Old trucks

The red truck is a Morris Commercial LC3, made between August 1948 and May 1952. 30CWT, four cylinder petrol, 15.9 rated horsepower. (I forget what the developed horsepower was) I am not aware of the PMG (Post Master General's Department, forerunner of Australia Post, Telecom and Telstra) running them, maybe they did (I will ask a former middle management employee at the next HCVCA meeting, unless the altzheimer's disease kicks in) but they certainly did have a fleet of the later LC5 models that had the Austin derived motor , ex Austin A70, of about the same capacity.

The LC3 had headlights on stalks out from the sides of the radiator surround and doors that came to the floor of the cab, while the LC5 had headlights set into the mudguards and doors that covered the steps. There was an interim LC4 with the LC5 motor in the LC3 body.

Nobody knows for sure but it is generally believed that "LC" stood for "Light Commercial'" "LD" in the vans stood for "Light Delivery" while "PV," a smaller van with the LC3 motor and gearbox, stood for "Parcel Van."

So there you go.
Morris.

Thanks both.
What I recall as a PMG fleet would have been LC5, not LC3.
In my hunting today, I found several links via Google: two of them were back to this forum.

Morris LC5: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_Commercial_Cars
Morris LC3:
www.hcvc.com.au/forum/Findit/8169-morris...cial-lc3-information
www.hcvc.com.au/forum/salewanted/6551-morris-commercial-lc3
which includes:
'I trust any buyer is aware that these little Morris's properly defined the word "underpowered".
One look at that size of that miniscule powerplant shows that fuel economy, and minimising "taxable engine size", were high on the list of the Morris LC3 designers notes.
I seem to recall that they were 2050 cc; 2 litre petrol truck engines in the late 1940s, weren't exactly balls of fire in the HP dept.
Morris Commercial LC specifications: www.moreg.org.au/pdf/LC.pdf [ lapsed, now at moreg.org.au/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/LC.pdf , but it doesn't give years or photos].
I can find no references to Morris LC3s, in the newspapers of the day, before June 1949 .. when LC3s were being advertised for "immediate delivery".
The LC3 was replaced by the LC4 in approximately March 1952, according to a motoring news article I found, dated April 1952'.

Roderick

Whether they were underpowered or not depends on 1. Your expectations, 2. the job you put them to.

They were rated to carry 25 or 30 Hundredweight (1750 to 2100 kilograms by my calculations) so were always a small truck. They were built in Britain at a time when the maximum allowable speed was 30 miles per hour (48 kilometres) so there was no point in making them faster.

In the 1970's and later, almost every Taxi Truck in Melbourne was a Morris Commercial LD van with a high roof. As well as delivering household appliances, they were used for household removals. I often went as "second man" in them when a two-man job was on offer. Dozens of them scooted around the suburbs all day at 30 MPH, often with wardrobes, dressing tables, etc. roped on to the large tailgate. Dry-cleaning and laundry chains used them frequently. Well I remember the call over the two-way radio "Van with hanging rails wanted." The larger chains that had their own vans almost always used LD vans as well, as did those bakers that did not use the smaller Morris Commercial "J" Vans (998cc)

Remember, it is Horses for Courses. Nobody ever considered running interstate with them and nobody delivered parcels in the inner city with a Mack or Inter with a bogie trailer.

Morris wrote: Whether they were underpowered or not depends on 1. Your expectations, 2. the job you put them to.

......

Remember, it is Horses for Courses. Nobody ever considered running interstate with them and nobody delivered parcels in the inner city with a Mack or Inter with a bogie trailer.

Well actually I beg to differ there .... Ol Walter Shapowloff often sent them overnight expressing if the need arose ..... Imagine that .... :huh: :huh: :blink:

Wally Hoo??

Wally Shapowloff .... the creator of Kwikasair

Thanx Werk

Looks like eye aint been pay n attention
LOL
cya

§

170801Tu Metro Twitter - Camberwell ~1954. (Boroondara Library). Kept large so that you can start identifying vehicles. Lots of familiar ones. The closest is a Daimler Conquest, not a Lanchester (both came out of the same factory). Is that a Bedford M in the cluster?

Roderick

First two light coloured cars are Vanguards, one behind the other. Driving away is a Vauxhall sedan, followed by unknown ute.
Not sure of the dark pommie car. Wolseley?

Jarrod.

I can't get the light van lhs.
Policeman to tram:
Vanguard ute (1949 or 1954?)
Austin A40 panelvan (parked)
Vauxhall
xxx (obscured)
Austin (Somerset)?; maybe Vanguard Spacemaster.
With the pedestrian crossing behind: too wide for a Spacemaster, I suspect Humber Hawk or Snipe.
I'll edit as I work out more.

Roderick