POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

Notes

The Trojan was developed in England by Leslie Hayward Hounsfield (1877-1957) who dreamed of creating a "people's car" which was simple to drive and maintain. Hounsfield gained experience in several British engineering firms including Ransome, Sims & Jefferies and the Crompton Electrical Co. After serving in the Boer War he began his own contract precision engineering business in Clapham, south London, in 1904, which became Trojan Ltd in 1914. A prototype of his car was built in 1913 followed by two others. These featured revolutionary ideas in engine and chassis design, with a vertical engine mounted between the front seats. Development ceased due to the First World War but in 1920 a further six cars were built, this time with horizontal engines under the floorboards, at a new and larger factory at Croydon in Surrey. One of Hounsfield's cars was entered in the British War Office trials but was dismissed because it was "too unorthodox". Leyland Motors Ltd became interested in manufacturing the car but had doubts regarding its unusual chassis and suspension. It was said they test drove the car over a course of railway sleepers bolted at 6 ft intervals and the car apparently survived. The car was displayed at the Olympia Show in 1922 and went into production at Leyland's Ham Common factory at Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey, in 1923, with Leslie Hounsfield as chief engineer. By 1926 between 80 and 100 Trojan cars and vans were being made each week with one completed every 45 minutes. Iron castings were made at Leyland's foundry at Farington, Lancashire, while the rest of the car was made at Kingston with sales and service continuing with Trojan at Croydon. Production at Leyland ceased in May 1928 after 16,824 vehicles had been produced as Leyland wanted to produce light trucks. The rights to the Trojan cars and light commercial vehicles were sold back to Hounsfield and production continued at his enlarged Croydon factory. By this time demand for Trojan passenger cars was waning and dropped to a trickle in the 1930s but vans continued to sell well. From 1926 three basic passenger car models were produced over the next ten years, the "utility" between 1923 and 1926, the "3-door" between 1926 and 1929, and the "rear-engine" model between 1930 and 1933. A "7-cwt" van was made between 1924 and a 10-12 cwt van from 1928 until 1940. All the vehicles shared the same chassis except the rear engine passenger model which had a pre-selector, 3-speed gearbox instead of the 2-speed unit used on the other Trojans. Trojan cars were supplied with comprehensively-illustrated and descriptive manuals enabling their owners to dismantle and rebuild their cars and to locate and fix almost any mechanical problem. The entire parts catalogue listed only 760 items. To avoid the then frequent problem of punctured pneumatic tyres, Trojan cars were at first fitted with narrow section, solid rubber tyres despite them being abandoned by most car-manufactures by 1900. The car's long cantilever springs made pneumatic tyres unnecessary, however, they became optional from 1924 due to their conventional use in other vehicles. Their introduction was announced by the manufacturers as: "The combination of solid rubber tyres and wonder-springs makes the Trojan as comfortable to ride in as most cars with pneumatic tyres; but fitted with pneumatic tyres the Trojan is SHEER LUXURY." "Modern Motor" May 1962 Bird, Anthony, "The Trojan Utility Car", Profile Publications Ltd, Surrey, England, 1967