Thornycroft Nubian & Nubian Major
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- Last Updated on Monday, 04 July 2011 17:57
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Thornycroft
It is well documented that John Isaac Thornycroft built his first steam lorry in 1896 at his Chiswick boatyard by the banks of the River Thames. It was powered by a small marine steam engine with a chain drive to the front wheels. In 1898 as the steam lorry business grew they transferred away from the boatyard to a new factory at Basingstoke. In this year Thornycroft built one of the world's first articulated lorries. By 1902 they had started to build the new petrol engined lorries and by 1907 they had stopped building steam-powered lorries at Basingstoke, although a subsidiary, Stewart and Co, continued building them in Glasgow until 1910. World War One brought about a boost in production as the company's J type 3 ton truck was adopted by the War Department. Some 5000 of these lorries powered by the 40hp 4 cylinder petrol engines were produced. This model was followed by the X type 3 ton truck in 1920, and the 2 ton A type followed in 1923. The A type had pneumatic tyres and electric lights.
From 1931 Thornycroft started using names rather than letters, this produced names such as Bulldog, Speedy, Jupiter, Taurus, Tartar, Stag, Trusty, Trident and Sturdy.
During world war two, Thornycroft built over 13000 lorries for military service as well as 2000 vehicles for essential civilian users. After the war civilian production started again in earnest, the main models being the Nippy 3 tonner, Sturdy 5/6 tonner and the Trusty available in 4, 6 and 8 wheeler versions.
In 1948 the company changed it's name to Transport Equipment (Thornycroft) Ltd and the same year the 100ton gtw Mighty Antar came into production powered by an 18 litre/1098 cubic inch Rover Meteorite Mk.101 V8 petrol engine with 2 magnetos and 2 spark plugs per cylinder.
Thornycroft produced most of their parts in house at the Basingstoke factory, but by 1961, the declining British Truck industry meant Thornycroft were taken over by the ACV Group who were the parent comany owning AEC, the models that competed with AEC ones were phased out and production was turned to the specialist market producing the Nubian crash tenders, the Big Ben off-road truck and the Antar off-road tractor unit used as a tank transporter.
ACV themselves were taken over by Leyland who owned Scammell, also a heavy and off-road truck producer, and collaboration began. At one time it was proposed that the Scammell Commander tank transporter would be called the Thornycroft Antar Mk4, since Thornycroft's design team were so involved in its development. Thornycroft built some Scammell products also, so the recovery gear on the Mk3 Militant recovery could be badged as either Scammell or Thornycroft. With Thornycroft and Scammell being so closely aligned, the Basingstoke factory was closed in 1969 and production of the specialist vehicles vehicles transferred to the Watford plant of Scammell.
Thornycroft Nubian and Nubian Major
Specialist fire tenders for civilian airport use were built on the Nubian (4x4) or Nubian Major (6x6) chassis. Several examples still exist. More information on these is most welcome.
Ex-Sumburgh Airport Nubian Major - Picture by Ray Lann
Range Rover Commando RIV and Nubian Major on show - Picture by Ray Lann
RAF MK9 crash tender
These vehicles were specially designed for the MoD and were based on Nubian Major chassis with bodywork by Carmichael or Dennis. Info and pictures sought.
Scammell closes
With the merger of Leyland Trucks and DAF in 1987, and the resulting closure of Scammell in 1988, Unipower Vehicles Limited bought the manufacturing and support rights for the Scammell S24 range, their rear engined crash tenders, Commander, Contractor, Explorer, Super Constructor, Crusader, LDSS, Thornycroft Nubian Major and Thornycroft Antar models. Unipower Vehicles Limited were subsequently acquired by Alvis Vehicles Limited who were subsequently acquired by BAE Systems. BAE Systems no longer actively market the product range.
Nubian Major Spec Sheets
The following is a PDF download of the Nubian Major specifications, remastered from the originals also pictured in the PDF, used as a sales tool. (original images sent in by Ray Lann - Thanks Ray)
Download the PDF by clicking here
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