Albion
Scotland's largest automobile company Albion belongs to the most famous British companies, who died in rubbles of collapsed in 60-70-ies UK automotive industry. Albion Motor Car Company was founded in 1899 on a place of a repair shop on Finnistonstrit street in Glasgow. The company was founded by two young graduate of the University of Edinburgh, Thomas Blackwood Murray and Norman Fulton, who worked at one of the first British car companies - the Arrol-Johnston. Establishment of the company was financed by John Murray, father of Thomas, who proposed to the ancient name of the British Isles for it.
The first passenger Albion car was presented in 1900. It was a high ugly 4-person car on wooden wheels with a 2-cylinder 8 hp engine. In 1902, a big wooden box was installed on the car, turning it into a van could carry 500 kg of cargo. From the beginning the young company was fastly growing, and in 1904 it moved to larger place in Scotstoun, near Glasgow, where it remained until his last day. The turning point in the history of Albion was 1910, when one of the most famous trucks of the brand - 3-ton Model "A10" was presented. 4-ton version - the Model "A12" was showed in 1913. the famous of "Albion" brand was brought by large orders for 6 thousand of such vehicles for the British Army in the First World War.
In 20-ies, the company's slogan saying "Reliable as sunrise", and the new logo on radiators was a stylized inscription "Albion" inside sunlight. In 1931, a first 5-ton truck with "cab over the engine" design was showed. In 1933 the company made the first 4-cylinder diesel engine of its own design with direct fuel injection. Using a wide experience to creating buses, Albion gradually became a leader of producing trucks with "cab over the engine" design. In 30-ies, almost all buses received beautiful names, but for trucks continued to use alpha-numeric combination. The trucks were offered in 2- and 3-axle versions with payload from 1,5 to 15 tons, equipped with gasoline or diesel engines.
Before the Second World War the ccompany Albion was one of the most prosperous British truck manufactories, becoming a kind of pride in Scotland. During the War, Albion produced a large number of army vehicles. Production of civilian models were resumed in 1946 with a range of six basic chassis of pre-war development with a payload from 1,5 to 18 tons.
By the early 50's, the Albion's range consisted only of COE trucks. In 1951 the Albion company was acquired by the Leyland Motors. Until the late 50's the production of older models was continued, but gradually the influence of Leyland Motors became stronger. The latest Albion developed trucks was presented in 1957. It was a 4-axle Caledonian model, which was a serious competitor to the Leyland Octopus; and soon the new management decided to streamline the entire program. In practice, this meant the phasing out of Albion brand models. In 1969, the programs of both companies were almost the same, and three years later the Albion had ceased to exist.
