Past Present and in Between in Pictures (Part 1)

windrush:

toshboy:
Hi Windrush, Memories of the past , Oxford BRS had their fair share of those “things” in the early days (1950 ish) although of an earlier mark , we drivers hated them ,in blue livery for Prestcold , Saurer diesel engine which would often run backwards on starting ,suicide doors, but fitted with 5th wheel so as to be standard with rest of trailer fleet , every hill resulted in trail of black smoke behind ,

Yes, the Saurer diesel engine made by Nuffield under licence. A very popular vehicle the Morris Commercial FVO and there were hundreds of them around, Derbyshire Stone ran a lot of tippers. Morris/Austin developed their own 3.4 diesel engine using the Saurer design as a base, similar in some respects and of course with the fuel pump still mounted on the right hand side. I have an original workshop manual for the Saurer diesel upstairs.

Pete.

Wasn’t it the combustion chamber design and fuel injection system that was the Saurer licence? Dating back to the early 1930s and the first reliable small high speed Diesel engines. The competing system was the British designed Ricardo Comet, used by AEC with its early Diesel engines. Gardner of course beat both of them with its direct fuel injection L2 design in 1929.