Leyland600:
Hi Bewick, just checked the engine details which was the EN250H not the 286 as stated, David Brown 5speed syncromesh box with 5th as overdrive, Kirkstall front axle and BMC rear axle and diff. Very economical little buses ideal for country routes.
You asked how many motors Stampers of Dearham ran, speaking to Harry T’s nephew Ken this evening (he inherited that twin steer Leyland after Harry) ■■■■ ran 12 to 15 wagons comprising AEC Albion Atkinson, ERF, and Leyland mostly six and eight wheelers on livestock and BOCM animal feeds from Manchester and Selby. He tells me that he visited his aunt Annie who is 82 today.
Cheers Leyland 600
Thanks for the info L600,sounds like an interesting spec,I wonder who would have put that to-gether ? So Stampers had quite a sizable fleet for the era,were they related to the other Stamper families involved in the business at Kirkbride and Penrith ?Cheers Bewick.
The Albion Claymore lorry used BMC running gear,(axles) we used to do occasional repairs on one when I worked at the BMC dealer. I remember fitting a thermostat in it, biggest job was finding where it was located with all that pipework! The gearbox was a five or six speed Leyland I think?
Leyland600:
Yes windrush you are quite right the 4 cylinder Albion horizontal version of the EN 286 engine as fitted to thousands of Chieftains etc .
Cheers Leyland 600
Well there’s a turn up,a little Albion 4cyl in a bus,what gearbox would have been installed ? Cheers Bewick.
Albion Nimbus: according to Geoffrey Hilditch it was a rather troublesome beast.
Albion also produce an 8 cylinder horizontally opposed bus chassis
The David Brown 4 speed constant Mesh gearbox in the Nimbus had an annoying habit, so according to Geoffrey Hilditch in his own inimitable words:
“…but far worse was a gearbox problem we encountered from time to time when one gear selector seemed to overrun another and one then had two ratios in at once when nothing worked. When this occurred the gearbox had to be removed from the chassis and stripped down but quite often the cause of the fault was not discernible”.
… “Then came a very black mark for these vehicles had no exhauster and the vacuum assistance was produced via an Albion automatic bypass valve that was fitted alongside the throttle butterfly and so designed to shut off completely with the throttle on overrun to reopen when engine revolutions fell to idling speed.”
… " brakes were going off thanks to that automatic bypass valve. No four cylindered engine is ever very smooth but if one does vibrate all one normally has to do is to put up the idling speed until any apparent vibrations are smoothed out, only this just wasn’t possible with a Nimbus for if you put up the speed you reduce the degree of available braking assistance and if you reduced vacuum production until you had a good brake the engine was nearly leaving its mountings. That was quite bad for one-man buses usually spend quite lengthy periods at some stop sand neither the passengers nor the bus liked the resultant idling characteristics and as a little by-product, certain chunks of chassis bracketry began to go adrift."
“We lost several bits and pieces but the almost unbelievable happened one night when a waiting passenger rang the depot from a phone box hard by the Town Hall. He had been waiting for his bus when a Nimbus stopped to load and as it pulled away he was sure something had dropped off. Something had, too - it was the dynamo -again thaanks to a mounting failure.”
That top photo looks (from my memory of working on one 46 years ago!) just like the Claymore set up with the radiator at an angle and the instrument panel on the steering column. I remember the Nimbus, there were a few running around on country routes in the Chilterns.
rastone:
Back to the little motors and the good sign writing.The sign writer is the late Doug Kinnerley and apart from being a good tradesman was a hell of a nice bloke
Tony, do you remember Alan Woffenden from Turnditch? - another good bloke who signwrote(?) a lot of lorries around Derbyshire.
Thanks for the interesting account of operational problems with the Nimbus cav 551 I can understand your frustration, I ran a Dodge 304 back in 1964 with Perkins 6.354 engine which broke everything possible due to vibration, dynamo brackets, injector and oil pressure pipes et. I as glad to see the back of it, shame really it was a good wagon when running correctly but that only lasted for a few days until something else broke.
Cheers, Leyland 600.
rastone:
Back to the little motors and the good sign writing.The sign writer is the late Doug Kinnerley and apart from being a good tradesman was a hell of a nice bloke
Tony, do you remember Alan Woffenden from Turnditch? - another good bloke who signwrote(?) a lot of lorries around Derbyshire.
Steve
Yes I do and he did a bit of work for us.If I remember didn’t he do a bit of Mountain Climbing ? Doug was a keen fisherman and used to go on his holidays to the Norfolk Broards and " worked nights " He wouldn’t go into the stick on stuff.
erfguy:
Hello Oiltreader
I was in paying the papers and due to a combination o ma bad hearing and about four folk aw talkin I thought Chuck said did you get the Truck Trader I don’t get it says I, no says Chuck did you see Oiltreader he was looking for you yesterday.
We were at Dumfries for a while yesterday. But sorry I missed you we could have had a right auld natter If you are still in the area give us a call 19 QUEENS ROAD SANQUHAR DG4 6LD 0165950424. Eddie.
Hello Eddie, We did a meander through Border country, Berwick to Moffat, then Leadhills, Wanlockhead heading to Ardrossan(for Aran), so while stopping off at your town for a daily paper and some rolls, I mentioned your name to the paper shop lady,“aye no bother” and gimme directions to your abode, aye I’m sure we would’ve covered a few miles, more to the point a wee look at your models, hopefully another time. A tidy place you have there.
Cheers
Eddie
What a fine lot of pics, lurpak, rastone, whisperingsmith, servo88, Guesty44, Leyland600, Stanfield and cav551 also the craic big thanks for keeping the thread going, aye and buses, my own first big wheel adventure, six years of it, starting with Guy Arabs and various others, more later.
Now then a while back kevmac47 suggested I visit Chain Bridge Honey Farm and I have, thanks Kev. I whiled away a few hours there, snapping but also spent a bit of time chatting to two very engaging characters, one the owner of the Foden (interesting history) in the pic, that’s him, having a go at getting her started. Young Mr Dobson had a lot of time to enthuse with details of what has been done by way of restoration, getting none goers to turn again, in the evening he was grubbing a field until after dark with the Cat D7, this in preparation for sowing beans, the D7 was never more than on tickover, leisurely and akin to days gone bye, quite a guy, a return visit for me is a must.
Oily
Good to have you back at the helm oiltreader, thanks for the appreciation, i;v plenty more to follow. I;v got a caravan at Eyemouth so must go to the Chain Bridge, as Fodens float my boat. regards servo88
Some well known motors
