Co-operation between the South African Armour Museum and Sandstone Heritage Trust goes from strength to strength
In a recent meeting between The SA Armour Museum, the Sandstone Heritage Trust was advised that the Museum had acquired four military recovery vehicles and that two of these would be given on loan to the Trust to broaden the Sandstone collection. It was agreed that Sandstone would recover the vehicles on behalf of the Armour Museum and move two of the vehicles to Sandstone and the other two to the SA Museum located at the Tempe base in Bloemfontein where they will be displayed.
The two vehicles a Bulperd, a mine protected recovery vehicle, and a MACK with a 'paper' (soft-skin) cab were parked at 4 VRP (Vehicle Reserve Park) north of Pretoria and a team from the SA Armour Formation and Sandstone went out to inspect the vehicles. Because the vehicles were not operational Sandstone decided to enlist the help of Rieks Towing, a company based in Pretoria with huge experience in moving heavy vehicles and which had in the past assisted Sandstone with the recovery of a Crusader tank.
Moving and transporting the vehicles was run with military precision. The following morning a truck with a low bed from Sandstone together with a truck, a low bed and a recovery vehicle from Rieks towing were on site at 4 VRP. By early morning two vehicles were loaded and taken to a staging post in Midrand and by early afternoon the third was on its way to Midrand with the fourth headed directly to Bloemfontein.
The three vehicles will be loaded in Midrand with one being delivered to Bloemfontein and the other two taken to Sandstone.
Sandstone has every intention of restoring and refurbishing the vehicles it has been loaned and hopes to have them operational as soon as possible. These two military vehicles will be the largest on display at Sandstone.
