Taxis with cream bonnets 1950s; by Tim Sargeant 14 July 2009Re the cream bonneted taxis mentioned previously; See more about them on Brighton-Streamline.Co.UK and go to’history’. TCS12 replies Re: Taxis with cream bonnets 1950s; by maralyn eden 14 July 2009Great site Tim,nice to see all the other cabs. One of my ancesters had a horse and cart on the seafront. Re: Taxis with cream bonnets 1950s; by Dan 14 July 2009What I remember in the 1950s is that they used to line up in the centre of Powis Road where it is very wide outside their offices and garage. Re: Taxis with cream bonnets 1950s; by Alan 15 July 2009Did the Streamline taxi companies take their name from the Wellesbourne stream, or is that a complete red herring (Andy)? I understand that it became a national name for taxi firms after the Brighton and Hove Streamline companies started up. Alan Re: Taxis with cream bonnets 1950s; by Jeremy Homeward 16 July 2009I do remember that they had a majority of Standard Vanguards on their stands at the bottom of Stanford Avenue, and up at their depot near St Michael’s Place. Also, how excited I used to get when I saw one of the newer, booted style cabs, as opposed to the sloping backed ones. They seemed to be quite luxurious in their day. Re: Taxis with cream bonnets 1950s; by Tim Sargeant 16 July 2009Yes, they were the car of their day for a while. There was the Phase 1,2,& 3. I think it was the Phase three with the boot. I never liked the column gear-change. The same 1800cc engine also went into the Triumph TR2 and the Ferguson tractor and was later enlarged to 2 litres and then 2.2 litres.The Vanguard along with the Jowett Javelin, also streamlined rear end, were the first production cars, I think, with a metallic paint finish. They called it polychromatic paint then. But the taxis wouldn’t have had that. TCS. Re: Taxis with cream bonnets 1950s; by Jeremy Homeward 16 July 2009Ah the Jowett Javelin with a rotary engine I believe. Was it not the Sister of the Trojan vans, of brook Bond tea and Walls Ice Cream renown. Da–da-dadada.I had a friend who used to say “If things don’t change, they’ll stay the same”. Sometimes I have a little wish, that some of them had done the latter. Re: Taxis with cream bonnets 1950s; by Tim Sargeant 16 July 2009I suppose there were Trojan Ice Crean vans but I haven’t ever seen one; The Trojans were as you say famous for Brooke Bond Tea, and Grooms Bread who also ran a fleet of these. The later ones were fitted with a 3 cylinder diesel engine which accounted for their unusual noise. The Jowett Javelin had a flat four the design of which was very similar to the recent Subaru. There’s nothing new under the sun! Are you getting mixed up with the Jowett ‘Bradford’ van? These had a 2 cyl flat engine. (Horizontally opposed is the correct term) TCS. Re: Taxis with cream bonnets 1950s; by Jeremy Homeward 17 July 2009I stand corrected on the Jowett, I had this idea that the jowett and the Bradford, (by Jowett), had a rotary engine, certainly I felt it was unusual. Walls certainly had the later style trojan vans on round the houses retail sales vans, the Grooms ones that I seem to remember, were an earlier type, that operated out of the Sutherland Road Area. Re: Taxis with cream bonnets 1950s; by Tim Sargeant 18 July 2009When you think about it I suppose that the Trojan van was quite advanced in the use of a diesel engine in the fifties as most other such small vehicles were still using their car derived petrol engines and diesel was not an option. I remember they put some brand new Bristol buses on the 7a route and these had a diesel engine (AEC?) which made a very distinctive noise for then especially when ticking over at the bus stops. In fact most garages didn’t sell diesel fuel until well into the 70s. You had to hunt around a bit to find it. The first mass produced car with a rotary engine was the 1967 NSU RO 80 but unfortunately these wore out too quickly and often had a Ford V4 put in them. Back to Taxis; I see that most of the Brighton fleet are now Skodas which reminds me of all those jokes about Skodas in the 1960s when they were one of the first cars imported here from a then communist country. TCS. Re: Taxis with cream bonnets 1950s; by Jeremy Homeward 18 July 2009Ha ha ha, you make me laugh, thinking of the Skoda jokes. My favourite was the pair of stick on hands with ‘push here’. Regards Re: Taxis with cream bonnets 1950s; by Tim Sargeant 18 July 2009Yes I do remember those.Q: What do you call a Skoda with twin exhaust pipes? A: A wheelbarrow.Don’t thnk I dare put my name to that! They were all of that ilk. Now they’re a VW Passat in disguise and sufficiently reliable to be used as taxis. Another one of the time which was built by an eastern bloc country in an ex-BMW factory was the Wartburg. You never see one of those now even at old car shows. Re: Taxis with cream bonnets 1950s; by Jeremy Homeward 18 July 2009Sadly they suffered with the ‘Renault Dauphine Syndrome’ thousands of holes, interspersed with pieces of inferior steel. Furthermore weren’t they ugly. Wart hog would have been more appropriate. Add your replyHiddenAdd your title Add your wordsWould you like to add some images (optional)? If so, how many images would you like to add? 1 2 3 4 5 6Your image files will be uploaded when you submit this form. They should be .jpg or .png files. The maximum filesize is 5Mb.First imageAccepted file types: jpg, jpeg, png, gif.FileTitleSecond imageAccepted file types: jpg, jpeg, png, gif.FileTitleThird imageAccepted file types: jpg, jpeg, png, gif.FileTitleFourth imageAccepted file types: jpg, jpeg, png, gif.FileTitleFifth imageAccepted file types: jpg, jpeg, png, gif.FileTitleSixth imageAccepted file types: jpg, jpeg, png, gif.FileTitleAbout youFinally, please tell us a few details about you, so we can contact you about your contribution if we need to. We won't use your contact details for any other purpose.Your name First Last Your e-mail address* SubmitThat's all. Thanks very much. You now just need to agree to our Terms of Use and press the Submit button. After that, please wait until your contribution is uploaded. You'll then see a 'Thankyou' page.Terms of Use* I accept this website's Terms of Use (opens in new window) and confirm that the material I am uploading does not infringe the copyright of any third party.Privacy* I consent to my name and e-mail address being stored along with this contribution, and to the website editors communicating with me by e-mail about the contribution if necessary. My name may be published alongside the contribution on the website, but my e-mail address will not be published. My information will not be shared with any third party (see our Privacy Statement - opens in a new window). *Δ Share thisFacebookPinterestTwitterLinkedin
