Looking forward to looking back
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:OMING from a family )ssociated with transport from :he early 1900s and regular .eaders of Commercial Motor, I :nust admit that I just can't wait :0 get my hands on your 75th mniversary issue (CM this week).
My father is now 88 years )Id, and started his working Jays delivering milk with a -torse and float. Then he became nterested in motor vehicles and ?,ventually started work with Halley's at their Newcastle depot; later, he was transferred to :heir works at Yoker Glasgow, before the 1914-18 War, and 5tayed there until the 1920s, when he returned to his former ..rriployer at Gateshead.
He is a Halley man at heart, 30 naturally my brother and I were brought up to the fact that Halley's were The Best. Of course, when Halley's failed in 1935 (I was still at school but a confirmed CM reader by then) the next choice of vehicle had to be made and Albion became the Halley replacement.
I still have a 1918 copy of CM and the 1934 Glasgow Show issue, but storage is becoming a problem as I keep all show numbers and specials! I have some CM reprints also of Albions.
In 1950 I collected an Albion Chieftain chassis and delivered it to F. Smith of Lorkhall, for fitting of cab and body. Incidentally, this bodybuilder weighed every piece of material during the course of construction, to make sure that the finished job would be under three tons unladen — 2 tons 19cwt 2qr — so that it could be legally operated at 30mph.
I drove it for the first 18 months of its life, then left to take other employment, but the Albion was never forgotten. In 1969 the firm which operated it closed down and through my father we tried to buy it, as it was to be sold by auction. Unfortun ately, we were unsuccessful.
Towards the close of 1970, I was informed that it was in the hands of a vehicle dismantler and after months of chasing round, in March 1971 I was able to save the Albion from the "cutting gear".
My photo shows what she looked like new. Today the vehicle is fully restored and every bit as good as the first day I drove it way back in 1950. It still returns 20mpg when we take it on HCVC Rallies.
J. WILKINSON Gateshead