If there is one name associated with Britain and trucks (or lorries as we used to say, or even wagons before that), it is Leyland, named after the town so many were built in and, of course, ultimately linked to most of the British owned motor industry.
Leyland is a fairly typical northern England town, close to the city of Preston, a major national centre of the aerospace, defence and rail industries and a regional centre for finance and administration, and home to one of the largest modern universities in the country. But for Curbivores, the name Leyland means something more specific – truck building still goes on in the town, as part of the PACCAR owned DAF brand at the familiarly named Leyland Trucks Ltd. Incidentally, did you know that the CEO of PACCAR is a chap called Preston Freight? I’m not making this up.
Modern truck building is on a separate edge of town site established around 40 years ago. Part of the old Leyland site is now the British Commercial Vehicle Museum, and I had brief visit a few weeks ago.
Let’s take a quick highlights tour, broadly in chronological sequence.
The oldest vehicle in my selection is this 1898 Thornycroft steam powered van, built by Thornycroft in Chiswick in West London. Thornycroft was a boat building business, which had built some of the earliest steam boats on the River Thames, and then branched into steam powered trucks. These were adopted by the UK military in the early years of the twentieth century. Subsequently, the company went over to diesel power and built an enviable reputation for specialist purposes heavy vehicles, and became part of AEC and ultimately the Leyland.
The first Leyland in our review – a 1917 Leyland S Type 3 ton lorry, built for the UK military, probably the Royal Flying Corps the precursor to the RAF. These were known as the Subsidy wagon, under which the owner was paid an annual retainer by the War Office (as it was called then) to make the truck available if and when required.
The Leyland was the most popular choice under the subsidy scheme and after the war the company purchased and refurbished many of them to limit the risk of defective “Leyland” equipment entering use and tarnishing the company’s reputation.
Another Leyland – a 1921 fire engine.
This one was bodied by the famous Merryweather Company.
Steam lorries remained in production at various manufacturers into the 1930s – this is a 1923 Foden built in Sandbach in Chesire, about an hour (now) south of Leyland. Foden is another name that was absorbed, into PACCAR in 1980.
But in the 1930s, the superiority of petrol and diesel had been established. This 1933 Bedford WLG 30cwt (1.5 ton) is an example of this. Bedford was GM’s UK truck brand and part of Vauxhall.
This is fitted with a 3.8 litre petrol engine, closely based on the Chevrolet Stove Bolt 6.
This is a 1933 ERF, indeed the first ERF built, after Edwin Richard Foden left the family firm and set up across town. The split was partly about diesel against steam, as well as family rivalries.
ERF built their vehicles around the classic low volume truck builder model, of purchased in major components. Engines came from Gardner (now part of Perkins/Caterpillar), gearboxes from David Brown (one time owner of Aston Martin) and axles from Kirkstall in Leeds.
A 1933 Leyland diesel powered flatbed, back on the site it came from alongside…
…this 1935 Leyland, also diesel powered.
Immediately post war, trucks looked much the same. This Bedford is a 1946 OL80, capable of a 5 ton payload.
Most of these, built from 1939 to 1950, including wartime production for the UK military, were exported.
A 1954 Albion Claymore, named after a type of Scottish sword. Albion was based in Glasgow and became part of Leyland in 1951, although the products did not really converge until the 1960s, and typically used regionally based names, such as Reiver and Chieftain.
Also later part of Leyland, and also from 1954, was this AEC Mammoth Major – this was an 8×4 forward control heavy duty truck usually configured for payloads of around 15 tons. AEC was the builder of the Routemaster bus, often with Leyland engines, and was based in London. It became part of Leyland in 1962.
Here’s one CC has seen before – a 1956 Bedford R type Green Goddess fire engine. Originally built for the military run Auxiliary Fire Service, these were retained for civil emergencies until very recently. Now all sold, at around 50 years old but with only a few thousand on the clock.
Leyland was market leader for buses and coaches as well. This is a 1959 Leyland Tiger Cub (a little smaller, but crucially, lighter than a Tiger, geddit?). The body for this one is the famous Burlingham Seagull 41 seat coach body and was supplied new to Preston based Ribble Motor Services.
Ribble was named after the River Ribble, which flows through Preston, and served an area from Liverpool to the Scottish border with bus and coach services, including direct links to London.
Look closely and you see that the Ribble branding was not painted but chromed letters.
And a vehicle logo to top any other.
This 1959 Leyland-MCW Olympian was a derivative of the Leyland Olympian bus fitted with a Tiger Cub power train, as a low weight alternative to the full duty Olympian. It was built in partnership with Metro-Cammell-Weymann (or MCW, one of Britain’s leading bus body builders) and sold in only small numbers, including this one to the Leyland based operator John Fishwick and Sons, which has only recently gone out of business.
As on the Tiger Cub, the engine was underfloor and anther nice logo.
A 1957 Leyland Comet, one of the earliest appearances of the semi-trailer, articulated or tractor-trailer combination (take your pick on the nomenclature) from the UK. The Comet was not Leyland’s heaviest truck, but this was the first generation of Comet to be available with forward control (English for COE), something now practically universal in Europe.
This vehicle was operated by Leyland Paints, from Leyland but entirely separate to Leyland Motors, and a name you can see still come across.
Leyland had a passion for animal kingdom names. This is a 1959 Octopus, bodied as a fuel tanker for Shell-BP. Shell-BP was a joint marketing and retail organisation run by Shell and BP in the UK for 40 years from the mid 1930s and unwound in the mid 1970s. The Octopus was a 22 ton 8 wheel chassis, and this was the classic format for the British heavy duty long distance truck until the articulated semi-trailer vehicles came in full volume in the later 1960s.
This example has A 9.8 litre Leyland engine, and was perhaps my favourite exhibit. Like all vehicles in the museum, it was presented very well, but there was something about the colours, shapes, presentation and presence that tipped it for me.
A 1960 ERF. As a smaller volume producer, ERF had fewer options in building their cabs and for many years relied on external body builders to design and build them.
This is the 1954 KV series cab, which certainly had more style than many 1950s trucks.
A familiar sight in London in the 1960s was the Morris LD ambulance. This is a 1967 example and represents many hundreds that were in use into the 1970s by the London County Ambulance Service.
The LD actually dated back to 1952, and by this time was usually fitted with a 2.2 litre petrol engine. The ambulance conversions were built on chassis-cabs by specialist bodybuilders and a standard factory built van was also available.
And this attractive piece of 1960s film shows one in action.
Another truly British and slightly off-beat van conversions is this 1979 Dodge Spacevan. This one has been configured as a TV Detector van, one of the most feared vehicles in 1970s and 1980s Britain. Allegedly, the electronics in the van could detect if you were watching TV, and match that fact to a database of licence records, as well as boil the operating crew’s kettle.
I don’t remember seeing one for real, and this one was clearly decommissioned. There was no kettle in it.
And something unique to finish on – a Popemobile. In 1982, Pope John-Paul II came to the UK, and was driven in various situations on this Leyland Constructor chassis, featuring the then new and very contemporary (and well received) T45 cab. It seems quite a large and heavy truck for the person, but Popes don’t come to the UK very often. It was used for just 3 or 4 events, and has been stored in various places ever since. And yes, Popemobile was the official designation.
Actually, two Popemobiles were built – the other is now in a private collection in the Republic of Ireland.
So, the British Commercial Vehicle Museum, in the heart of the old Leyland factory with one of two Popemobiles. All in all, quite a collection. I think we need an ice cream, from this 1952 Morris Cowley.
Which, like every other brand mentioned, is now defunct.
Great tour, thank you very much. I think I like the ERFs best, they are so distinctive (Save the ERF!) But everything looks great and so well preserved. We definitely need more green-painted iron and logos don’t look anywhere near as good as the TigerCub and Olympian anymore, that’s for sure.
The ERF looks like it left its mouth open….
The best, yes, but very underpowered, meaning a lot of WOT on ERF.
How can you write a piece about Leyland and not mention the Atlantean? Wazzock.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/uncategorized/bus-stop-classic-the-leyland-atlantean-1958-1986-rush-hour-isnt-crush-hour-anymore/
As a kid, I was always infatuated with British trucks. Like Jim, ERF for some reason became my favorite, perhaps because of the name as much as their charming cabs. I’ve spent way too much time perusing these vehicles in books, and at one time there was a great blog, oldlorryblog, not unlike CC, that I used to read.
A fantastic collection. Roger, you’ve helped in my identification of British automobiles, a feat I realized recently when watching a documentary about Churchill.
Incidentally, the Leyland factory is a mere 12 miles from where my grandfather was stationed during the war. Since a bucket list item is to visit both Bletchley Park and Freckleton, this would be tantalizingly close!
I like the ERF too, and the Leyland Tiger Cub, but the one that really piqued my intrigue here is that Dodge Spacevan. First off, I thought Dodge was a Americas-only brand. These certainly don’t look anything like the Dodge vans that were sold in the US, and I suspected, correctly, that it was an ex-Rootes product (it started life as a Commer). But more than the manufacturer, I had to find out: what on earth is a “television detector”, and why would you drive around in a van to see if anyone is watching TV? Evidently, in the UK you legally needed (and still need?) to pay for a license to watch the state-sponsored BBC and ITV channels, and these vans picked up the electromagnetic radiation emanating from CRT television tubes (this was parodied on a Monty Python episode where pets had to be licensed too and the government drove around in “Cat Detection Vans” to catch owners of unlicensed cats). Do modern flat screens give off radiation? How do they know it’s not a computer monitor or a phone?
The Television Detector fascinated me too — never heard of such a thing. I did some digging and found this article from a 1963 US electronics magazine, which provides a good overview on the Detector Vans.
I wonder for how long this was done?
In answer to your question, the BBC has always refused to comment on the number of vans or authenticity of them- but the most recently spotted appears to be this 2007 Ford Transit. They are a bit of a running joke in the UK as most people (myself included) believe the vans were empty and it was all an official hoax to scare us into paying our TV licence. Even now we still have to pay if we watch terrestrial television – £154.50 per year (around $200) for colour or £52 ($67) if you only own a black and white TV. Also TV licences were free if you were over 75 but that is being scrapped from 2020, which is widely seen as very unfair.
In Ireland the free TV licence starts at 70 so no worries there.
Interestingly, we can get BBCTV reception by satelite dish, but are blocked from accessing BBC online programs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV_detector_van
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licensing_in_the_United_Kingdom
There just must be an easier way…
Some of the TV detection tech does look dubious; I can’t think of any real way to detect a modern set from outdoors other than to look through a window, or detect light fluctuations from a glowing TV at night that correspond with a BBC broadcast (and that would be difficult smaller screens). Also, are black-and-white TVs still a thing in the UK in 2019?
Wow — I’m surprised. To me, this seemed certainly to be a relic of a bygone era… I didn’t even think of looking up to see if the concept made it into the 21st century.
50p per day for 5 (at least) national tv channels, plus regional tv (not always brilliant, tbh), plus Iplayer and its archive plus maybe 10 national radio channels, a massive website, Sounds app, and Test Match Special? Bargain. And no adverts anywhere.
I didn’t realize it came with no ads — or that much choice in channels. Actually sounds like a relatively good deal.
Though I bet that if we had TV licensing in the US, we’d pay the government more, plus we’d still have lousy programming filled with ads…
We used to have licences for TVs in Australia too. Guess we just followed the British precedent, as we so often did in those days. I remember going with mum to the little St. Kilda South post office to pay for it, and quizzing her about it on the way home. Seemed strange to a five-year-old, and even stranger now. What was the point, other than raising revenue? We did away with them in the late sixties IIRC. I don’t know that we ever had detector trucks though.
Basics of TV licensing – if you want to watch TV, any channel including satellite, and therefore operate a TV receiver, you need a licence or to be 75 or over. This includes on-line streaming of TV programmes and catch-up services.
Nothing is required for radio only.
The revenue generated goes to fund the BBC, and is either a punitive insensitive tax on all or superb value for money considering the services, range, quantity and quality, we get from the BBC for £3 (=1 Starbucks?) a week.
Certain politicians need to understand that “not agreeing” is not as same as being biased, and also that you need to ask about the commercial interests of those advocating for an alternative system. See Rupert Murdoch for more info
Australia’s done some good things in the world, especially considering the population, but Roger, I apologize abjectly to you and Great Britain generally for the damage done to your country by this Australian. Please know him and all his progeny are considered beneath any level of contempt by any here who have the capacity to understand what nastiness he (and they) propagate.
Oh hell, I know this ain’t the place, but the blood boils and the BBC equiv in Oz – unsurprisingly, called the ABC – has suffered enormously at the hands of Himself’s dominant organization here, suffered worse in fact than the wonderful BBC upon which it was modelled.
You were right that the Dodge Spacevan being a Commer product, best known in the US as the Corgi film truck. When Chrysler bought up Rootes in the 70s they started rebadging Commers as Dodges. They also introduced a new medium called the Dodge 50 Series that used a Dodge Tradesman cab
That Dodge cab ended up as a Renault after the demise of Chrysler Europe.
Beautiful collection. Thank you Roger. I credit Matchbox (and Corgi) for introducing me to many post 1970 UK trucks. My favourite as a kid being the Scammel Freightliner.
And the Corgi Leyland delivery truck. I had both the Coke and Pepsi designs.
Perhaps of interest, the cab of that Scammell was designed by Micholetti and came out in 1962. The Matchbox rendition is a superb casting (in 1:64) too.
Yes, the Dodge TV detector van is a re-badged Commer. I once drove one of these vans for several hundred miles, and didn’t much enjoy it. The narrow tracks didn’t help the handling.
Disappointed there wasn’t a Commer truck on view – the one with the two-stroke diesel motor, with three cylinders and six pistons. I can still remember the “howl” they made.
That green 1954 ERF cab caught my attention – I would have thought curved glass would have been prohibitively expensive in those days – or is it perspex rather than glass ?
I remember driving through Leyland in the 1980s, but didn’t have time for sight-seeing.
Minor correction, but Paccar’s CEO is Preston Feight (no “r”). Close …
While a few British car brands were sold in the US in the sixties, we had no British trucks. But Dinky, Matchbox and Corgi toys were ubiquitous in the pre-Hot Wheels days, and so we all got exposed to Leyland, ERF, Foden and others, including Thornycroft, a name that has stuck in my brain for almost 60 years. But with 1/87 or even 1/43 scale, we didn’t get the opportunity to see some of the wonderful badges and logos. I love the Tiger Cub! Great pictures, thanks for the post.
Yes, the Matchbox Leyland trucks were all over the place in the US.
And Australia too. American trucks took over from the sixties, being more suited to our needs. If there way ever a line of slow traffic in those pre-freeway days, you could be sure there’d be a British truck at the head of it. Bedfords were everywhere as were the British Fords, Commers, Leylands, and the occasional Scammell or Thornycroft for special extra heavy haulage needs, but the likes of Foden or ERF were real rarities.
The long persistence of steam is interesting. Steam would have made good sense for commercial delivery where the truck is in use all day. Fire it up while loading in the morning. Businesses had a supply of coal for their own heat, so the coal pile could also run the truck. No need to buy petrol.
Steam never made much sense for private drivers who need to get going immediately.
There’s also the issue of water, which steam engines require much more of than coal. That alone was one of the substantial negatives for steam trucks. Along with a few others, like massively more maintenance.
It was the same as it was for the railroads: diesels were cheaper to operate, despite the more expensive fuel.
Well I never, Leyland a town name! (So, so many possible thoughts about the erratic electricity supply there, or how the houses are nice but leak and the doorknobs all come off, or how the town fountain is a dribble of oily muck, or how the Mayor is a militant shop steward…)
I’m flat with the ERF brigade here – yes a flat ERFer – with particular love for that very first ’33 one. Look! It’s a chop-top, a rod, albeit not a hot one. Quite gorgeous.
And the later ’50’s one we got here, with similar bodies on Fodens, I think. In fact, within my memory, we got many of these vehicles, back when coming upon a truck was a cause for a groan even from a high-powered (not) Kombi. Gawd, they were slow things not so long ago, especially smaller ones like the Austins, quite unlike the ‘Duel’ terrorizers today, today when there is truly no such thing as a slow truck – just a not-fast-enough-car stuck on its grille.
Excellent, Mr Carr.
It is so nice to read about vehicles with the name Leyland on them that were rugged and beloved in their time. That happens so seldom with the later models.
Thanks for a fabulous tour Roger, you make a first rate guide!
Thank you for this excellent tour I`m writing from Canada. My GGGGreat Grandfather was steam carriage inventor engineer Walter hancock 1799-1852 and I see Thornycroft copied his Hancock wheel and suspension on your oldest surviving relic. To think in 1833 routed scheduled customer fare paying steam omnibuses travelled several routes.