A curious thing nostalgia. Music, vehicles, good times or even the opposite sex can set us off on a brief but pleasant trip!
Two particular vehicles often come to mind when I'm in reflective mood:
1
A 3 wheeler wooden van of 40's - 50's vintage. The van had a single wheel at the front located on motorcycle front forks. The forks passed through the vans wooden body, and I assume the controls were of the motorcycle type. This vehicle delivered a crate of beer to my grandparents each week in the early 50's, and I was aways mesmerised by it. I wonder who manufactured it, it was a real character m/c. I have never seen one since.
2
The 3 wheel articulated Scammel lorries that operated in many railway yards during the early 1950's. I recently came accross two trailers for these units in a local farmyard recently. Again lovely characterful machines. Are any still around?
Regards,
Julian
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JUlian I think the first vehicle to which you refer was probably an early Reliant.
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Agreed. Probably the Regent Reliant. If I remember correctly it had girder motorcyle front forks.OP
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Julien,
I think the three wheeler was probably a BSA.
As for the Scammel, I think they were named after some sort of horse. They were used on Grimsby fish docks for general trailer work, and after the fish market closed - 8am or so, they were used on the road hauling unsold fish to the local fish meal factory. Apart from the manoeverability of a three wheeler, they had a sort of 'clip on and go' coupling system, no messing about with brakes and so on.
steve.
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Thought the railyard jobbies were called Scarabs. One of the contributors to Diesel Car (at least in the Kerswill era) ran one as a collecters piece.
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The coupling system was developed and manufactured by Scammell. It was used extensively on small artics that picked up and dropped trailers frequently.
There is a Scarab in presevation in the colours of Robinsons of Carlisle. Robinsons used to name all their lorries "Border" something. The little Scammell carries the name Border Vintage. The last time I saw it was in the Bloxham Steam Fair. (near Banbury)
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The firm was Robsons of Carlisle.
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Oops old age does not come by itself :-)
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Julian - They say that nostalgia ain't whay it used to be, but you and the other guys certainly show haw wrong that is!
Firstly, the wooden three wheeler. I distinctly remember as a child in Edinburgh at the time concerned one set up more like a "woodie" estate car, as well as very similar delivery vans operated by the "Edinburgh Evening News", complete with highly polished (stainless steel or else some kind of aircraft construction material?). Growler's suggestion of Regent sounds familiar.
Secondly, I used to pass the BR Goods Depot in Lothian Road every weekday en route to prep school, and well remember the Scammel Scarabs (Well remembered Simon!) which replaced the long line of cart horses going down to the goods yard from their stables in Morrison Street. A propos the recent post on the evocative sound of diesel engines, I seem to remember that the Scarabs had a very distinctive sound - someone out there must know what powered them. Also, a camel used to be defined as a horse designed by a committee - sounds quite appropriate for the rather unusual (I'm being polite appearance of that much loved workhorse, the (S)cam(m)el.
Ronnie
PS Julian - "This vehicle delivered a crate of beer to my grandparents each week in the early 50's, and I was aways mesmerised by it."
Which mesmerised you most, the van, the beer, or the fact that your grandparents only had the one crate!?
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Ooops - re previous comment on the three wheeler vans, please substitute:
Firstly, the wooden three wheeler. I distinctly remember as a child in Edinburgh at the time concerned one set up more like a "woodie" estate car, as well as very similar delivery vans operated by the "Edinburgh Evening News", complete with highly polished *metal bodies* (stainless steel or else some kind of aircraft construction material?). Growler's suggestion of Regent sounds familiar.
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I remember the three wheeler railway vans in the early 50's operating out of Romford station (London/Essex border) delivering parcels etc. They were very manoeverable and could turn on a sixpence, if I remember rightly.
I also have a recollection of a small 3 wheeler van used by local businesses for deliveries with a motorcycle-type front fork/wheel arrangement. Other detals escape me but someone is sure to recognise it.
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Is this what you are looking for?
www.3wheelers.com/regent.html
Great site - I never realised there were so many 3 wheeled cars made.
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The Scammel Scarabs used to come into our works yard from Derby goods station up to the early sixties.
We had large articulated vehicles and many of us used to have a go at reversing these little artics.
None of us could really manage it as due to the short lenght the slightest touch on the wheel gave an exaggerated movement at the back end. I also seem to recall them around Burton working round the breweries.
Strange being made by Scammel as they were only well known for very large HGVs and Army tank transporters with no intermediate sized vehicles at all.
About this time do you remember the Police having those small motorbikes which were so quite you couldn't hear them coming. I think they were a water cooled engine perhaps a Triumph and was probably the start of Bobbies coming off the beat around the middle 50s. When Policeman begin to look young.....you know what they say.
Alvin
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Julian,
Bet the three wheeler was a BSA. One about this area in daily use!
David
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Any Field Marshall Tractors left in Norfolk. I remember they used to fire about once every two minutes!
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Almost too modern for those Fen folk. But I do remember when I helped out with potato harvest at 11-12 years old up in Scotland, that that big flywheel on the green Marshall for driving a threshing machine used to worry me no end. One of the perks of being a farmer's boy was that you were judged sound enough to drive the tractor while the village kids did the backbreaking bit. After learning to drive on a T20, Nuffield Universal 6, Fordson Major (and a Series 1 Landie with pto) from about 8-years-old, it was another 30 before I got behind the wheel of a modern tractor, not counting the Zetors, and marvelled at the advances in technology.
David
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Aaah - The old Fordson Power Major with uprated pram front wheels which were so effective you had to steer the thing with the brakes and be ready for it to topple over at any moment!
Give me an International 434 anyday - fitted with a glowplug in the dashboard so you could see when to release the heater, those were the days.
these new tractors with heaters, power steering and other such nonsense are just not the same!
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>Give me an International 434 anyday - fitted with a glowplug in the dashboard so you could see when to release the heater, those were the days.
Dan,
Those *are* the days here, that's the model I've got. My best and only tractor.
David
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Back when I was on the farm we had all manner of (bought new) Fords over the years, a Caterpillar and several Massey Fergusons. The one thing that always remained was this F reg (I think) International 434 which had been bought for a few hundred quid years before from a farm clearance. We could always guarantee, without fail, that even on the coldest of days in winter it'd be the one being used to start everything else having flattened respective batteries trying.
Brilliant piece of machinery with a near indestructible engine.
We never had things like injectors/fuel pumps etc going on that little beauty!
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At school we had a 434 with the glowplug in the dash, hidden behind a pepperpot cowl and a sheet of mica. At 16 I think I was one of the few who understood that you needed to wait for the thing to glow red before operating the starter and I was made groundsman on the strength of it. Used to push sidescreens round the cricket pitch with it.
Nearly turned it over when I caught the throttle with the buttons on the sleeve of my blazer as I was turning into the playing field.
I'm sure my dad thought my education was wasted on me, but it wasn't, honest.
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I can remember getting a big rollocking for being caught using the heater with the engine running trying to light a cigarette. Fortunately my stepfather saw the funny side in the end :o)
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Alvin
The motor bikes were Velocettes.
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Alvin - Sounds (quietly) like the Velocette to me. Try www.classicmechanics.com, which should lead you to Constable David Brag Royal Parks Constabulary Richmond Park Surrey TW10 5HS, who specialises in historic police motorcycles.
You think police constables look young? I think *chief* constables look young!
Ronnie
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Some are........young and stupid.
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Oh you softies with tractors.
When I were a lad I ploughed with Shire horses(x 2) and a single furrow plough.
One foot in front of the other, mile after mile in the furrow made a certain area very sore. Oh the comfort of a strategically placed Dock Leaf.
Anybody remember the advance/retard lever on a Fordson? Flick it back and forward on the move and it was the best crow scarer out.
DVD
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> Anybody remember the advance/retard lever on a Fordson? Flick
> it back and forward on the move and it was the best crow
> scarer out.
No, but I remember the one on my Matchless G12 650. If you were astride the bike when you got it wrong, then you were face down three foot in front of it. If you were standing by the side of the bike and got it wrong, then you shattered your kneecap on the handlebars.
Best theft deterrent ever.
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LE Velocette: horizontally opposed, water cooled, flat twin side valve engine of about 150 or 200cc: hand gear change: not a real motor-bike!
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Le Velo de gendarme - somewhere in the rust of my mind were they not called
"Swallow gadabout?"
Our local beatman (please no requests to explain what one of these were) used to have one.With his cape and silent approach lookled like a ghoul.
DVD
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Yes these were the LE Velocette 200 cc. Incredibly reliable. About 1959/1960, Cromwell or Stadium helmet, long ankle coat and googles. Used to be proper policemen then, looking out for the bad guys.,
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I remember a 3-wheel vehicle similar to that described and think it was called "Karrier Bantam". Several of these were owned by the Rambla bakery in Beverley (East Yorks)
Regards ..... and keep up the banter
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Cromwell Noll as I recall.
Use to read the Blue 'un with much pleasure. No it's not a porn mag, it was "The Motorcycle"
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Ah, the Fordson. That thing spelt the end of my career in the mushroom picking profession (linfields of Worthing). My job was to drive the tractor from the growing sheds to the packing sheds having hooked up the trolleys when the girl pickers had filled them up with baskets. The lanes between the sheds wer somewhat narrow and turning required some skill when one had a trailer behind. One X'mas EVe I was in a hurry to finish and there were still four trolleys not quite full. When they were done, I hooked all four up behind the Fordson and headed downhill to the packing sheds. Needless to say the combination of four trolleys dragging behind and the Fordson's steering was a recipe for disaster. Not only did the assemblage spill sveral hundred mushroom trays all over the ground with their contents, but it also pulled down most of one growing shed. I recall hot footing it to the gate with the foreman yelling after me .......
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There's a Field Marshall in a private garage in Cranleigh - the owner keeps his car in the drive instead. He starts the tractor up every sunday and goes for a spin. It makes a beautiful noise you can hear, or rather feel, about half a mile away.
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All,
This subject might just run a little!
During my college days, training in the art of agricultural engineering, the
tractors we initially worked with were TVO fuelled Fordsons. One of the
skills taught, was to cast and machine the white metal bearings for
them and then to assemble and shim the crank and big ends.
I side stepped the fitting and joined the NIAE who were responsible for advising the government on standards re Ag Eng in the 60's. A number of things were on peoples minds then that perhaps we take for granted now. A few examples were:
1
Fatalities resulting from tractors overturning. Silage heaps, trailers on hills etc
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Noise in the new integral safety frame tractor cabs, the solution for 1 above
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The design of a test to assess these safety cabs when a tractor overturned
4
Vibration on tractors and other farm machinery.
5
Tractor Testing and the measurement of drawbar horsepower.
I was amused re Dan J's comments re the International 434. I remember seeing this tractor lashed down for a safety cab "static" pendulum test in which a two ton weight was swung onto it from an angle of about 30 degrees to measure deflection. When I returned later in the afternoon the cab was bent a little but otherwise OK. The 434 by comparison had not fared well at all, being broken in two at the gearbox casting!
Vibration was measured using a tractor fitted with a suspension test seat, over a wooden block test track, simulating a range of farm surface conditions. The tractor suspension seat lab test rig we had, allowed the vibration frequency to be altered and the seats frequency and amplitude to be measured. One day a BBC film crew arrived to record work projects. A collegue suggested that the BBC girl taking notes might like a ride on this seat rig. Initially all was well, but as the vertical frequency was increased there was a shriek from the girl and the machine was stopped. I believe the natural frequency of the girls bust had coincided with the machines frequency! (Judgeing by body language!)
I assisted in the measurement of noise and drawbar horsepower using the new tractors of the time.Young and inexperienced, I drove the tractor. The Doe Triple D, consisting of two Fordson Majors mounted piggy back and articulated, and with no front axle on either tractor; was popular at the time. The early wheels on this tractor required beefing as drawbar HP tests managed to shear/damage the rims on them. We used an old WW2 aerodrome which had runways with a coefficient of friction that was rather good. The tests were conducted with the tractor tyres ballasted with water and a huge stack of wheel weights either side and at the front.
When a dynamometer test was conducted on a early Zetor tractor, the test was stopped when engine performance dropped noticeably. Investigation revealed a material similar to grass was being used as an air filter medium, along with an oil bath, and the grass material had been partially sucked into the intake.
A local farm hosts a vintage tractor and equipment day each year a few miles away. Its lovely to see the Marshalls, Nuffields, Lanz and early County crawlers at work with their trailed ploughs. I could go on --
Regards,
Julian
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Julian,
Glad to hear the safety cab on the 434 passed. No need to worry when I next venture out then.
David
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