Click on this link to see Britains first car transporter, it does have 1949 on the film but it could have been taken in the 50s.
The unit is a Morris Saurer; the trailer is a Carrimore Mk1 which does look much the same as the Mk 2s we were using in the early 60s which had a peak and were 8’ wide. I wonder if Alan Cooper designed this one.
Nice one. 
The Nuffield Organisation had some older trailers than this in the Morris fleet. I think they were built by Brockhouse Trailers, and were of a much heavier build than this one, having a fixed upper deck and heavily-riveted sides looking like the passenger deck from a ferry boat.There was a short section at the back which hinged upwards to allow cars to pass into the lower deck. Unloading was by way of a pair of very spindly ramps which looked like they were made of Meccano.(Speaking of which, Dinky Toys did a very good model of a similar trailer with a Bedford “O” tractor back in the early 1950’s, always in shades of blue.) Austin also had a fleet of fixed-deck carriers of various makes hauled by Austin K4 tractors in the late 40’s. There’s a good shot of a pair of the Morris/Brockhouse transporters in the first few minutes of the classic film “Geneveive”, which is easy to get hold of. HMV do a lot of these type of DVDs at about a fiver each. I have quite a few photos of early transporters, but can’t figure how to put them on the forum!
You could be right Fodenway, the Brockhouse trailers that I can remember looked like the Carrimore Mk 1 but the top deck did not come doown as far at the front as it was in slides; the CM whole top deck deck used to move back on the arms in parallelogrm fashion. This made the deck steeper when loading cars on: Smarts the MG dealer in Newcastle used to have one, which was not good when loading MG Midgets on, the driver Norman Oliver was a big guy and he always struggled to get out of the cars in Abingdon after loading. When I was a kid I used to pop down to Abingdon from Cowley with him sometimes to drive the cars on. There second transporter was a Carrimor Mk 2 on a BMC Unit.
Great find, reminds me of going to the docks with my Dad in a Commer with a mark 2 carrimore later with a Brockhouse that you used a trailer handle to wind the pins out before lowering.
transporter man:
Click on this link to see Britains first car transporter, it does have 1949 on the film but it could have been taken in the 50s.
The unit is a Morris Saurer; the trailer is a Carrimore Mk1 which does look much the same as the Mk 2s we were using in the early 60s which had a peak and were 8’ wide. I wonder if Alan Cooper designed this one.
Transporter Man , this is a find! for me the memories of the Saurer Morris/Carrimore ,the two in the film are the ones of BRS Oxford 44G Long Lane depot ,one drivers name i believe was Weller-brother of the then depot Superintendent Harold Weller.we only had the two when i was there 50/54, ,we also had a few more ,they were mainly on deliveries for PRESCOLD commercial freezers and fridges.Carrimore trailers were 25 ft and had tail lifts --hydraulic via pto.
I hated them ,real black smokers they were, uphills loaded were embarrasing to be seen ,they also had a habit of starting in reverse direction ,they woud rev up .fill the cab with smoke and only stopping by putting into gear, brakes full on to stall the engine ,sounds funny ? believe me it is not ,i was lucky enough to get a new Seddon mk 5 artic later , a rolls royce experience after that. TOSHBOY
Theres a good pisture of a Leyland Beaver loading Land Rovers from about 1949
Intresting way of loading the trailer
Fully Loaded
Soldier z:
Theres a good pisture of a Leyland Beaver loading Land Rovers from about 1949
Intresting way of loading the trailer
Fully Loaded
Also available in ■■■■ Toys form!
tooveys.com/lots.asp?WEBLOTI … LOTID=3040
Pete.
windrush:
Soldier z:
Theres a good pisture of a Leyland Beaver loading Land Rovers from about 1949
Intresting way of loading the trailer
Fully Loaded
Also available in ■■■■ Toys form!
tooveys.com/lots.asp?WEBLOTI … LOTID=3040
Pete.[/quote
And now also available from Oxford Diecast in 1/76 scale!
- the only thing is that the wagon is a model of the one that was replicated in real life by Ken Wheelwright with a higher top deck (so that he could load his Landrovers with the tops up), and the trailer is a model of the original, so they could not technically have been seen together, although Ken was collecting together parts to build a trailer at one time. It should be fairly easy to alter the top deck to make a fully authentic pairing though, or just say “what the hell” and enjoy them as they are.
Reminds me of doing this a couple of time in the '80s when somebody else with similar trailer lost hydraulic pressure and couldn’t raise his deck, so we transfered his top deck load to mine.
Bit hairy though!