ATKI MEN AND SEDDON MEN
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“Right up to the end, there were Atki men and Seddon men. The division was always there,” Taylor muses, reminiscing the time spent as a Woodstock toolmaker when it was a fully working factory. Atkinson people obviously hailed from the original Preston plant, whereas the Seddon workforce were largely descendants of the immediate local area. Atkinson Vehicles was acquired by Seddon Diesel Vehicles in 1970, and the amalgamated company, Seddon Atkinson, then passed through three owners before being completely absorbed into Iveco in 1992. Prior to that, the firm had a nine-year spell with Pegaso (which also became an Iveco company) and US agricultural giant International Harvester (IH), which bought the firm from Seddon Atkinson shareholders in 1974. What was IH is also now part of the Fiat empire, coming under the control of CNH.
His love for the marque extends well beyond memories, with three pristine examples wearing the firm’s colours. The oldest is a 1975 Atkinson Borderer, which itself is a bit of a rare beast. New to Canning of Leyland and latterly owned by John Jardine from Wishaw, the old Atki was primed for power. “Back in the day it would probably have been fitted with something in the region of a 220, but Jardine fitted her with a 320 turbo-charged Cummins, spring brakes and a stack exhaust. It would have been the 730 Scania of its day,” he admits.
The second lorry in the collection is also a very tidy left-hook 401 day cab tractor. Built for US forces based in the UK, left-hand drive Seddon Atkinsons were only ever driven by ‘the special ones’, the elite so to speak of the factory workforce, which at the time didn’t include the likes of Taylor. “That’s just the way things were. So when one came up for sale, I just had to have it!” he says.
Last but not least is the most worked of the trio, a 400 Cumminspowered Stratocruiser, fitted with the ubiquitous Eaton Twin Splitter, which Taylor describes as a “proper gearbox”. It’s the most worked as it serves as the tractor unit of choice to pull the TTX Motorsport Renault racing truck around the circuits of the BRTA Championship. “It’s a fantastic vehicle, and one that probably gets as much attention as the race truck around the various meetings.” If that wasn’t enough, Taylor has just bought himself another restoration project, this time a 1972 Seddon Diesel 13.4, which he tells us is very much “work in progress!”