Memory stirred
Page 34
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Until I read Pat Kennett's new book, Seddon Atkinson, I had forgotten that Atkinson once dabbled in passenger vehicles. For some years up to about 1963 the company built bus and coach chassis under the model name, Alpha.
Indeed, 116 single-deckers designed in conjunction with Lancashire United and the North Western Road Car Co Ltd were constructed. They had Gardner horizontal engines with four, five or six cylinders.
' Atkinson also built a couple of double-deckers but managed to sell only one, to the Stalybridge, Hyde, Mossley and .Dukinfield Joint Transport Board.
Another pleasant reminder of the past from the book was a picture of Bill Cotton, one of the most distinguished technical editors of Commercial Motor, testing a Seddon Mk12NC bonneted left-hand-drive 8-tonner intended for export. It must have been one of his last tests, for he returned to industry in 1954. The Mk12NC was reminiscent of the Thornycroft Trident in that its front wings had a vertical front surface. '
I recall describing the Trident as having "bluff" front wings, which brought a furious response from a Thornycroft engineering executive who regarded the word as dero.gatory. In vain I quoted the Oxford English Dictionary to him and reminded him that Henry 'VIII, who was nothing if not axe-happy, was not affronted by the title, Bluff King Hal. To my great relief the tiresome man never spoke to me again.