Engine Punk

This is just like the model I had but with more paint remaining.  Many years ago, at a secondhand toy sale at school, I bought two Dinky Toy model vans. One was a rather sorry looking Morris Commercial J type van in the livery of the GPO and the other was a cheeky Trojan 15cwt Dunlop van. They got played to pieces. The Morris Commercial looked thin and underfed. The Trojan looked much more robust. In the undergrowth at Tinker's Park I was reminded of these two model vans when I stumbled across a scanned image the other day of the remains of a Trojan van. I had found this relic in the bushes at a show at Tinker's Park , near Hadlow Down in East Sussex, in or around 1990. There were many other interesting things in the undergrowth and the only means of identifying it was by the maker's plate on the bulkhead. Only once I'd found that, did I know what it was and that a model of it had brought me so much pleasure as a child. I photographed it as a mem...

"Here is a sturdy good-looking van which conforms in every way to modern requirements. It's construction is typical of Trojan simplicity and solidity and just as with all Trojan vehicles, even if driven carelessly, will not sustain injury to the mechanical parts." Despite their weirdness and lack of performance I remain intrigued by Trojans and some of the commercial vans were actually very well styled. The two examples shown are both Trojan Senior 12cwt models, 12cwt equating to 610kgs or slightly less than the capacity on my old Citroen van (VT No.44) . This a special bodied baker's van built out of aluminium to the order of Kenyon's. Cakes go on top with bread below. They had a reputation for hard work and economy but are hard pushed to even keep up with the traffic these days. As these are clearly pre-war vans, they were powered by the unsupercharged two-stroke engine that intrigued me so long ago and sparked my interest in these odd machines....

At last - more info including a picture of that weird engine I found backalong A chap called David Pickard has sent me a link to the Trojan Trust website where there is a reproduction of an article published in the October 1946 issue of the Commercial Vehicle User's Journal . What wonderful names we used to have for our magazines! And the engine featured in this article appears to be the same supercharged engine that I found in an old copy of The Motor Vehicle by Newton and Steeds. This engine powered the 15cwt & 25cwt Trojan vans after World War II and in general terms the Commercial Vehicle User's Journal matches the technical description provided by Newton and Steeds - to wit 24bhp and 1186cc (65.5mm x 88mm). Although it is a four cylinder engine, it has six cylinders - four of them paired in two split cylinders that share a common combustion chamber. But the most interesting feature of the design is an inlet rotor in the head of the charging cylinders. This ...