The British Commercial Vehicle Museum

The British Commercial Vehicle Museum

24th June 2009

Whilst visiting Banks, the opportunity was taken to visit the British Commercial Vehicle Museum at nearby Leyland. This is a museum devoted to the history of the commercial vehicle and includes many beautifully restored commercials from the passenger and road haulage world. Here are a selection of pictures taken in the rather dark environs of the museum building.

Below: This impressive Scammell 100 Ton Tractor was built for hauling massive semi-trailers, being one of two units produced at the time. Loads moved included 170 ton transformers! This lorry ended its working life with Pickfords.

Below: This Leyland is one of numerous vehicles, predictable perhaps, from this manufacturer on show.

Below: 1905 built B6 Fowler Showman’s engine ‘Sunny Boy 2’ is presented in superb external condition. It is not known what the boiler is like, nor the mechanical status, but a label on the gauge glass warns that the blanking plate inserted into the injector pipe must be removed before steaming, suggesting it has steamed as part of the collection. It ended its working life as a road engine with the haulage contractor Edward Box.

Below: In 1896 James Sumner built a steam powered lawnmower, the start of a business that was to grow and develop into the famous Leyland Motors. This is a replica of that lawnmower (I think the original is in the collection of Rural Life at Reading), which incorporates some original components from a machine found at Repton College. I really like this – what a way to cut the park grass at Beamish! Obviously hills might be an issue, as would manoeuvring such a large and unwieldy beast. It is fired by paraffin, with an eccentric driven fuel pump supplying the fuel to the burners.

Below: An overview of part of the hall, with examples of ERF and Bedford lorries prominent.

Below: This is an 1896 built horse drawn bus, built for the Edinburgh and District Tramways Company. These were the lessees of the Edinburgh Corporation owned tramways and omnibus services. A similar arrangement existed in Newcastle and many other towns and cities. The bus was restored for the closing ceremony of Edinburgh’s tramway system in 1956. I must admit to a growing interest in these horse buses, so often operated within the same licences as the horse trams and sometimes used in conjunction with them to provide greater route coverage.