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1934 Morris-Commercial 12-cwt Royal Mail Air Service Car Duple [L2]

1934 Morris-Commercial 12-cwt Royal Mail Air Service Car [L2] in Roadways, Short Movie, 1937

Class: Cars, Van / MPV — Model origin:

1934 Morris-Commercial 12-cwt Royal Mail Air Service Car Duple [L2]

00:04:03 Minor action vehicle or used in only a short scene

Comments about this vehicle

Author	Message
dsl ◊ 2016-04-29 15:19	At last I've found a proper sighting for this one-off with late 1934 BLB 444 plate built by Duple on a Morris-Commercial chassis for the launch of the new Royal Mail Air Mail services from Croydon airport. Not seen in that film, but a Pathe newsreel of the time gives some more shots and was modelled by Dinky as #34a. -- Last edit: 2016-04-29 15:44:54
johnfromstaffs ◊ 2016-04-29 15:29	Not very pretty, and it must have been a nightmare to work on.
Vintman ◊ 2016-04-30 12:17	Our previous reserches in 2008 suggested the 'Streamline' was on a standard Morris Minor 15cwt chassis ? http://www.svvs.org/help17.shtml Vintman
Sunbar ◊ 2016-04-30 13:01	Morris Minor 15cwt chassis is a contradiction in terms I think; a Morris Minor would equate to 8cwt at most and 5-6cwt is more likely, I believe. 1931-1938 Morris-Commercial L2 10-12cwt (CM archive) 15cwt (Morris Register) is probable. 1935 Morris 8-10cwt Light Van 12/4 Based on Morris saloon is the largest Morris I think. -- Last edit: 2016-04-30 14:34:18
dsl ◊ 2016-04-30 15:07	When I googled around for this car previously after first spotting it in the Pathe newsreel the best source of info was "... the pre-war Royal Mail Air Service Car finished in the correct colours of mid-blue with violet blue hubs ... a very attractive and accurate representation of the real vehicle which was only used for about a year by Royal Mail in 1934-35 for promotional purposes. Its special streamlined body was made by Duple Bodies and Motors Ltd and fitted to a Morris Commercial Chassis." from here Wiki's Duple page says "By 1934, the original site had become inadequate and 3½ acres of adjoining land were purchased for expansion. Although car body production was coming to an end, major contracts for the GPO were obtained during the 1930s, for telephone repair vans in the main, on either Morris Minor or larger Morris Commercial Chassis, although two specials were BLB 444 of 1934 the blue streamlined van designed to publicise the air mail service, which was modelled as a Dinky Toy and GPO1 which was a Morris Commercial Leader tractive unit coupled to a Brockhouse semi-trailer upon which Duple built a travelling post office for use at agricultural shows, race meetings and other major public events." which is generally useful but not specific about BLB 444's basis. However look at the size of it in the Pathe shots and compare to the fleet of blue Morris vans - to me this is a bigger chassis than plain Morris. And look at the bonnet height - suggests a big tall engine - something commercial rather than car-based. Not sure if this leads anywhere but Royal Mail did a postcard series in 1982 of their historical vehicles with a drawing of BLB 444 as item C11158 Text on back reads "A unique vehicle with streamline body, based on a Morris Commercial chassis classified as 105 c.f. Registered in 1934. Registration No. BLB 444. Serial number 5899HE, blue livery". What does 105 c.f. mean??
johnfromstaffs ◊ 2016-04-30 15:21	Cubic feet?
Sunbar ◊ 2016-04-30 16:34	Almost certainly yes, the body capacity. No indication on CM that I can currently find for the Morris-Commercial L2 10-12cwt; however the capacity of a standard 1932 Morris 8cwt van was 70 cuft. So 105 cuft for the Morris-Commercial L2 seems possible. And as dsl says the higher bonnet says for me its the Morris-Commercial L2. -- Last edit: 2016-04-30 16:36:18
Vintman ◊ 2016-04-30 18:58	Difficult one this as about half the websites dealing with this vehicle say it was a Minor and the other half that it was a Commercial. Both seem to use same terminology so are probably copy/paste clones of each other. One half must be wrong ! Postal Museum infer Minor. Minors were certainly used by the Post Office on various mail applications. Hybrid Minor/Eights were produced for both Royal Mail and Post Office Telephones, being slightly larger than normal. Number of websites refer to the standard GPO airmail vans as 1935 Morris Minor Van, not Commercial. Assumption would be that 'airmail' post vehicles would be small and nimble? I look forward to a definitive answer!
Sunbar ◊ 2016-04-30 20:32	From: http://www.dieselpunks.org/profiles/blogs/lord-ks-garage-63-1935-morris which gives as its source the http://www.postalheritage.org.uk/collections/getrecord/GB813_P_33_4743 (available to visitors). Eight Morris Minor vans were introduced for collection duties and two 105 cubic feet capacity vans for the conveyance of mails. One of these was supposed to be replaced with a 250 cu ft van in 1935, but the larger van was simply added to the main fleet instead. A special additional (streamlined) van took the form of an advertising car. Its streamlined body, designed by Maurice Lambert, was mounted on a standard 15cwt chassis. In August 1938, instructions were issued for all Minor vans to be withdrawn from airmail service; they were repainted red and entered normal service by the end of the year. At the end of 1938, the streamlined van was put on display at the Glasgow Empire exhibition. After this it was returned to London, the special body was removed and replaced with a standard 105 cu ft body. This indicates, by implication, the Morris Minor vans (Morris Light Vans?) were different and separate from the 15cwt (which can only be Morris-Commercial) 105 cuft. vans which was also the basis of the streamlined car.
johnfromstaffs ◊ 2016-04-30 22:15	I know it was another age, but it always amazes me when I hear tell of body swaps and rebuilds on the scale of which the GPO used to do it. They overhauled their vans almost down to the last nut and bolt for further service instead of getting rid and buying new replacements, and this lasted into the 60s, there were dedicated works for the job. http://archive.commercialmotor.com/article/9th-december-1960/60/vehig-gpo The London Transport overhaul works at Aldenham was understandable (just) for RTs and RMs, but Morris 5cwt vans?
Sunbar ◊ 2016-05-01 12:30	The first manufacturing company I worked for had about 1,000 to 1,250 employees and a fleet of perhaps twelve-twenty trucks and vans. They had an on-site garage with four full time employees and an apprentice (separate from the transport dept itself). Their full time job was major repairs and servicing all done 'in-house' never at a local dealership. Unknown of today with out-sourcing the maximum of work. Different times indeed; most things were repaired and back in service and very seldom scrapped and replaced.
dsl ◊ 2016-05-03 14:54	See film clip here - Link to "www.gettyimages.co.uk"
dsl ◊ 2020-04-23 20:20	Another page on Dinky's 1935 model #34A "Royal Air Mail Service Car" with a long tail of comments about the original and the model. Not sure there's much new info for us there, but it confirms the Morris-Commercial 15cwt root, build by Duple Bodies and Coach Ltd , and that RMAS launched in 1930 with "Eight Morris Minor vans for collection duties and two larger 105 cubic feet capacity vans for the conveyance of mails" with one of the two 105cfs apparently being the basis for this special (so possibly a 1930 chassis rebuilt in 1934??). And the end of RMAS "In August 1938, instructions were issued most likely from the Postmaster General's office for all Minor vans to be withdrawn from airmail service; they were repainted red and entered normal service by the end of the year. At the end of 1938, the streamlined van was put on display at the Glasgow Empire Exhibition. After this it was returned to London, the special body removed and replaced with a standard 105 cu ft body and the vehicle returned to normal post office duties. Its original shell was then scrapped. Incidentally, if you are searching for a blue mailbox, it has been reported that one can still be found in Windsor, where this reminder of the airmail glory days is preserved as all others were either repainted or destroyed." And now in 2020 a new model, in 1:43 resin from Autocult, #08013 Morris 15cwt GPO Special (1934) - the accompanying blurb adds "The one-off vehicle was intended for promotion purposes only. The unique car body design came from sculptor Maurice Prosper Lampert, who was known for his public sculptures and back then 29 years old. His design followed the guidelines of aerodynamics and therefore oriented towards the back then latest car design.". Haven't seen one, only the publicity announcement, but I guess it will be a stunner, well up to Autocult's usual high standards. And very expensive.
dsl ◊ 2020-04-23 21:58	dsl wrote "The one-off vehicle was intended for promotion purposes only.". And as a footnote, looking at various pics online of the Autocult model and then back to the olde archive pics of the real one, there's no apparent openings to load things in - only the normal cabin doors - and no real storage opportunity under the bodywork. So while you could probably put a couple of sacks of mail in the cabin beside/behind the driver to show off to the cameras, it was basically a useless vanity project, purely to attract publicity.

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