4 cylinder Albion

.........................not too sure if this query is in the right sub-forum, but here goes.

Back in the early seventies, Mayne Nick's armoured car division 'Armaguard' had in it's stable in Sydney, an Albion armored van, typical solid looking jigger for obvious reasons,

It was being readied at the time for future disposal, a mate of mine at the time was the leading hand in the workshop. He told me it was built for Sydney suburban use (how many they had I just don't know, may have been the only one), Anyway, it only had the FOUR cylinder engine, not sure which box, but my mate told me it was hopelessly geared for anything other than metro use, no road speed. Story he told me was that it had to go to Picton one day to attend a breakdown and the driver reckoned he got out halfway up Razorback to check he was still moving!

I thought it a bit of an oddity at the time, being the 4 cylinder version, anyone know much about them? I well remember the Albion Vikings getting about on route bus form, but the 6 cylinder version. The only other time I had seen one was up on the western slopes of the Great Divide, a 4 cylinder shortened fire truck pumper. Typical country bush fire brigade vehicle, had a few adornments on it. Had a "VIKING" badge screwed to the wire mesh grille in front of the radiator. Bloke told me it meant nothing, it "fell" off a scrapped local bus one night. Also had one of those mechanical "hands" that all NSW buses were fitted with at the time (remember them?). Some wag had removed a few of the fingers and when the "hand" was extended, was left with just the centre finger pointing to the sky!

Probably some of our British Leyland members know a bit about these smaller Albion engines?
Cheers, Dave

In the early 1970s Blacktown council had 2 as tippers. 1side tipper and 1 conventenal. From memory they came from the factory with hessian bags over the headlights so they couldn't see the hills coming. Lol

Father in law Borrowed one to move house ,and i got to be the driver.Yep Slow and gutless ,But at the end of the weekend everything was moved ..Could not believe how little fuel went back in to top the tank up .

Albion did have their own motors back in the 50's, but as time went on they were using Leyland motors, such as the 400 in the Viking bus. This jobby sounds like it was one of those Aussie bitsa'a, maybe with a BMC motor (498?) in it.

Mammoth,
............ have a feeling you could be right in your assumption re above. The chassis COULD possibly have been shortened (or even made to that short-ass length) and then maybe knowing that it was never going to be anything than a armoured van on metro use, just opted for the 4 cylinder BMC. Yet, as you say, it was 498 and the 6 cylinder Albion (Leyland) was actually smaller at 400??

The fire pumper I mentioned, would possibly have been a special build I feel, looked to be a bit too well assembled rather than something cobbled together in someones backyard garage..

Possibly even one built as a prototype in the hope of selling a few to the government??
I actually got hold of something similar many years ago, an Oz built CJ6 Jeep decked out as a fire captains control vehicle, had the holes in the floor where the pump would have sat, also all the brackets on the rear cabin wall for the radios needed. Doing a bit of research at the time I turned up that it was a prototype as well.
Cheers, Dave

The BMC 98 series motors got the name from the bore diameter (idstbc) not the capacity. The Boxer had the 6 cylinder 698, with the final version having a turbo and all the improvements that came with that. By accounts back then the 98 series was a big improvement on the previous BMC motor fitted to the short lived Laird.
The 400 motor had its roots in the 300 installed in the Comet, quickly uprated to 350, then 375 and to the cross flow 400 family. As it was designed by Napier for Leyland (in 1948?) it had the basics for an excellent motor.

The LAD Cabbed Albion Chieftain ran a 4 cylinder engine, it was the EN335, 334 cu. inches, 94 hp @ 2200 rpm.

Beaver,
So, I take it that the Armaguard jigger I mentioned could quite well have been powered with the Albions own 4 cylinder? What about chassis? Perhaps either a shortened bus or even a standard prime mover length? It was an extremely short tailed thing, the body would have probably been built by whoever the mob was who were doing Armaguards body work at the time. Exterior wise it didn't look much different from any of their other armoured vans, I think I recall either an Albion badge glued to the radiator plating or it had cast Albion wheel centres.
but HOWEVER...............I.D.S.T.B.C.

Dave.

Dave, The Albion Chieftain Model CH3ATR was available with a 102 inch wheel base.

We Had Two 4 Cylinder Albion's In Our Fleet. Like All The Trucks The Old Man Bought They Got The Job Done.

Mill Transport Used Them As Body Trucks.

LN700