This truck was seen in a paddock in West Gippsland. I’m afraid I can’t provide an ID other than it is a 1950’s British truck, possibly an AEC? There are some interesting details here too, like the bracket on the left-hand side of the roof (right of picture), what looks like a wiper on the driver’s side only (hanging from above the windscreen) and some other non-symmetrical details like the rectangular light. The engine is still present, does anyone recognise it? It is not something you can google easily! I am also tempted to say that perhaps the wooden axle at the back is the reason why it wooden go…
Looks like it was pretty when new .
The roof bracket could well have been a driver’s assist handle to get up and clean windows etc. , it’s on the curb side as they often where .
I can imagine this gutted of internals and sharp bits , painted gaily and placed in a pre school playground for kids to clamber on .
-Nate
That brings back memories of a playground I used to frequent as a youngster. They had a vintage fire truck, probably from the 1920s or 1930s, buried up to the axles in a large sandpit that kids could play on. Hazardous bits and internals had been removed, as you noted. And it was my favorite thing about that playground.
Sadly, such things are no more. Hard to keep them from rusting, plus it’s impossible to make metal soft, so anything metal is no longer on playgrounds lest someone injure themselves. I miss the days when fun was paramount and a little bit of risk was tolerated!
Our local farm shop has a 1950s (?) tractor for kids to play on, and there’s a “city farm” with a more recent one also for the kids.
Admittedly, when our 2 yr old goes on the one at the farm shop I half expect him to split his head open on something. Lots of blunt but reasonably pointy metal things.
You’ve reminded me that there was a fire truck in the Stanley Park playground in Vancouver when I was young – it was a special treat to stop there when we were in town. I’ll have to check if it’s still around.
It is an Albion Chieftain fitted with a Homalloy cab,
It’s either in a permanent retirement, or lying dormant until someone snatches it up and does something with it. If I lived in the area, and had money to spend, knew the right people, and knew where to find the right parts, I can see either a restoration, or a possible restomod. I’d scrap the original engine, possibly a petrol engine, and install a similar size diesel engine, and upgrade the gearbox and rear axle.
Being British, it would’ve had a diesel – but a very slow diesel. British trucks could be relied upon to hold up traffic on the highways when I was a kid. IIRC they were limited to something like 40mph over there, so they weren’t powered or geared to go any faster. At least the roads didn’t have much traffic, so it was comparatively easy to overtake them, even in a Morris Oxford!
From 1934 Heavy Goods Vehicles over 3 tons unladen (empty) the UK speed limit was 20 mph, raised to 30 mph in 1957 and 40 mph until 1967. There was little incentive for manufacturers to make them faster in those days.
Nice find! Very cool to look at.
Just throw in a radiator, battery, some tires and fuel and she’ll be good to go! 😉
(Never mind the paint, it’ll buff right out.)
With the missing grill, doors and glass I’d say that one is never returning to the road. The front curved glass would not be easy to replace.
I think it’s a late 1950s Seddon (long before they joined with Atkinson) like this one: http://classiclorries.co.uk/ox_portfolio/seddon-in-the-livery-of-g-h-martin-taken-by-matt-waymont/
It sure looks like the same truck to me!
Thanks Bernard, I knew someone would be able to identify it! Doing a bit more searching, it is just as likely to be a 1960’s truck, and it seems most likely to have a Perkins diesel.
As you would expect the cab design evolved over the years, first with flat glass, then a separate curved piece on the corners that was subsequently integrated as seen here. Later models had a one-piece windshield, before a completely new cab design came in the mid-sixties.
+1 on the Seddon the slope of the front sheetmetal is wrong for a AEC, nearly forgotten brand of truck Seddon we had a SA tractor unit as a spare back in 06 when I was doing night swaps it was about 350hp with a 15 speed road ranger I only drove it once so had little experience of it, but it was the big gear in its day.
What a cool-looking old truck, in retirement and in restored condition. This one is very picturesque just where it lies!
Old British trucks have a very different character than American ones, even if you’re comparing like for like (i.e. cabover on both counts).
Fibre glass and curved, wrap-round glass led to a break away from the previous pre-War inspired forward control/cab-over designs like this Morris
http://classiclorries.co.uk/ox_portfolio/morris-from-daryl-williams/
One of the most adventurous was Foden who incorporated their trademark ‘kite’ badge into the whole shape of the cab front, the ‘Mickey Mouse’ perhaps the most extreme. This one seems to have bitten off too much though! http://classiclorries.co.uk/ox_portfolio/mickey-mouse-foden-hard-at-work-from-iain-lindsay/
That truck reminds me of an English one my father owned before he stuck with American International trucks. Is it a Foden,looks similar from my early childhood memory.
On reflection am sure that is a Foden.My father used to complain about it being a poorly designed vehicle.My grandfather,a timber mill owner,bought the first crawler tractor/bulldozer sold in Tasmania.My father wanted a new bulldozer in the late 1950s but there were no American International ones available at the time so he bought an International BTD 15,B for British and if I remember it had a Rolls Royce engine and he was unimpressed by its poor reliability.He made the dealer take it back and he then waited for an American one.In 1959 he bought a TD15 International bulldozer,new and bright red colour,for 10,900 Australian pounds,a huge sum in those days.He had a lifelong hatred of English cars,trucks etc and I wonder if the Foden and the RR bulldozer were responsible for that state of mind.As a child we had a 1950 Buick,new Holden FE ute with a canopy with sliding glass,an American army jeep and a 1930 Chevrolet ute.Often used to travel with him in the beautiful KB9 International truck towing the low loader he built with one of the bulldozers,wheel tractors and ploughs on it.
Fodens had fibreglass cabs the one pictured has surface rust, DOH, Fodens are still a good solid workhorse truck most recently part of the PACCAR group and based on DAF chassis and cabs but mostly Caterpillar powered.
Yes, not all cabs were fibre glass but its use was one of the drivers behind the move away from the traditional sheet metal on wooden frame style. Because metal pressings were more expensive to set up the tooling for they were often shared between different builders, though each tended to have their own ‘face’.
Great find John. Some of these truck cabs are better sculptures than cars.
Seddon for sure.
British trucks from the 50s to 70s are sometimes hard to ID without a grille because the so many of them used a bought in cab. Motor Panels was a big seller and the LAD (Leyland Albion Dodge) was also very common. Even the big names weren’t averse to buying cabs. Scammell used a Motor Panels cab for the Crusader Ford used a Berliet cab for the Transcontinental and so on
Motor Panels cabs were also used abroad:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/automotive-histories/truckstop-classics-ftf-trucks-screaming-jimmies-going-dutch/
Out of interest, which UK truckmakers also used these cabs ? Most of them I guess, given Roger Carr’s comment. But the new 1979 FTF cab ?
The 1979 cab looks like a variation of the then new Foden S10
http://ccmv.aecsouthall.co.uk/p197608584
Ignore the front panel, of course, but look at the door, the fold lines and the front footstep.
Interesting to see a version of the Motor Panels cab I wasn’t aware of.
Thanks Bernard, I paid special attention to the tractor with the light blue cab and red chassis. I think you’re absolutely right !
What a wide variety of UK truckmakers in the (recent) past, with the whole spectrum of UK and American diesel engines. I liked those rather timeless cabs, especially on the heavy-duty long distance trucks.
One of my all-time favorite big UK trucks, the Scammell Crusader. I mean, the way it looks…and its name !
Source picture: http://classiclorries.co.uk/ox_portfolio/scammell-crusader-taken-by-matthew-ferrett/
Mmm, do like a good Scammell! Perhaps the most surprising one though, brings us back to the Foden S80 cab:
http://www.military-today.com/trucks/scammell_commander.jpg
though behind that big bonnet!
Right, Scania is another example of a truckmaker that used their COE tilt-cab for the conventionals too.
True, but that’s all Scania. The Commander is a Scammell using Foden’s cab for the job.
Incidentally, Foden’s kept the two flat screen options right into the 1980s because it was popular with the customers who used them for tippers where they’d frequently end up on building and demolition sites. Cheaper replacement screens!
I see what you mean.
What was the main reason for the widely used fibre glass truck cabs in the UK ? Steel shortage (after WW2), weight savings (UK GVW-ratings have always been rather low), costs savings, the local experience of building cabs and bodies that way ??
Independent coachbuilders building truck cabs was quite common here, right into the sixties, but these were all steel cabs.
I think it was at least partly down to volume. Steel cabs need expensive press tools made, so if production numbers are low it’s hard to recover the outlay and when you look at how many manufacturers there were just after the War it’s obvious that some must have only been building three figure numbers per year. That’s also why so many used the Motor Panels cabs of course, but that limits what you can do with the shape. Corrosion resistance was more a side benefit, maybe weight saving, though fibre glass would be thicker than steel. There was also the perception that it was ‘modern’ at the time.
OK, thanks !
Trucks are still built in Australia with 2-piece flat screens for that reason; the customers want them.
This reminds me of the short story by Stephen King “Uncle Otto’s Truck”
Very cool story if you can find it.
I just stumbled on this discussion, a fair time after you gents.
This was my father’s truck….It is indeed a Seddon. A 1957 I think. It is powered by a P6 Perkins. Not particularly powerful, but very reliable.
The truck’s paint has weathered away over the years, but at one time it was very smart maroon and white, and had the trucking company’s name sign written across the roof “Taslines”. The doors had a bit more information sign written upon them…Sydney – Hobart.
I used to wonder as a kid how could a truck cross Bass Strait ? Even in the 60’s it seems that there was roll on roll off freight. Can you imagine the noise, and the heat from the old Perkins as it labored its way up and down between Sydney and Hobart?
Dad bought the truck from a wreckers in Springvale in 1969. It was sill a runner. He drove it home. He hit a big pothole and bounced so hard that the batteries fell off so when he got to the farm he didn’t switch the engine off because he couldn’t start it again. He drove the truck into the paddock and up to our irrigation bore, then shut her off. He bought the truck for the engine to power the irrigation plant. Instead of pulling the engine out he removed the rear axle and connected the tail shaft to the Kelly and Lewis bore head, that was connected to a submerged turbine pump 120 feet below ground. The old Perkins ran the irrigation plant well into the late 1980’s when it was eventually replaced by another engine. The original radiator was removed and in it’s place a heat exchanger from a WW2 PT boat was fitted. The heat exchanger used the water pumped from underground to cool the engine. The Perkins ran for thousands of hours on the irrigation, plus who knows how many hours and miles on interstate. The poor old thing never failed it just wore completely out. In the last few years of use we just added lots of oil each time we ran it, but it never failed. It owed us nothing.
The old girl earned her retirement, and probably a more dignified end than the one that it has. Steve.
Another photo.
1956 sales brouchure