Glenn Sands meets Ian Hughes and his mighty T-54 main battle tank
Amid all the World War Two Jeeps, GMCs and Sherman tanks, a small number of military vehicle enthusiasts have elected to go one better and acquire Cold War heavy armour from the ‘other side’.
From the earliest days of the Cold War through to the present, no better example of Warsaw Pact battlefield fighting capability was demonstrated than by the T-54 main battle tank. With only a handful of them operating in private hands in the UK, they’re a typical example of Russian inspired mass production - simple technical innovations with crew comfort regarded as a mere afterthought.
For those lucky enough to own one, it can be a challenging and frustrating beast at times.
‘Having been unable to steer for years, we got the T-54 up and running in about ten days’
But once tamed and running it can resemble a dragon with a cough, due in part to the enormous clouds of smoke that belch from the exhaust when it’s running!
Ian Hughes got the military vehicle bug from his father who restored an AEC Matador Gun Tractor in 1972. He recalls how his father took the family on a week’s summer tour of southern England, cleverly timed to coincide with a local steam rally.
