About Milly

Milly was born in 1954, as a Six Wheel Drive Chassis Cab for the British Army and first used as a general cargo truck with the Army Registration Number 36BM73. Spending most of her life in storage compounds, she had done very few miles when she was purchased by London Transport in October 1966, along with a second Army 4X6 Militant (36BM12).

Both vehicles were sent to Boughtons of Amersham to be bodied as Master Breakdown Tenders. The Cranes fitted were full power slewing models PLS/A/10 rated at a 10 tons lift!

Milly spent the next fourteen years working for London Transport. Based at Camberwell Garage neither she, nor her sister based at Cricklewood were used a great deal, because of their lack of speed. In September 1980 she was withdrawn from service due to a fractured chassis and sold to a collector in the Woolwich area May in 1981, being joined at the same collector by her sister in April 1983.

Late in 1983 Milly was spotted by Andy Lambert the founder of (and at that time MD of) The National Rescue Group. He decided to purchase her, to operate from their newly opened Brooklands Depot at Weybridge. After a coat of paint she was put straight to work on the already notorious A3 Kingston By-pass and the soon to become notorious M25, attending and dealing with, some of the worst accidents of the time.

Again her speed let her down badly and in 1988 her replacement, a huge DAF known as the Brooklands Belle arrived. National Rescue then sold the vehicle to Andy Lambert, to become part of his private collection. Andy decided to loan Milly to the Brooklands Museum where she has stayed, apart from a four month spell at Southend Airport dismantling the Viscount Aircraft - Stephen Piercey.

Her duties at the Museum are varied and consist of, amongst other things, working on the Museum's collection of aircraft, winching huge pieces of concrete left over from the war out of the ground, carrying Bombs around the site and tree surgery. At Brooklands she is well looked after by Martin Strick and Tony Amos.

Power is provided by an AEC A223 11.3 litre 6cyl diesel engine revving to 1900 with a maximum BHP. of 160. The gearbox has ten forward speeds and two reverse, the steering being, (and needing), power assistance and the underbody fore and aft winch is conservatively rated at 30 tons. Four hydraulic stiff legs hold the chassis steady for craning which is through 360 degrees.
 

Milly is not the easiest vehicle to get into

During 1992 National Rescue tided up and re-painted Milly, although she is in need of another paint job soon. Andy is always looking for people who worked with Milly and can fill in the gaps in her history if you can help please email him

During the early nineties Milly's sister also returned to work with an Essex bus company called Blue Triangle. As of today (mid 2007), it is believed she is still active in the Essex area.
 

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