Regular readers may have noticed that April has seen a sharp decrease in the number of posts here. Don’t worry, this is a temporary slow-down. Recent events have conspired to limit the time and energy I have to put into the site right now. These include a heavy schedule at work and dealing with an ailing parent. I am hoping that by next week things here at Tank and AFV News will return to normal.
In the meantime, here are some pictures of some tank related objects that have recently come into my possession:
Pictured below are a couple of desktop models of US tank engines from Teledyne Continental Motors. The one one the left should be familiar to most readers, it is the AVDS-1790-2C, the engine powering the US M-60 tank. The engine on the right is a bit more obscure, it’s the AVCR-1360-2. This engine was developed for the MBT-70 program and later was used to power General Motors XM-1 prototype which lost to the Chrysler Defense gas turbine powered XM-1 entry. 
Speaking of the AVDS-1790, here is piece of one! This is the cylinder head cover to one of the twelve air-cooled cylinders of an AVDS-1790. Not sure how old this item is, but it has to have been manufactured prior to 1996 since it still has the “Continental” logo on it.
Here is a drawing showing where this item fits on the cylinder.
From Russia I now have this wooden cutout from Uraltransmash corporation.
The last item in this post is this little clear plastic decorative item from General Dynamics in 1987 celebrating the first chips cut on their Abrams Recovery Vehicle. The block has embedded inside it two metal chips and a graphic showing an image of the vehicle and text announcing that the Abrams Recovery Vehicle “meets user needs.” Unfortunately for General Dynamics, it did not meet the US Army’s needs as well as the M88A2 Hercules and the Abrams Recovery Vehicle never went into production.
Last Friday we make a photo of the day post titled “
It seems both articles are based in part on an old ARMOR magazine article by Stephen “Cookie” Sewell titled 
This past Sunday we had the opportunity to spend a few hours at the 
If not for the light tank sitting out front and the sign on the building, a passer-by might be forgiven for mistaking the museum for a salvage yard. Those expecting a highly polished, big budget affair such as the (relatively) nearby First Division Museum at Cantigny Park will be disappointed. The Russell Museum is a “mom and pop” style museum, a labor of love by owner Mark Sonday and his family, who double as the museum staff. While the museum may lack a certain amount of polish, it more than makes up for it in the amazing array of military hardware present in the collection.
This past weekend we had the good fortune to spend a long weekend in the Chicago area. While there we were able to check out a couple museums housing tanks and armored vehicles. This review examines the tank collection at the 
McCormick had served as a Colonel in the First Division in WW1, hence his interest in preserving the history of the unit. The museum is not large but is well worth the hour or so it takes to walk through the displays. Walking through the museum, the first thing encountered is a series of mannequins dressed in the various uniforms of the First Division from each major US war. This section then leads to a winding path in which the viewer progresses through each US war in chronological order. The WW1 section is the most impressive, designed to emulate the trenches of WW1, including a replica French Schneider tank.
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