The Recce and Collection

I immediately felt I must go a find the location of this scrap yard and it just so happened that that Thursday I was to be away working in  London, so I decided that I would call in and have a good look at the searchlight. I arrived at the location near Wokingham and to my surprise it was a comical scrap yard the lady running the place was expecting me and she took me straight round to the light. When we got there and I saw the AASL up close it was in an awfully bad condition and it became clear that restoring it would be very hard, but not impossible. every thing depended on the parts I decided then and there to take it and informed them I would be back.
         
   
The Scrap Yard Challenge Totem   My First sight of the search light   Just how bad it was!
    Click on photos for a better view    
Straight away on my return home, I contacted Whatley’s. a local breakdown recovery company in Pewsey, explained the situation and asked if they could help, and lend me one of their relay vehicles, which they did without question. I asked a few of the lads, Ian and Peter, if they could help, and that very next Saturday  we went over to the site where they film Scrap Heap Challenge to pick the light up. The guys felt I must be mad when they saw it but I told them not to worry. Trying to put the Searchlight on to the relay vehicle was a very tight as the rear wheels where very slightly wider than the truck but we got it on in the end.  The trip back was interesting, as the light is nearly 3 meters high and on the back of the truck it was a little unstable, but with careful driving we got it back OK.
 
         
   
Peter telling me I'm mad   It was really bad   We start to load it up
         
   
Very easy does it!   It's on. Let's hope it stays there…   Phew! Back at Larkhill