OWNERS CLUB BULLETIN May / June 2019 LIMITED BY GUARANTEE LIMITEDRegistered BY GUARANTEE Office: Abberley Cottage, 7 DowlesRegistered Road, Office:Bewdley, Worcs., DY12 2EJ AbberleyCompany Cottage, Registration 7 Dowles No. 574562Road, Bewdley, FoundedWorcs., DY12 June 19562EJ CompanyPresident Registration : Sally Railton No. Joslin 574562 Vice President Founded : John June Dyson 1956 President : Timothy Railton Vice President : John Dyson HONORARY DIRECTORS HONORARY DIRECTORS Chairman : PETERMICK JARVIS PHIPPS The Barn, Boulters Lane, Maidenhead, Berkshire, SL6 8TJ ChairmanArbour Grange, : PETER Sandy PHIPPS Holt, Fairmile Avenue, Cobham, Surrey, KT11 2TT Telephone: 01628 674116 E-mail: [email protected] ArbourTelephone: Grange, 01932 Sandy 867090 Holt, E Fairmile-mail: [email protected] Avenue, Cobham, Surrey, KT11 2TT Telephone: 01932 867090 E-mail: [email protected] Secretary : MAX HUNT Secretary : MAX HUNT Abberley Cottage, 7 Dowles Road, Bewdley, Worcs., DY12 2EJ SecretaryAbberley Cottage, : MAX HUNT7 Dowles Road, Bewdley, Worcs., DY12 2EJ Telephone: 01299 401135 E-mail: [email protected]. AbberleyTelephone: Cottage, 01299 7401135 Dowles E Road,-mail: Bewdley,[email protected] Worcs., DY12 2EJ Telephone:Spares Registrar 01299 401135: GEOFF E MOORE-mail: [email protected] Moorhays,Technical Rhosgoch,Advisor : GEOFFBuilth Wells, MOORE Powys, LD2 3JY TechnicalTelephone:Moorhays, Rhosgoch, Advisor01497-851296 : GEOFF Builth E -Wells,mail: MOORE [email protected] Powys, LD2 3JY Moorhays,Telephone: Rhosgoch, 01497-851296 Builth E -Wells,mail: [email protected], LD2 3JY Telephone: 01497-851296 E-mail: [email protected] COMMITTEE MEMBERS COMMITTEE MEMBERS Treasurer : ROGER MAYNE Treasurer : POSITION VACANT Woodside Cottage, 11 Stanford Road,COMMITTEE Great Witley, MEMBERSWorcs., WR6 6JG Any member who thinks they could fill this vital role please contact the Secretary for a Telephone: 01299-896457 E-mail: [email protected] discussion and for more information. Treasurer : ROGER MAYNE BulletinMeanwhile Editor any financial : NEIL enquiriesTHORP may still be sent via E-mail: [email protected] 7 Greenbank, Polruan, Fowey, Cornwall, PL23 1QP Ridgewood Grange, Chilton Road, Upton, Didcot, Oxon., OX11 9JL Telephone: 01726 870943 E-mail: [email protected] Telephone:Bulletin Editor 01235 : NEIL850756 THORP E-mail: [email protected] Ridgewood Grange, Chilton Road, Upton, Didcot, Oxon., OX11 9JL BulletinRegistrar Editor : MIKE : NEIL STENHOUSE THORP Telephone: 01235 850756 E-mail: [email protected] Ridgewood17 Peasehill Grange,Close, Rawdon, Chilton Road,Leeds, Upton, LS19 6EF Didcot, Oxon., OX11 9JL Telephone: 012350113-2504896 850756 E--mail:mail: [email protected]@railton.org Spares Registrar : MIKE STENHOUSE Publicity/Website:17 Peasehill Close, Rawdon, BRYAN Leeds, TYRRELL LS19 6EF Spares Registrar : MIKE STENHOUSE Claremont,Telephone: The0113 Meads,-2504896 Stanstead, E-mail: Essex,[email protected] CM24 8QA 17 Peasehill Close, Rawdon, Leeds, LS19 6EF Telephone: 01279 812113 E-mail: [email protected] Telephone: 0113-2504896 E-mail: [email protected] Registrar of Cars : TOBY SHARP Hele Cottage, Hele Cross, Ashburton, Newton Abbot, Devon, TQ13 7QX Registrar of Cars : TOBY SHARP Telephone: 01364 652948 E-mail: [email protected] Hele Cottage, Hele Cross, Ashburton, Newton Abbot, Devon, TQ13 7QX Telephone: 01364 652948 E-mail: [email protected] Material appearing in the Bulletin is copyright and must not be used without the written permission of the copyright holders. The views and opinions expressed (including advertisers) are not necessarily shared by the Editor or by the Railton Owners Club. The Club accepts no responsibility for the following of contributors’ advice, nor does it necessarily endorse the services or products offered by advertisers, which are published in good faith. 2 RAILTON OWNERS CLUB BULLETIN May / June 2019 Editorial .............................................................................................................. 4 Secretary’s Notes ................................................................................................ 4 Membership News ............................................................................................ 7 Calendar 2019 ..................................................................................................... 7 Chairman’s Column ........................................................................................... 7 Back in Thame .................................................................................................... 8 Charity Appeal .................................................................................................... 9 1933 Terraplane Brochure .............................................................................. 10 Heavy Metal – The Napier Railton as Art ................................................... 16 Brough Superior CXB 199 ............................................................................. 18 Railton Production Numbers ......................................................................... 20 Head Gaskets .................................................................................................... 22 Railton & Talbot performances in the Alpine Trials.................................. 24 Correspondence ............................................................................................... 28 Market Place ..................................................................................................... 31 The cover photograph is of a Railton Open Four Seater taken from the album of Coachcraft Ltd., London W7, which was donated to the Club by the late Mollie Twigg. R.O.C. Website: www.railton.org User name and password for the Members’ area are advised at renewal time. Please e-mail the Editor, the Chairman or the Secretary if a reminder is required. PrintedPrinted by by Hertfordshire Spinnaker Print Display Ltd Plc https://www.spinnakerprint.co.uk/ http://www.hdprint.co.uk/ 3 EDITORIAL The eagle-eyed Bulletin reader will have noticed from the bottom of the previous page that last issue we changed our printer. Herts Display had been our printers for a very long time indeed but recent price rises became unsustainable and they did not make any effort to retain our business. Spinnaker Print are based in Bishop’s Waltham, Hampshire and were the most competitive of the various firms who quoted. They specialise in car club magazines so we are in good company and I hope we can build up as good a relationship as we once had with Herts Display. I was browsing a back issue of Motor Sport the other day; the classified sections are a real treasure trove and often now of more interest than the editorial content. I came across an advert (March 1973) for a Railton Fairmile II, registration CVU 1. This car was once owned by the first R.O.C. Chairman, John Salter, but was being sold by Len Palmer of Burton-on- Trent who was, as he put it, a “purveyor of soot” (i.e. a chimney sweep). The asking price of £1000 – no offers, was very high for the time, which I presume partially reflected its condition and its registration number. A check of the current Club’s database showed that it subsequently went to the U.S.A. where it has since been scrapped. I was surprised at this until I read a note that it was destroyed in the Californian bush fires in 1993! On a happier note Geoff Moore reports that the Brough brooch – see p.8 of the last Bulletin – has gone to a long-standing Brough owner for £125 and a cheque for this amount has gone to Macmillan Cancer Support. CLOSING DATE FOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE JULY/AUGUST BULLETIN IS 14TH JULY. SECRETARY’S NOTES It is always good to receive additions to the Club archive collection especially when, as in two recent cases, donations come quite out of the blue. Our Editor writes elsewhere about material sent by Horst Hendrien of Michigan which included a perfectly mint and complete (even with inserted price list for “extras”) 1937 Railton sales catalogue together with some interesting later correspondence. Horst has accepted a year's honorary membership of the R.O.C. which we hope he will find interesting. The second acquisition arose from your scribe's chance encounter with a lady at the bar of a favourite local watering hole. Gillie had overheard my conversation with friends and had picked up the word “Railton”. It transpired that she had just begun sorting out a deceased relative's papers and thought she had seen something about one of our cars. With no great expectation of an outcome I was delighted when, a few weeks later, I received an email saying that she did indeed have a collection of material relating to both Railton and Rolls-Royce 4 5 motors owned by her family. We arranged a meeting back in the same local and I acquired a 1939 Railton Owner's Manual in almost mint condition. Gillie had no recollection of the car involved but fortunately her late father had written the chassis number on the title page. Subsequent reference to John Dyson's Coachcraft publication revealed that chassis number 745575 had been delivered to the coachbuilder in August 1938, emerging three months later (why so long?) as a Cobham saloon. I have no registration details and have found no trace of the car in Club Registers, but if anyone can shed light on the fate of Railton 745575, I could complete the story. The family lived, at the time, in the Southport area. Another positive since my last set of notes has