Albion Motor Co: Buses
Note: This is a sub-section of Albion Motor Co, later Albion Motors.
General
Albion earned a reputation for solid no-frills engineering. It survived the Depression when rival Halley folded.
1900 The first vehicle was produced.
Before World War I the company had built up a large base of customers for Public Service Vehicle.
6,000 A10 lorries were supplied to the war between 1914-1918, and carried on into the 1920s.
In 1923 the Vikings was invented for up to 18 seats, a low frame height with only one step.
The first forward-control chassis arrived in 1927, the Viking PM28. Vikings were phased out in 1931-1932.
By 1933 diesels were an option.
New Valkyrie models were came back in 1935.
Valiants were not as popular spanning from 1931 to 1936. They were more powerful than the Valkyrie.
The Victors were invented around the same time 20-seater 42bhp 3.15 litre engine gaining a 6bhp 3.62 litre unit.
Victor models lasted till 1939, 30 seats were standard at that time.
The Venturer arrived late in 1932, a double-decker 6.85 litre petrol engine/ Gardner diesel and seated up to 51 passengers.
1937 The Commercial Motor Show launched the first ever CX Series which had the engine and gearbox in one unit.
For a short time a six-wheeler single decker was introduced a version of the Valkyrie 15 were bought in 1937-1938, seating a total of 39 passengers.
1946 The Venturer CX19 double-decker had the option of Albion's own diesel or petrol engines.
Between 1947 and 1953 Glasgow Corporation were the main buyer of the Venturer, they purchased 138 models.
1955 The Nimbus was developed, and had a small underfloor-engined chassis.
1963 The Viking was introduced it had a 0.370 Leyland Motors engine at the front, opposite the entrance.
Vikings and Clydesdales were exported until the 1980s.
List of Models
- Model 24 (1923-24)
- Viking 24 (1924-32)
- Valkyrie (1930–38)
- Valiant (1931–36)
- Victor (1930–39)
- Venturer (1932–39)
- Valorous (1932)
- Valkyrie CX (1937–50)
- Venturer CX (1937–51)
- Victor FT (1947–59)
- Valiant CX (1948–51)
- Viking CX (1948–52)
- Nimbus (1955–63)
- Aberdonian (1957–60)
- Victor VT (1959–66)
- Clydesdale (1959–78)
- Lowlander (1961–66)
- Viking VK (1963-83?)
See Also
Sources of Information
- Buses and Trolleybuses before 1919 by David Kaye. Published 1972
- Ian Allan - British Buses Since 1900 - Aldridge and Morris
- British Buses Since 1945 by John Creighton. Published 1983. ISBN 0 7137 1258 9
- [1] Wikipedia