harder watzit - beach buggy

Surface use, used for maintenance crews (2 man), foremen and many others for all nature of jobs, today they would use 4 X 4's for the same jobs.

Thanks for the Mt Isa updates.

Today: two more Chinese three wheelers.
Baiyin is in the western desert, and can have temperatures of -30 dg C in winter, so having a properly-enclosed taxi makes sense. This style still has a motorbike front inside the cab, but has an enclosed passenger compartment, with side doors, and two forwards-facing seats.

The truck appears to be smaller and more modern than others posted in this series so far.

110916F-P1000508-Baiyin-threewheel-taxi-RSmith

110916F-P1000509-Baiyin-threewheel-truck-RSmith

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

Continuing with the three-wheel theme, have three today. I am on the countdown now for completing the selection, and am saving the best to last. I do keep alternating with conventional vehicles too, as China is far from being exlusively three wheel.

These were taken in Baiyin, on Sat.17.9.11. The taxi has a classier body than many. The truck is passing a revolutionary-fervour sculpture.

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

RODERICK

I am certain that at least half the population of Dandong has a 3 wheeled contraption of some description. Being in a rural area, the city becomes infested with these tricycles, especially around the produce markets that seem to be everywhere. These contraptions range from a rotary hoe type set up with a single cylinder diesel engine up to trucks (all painted light blue) of about 3 ton capacity. I am sure none of the drivers have a licence.....or have any ideas of road rules, and I am sure they all have a death wish the way they drive those things. The taxi drivers in those Volkswagen Jetta's (mainly red or green) aren't much better either.

In UK, the prevalence of three-wheel cars was the result of taxation policy: they were charged as if they were a motorbike.

One was immortalised as the arch-enemy of the green Morris Mini Minor in the tv series 'Mr Bean'.

My memory of make was Merewether, but that is not on the Wikepedia list:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-wheeled_car
It mentions Bond, and doesn't mention any of the Chinese ones.

Today's selection includes one, which seems to be a taxi. I also saw many as private vehicles.

Both were taken on Sat.17.9.11, while we were at a vantage point waiting for a steam train to pass.

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

The 3 wheeler used in the Mr Bean shows was a Reliant Robin.

Thanks Ray,
I should have remembered the marque Reliant, even if not the various models.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliant_Robin has a lot of interest, including a scene which outdoes Monty Python: a cluster running a circuit race.
A new extreme sport: Rolling a Reliant Robin, just one example:


At least my second cousin once removed had a four-wheel vehicle in East Germany: a Trabant. Even into her 70s, she still pushed it down the drive to start it in the street.

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

The 3 wheeler used in the Mr Bean shows was a Reliant Robin.

G'Day Ray,

Sorry mate but you appear to be mixing up your UK funny blokes

Mr Bean ( who lives about 20k from me) drove a Yellow Mini.

The Yellow Reliant Robin Van was driven by Del Boy Trotter in 'Only Fools and Horses' .

Cheers
RS

Me thinks Bean haz had many different flavored minis over the yearz
including terex/euclid color

Cya
[ch9786]

I came through two clips with the lime green 1979 Austin mini, then the side bar brought up

Mr Bean - Reliant Robin clash, first ever
Mr Bean's first encounter with the famous blue Reliant Robin car. Mr Bean forces the other car off the road on the way to his exam. From the first Mr Bean program.
Mr Bean is in an orange mini, probably older than 1979.
The Reliant is sky blue.

As ever, Wikipedia is your friend:
Mr Bean's car, a British Leyland Mini 1000...At first, an orange 1969 BMC Mini MK II (registration RNT 996H), but this was destroyed in an off-screen crash at the end of the first episode. From then on, the car was a 1976 model (registration SLW 287R), applejack green with a matte black bonnet.
Mr. Bean has a long-running feud with the unseen driver of a light blue Reliant Regal Supervan III (registration GRA 26K), which will usually get turned over, crashed out of its parking space and so forth. This conflict originated in the first episode, when the Reliant's driver held the Mini up on the way to a mathematics exam, and subsequently became a running joke throughout the series.
Both the Mini and the Reliant re-appeared as characters in the animated Mr. Bean cartoons, and in the film Mr Bean's Holiday, yet another Mini, registration YGL 572T, appears. Also seen is a left hand drive version of his Mini, owned by the character Sabine which has a French registration (registration 207 UHO 75). In the animated series, his Mini's registration plate number is STE 952R.
After filming ended, the original Mini used in filming was sold to Kariker Kars to be hired for various events. It was then temporarily displayed as a major attraction at the Rover Group's museum. In 1997, it was purchased by the Cars of the Stars Motor Museum and is now on display at the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu.

[As a footnote, in the mid 1960s I was taken to a talk by Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, at Kew Town Hall, Melbourne. The museum was by then over 10 years old].

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor