Jacques Littlefield Vehicle Collection

[CDF]

Bill Boller, president of the Military Vehicle Technology Foundation, said the Littlefield family opted to give the collection to the Collings Foundation so that more people could visit it."Unfortunately this is not the best place in the world, location and accessibility, for the general public, authors, historians, the defense industry, all the people that want to take advantage of this wonderful collection," he said.

Foundation director Rob Collings said the organization hopes to raise $10 million to build the museum by auctioning 160 of the military vehicles in August 2014. Eventually he hopes visitors can learn U.S. history through a chronological walk past the remaining 80 historic military vehicles."They'll start in the World War I trenches and go forward through time," he said.

http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2022236073_apxuswarmachinesmove.html

I wish them every success but the estimate of the Australian 2pdr AT carrier ($75k - $100kUSD) is wildly optimistic

[CAPFlyer]

Train is one method that is being looked at. There are issues with movement by train (security, no single cross country hauler) that have to be addressed, but it is looking like that is going to be one of the options for the larger items that would be too difficult to move by road that distance.

Museum equipment (rail and on flatcar) equipment is moved all the time by the railroads. I wouldn't worry too much about the tanks. I can tell you right now that having worked on several railroad museum moves with the Class I's, what you're looking to do will be no problem for anyone. From San Jose, CA to Clinton, MA, you can either go BNSF -> CSXT or UP -> CSXT, with a final delivery at Clinton by PanAm Railways. BNSF, UP, and CSXT all have power sharing agreements and if you put it as one shipment of all 80 vehicles which would give you at least 30 car loads, you'd be easily able to do it as a unit move, which all parties will give you a very nice deal on since you're a museum (they're well known for moving museum trains for the cost of the crews, even cross country, and donating the cars and support equipment).

If you guys are seriously interested in using rail and think you can make the move as one or maybe 2 unit train, I'll PM you a couple of contacts from my railroad days who should be able to help you get more info and specifics.

[Rossco]

I wish them every success but the estimate of the Australian 2pdr AT carrier ($75k - $100kUSD) is wildly optimistic

Maybe but it is a rare beastie now...

[CDF]

I wish them every success but the estimate of the Australian 2pdr AT carrier ($75k - $100kUSD) is wildly optimistic

Maybe but it is a rare beastie now...

Anywhere from 20 -30 survivors here that I know of - The Australian 3" Mortar carriers are far rarer, non survive as they all went to China

I cant see a Commonwealth armoured vehicle selling in the US they are notoriously slow sellers(I know as had mine for sale for some time there) , plus many forums are reporting the weapons will be demilled in accordance with BATF thereby ruining any value

[kmiles]

I wish them every success but the estimate of the Australian 2pdr AT carrier ($75k - $100kUSD) is wildly optimistic

Maybe but it is a rare beastie now...

Anywhere from 20 -30 survivors here that I know of - The Australian 3" Mortar carriers are far rarer, non survive as they all went to China

I cant see a Commonwealth armoured vehicle selling in the US they are notoriously slow sellers(I know as had mine for sale for some time there) , plus many forums are reporting the weapons will be demilled in accordance with BATF thereby ruining any value

Any of the vehicles that are registered destructive devices are able to remain as such if the new owner wants to keep it that way. The timing on a form 4 transfer of a destructive device right now is anywhere from 9-12 months if going to an individual. There have been several sales already completed where the new owner wanted to transfer the destructive device, and has submitted the paperwork and made the wait. If you have to have your vehicle next week, then there is not time for the transfer, and it will have to be demilled to BATFE specs. It is up to whoever purchases the vehicle as to what condition the destructive device is after purchase.

As for the popularity of Australian vehicles, that is why we are having an auction. There will be pieces that will sell for below the estimate (that is why it is an estimate and not a given price), but there will be others that will go for above the estimate if there are multiple parties interested. We did have the Australian Sentinel tank that did pretty well in a pre-auction sale. The Sentinel was 1 of a couple that are left, but had no real historical significance as it was never used in combat. This is going to be an international auction with registered bidders from several other countries already, so it will not be just a US market auction. Every major collector in the world knows of this auction, so if there are just 2 of them that "need" an Australian 2 pdr. the estimate could be hit pretty easily.

[sandiego89]

I wish all the best for all the artifacts and all involved. It is interesting to note how this thread links Mr. Littlefield and Mr. Soplata, both visionaries with a passion, and they were not in it for profit. I think this could be a common scenario for many well to do individuals when they leave the scene/hobby, or pass on- few families have the desire to carry on after the main benefactor is gone. All know who pays the bills, and I doubt many have trust funds/wills to carry on in the same manner. We should all be thankfull to those that had the passion, and those that had the funds, to make big restorations and collections possible. I really admire the folks that share their collection and treat their ownership more like temporary trustees, and they realize they will move on to someone else after they are gone. Bravo guys.

[CDF]

Any of the vehicles that are registered destructive devices are able to remain as such if the new owner wants to keep it that way. The timing on a form 4 transfer of a destructive device right now is anywhere from 9-12 months if going to an individual. There have been several sales already completed where the new owner wanted to transfer the destructive device, and has submitted the paperwork and made the wait. If you have to have your vehicle next week, then there is not time for the transfer, and it will have to be demilled to BATFE specs. It is up to whoever purchases the vehicle as to what condition the destructive device is after purchase.

Like I said - I wish you every success

As for the popularity of Australian vehicles, that is why we are having an auction. There will be pieces that will sell for below the estimate (that is why it is an estimate and not a given price), but there will be others that will go for above the estimate if there are multiple parties interested.

Thanks Im well aware of values having restored this WW2 Lynx scout car from a range wreck 14 years ago - since sold to an overseas collector

We did have the Australian Sentinel tank that did pretty well in a pre-auction sale. The Sentinel was 1 of a couple that are left, but had no real historical significance as it was never used in combat. This is going to be an international auction with registered bidders from several other countries already, so it will not be just a US market auction. Every major collector in the world knows of this auction, so if there are just 2 of them that "need" an Australian 2 pdr. the estimate could be hit pretty easily.

The last AC Cruiser tank recently changed hands but was sold in 2006 as lot 130 at the Melbourne Tank museum auction I attended for $22.500 plus buyers prem % to a phone bidder - and that was an International auction. The one that Littlefield had / has was sold to him by a dealer James Swan (since deceased) and even then it took james a long time to find himself a buyer

The Littlefield M3 Grant is also ex Australian as is the Staghound armoured car, in the same state BTW it was when it was sold from Australia to the US in the early 1990's As for the 2pdt AT carrier the ARN stencil isn't correct to the vehicle which is a shame

[Roger Cain]

With 2/3rds of the collection going, sounds like a lot of the good stuff will go too. Have done half a dozen tours over the years here's from a tour we did years ago with just a sampling of stuff at the Farm: http://www.sfahistory.org/tanktour.htm and here's a link to a tour I did last August on FB. I set it as public, so you should be able to look through the pictures without having to be a member. Just click on each picture to scroll through it: https://www.facebook.com/JollyRogerCain/media_set?set=a.10151539992020966.1073741838.527160965&type=3