/3 Stretcher 4x4 Land Rover – ermm… this too
Colour White Gloss Interesting – there is camouflage paint all over her underneath a very poor paint job
Barbus Ind              N – I have No Idea what that means
Date in service        27-Jan-88
Date Cast               27-Apr-98
Disposal Date         16-Jun-98



Here is the Merlin report I got from DES

In case it's hard to read I've copied it out below

IV NO	IV DATE	UIN	UNIT TITLE	REC NO	REC DATE
		F5039A	RAF REGT DEPOT
500427	25-NOV-88	F6919A	RAF MANSTON	724	5-JAN-89
347	27-OCT-89	F5039A	RAF REGT DEPOT	999/91	15-NOV-89
999	3-JUL-92	CA005A	JSCS ASHCHURCH	A001769	3-JUL-92
A11857	23-SEP-93	A1073A	OP HANWOOD-YUGOSLAVIA	999/DAI	23-SEP-93
200	23-SEP-93	CA195A	OSU THETFORD	E50/093	22-OCT-93
069	5-JAN-94	A0916A	ARMD FD AMB RAMC	795F1	21-FEB-94
108	29-JUL-94	A0944A	PARA FIELD AMBULANCE	174H67	29-NOV-94
030	16-JUN-98	CQ700A	MVSL (DISPOSALS)	999M92	19-JUN-98

The Depot and disposal lines are fairly obvious – parked somewhere waiting for a new life

RAF Manston is fairly self-explanatory, What is nice is that it’s next to the Spitfire museum and that probably gives us a really good reason for a trip down there and take some pictures of her “at home”

Op Hanwood seems to be an operation to Croatia (Yugoslavia), but it’s not clear whether she went given the dates, it would be nice as that was I understand it a humanitarian mission (see post It's official as an update to this statement)

The rest I’m not clear on, and have asked some people on military forums to try and get clear

if anyone is looking into this I did the following 

DES is Defence Equipment and Support http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/MicroSite/DES/

I sent the registration number (like you have) and other information I had (see http://landroverkaty.blogspot.com/p/about-katy.html) to query@edisposals.com an email address I found on http://www2.edisposals.com/contact.htm

They were not the right people, but passed it on to someone in Nottingham and I got a letter back

Simples !