OLD 'UNS IN DEMAND
Page 50
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• When I was about ten years old, in the 1930s, I gave up weekly comics in favour of Commercial Motor. I believe the price was then fourpence, later sixpence and, living on the main East Coast road in Essex, we saw many of the vehicles we read about each week. When the normal-control Leyland Cub artic was featured on the cover, it was in the livery of Orwell Transport which we saw regularly, together with A Chinery which we soon realised had the same colours as Corona Coaches — brown and orange. Commercial Motor confirmed that they were the same firm.
In those pre-lan Allan days there were no magazines for enthusiasts, which meant there were few enthusiasts. About 1942, I came back from a fatigue party in the desert — we had been burying petrol cans, which the Arabs soon dug up again to make into souvenirs — to find a letter from my mother. She told me there had been a big salvage drive "and I'm sure you will be proud to know that all your old magazines have gone to help the war effort!" If the Jerries had been near enough I would have walked over the surrendered.
Although I now pass them on after I've read them — I don't think many pensioners are collectors — I still regret losing those pre-war mags. Which brings me to the point. I have just bought a reprint of Harrod's Catalogue for 1929, published at £15, for my son. A few years ago, I paid £3 each for reprints of pre-war Meccano Magazines, and of course there have been many re-issues of historic newspapers. Would it be possible to publish photo-copies of some of the early Commercial Motor Show Numbers?
I speak for three others besides myself who would gladly pay, say £3 for any of the 30's Olympia Show Issues, even if the small ads were omitted. The same applies to the issues covering the 1933 Traffic Act upheavals. In this same connection, it's great to see the photos which are being attracted by your classified Bus and Coach column, further proof of the interest in the old B B Moore Clenchwarton King's Lynn 0 We get many requests for copies of individual articles from our old issues, and are happy to supply them, usually at a cost of 20p/page. We have not yet published a reprint of a whole issue of Commercial Motor, but next year we intend to produce some compilations of interesting road tests from the past. We would be interested in hearing from readers like Mr Moore as to which particular vehicles or eras they find the most interesting. Ed.