1901 Albion A1 Dogcart 8HP Twin Cylinder - VCC Dated

1901 Albion Model A1 8HP Twin Cylinder Dog Cart

Registration No. BS8677

Chassis No. 45E

Established in 1899 in Finnieston Street Glasgow by Dr Thomas Blackwood Murray and Norman Fulton, the Albion Motor Company were once the largest provider of commercial vehicles in the British Empire. Albion were famed for their reliability and strength and this lead to their motto ‘Sure as The Sunrise’. Quite incredibly the company was still making components into the 1990s albeit under the Leyland corporation.

Blackwood Murray and Fulton, formerly of the Arrol - Johnston company unsurprisingly used many of the formers ideologies when creating the first Albion cars. They were tiller steered Dogcart type vehicles, powered by Horizontally opposed twin cylinder engines with a capacity of around 2 litres or 8HP. Solid tyres and a single chain drive were key features.

Between 1900 and 1904 the Albion company built only 58 Dog Carts with only 7 surviving worldwide today. The car that is show here, has a particularly fascinating history, in that it was ordered on 25th September 1901 and shipped directly to South Africa in November 1902. The car arrived at Spicer, Langley & Co of Cape Town, who were South Africa’s first Albion franchise. The car was purchased by a well respected judge and is the first ever Albion to be exported into Africa. This example spent some 4 decades in the same ownership before finding its way to Johannesburg where it was purchased by an Albion dealer in Selby under the name of Charles Whitehead. By this point, the car was a non runner, but was tidied up for display.

The car was next sold in around 1960 to Mr Robert Blackwood Murray, the grandson of the man who designed and built it. Still in remarkable original condition, the Albion was sympathetically restored and passed down to the great grandchildren (Mrs Shield and Mr James Blackwood Murray) who brought it back from Africa to the UK in 2012. The current owner, an Albion collector purchased the car from the Blackwood Murray Estate in 2018, the car was still in its original form, presenting with Original factory Coachwork and wheels. In recent years the car has been mechanically restored to a high standard with new white metal bearings, valves, guides, drive and differential gears, clutch lining and new solid tyres all being added.

Capable of carrying 4 people to Brighton with ease, this Albion has completed the journey 4 times in recent years. One of which included the 2019 run where it towed another broken down car 35 miles to the finish line at Brighton.