Mike Etheridge (JRGS 1963-65) attends the recent Bromley Motoring Pageant ...

The 2007 Bromley Pageant of Motoring was held once again in late June at Norman Park. Anyone with a pre-79 car is allowed to bring their vehicle to the site and park for free. As always, the event proved to be very relaxing and entertaining. Like previous gatherings, there was a great range of cars, lorries, buses and military vehicles, and a range of new cars for sale/viewing, etc. MORE
   I thought that the Alumni might be interested in seeing some of the photographs I secured last Sunday in a rain-affected Bromley of some favourite cars that date back to the Fifties and Sixties. Click on any thumbnail to view a larger version.
   A small Gem book of classic cars I have mentions that the Triumph Mayflower was based on the Triumph Renown and had a 0-60 mph time of 42.6 seconds! (I have a sneaking suspicion that Mr. Brian Cook, our old JRGS Physics teacher, had a Renown.)

Teardrop Turtle trailer	Triumph 1952 Mayflower	Triumph Mayflower history	Austin-Healey Frogeye Sprite
Aston Martin DBS	Vintage Aston Martin	Lagonda Rapide	Ford Zephyr
Ford Zephyr	Ford Zephyr	Ford Consul	Ford Zodiac
Vauxhall 1959 PA Estate	Vauxhall 1959 PA Estate	Vauxhall/Friary history	Standard 8 - rear view
Standard 8 - front view	Renault Dauphine - front	Renault Dauphine - rear	Renault Caravelle - rear
Renault Caravelle - front	1909 Renault	Renault Alpine	Alpine power plant
Ferrari Dino	Ferrari Testarosa	Ferrari Testarosa	Sunbeam Alpine
Morris convertible	Rolls Royce Silver Ghost	Vintage Buick	Bull-nose Morris
Morris GPO van	Morris Oxford van	Sentinel lorry	Foden lorry
AEC lorry	AES coach	Atkinson lorry (became Iveco in 1992)	Scania lorry
Bedford C-model lorry	Bedford C-model lorry	Bedford C-model history	Bedford C-model history
C-model provenance	Ford Zodiac estate front	Ford Zodiac estate rear	New Jaguar XK8
New Jaguar XK8	Early split-screen Volkswagen camper	Early split-screen Volkswagen camper	Trojan 200 three-wheeler bubble car
Trojan 3-wheeler on tow	Ward M1A1 from WWII	Ward M1A1 rebuild history	Ward M1A1provenance

I had a special interest in Trojan bubble cars. One of my work colleagues at Croydon Council during the Sixties introduced me to the Trojan's cricket team. With one or two exceptions, the cricket teams we played were Village Green standard and we certainly played all over the place.
   My favourite cricket grounds bordered the Portsmouth/Southampton railway line where you could spot the Bulleid Express Steam Pacifics hammering along the tracks in their final years of service, as pictured right. There certainly were a few occasions when the team had to shout at me to field the ball when I was 'Chuffer Spotting'!
   At the end of each match there was the usual crawl to the nearest pub - how we drove home without an accident in the days before the drink-driving laws came into being I will never know.
   The Trojan factory at that time was importing Lambretta scooters into the country and had re-named as "Lambretta -Trojan". During the Second World War Trojans produced bombs and this process was vividly described by some of the cricket team members with nick-names such as Nodder Noakes and Nobby Driscoll! The factory was based off the Purley Way but I am sure it is now closed. [more]

Mike Etheridge, Sanderstead, Surrey. June 2007 Email

Mike Marsh (JRGS 1949-55) adds: Thanks to Mike Etheridge for his pictures and particularly for the one of the Bulleid Pacific, shown above. It is difficult to see its number but it looks as if it might be 34013, which makes it the West Country Class "Okehampton" in its un-rebuilt form. It was later rebuilt without the air-smoothed casing but did not survive into preservation.
   In a couple of weeks time I am due to travel on an excursion from London Waterloo down to the west-country via Salisbury, Yeovil, Dorchester, Weymouth, Bournemouth, Southampton and back to Waterloo, this time behind a similar in appearance, and also un-rebuilt, Bulleid locomotive the Battle of Britain Class "Tangmere" 34067, which is today in fine form making very many main-line trips around the country. This particular trip is to commemorate the final day of steam on the Southern Railway 40 years ago on 9th July 1967. The return timing into Waterloo in the late evening is also similar to that of the final steam hauled train.

Cliff Cummins (JRGS 1956-62) adds: Great to see the photos from Bromley Pageant. The Rolls-Royce, pictured right,  belongs to friends of mine. It is a Silver Ghost with coachwork by Cockshoot. Incidentally, the car to the left in the photos is an Austin and not a Morris [as originally identified].
   By the way, there is an excellent book on the history of Trojan, Can You Afford to Walk, written by Eric Rance and Don Williams.

 Mel Lambert (JRGS 1959-65) adds: As coincidence would have it - and I didn't realise that's what it was until I just saw a picture on the Trojan Museum Trust website mentioned above - my father owned a Trojan Mini-Motor back in the late-Fifties. The add-on 50cc engine was intended to motorise a standard bicycle - not a bad idea back during a period of post-war rationing when motorcycles were in short supply.
   I found the motor in our shed as a box of parts and, with Dad's permission, attempted to put it back together - and hopefully get it running again.
   I recall the elegantly shaped exhaust and the odd flywheel assembly - see picture left; click on the thumbnail to access a fascinating review from a 1952 edition of Motor Cycle. (Incidentally, at that time the unit cost just £21, weighed 24 pounds and was said to achieve a remarkable 144 mpg; "best" cruising speed was a quoted 23 mph.)
   After a lot of experimentation - and lack of two-stroke fuel plus a complete set of piston rings! - I abandoned the project. But at least I learned first hand the intricacies of a small-capacity reciprocating engine.

I have also located a UK-based Heinkel-Trojan Owners club [more].

Derek Charlwood (JRGS 1958-64) adds:  I'm just back from holiday in Tuscany, and looked on the site to see the old cars! What memories they bring back. My father, long since gone, had a Morris 8 as his first car, Reg No BPM 339 - how did I dredge that number from the mind's recesses? - followed by a Triumph Mayflower. I also remember a cream Vauxhall Wyvern.
   I am not a "petrol head" - as long as my car gets me from A to B without me having to open the bonnet (or hood) I'm happy. But it is amazing what subjects bring back childhood. [more]
   While I don't recall the Morris 8's model and year, I do remember being driven down Gravel Hill towards Addington and being overtaken by a police car with a loudspeaker hailer on the roof telling my father to "Slow down, you are speeding". Which caused my father to panic a bit, as he did not have a license, a fact that did not come out until the Eighties when he was prosecuted for driving on a provisional license without "L" plates.

Mike Marsh (JRGS 1949-55) adds:  If we are going down the old-cars route, here are some photos from 1955/6, when I was in the 31st Croydon Rover Scouts. Click on any thumbnail to view a larger version.

Crew Cars	Austin 7s	Cucciolo engine	Riley 9

   The picture of the Crew Cars shows an Austin 7, a Standard 8 Flying Cloud that was my father's, and has me holding on to the headlamp, plus (I think) an Austin 9.
   The Austin 7s picture is just that, possibly from the mid-Thirties.
   The chap on the bicycle (Mel Lambert's picture of the cycle engine, shown above, prompted me to look at these pictures) has a Cucciolo engine on it.
   The last picture is of a canvas-bodied Riley 9 in which, more than once, I went up to London to work. Stopping, however, was something of an anticipatory exercise to be worked out well in advance!

ML adds: While not wanting to dwell too long on the subject of add-in bicycle engines, I discover from the Pit Lane News website that the Ducati motorcycle company's history began with development of the Cucciolo motor (apparently, "cucciolo" is Italian for puppy), an inexpensive 48cc four-stroke engine designed during World War II. In 1948, a Cucciolo-powered bike won the first Grand Prix of the City of Milan. [more]

Mike Etheridge concludes: I had a friend in the 1950/60s, named Chas Moody (a Croydon Technical School Pupil), who also dismantled a 49cc engine that could well have been a Trojan. He carried out a service including replacing the piston rings as Mel describes.
   Once the engine was complete, Chas then wedged it in his dad's wooden-faced vice, and I seem to remember we started it by wrapping a cord around the drive wheel that would normally bear on the rear bike tire. Once the engine was revved-up it made a hell of a noise and eventually split the wood facings on the vice - great fun!
   Nice to see the other responses to the web article.

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