Current Owner: Ross Burcham, Surrey/Windermere
Previous Owner(s): Damian Perkins, Morecambe/Barry Winters, Worksop
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My original notes said: At Shugborough 98, owned by Damian Perkins, Morecambe, Lancs. For sale, LRO March 99
In February 2007 it was sold on eBay for a (then) staggering £6,450 — but it appeared to be in immaculate condition. The seller (Barry Winters, Worksop, Nottinghamshire) wrote:
I have owned this vehicle for approx eight years, during which time I've had nothing but pleasure from owning her. The previous owner had totally stripped her down and did a chassis up rebuild. She has had light use during my ownership and has been fitted with an UNLEADED head and FAIREY OVERDRIVE.
Other features listed included Tow Bar with Full Electrics, Free Wheel Hubs, Towing A Frame and Fume Screen. There was a List of Spares included in Sale: Hard Top, 2 Windscreens, Original Engine, Original Gearbox, Axles, Instrument Panels, 1 New Sliding Window.
In February 2010 Ross Burcham wrote:
I bought 781 in 2007 through auction on EBay. It turned out to be in fantastic condition with the benefit of overdrive, unleaded head, freewheeling hubs and a 2.25L engine all of which makes it a very usable vehicle. In addition to the vehicle and included in the sale was almost enough parts to build another vehicle! Parts included, full hard top, station wagon rear tailgate and side panels with windows, hard top side panels, truck cab, spare doors and door tops, original engine, bell housing, diffs, axles and whole host of other bits and bobs. 781 is in regular use complete with full Scottish Civil Defence livery.
A video-making colleague of mine keeps a yacht moored at the Royal Windermere Yacht Club, and sent me some pics of a vehicle he parked beside when he visited there — he thought I 'might be interested'!
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To tease my colleague (who rivet-counts steam locos and sailing boats) I immediately responded with some observations of my own:
Well, it was probably originally a hardtop as there are no holes in the lower bodywork for the station detachment board, which (on a soft top) would have gone across where it says 'Civil Defence Corps'. It's had a later (probably Series 2) rear axle fitted, and judging from the brackets on the front bumper it's towed behind another vehicle on an A-bar. The agricultural towing plate (with all the holes, below the tow ball) is odd — usually a feature of the very earliest chassis, and not a 1956 one.
This led to a re-connection with Ross Burcham. Although he lives in Surrey, most of the time the car is kept in the Lake District in the care of his father-in-law David McDonnell, who wrote:
I merely store it — and use it — on behalf of my son-in-law Ross who has owned it for 14 years. He tells me that the rear axle is in fact a Series 3 and the engine a 2.2 from a Series 3 but he has the original 2.0 at home. The front bumper for the A Frame was put there for it to be towed behind a steam engine to the Dorset Steam fair many years ago from somewhere in the Midlands. Ross tells me it took a week!
I must say that a Series 1 makes a perfect 'dinghy' for a steam traction engine!
[To add (or alter) information on this page, please contact me on sxf@teeafit.co.uk.]