Wolf still active at 48
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AFTER a worldwide search, the oldest Perkins diesel engine still working has been tracked down in Southampton (see picture below) it is a 48-year-old Wolf which left Peterborough on May 2,1934, to be installed in a sixwheeler owned by a fertiliser manufacturer of which Frank Perkins, "father" of the engine, was a director. Harry Beeton, who built it, is now 92 and still going as strong as the Wolf.
Its subsequent career included service in an Albion owned by Nobel Explosives, in a Daimler taxi, in an ex-army Humber staff car and an ex-army Humber four-wheel-drive field command car.
The Wolf has now donned sheep's clothing and operates a standby power generator at the Southampton works of F. Musson and Son. Ian Musson, managing director, who was responsible for the field command car conversion some 22 years ago, had the engine overhauled in 1973 and fitted it in a home-made generator.
Although he has been offered a new engine free of charge, he is reluctant to part with his venerable Wolf to the Perkins museum.