BigLorryBlog

Eisenegger? 40?

Must have had a serious paper round.

The truck is a Thames 400E and was in production between about 1959 and 1965.
The comparable Commer had various names such as PB and 1500/2500 series. One variant of the Thames that it is most unlikely that Richard has any documentation for is the 'Powertruc' which had the engine moved to a position behind the cab where it powered both the road wheels and a compressor. I have no idea who converted them but most, if not all, of the very small number made went to Post Office Telephones.

I know about five eights about pommie vehicles,but it looks like a Thames,we used to get them as a van as well I think.

That's interesting; I had never heard of a Thames 400E, but have seen thousands of those vans and pick-ups here in NZ. We knew them as Thames Freighters or Thames 800 vans, maybe that was an export name for them.

One firm I worked for had 4 vans; a Standard Atlas (with the Standard 8hp engine), an Austin J2, an Austin J4 and a Thames 800. The Thames was a million times better than the others which were all dreadful, and in spite of only having a 3-speed gearbox it was quite good to drive and performed pretty well.

Production began in 1957 after a lot of research into other vans of similar size from other offerings. Can't work out why we had different names Vic. While not brilliant offerings, they were better to drive than most of the other vans available and became even better with the later 4 spd box. The Commer of the time would be a PA - became PB with minor changes in 1965 when the Thames was replaced by the Transit. The 1500 / 2500 referred to the two main weight versions available 1500 cwt, / 2500cwt which had heavier tyres/springs. There was also a 2000 version which we never got in NZ that I am aware of. For my sins, I had a PA and a PB Commer and we had 4 all told in the family. Horrible to drive, and gutless as anything, but cheerful, reliable and easy to work on.
Cheers

My father ran a small (5 or 6)fleet of powertrucs in the 1960's based in Mill Hill East, then Edgware in north west London.This was very close to the Powertruc companies office and factory in Colindale.With the exception of one which had a Hydrovane compressor unit,all the others were fitted with Atlas Copco VT4 compressor units which the dinky toy was modelled on.My father sold on the last one in 1974,and I pretty much forgot about them until 1989 when sadly my father died and when clearing his office found a powertruc sales brochure.I then contacted the 400E owners club and was put in touch with a club member who owns one.We have kept in touch since and I am planning to buy this vehicle from him and restore it very soon. Anyone reading this with any further information,especially production figures and any other surviving examples, please contact me on the above Email address.