[Phil Blinkhorn]

The Levaggi's thread led me to think through some of the more oddball vehicles on the roads around Manchester in the 1950s and 1960s which wouldn't be possible today under legislation, for reasons of cost or for which the use has disappeared. Also there were some very distinctive van fleets around with operator designed custom built bodies.

In the 1930s, the James motor cycle company produced a three wheel van with one wheel at the front, the original with handlebars, later models with steering wheels. Many survived the war and some went on in service to the 1960s with shops, tradesmen and, in one case around Hurst in Ashton under Lyne, collecting vegetable waste from households for a pig farmer - an early form of recycling established during WW2.

In the same mode were the "bubble cars" produced by Bond, Messerschmitt and BMW (yes BMW) which were popular in the 1950s and early 1960s as they were cheap to run, tax and only required a motor bike licence. Many didn't have reverse as not a few girlfriends were to find out when asked to help push the vehicle backwards often after parking in secluded and muddy spots!

Scammel produced three wheel road tractors which pulled trailers and were used for local parcel deliveries by British Railways and BRS.

Trojan had a very popular van in the 1950s which was used by both national and local companies - one of the largest fleets was Brooke Bond. They had an ad campaign based on the vans "Round and About with the Little Red Vans". It had a Perkins Diesel engine with a distinctive knocking sound which drove the drivers mad and the frontal profile was reminiscent of Miss Piggy.

By the way, Arthur Brooke, founder of Brooke Bond, was born at 6 George St, Ashton in 1845

Commer produced a range of bus, truck and fire engine chassis using the Tillings Stevens TS3 "flat" 3 cylinder, two stroke engine with a Roots (as distinct from Rootes) blower. These wonderful contraptions were the noisiest commercial vehicles - ever (!) as residents of Reddish, Heaton Moor and environs could attest. In the late 1950s Trumix, with a base off Broadstone Road, had a fleet of concrete mixer/delivery trucks based on the chassis and they could be heard a mile off.

Cheshire Sterilised Milk had an extensive fleet of Thorneycroft open vans with a roof and rear panel but no sides, painted dark green which left the factory every morning except Sunday for points around Cheshire and Lancashire, incidentally providing regular summer employment for students filling in for holiday making drivers' mates. The vans were replaced by Bedford TKs in the mid 1960s.

Ripponden and District vans were regular visitors to Greater Manchester warehouses and mills. On various chassis, they had blue cabs and lower van sides but the upper sides and the roof were designed to look like a covered waggon and painted cream.

Hollands Pies used a van design and colour scheme from the 1920s through to the 1990s.

Given the controversy caused by MCTD's requirement for Leyland Tiger Cub bus chassis and the insistence by the Council on the purchase of Albions, it is ironic that the Fire Brigade ordered a number of fire engines over the five years from 1959 based on shortened Tiger Cub chassis instead of the standard Leyland truck based fire engine chassis of the time.

No doubt there were some inter-departmental savings by buying spares in bulk but to have been in on the decision making process to buy the more expensive vehicles would have been fascinating. What A F Neal thought isn't recorded.

Some of the most interesting vehicles around were showmen's cut down double deckers. The upper deck would be cut off and the roof lengthened slightly to account for the rake between the bottom of the upper deck window line and the roof line. The roof would then be attached at the level of the bottom of the upper deck windows.

The reduced upper deck and all of the lower deck would be used to transport the dismantled fairground ride. The engine would be run once the rides was assembled to power and light the ride. Gardner engined vehicles (mainly Bristols and Daimler) were favourites as they had low revving engines which could be set to run at a constant speed with lower fuel usage than the equivalent Leylands or Crossleys, although there were examples of these in use.

Shooting Brakes were popular after WW2 as cars attracted 33% purchase tax but the Shooting Brake, with wooden framed rear ends popularised by the "country set", did not and many small businesses which needed cars but didn't need a large van bought them and not only saved cash but offered the drivers a distinctive and versatile car like vehicle for private use.

There must be many other oddballs and no longer produced or needed vehicle types and adaptations that members remember - any offers?