geordiedave66
YOU KNOW WHAT THOUGHT DID
I thought I had taken a better photograph of the ex Derby Corporation Crossley DD42,at at Lincoln this year, but alas no, so this one will have to do.
Crossley Motors of Stockport was a long and well established manufacturer of commercial vehicles, but after the war, things started to unravel. This was mainly to do with its 8.6 litre HOE7 engine, which rapidly acquired a reputation for being below par. It is alleged this engine was based on a Swiss Saurer design , which Crossley had hoped to build under liscence. However the problem appears to be the level of royalties to be paid by Crossley to Saurer. The upshot of this was that Crossley abandoned Saurer mid contract and designed their own cylinder heads. But the resulting package did not really wor k all that well, due to gas flow problems within the cylinder heads. Fuel consumption suffered and the engines sounded a bit asthmatic.
So bad did this problem become, that when the engines were due for renewal, other engines from withdrawn stock were used instead. Gardener 5LW and Leyland 8.6 litre engines being typical substitutions.
This was pretty damning by any consideration and once delayed post war fleet renewals had been achieved, most operators went back to old allegiences, Leyland, AEC, Daimler etc. Sales had all but dried up by the early fifties and Crossley sold out to the ACV group.
YOU KNOW WHAT THOUGHT DID
I thought I had taken a better photograph of the ex Derby Corporation Crossley DD42,at at Lincoln this year, but alas no, so this one will have to do.
Crossley Motors of Stockport was a long and well established manufacturer of commercial vehicles, but after the war, things started to unravel. This was mainly to do with its 8.6 litre HOE7 engine, which rapidly acquired a reputation for being below par. It is alleged this engine was based on a Swiss Saurer design , which Crossley had hoped to build under liscence. However the problem appears to be the level of royalties to be paid by Crossley to Saurer. The upshot of this was that Crossley abandoned Saurer mid contract and designed their own cylinder heads. But the resulting package did not really wor k all that well, due to gas flow problems within the cylinder heads. Fuel consumption suffered and the engines sounded a bit asthmatic.
So bad did this problem become, that when the engines were due for renewal, other engines from withdrawn stock were used instead. Gardener 5LW and Leyland 8.6 litre engines being typical substitutions.
This was pretty damning by any consideration and once delayed post war fleet renewals had been achieved, most operators went back to old allegiences, Leyland, AEC, Daimler etc. Sales had all but dried up by the early fifties and Crossley sold out to the ACV group.