In 1920, Leyland Motors produced the Leyland Eight luxury touring car, a development of which was driven by J.G. Parry-Thomas at Brooklands. Parry-Thomas was later killed in an attempt on the land speed record when the car overturned. Rumours that a chain drive broke were found to be incorrect when the car was disinterred late in the 20th century as the chains were intact. At the other extreme, they also produced the Trojan Utility Car in the Kingston upon Thames factory at Ham from 1922 to 1928.

Production starts during September at the all-new Leyland Assembly Plant, the first build being a Leyland Leopard bus chassis. From 16th November 1931 until 31st October 1965, Wolverhampton Corporation, and Walsall Corporation ran a joint trolleybus service between the two towns, the service numbered 29, running successfully until the 1960s. Very few places in Britain ran joint trolleybus routes, so the sight of Walsall’s blue trolleys intermingling with Wolverhampton’s green and yellow trolleys was quite novel. A closeup of the cab, showing the wonderful detail that is quite visible. But many would likely never look close enough to notice the almost hidden detail lurking behind the silver grill; if you look closely, you will see that the master die makers from Meccano managed to show the vertical tubes of the radiator. How intricate that work must have been, and since it is barely visible, my guess is they did it because they could. During our brake tests at MIRA the vehicle pulled up squarely every time, However, repeated use on the steep downhill parts of the test route produced brake fade and smoke from the drums, indicating that perhaps an exhaust brake is called for —at least as an optional extra. The park brake was more than capable of holding the vehicle on a l in 5 slope, although the gearing prevented the vehicle from restarting on this gradient even in crawler. The American production house gave Tony the go-ahead to organise his vehicles. The original need was for 15 running tippers but, after the various machines had been pooled together – some of which that had been parked up for two decades, the best he could cobble together was 12 plus two more earmarked for being blown up.

In August 1962, the Routeman Mk1 was replaced by the Routeman Mk2 with its distinctive cab designed by Michelotti. This new cab was very striking, although it was non tilting, the Leyland group not having a tilting cab until the introduction of the Ergomatic in 1965. Engines for the Routeman Mk2 were Leyland 0.600 or 0.680, or Gardner 6LW or 6LX. The Routeman models were widely used as tankers, both for fuel and industrial liquids. In 1968 a double drive Routeman III was introduced using Albion Reiver hub reduction axles. Although the Leyland has a hinged lift-up panel over the engine, most servicing operations can be accomplished only by tilting the cab. This is more easily said than done as the rear of the cab is located by two bolts and nuts which are not really very accessible. Long after I had moved into an entirely different career trajectory, EFE Models produced a remarkably accurate model of this very type. The EFE version came out in January 1997 and depicted the vehicle registered VBY354M. Could this have been the very same as seen here?

Without doubt the Octopus is a motorway vehicle. It cruised happily at 96.5km (60mph) on M6 and rarely dropped below 641cm/h (40mph) even on the more hilly sections. Fuel consumption was better on this section of the test than for some of the A roads. This was probably due to the higher axle ratio employed. Although a lower ratio of perhaps 6.4 to 1 would probably improve the figures over A roads, motorway consumption would suffer. A further indication of the possible need for a lower axle ratio came when the Octopus failed to start on a 1 in 5 gradient although it had performance to spare on the motorway. A management buyout made the bus division independent for a short period before it was sold to Volvo, who integrated Leyland models into their range before gradually replacing them with Volvos as they aged.Foden 14-Ton Tanker ‘Mobilgas’; made 1953 through 1956, eventually superseded by the Regent livery version. Due partly to the cab's propensity to rust and also to the admittedly short life of commercial vehicles, any Roadtrain in commercial operation is now a very rare sight indeed. However, a small number remain in use throughout the country as towing-and-recovery vehicles. The Lancashire Steam Motor Company (LSMC) is formed by James Sumner at the Herbert Street workshops with twenty employees. Henry Spurrier financed the development of a 30cwt steam van, which proved to be successful. [2] [3] Leyland Motor Corporation and British Motor Holdings merge to form the British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC), which was now the fifth-largest vehicle producer in the world. BMH also owned Guy at that time; thus, BLMC owned and produced Leyland, Albion, Scammell, AEC, Thornycroft, and Guy lorries by the end of the decade.

Edwin R Foden broke away from the family Foden concern and started making his own diesel powered lorries in 1933 using some proprietary units such as Jennings cabs and Gardner engines. Growing rapidly to become a leading manufacturer of heavy vehicles, their fist eight wheeler was the C16.8 followed in 1947 by the 6.8, a completely new design with a Jennings V-fronted cab. In 1954 the ultra moden KV range was released with its oval grille and wrap-around windscreen. It became a fifties classic.The Leyland Landtrain was produced between 1980 and 1987, specifically for export markets. [16] A bonneted design, it was built in the UK and exported in completed and kit form, the latter for local construction in Kenya and Nigeria. [17] Comet [ edit ] Pourvand, Kaveh (12 June 2013). "Was British Leyland really an industrial policy disaster?". Civitas . Retrieved 5 April 2018. The AEC-based Leyland L12 bares no similarity to the L/TL11. It produces around 220bhp in non-turbo format and thumps some torque at low revs, based on the AEC AV760 unit. The engine in turbo flavour went on to power the Marathon and Roadtrain. Needs a splitter or range change to get the best from it, but in the Octopus it’s hampered by a six-speed constant mesh gearbox. It makes a glorious noise, too The L and TL12 were reworked by Leyland by using revised cylinder heads and higher lift valve timing along with a Bosch fuel pump although production remained at Southall until the plant’s closure in 1979. The rest of the driveline is pretty much old-school AEC/Leyland with a simple constant mesh six-speed gearbox and a double=drive rear bogie featuring hub reduction axles. After a few minutes just listening to it idle, it was time to get her out on the road.

Mr. A. H. Jolliffe, the North Western Deputy Licensing Authority, granted the change of base in respect of these two vehicles but asked that Walker's should submit a list of all the trailers which they intended to use for low-loader work. cult air-brake system which provides both primary and secondary braking. Axles one and three and two and four are braked together. The parking brakes are by means of spring brake units on the second, third and fourth axles. PLASTICS FOR ROAD TANKERS COLLPWING lengthy discussions I between the Home Office, the Fire Research Station and the British Plastics Federation, acceptance regulations have now been issued which permit certain reinforced plastics to be used in the construction of petroleum-carrying road tankers.

The Octopus comes to life

Rover cars and their subsidiary car, aero-engine and armoured fighting vehicle manufacturer Alvis Car and Engineering Company T Coulthard and Co, an engineering firm in Preston, was taken over by LSMC and the combined company named Leyland Motors Limited. [3]