Torque 14.Indd
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No.14 - WINTER 2001 THE MAGAZINE OF Hon. President To be appointed. Hon. Vice President Gordon Baron, 44 Rhoslan Park 76 Conwy Road, Colwyn Bay, LL29 7HR Hon. Committee Members: Chairman Neil D. Steele, 18 Kingfisher Cresent Cheadle, Stoke on Trent, Staffs, ST10 1RZ. Secretary & Mike A. Sutcliffe, “Valley Forge”, Leyland Torque Editor 213 Castle Hill Road Totternhoe, Dunstable, Beds. LU6 2DA Membership Secretary David J. Moores, 10 Lady Gate, Diseworth, Derby, DE74 2QF Treasurer Keith Watson, Leyland, 10 Jeffery Close, Rugeley Staffs. WS15 2NQ Vehicle Registrar David E. Berry, 5 Spring Hill Close, Westlea Swindon, Wilts. SN5 7BG. BCVM Archive Ron Phillips, 16 Victoria Avenue, Grappenhall, Liaison Warrington, Cheshire WA4 2PD Committee Member John D. Bishop, 10 Betley Hall Gardens, Betley, Nr. Crewe, Cheshire, CW3 9BB. Committee Member Anthony L. Pyatt, 15 Conway Grove, Cheadle Stoke on Trent, Staffs. ST10 1QG. (When writing, please send a SAE if you require a reply) Issue No.14 Winter 2001 Published four times per year by the Leyland Society Editor: Mike A. Sutcliffe Valley Forge, 213 Castle Hill Road, Totternhoe, Dunstable, Beds LU6 2DA Compiling Editor: Ron Phillips Email: [email protected] EDITORIAL Thank you to all the members, and there are a lot of them, who continue to write in response to each issue of Leyland Torque. It is very encouraging and enables us to achieve a good balance of subject material. Although I still have a number of articles yet to be published, particularly bus related material, the more you are able to send helps to secure the future of our magazines and give them continued interest. Please keep it up - the more the merrier. The Fourth Annual Leyland Society Gathering is currently being planned, and is to be at Wroughton, near Swindon, at the same location as the very successful year 2000 event. This will take place on Saturday-Sunday, July 27-28, 2002 – more details will be available with the Spring issue of Leyland Torque. So, yet another year draws to a close, but I think we can all look back with great satisfaction on the past 12 months – four issues of Torque bursting at the seams with information and enthusiasm, another superb Leyland Society Journal, and the very successful rally at Leyland, memorable for all those who attended and unforgettable, despite the awful weather. Looking forward to 2002, the Society is aiming, as always, to provide all Leyland enthusiasts with interesting publications whatever decade or type of vehicle is of particular importance to you and to help facilitate the exchange of information and ideas - above all to give you good value for money. With your continued support the Society can only grow and progress – Leyland Motors for All Time! Mike Sutcliffe, Editor FRONT COVER The Leyland breakdown wagon as used at the Kingston upon Thames factory in 1937. Please see page 9 for further details. (BCVM Archive) BACK COVER A Harrington bodied Leyland Cheetah coach with the famous tail-fi n. Please see page 31 for further photos and details. (BCVM Archive) CONTENTS Society 2 Registrations 4 Torque Converter 6 8.6 engines 9 Food for Thought 15 Fire Engines 20 Down Under 22 Odd Bodies 26 Scrapyard Special 30 Indian Leylands 32 Letters 37 Review 46 2 LEYLAND TORQUE No. 14 Winter 2001 FROM THE CHAIRMAN My words in this edition take the form of short report on the Society’s Annual General Meeting. An important announcement regarding future subscriptions was made at the AGM. After consideration of our projected budget and a great deal of debate the Committee have decided that UK subscriptions for 2002/2003 will be £20 ordinary membership and £23 for family membership. Over the past two years we have managed to absorb rising distribution/postal costs - we can no longer continue to do so. Also rising insurance costs need to be covered and the use of BCVM Archive material which we have to pay for adds to the production costs of both Torque and Journal. We also need to build a modest reserve of money which would carry the Society through a ‘bad’ spell - to clarify this, we are not looking to be sitting on a large pot of money, but enough to run the Society for one year. Whilst looking at Society expenditure and especially distribution/postal costs it became obvious that posting items to our European and Overseas members swallowed up quite a proportion of their membership subscription - to address this matter from 2002/2003 European membership will be £24 and Overseas membership £28. Another matter announced at the AGM was that the committee have been considering the possibility of forming the Society into a Company Limited by Guarantee. An announcement on our fi nal proposition and the reasoning behind it will be made in due course. To make matters clear we are not considering charitable status at this stage. All in all we had a very successful meeting and the existing Committee was returned to do another years hard labour. Once Society business was concluded we were able to enjoy a talk by Chris Cernes, a former Chief Engineer with Leyland. Chris was very much involved in the development of the Leyland ‘Marathon’ and this formed the basis of his address which was illustrated by material kindly loaned by the BCVM Archive. Neil Steele, Hon Chairman MEMBERSHIP Subscription levels currently are £18 per annum (family £21), plus £5 (in Sterling) for membership outside the EEC. Anyone joining after 1st April and before 31st July will have their membership carried over to the next 31st July, i.e. up to 16 months. This is good value for money and new members are welcomed. Remember the sub- scription goes up next year ! Application forms are available from the Membership Secretary - see address inside front cover. Winter 2001 LEYLAND TORQUE No. 14 3 General items can be ordered from our Treasurer, Keith Watson (address on front page). orders for clothing to our Chairman, Neil Steele (address on front page). Please make cheques payable to “The Leyland Society”. Leyland Society Lapel Badges (for members only) Oval (38mm long) in silver and blue enamel £ 4.00 each First Rally Memento – Lapel badge Oval Leyland Radiator badge (1907-13) Not many left! £ 5.50 each Second Rally Memento – “Employees” Lapel Badge Red, circular £ 4.50 each Black, circular £ 5.00 each Windscreen Stickers – with Society logo Large, 5ins. long £ 3.50 each Medium, 2˚ ins. long £ 2.50 each Small, 1˚ ins. long £ 1.50 each Bone China Mugs, with Society and Leyland logos £ 5.00 each £19.00 for four Leyland Society Clock – approx. 7ins. x 9 ins. Allow 14 days delivery £22.50 each CLOTHING The Society can currently offer the following clothing bearing the “Leyland Motors Ltd.” logo in Silver. Please Note when ordering clothing allow up to six weeks for delivery as these items are all produced to individual orders. This important information was omitted from page 3 of Torque 13. Polo shirts (short sleeved), in Burgundy, Royal Blue, Bottle Green, Navy Blue, Red & Black. Sizes: Small, Medium, Large, XL & XXL. Price £15.99 All plus £1.50 per item P & P. Sweatshirts (in three styles) in Burgundy, Bottle Green, Navy Blue & Black. Raglan Sleeve: £18.99 Open Hem: £18.99 Placket (with collar) £21.99 Sizes: Small, Medium, Large, XL & XXL. All plus £1.50 per item P & P. Body Warmer/Gilet (fully lined medium weight) Available in Navy or Green. Sizes: Small, Medium, Large, XL & XXL. £24.99 Plus £1.50 per item P & P. Baseball Caps. (Navy Only) £9.99 Plus £1.50 per item P & P. Back Numbers of Leyland Torque and the Society Journal, together with Binders for Torque - these are all available from Mike Sutcliffe, see details on page 47. 4 All change after 97 years The system of registering motor vehicles in the British Isles was completly changed from 1st September 2001 in so far as the information on the plates is concerned. The allocation of letter combinations to denote the various cities and regions of the country has completely changed, numbers have taken over the task of indicating the period when the vehicle was new, and a combination of three letters replaces the three numbers used as discriminators on the most recent system. The new allocation of letters is as follows: AA-AN Peterborough LK-LT London (Stanmore) AO-AU Norwich LU-LY London (Sidcup) AV-AY Ipswich NA-NO Newcastle BA-BY Birmingham NP-NY Stockton CA-CO Cardiff OA-OY Oxford CP-CV Swansea CW-CY Bangor PA-PT Preston PU-PY Carlisle DA-DK Chester DL-DY Shrewsbury RA-RY Reading EA-EY Chelmsford SA-SJ Glasgow SK-SO Edinburgh FA-FP Nottingham SP-ST Dundee FR-FY Lincoln SU-SW Aberdeen SX-SY Inverness GA-GO Maidstone GP-GY Brighton VA-VY Worcester HA-HJ Bournemouth WA-WJ Exeter HK-HY Portsmouth WK-WL Truro HW Isle of Wight WM-WY Bristol KA-KL Luton YA-YK Leeds KM-KY Northampton YL-YU Sheffi eld YV-YY Beverley LA-LJ London (Wimbledon) The number allocated to the fi rst period (September 2001-February 2002) is 51: the next period of six months will be indicated by 02, followed by 52,03,53,04 etc. The fi nal three letters on the new plates exclude the letters I and Q, but Z is to be used. The banning of certain letters is to avoid confusion with numerals, but it seems that the confusion of numbers for letters (5 and S for example) is to be allowed to continue, to indulge the whims of those who are prepared to pay for their number plates to resemble words.