Planes, Trains and automobiles

I love the FoI and the people who get them.  It shows a deeper insight into the British mins and what it think about.  Britain is a bunch of people who love to tinker with things ; in fact James May once said that everything that is amazing was made in a shed. This is the basis for this post.  People use the FoI to find out what information about the planes, trains, and automobiles that they have bought from the military surplus.

So a quick little look through the pile found numerous requests for information on planes, trains and automobile that people are interested in.  For example, the Austin Gypsy with engine number no 22UA-KA-D2652 and chassis no;20048? Ex British Army Saracen APC Mk 6 details? A 1978 Land Rover 88 Series III Lightweight?  A Land Rover with Chassis No. 95102439A?   They all had the same answer, which was contact the Royal Logistic Corps Museum.

This is a long walk for a simple answer BUT it also refered back to a few things.  Ages back I did stated about the time frame that government departments have to send information to the national archives and how long department's keep files. I’ve also talked about the archives that people have (Due to looking for Cold War Sites).  Now a quick search on archives have shown a section where you can find the vehicles that you are looking for. In fact they “have around 500,000 vehicle records on the site of vehicles which have been used by one of the Forming Corps”.

Which leads me to the next question.  Why isn't this more widely known?  Realistically, this is a fairly specialised area of knowledge and something that would not be looked at by others unless they had interest in this.  I find this interesting because it shows that the vehicles that the MoD do keep these records and that they are available.  It also makes me wonder what would happen if we were to have a little look through them. The amount of data that you could get from some of the vehicles and their stories; that pretty interesting!