Lord K's Garage #123: Albion. Sure as the Sunrise

Ladies and gentlemen! Omnibuses, coaches and lorries from Glasgow, Scotland!

Albion Motors, founded in 1899, were amongst the great survivors of the British vehicle industry and, especially, of the indigenous Scottish motor industry - many early companies failed and it was only in the 1960s that there was a vain attempt to re-introduce mass vehicle production into Scotland with Rootes at Linwood and BMC at Bathgate. Both the latter ultimately failed. But Albion kept going, making commercial vehicles, for many years. A takeover by Leyland Motors in 1951 saw the steady introduction of 'badge engineering' and true Albion chassis and vehicle production fell away as the Glasgow plant began to specialise in transmission products and, after various ownership changes, the works are still in production.*

1909 Austin A6 Tourer by Austin7nut @ Flickr

Albion Motor Cars introduced their first passenger car in 1900. Six years later, the 4-cylinder Model 24/30 saw production, replaced by somewhat smaller Albion 15 in 1912. During the Great War, the plant in Glasgow focused on 3-ton trucks for the War Office, passenger models being discontinued (and never resumed).

1913 Albion A12 by mwsmith20 @ Flickr

In 1923, the first 'dedicated' Albion bus chassis was announced. Actually, the company delivered buses to a customer in Newcastle-on-Tyne nine years earlier, but they were built on unaltered truck chassis. Since 1926, different bus platforms were developed, usually bearing names beginning with "V" (Viking, Valiant, Victor, Valkyrie, and double-decked Venturer).

1933 Albion Valiant ad by mikeyashworth @ Flickr

The motto of Albion was "Sure as the Sunrise". And sunrise was the emblem. By the way, during WWII the company contributed to war effort producing Enfield No 2 Mk 1 revolvers - close cousins of the Webley(Webley & Scott accused the British Government of illegally using their Mk IV design; the claim was denied, but the claimants received a compensation from the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors).

1918 Albion A16 Charabanc by Pit Pony 210 @ Flickr

Albion trucks and buses retained their typical Diesel Era appearance through mid-1960s. Later, the vehicles from Glasgow looked like (and in fact, they were) rebadged Leylands.

Now some ice cream for dessert:

1953 Albion Ice Cream Tanker (Australia) 

Text: mickeyashworth @ Flickr

Headline photo: by robertknight16 @ Flickr