Nice old Pommy Collection

The thing that has always struck me is the universal disgraceful construction of early British truck cabs. Absolutely no styling, mostly sheets of tin nailed like schoolkids cubby houses to wooden frames. Little heat or noise sealing from the engine, waterproof and windproof windows and doors just a dream. It was not until they started experimenting with fibreglass and discovered tin could be put through a roller to produce rounded corners that they improved the visual blight on the countryside.

By the 60's they had improved to the stage that many were better looking than a lot of American trucks which were (and still are in some cases) stuck in a 1930's styling time-warp.

On the other hand the Europeans have always known about compound curves, smooth body shapes and eye-pleasing styles to meet the fashion of the time.

I know they are there to do a job. The pimply fat girl with glasses in the class will do exactly the same job, or better, than the high school beauty queen but who gets the invites?

Lang Thank you for some interesting pictures of how vehicles used to be. Many of the vehicles shown are Showmans' or Carnival operators vehicles that according to my reading, were exempt from virtually all road regulations in Britain.

I believe that the poor amenities of early 20th century British vehicles can be attributed to the class system in the UK. The person who owned the vehicle was not the one who drove it. Even luxury cars including many Rolls Royces had very different conditions for the owner and associates who had a comfortable, velour upholstered saloon cabin while the driver, a poorly paid servant from the lower class, sat out in the weather, often without even a windscreen for protection from the weather.

You dont need to go that far....Jacksons in Brisbane had a huge fleet of Dodges and Inters with the C type cabs ,and a wood plank bench seat....The manager of Jacksons at the time was Jim Kennedy ,and accountant ,later to be elevated to adviser to sucessive Queensland governments.

Nail and head Morris. To this day, from what I read, it's rare for fleets in the U.K. to have anything but a rudimentary, entry model, pov-pacs on their books.