Albion

Richard Furniss continues his series looking at diff erent ex-military vehicles in their second careers with showmen.

Albion Motors of Scotstoun, Glasgow was undoubtedly Scotland’s most successful motor manufacturing company, building cars in its early years from 1899, before progressing to buses, coaches and commercial vehicles from the early years of the 20th Century.

Having supplied various commercial chassis to the War Department for military use during World War I, and also during the years following the conflict, the company was an obvious choice to provide vehicles for use by the War Department in the period leading up to, and including World War II.

While several different chassis types were developed by Albion for military use, we are mainly concerned here with the gun tractors and tank transporters produced by the company, as these were the types most frequently acquired by travelling showmen in the years following the conflict as they became surplus to military requirements.

We can disregard what was the most powerful vehicle built by Albion Motors, the twin-engined eight-wheeled drive tank transporter, designated WD.CX33, as only two prototypes were ever built, with the type not being taken up by the military. The three types of interest here are the WD.FT15 and WD.CX22S gun tractors and the WD.CX24S tank transporters, examples of all three types being used by fairground operators.

The less common of the two types of artillery tractor was the WD. FT15, which was developed by Albion as a precaution against the failure of the Bedford Traclat low profile gun tractor. The WD. FT15 was developed as a 6x6 low silhouette gun tractor, fitted with a 95 bhp petrol engine and an 8 ton winch, as seen in the first photograph of the restored example, which I took at the Kemble rally in 2001.