Sandstone Heritage Trust - News
HTN 132 - The spotlight lands on South Africa's oldest commercial vehicle
31 August 2006
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The Sandstone Heritage Trust has owned a 1910 Peerless truck for some years. This truck which came from Bloemfontein originally was probably purchased new by the Brickworks and operated on its solid rubber wheels until the early 1950's hauling bricks into Grahamstown. This venerable old City has some of South Africa's finest architecture and it would appear that our Peerless truck played a major part in the construction of the magnificent buildings for which Grahamstown is so well known. Our Peerless has languished in storage for some time but rejuvenated by the success of our Feldbahn restoration project we have decided to address the Peerless in a much more dedicated way. Although it is mechanically very sound and although it runs well it does not possess a body of any character. This will soon change. Our inspiration for the refurbishment of our Peerless comes from an interesting book called "The Slough Estates Railway - by John Isherwood". There is a major article on a truck refurbishment programme that took place after the First World War in Slough in the UK. The article is self-explanatory but it would appear that Peerless was one of the key products that saw service in the First World War and which as a result found themselves being reserviced for commercial use after the First World War. We have therefore decided to follow a military theme and to restore this truck to a First World War military configuration. Regular updates and bulletins will follow. There are also some wonderful vintage adverts and Peerless images to have a look at below. |
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