Wolseley

Things you see when you're walking down the street #2

Things you see when you're walking down the street #1

Super Lube Synthetic Railroad Grease 400lb pail, price:AU $7,631.00: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Super-Lube-Synthetic-Railroad-Grease-400lb-pail-/162082431886?hash=item25bcdda38e:g:DQkAAOSwH6lXRWym

Me, I've just been sticking to Dublo locomotives and rolling stock (so far, at least, that is). The most expensive ones I have bought (the Co-Bo and the Dorchester) were approaching new items in price, but the others have been fairly cheap and quite a few of them (the Co-Bo and the Dorchester included) have been in excellent condition. The cheapest so far (it cost about as much as you would pay for a new carriage) has been a rather playworn Duchess of Atholl (it looked like it has dived off the table onto the floor at least once - not broken, but a bit bent) on which the paintwork needed a fair bit of touching up. It was advertised as a non-runner and suitable for spares, but I got it running very nicely (the top bearing on the armature was done up too tightly). I have almost finished fixing it up, but it is going to need new transfers, which I haven't got around to ordering yet.

Actually I have found that, as long as you don't want everything mint and boxed and are prepared to forego some of the rarer items, Dublo three rail is considerably cheaper than modern equipment.

That didn't stop the Mitsubishi Pajero from selling pretty well though, did it?

The Australian market has always favoured large cars over small and six cylinders over four, although that tendency is not as pronounced as it used to be. That’s why BMC Australia put six cylinder engines in the Austin A60 and Wolseley 15/60 and came up with the Austin Freeway and Wolseley 24/80. Some of the engineers at BMC Australia wanted to do the same thing in the 1961 that Mitsubishi did in the early 1980s by adding approximately 5" to the width of an Austin A60 body - there’s an account of it here, with photos of the car, although you’ll have to scroll half way down the page to get to it: http://www.bluestreaksix.com/history.htm Anyway, back to the Mitsubishi. The Magna was a replacement for the Sigma, but it was also a replacement for the Chrysler Valiant, Mitsubishi having taken over the Australian operations of Chrysler Australia a couple of years or so earlier. Without a slightly larger car than the Sigma, Mitsubishi would not have had a hope of retaining Chrysler owners as future customers, nor would it have sold more Magnas than they had Sigmas. The difference, small though it was, made the car competitive with mid sized cars such as, for example the Toyota Camry, and even with larger cars such as the Holden Commodore due to the Magnas much more efficient use of interior space (pretty much like the BMC front wheel drive cars of the 1960s). Yes, it is obvious that the Magna is not as big as a Ford Falcon, for example, but the extra width, as little as it is, does make a difference. I have driven a Sigma a few times (my father’s last car was a Sigma with the 2.6 litre engine) - it felt cramped to the point of being almost claustrophobic (although maybe the ghastly beige and brown interior helped with this impression) and I recall having to ask my mother to tuck her elbows in so I could change gear. The Magna, by contrast, feels a much larger car inside - as if there have been more than six inches added. The difference is definitely noticeable and would have helped get the car favourable reviews (it was “Wheels Car of the Year” for 1985) and undoubtedly helped sales. Would it have mattered in the 21st century though? Probably not.

65 millimetres (2.6 inches) wider, to be precise.

I was rather surprised a year or two ago when I was driving along the Windsor Road (that's Windsor in Sydney by the way) and doing around 85kmh (the road has an 80kmh speed limit at that point) when a Hillman Imp shot past me and disappeared into the distance. It must have been doing around 100kmh.

The Tasman and Kimberley began in the late 1960s when Harris Mann prepared some sketches which seemed to have little in common with the 1800 bodyshell. David Bentley of BMC Australia prepared further sketches with some styling variations, the most obvious of which was the front of the car: Mann's looked slightly American - to my mind rather like a cross between a Rambler Rebel and a Holden Kingswood, whereas Bentley's version was remarkably like an Austin Maxi (or perhaps not that remarkable - Bentley was working as a draftsman at Longbridge when the Maxi was under development). By 1968 Roy Haynes was working on the Tasman and Kimberley (YDO13 and YDO19) project. It was clear that the cars were going to be a stop gap model while a totally new range was brought out (to be the P76 and P82, but ultimately P82 was dropped and replaced by the Marina) so the aim was now to give the car a more modern squared up look but retain the ADO17 body underpinnings. The end result was quite successful as far as appearance was concerned: it was a much neater and more modern looking car than its predecessor. Haynes wrote to David Beech (head of BMC Australia) saying "in redesigning the front end we have made strenuous efforts to lower the whole visual effect of the hoodtop by sharply chamfering down. This has the effect of increasing the width/height ratio favourably. Also at the same time to improve this visual characteristic we have designed a full width under pan slot and relieved the side silhouette of the front fender by dipping down in the middle just past the centre line of the side lamps..... The side view of the car is, I believe, quite successful and achieves a balance of proportion very satisfactory between front end and rear end. Solid rear quarter - this is designed so that PVC roof or two tone colour break can be determined at extract vent. Wheel-lip rocker moulding helps to reduce the depth of the vehicle. Wheelarch openings are new as are the shape of the wheel-lips". Beech was impressed and invited Haynes to Australia to discuss his possible involvement in the P76 and P82 projects. Haynes arrived in Australia, met Beech at BMC's Waterloo plant in Sydney and the two men reached an agreement on Haynes' involvement in the project. Then British Motor Holdings and Leyland in the UK merged to form British Leyland and when Harry Webster found out about the deal, Beech was ordered to cancel everything and get Michelotti to do the work instead. (information from Secrets of Style at BMC-Leyland Australia by David Bentley, David Hardy, John Holt and Tony Cripps, published 2016 by the BMC-Leyland Australia Heritage Group) I seem to recall some mention somewhere along the line of BMC or British Leyland considering producing the Kimberley in the UK, but as a Vanden Plas, with a suitably upmarket interior. Another one of those interesting ideas that never got anywhere.

Is a repainted, unboxed Tri-ang Princess Elizabeth really worth £339? http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/TRI-ANG-R50-46201-PRINCESS-ELIZABETH-BR-olive-green-REFURBISHED-NEAT-JOB-/222402296166?hash=item33c835b966:g:QX0AAOSw65FXtuTq

It was replaced (perhaps replaced is not quite the right word, as it was stolen and I had to get something else) in 1991 by a Mitsubishi Magna. The Magna was actually a 1990 model but there was a recession at the time and cars weren't selling and there was a dealer in Killara who still had a stock of 1990 models and a new model had come out in mid 1991. This, coupled with the fact that I did not have a trade in, allowed me to get $4,000 knocked off the list price. Here it is in Sofala, an old gold rush town outside Bathurst (in case you're wondering, the car behind is an HQ Holden utility, from the early 1970s. Also in 2004, I bought a 1962 Wolseley 15/60 (yes, the date is right, they were still making the 15/60 in Australia up until February or March of 1962) which I still have. The Magna was eventually replaced in January 2015 by a Škoda Octavia station wagon. SaveSave

It used an SOHC Isuzu engine with a two-barrel Nikki Stromberg carburettor. A diesel option came later, in the early 1980s, but I don't recall it as being very successful.

My first car was a 1975 Holden Gemini SL, like the 4 door one on the left in this image - it was the same yellow colour too.

There was a Holden version as well (it didn't sell very well and is pretty rare these days - last time I saw one was about a year ago). Someone even wrote a book featuring it:

The Tasman and Kimberley were more or less 1800s with new front and rear ends and a 6 cylinder engine. I'm pretty sure that Roy Haynes had a hand in the styling, but I'll have to check that and get back to you later (not now though - it's too late and past my bedtime). The Kimberley was the luxury version with bucket seats, carpets, twin headlights and twin carburettors. The Tasman had a bench seat, rubber floor mats, single headlights and a single carburettor. It was planned to have a utility version of the Tasman (similar to the 1800 ute) but although there was a prototype built, the utility version never entered production.

Here are a few photos from the 2012 All British Display day that might be of interest: Austin Kimberley Leyland Marina: Austin Freeway Station Wagon Austin Lancer Morris Major Morris Major Elite Austin Freeway Humber Vogue (The Vogue was produced in Australia, but was marketed as the Humber Vogue. There was also the Humber Vogue Sports which was fitted with a Sunbeam Rapier engine.

The six cylinder Cortinas didn't like going around corners though - the extra weight at the front must have been a bit too much......

A Humber Super Snipe Hearse at the 2015 All British Display day, Kings School Parramatta, Sydney SaveSave

Speaking of old American cars, when we were in Canberra in 2012, we visited the Museum of Democracy (Old Parliament House) and, while we were in one of the upstairs rooms, I noticed, through the window, that a group of old American cars had arrived in the car park. On our way out, as the cars were still there, I took a few photos:

Nothing to do with railways, model or otherwise, but I just came across this while I was searching for something else: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/new-desert-combat-boots-british-army-military-surplus-army-surplus-exmod-sas-/232226391384?hash=item3611c58558:g:7zYAAOSw44BYDlkm

Yes, and making a mess at the same time by stripping off leaves and branches to get at the nuts (or whatever it is you call the things with the seeds in them). Cockatoos are, as far as birds go, pretty intelligent, and have figured out what non-native plants are good for food and how to get it. They have made a meal out of the sunflowers in my back garden, although they seem to prefer them after the petals wilt and lose their colour - the seeds must be tastier then....

The scene in our next door neighbour's front garden a few days ago:

I remember seeing one of these in Edinburgh in 1977 or 1978, but I'm pretty certain the roofline at the rear sloped downwards a bit more and the rear window wasn't so high.