Modern life is generally free of compulsory rituals. Instead, each individual, community, or tribe make their own as they see fit. And while academics find rituals ‘primitive,’ each of these little actions and ceremonies add meaning and sense to our lives. In the case of curbsiders, it’s each find that brings a certain sense of completion. A duty of sorts fulfilled. To preserve, at least in digital form, these pieces of our past.
If capturing curbside finds is a ritual, I almost transgressed in the case of this Bedford TJ, as I was reluctant to stop. We were on our way back home with my wife and a friend of hers, leaving a distant countryside town after a long family gathering. Needless to say, we were all exhausted and yearning to return to the city.
It was then that the TJ appeared. “Gosh, there’s no reason not to stop -went the voice in my head- I have the time! But my wife is probably tired and fed up with these sudden stops of mine by now. And what about her friend? She would think I’m a loon…”
So I slowly passed it by, hesitatingly. I attempted to console myself: “Well, it isn’t in great condition. I suppose I’ll find another in better shape some other time…”
Just then my wife called on me: “Ric! Why didn’t you stop? You already have one of those?”
Say no more dear! I’ll obey and fulfill my duty!
The TJ is, of course, a familiar sight to those who have travelled the lands once covered by the British Empire. Built from 1958 to 1998, they’re still fairly common in most of the Indian subcontinent, while being nothing but a memory in Europe. In the case of Central America, they were once ubiquitous, though dwindled quite quickly when imports ceased sometime in the ’80s. In my memory they used to be everywhere, until -as it’s inevitable- they weren’t.
The story of the TJ starts with the Bedford TA (above), and as many have noted, is itself a derivative of Chevrolet’s Advance-Design line of trucks. With WWII over, Bedford and its parent company Vauxhall were in dire need to renew their antiquated O, K and M prewar truck lines. However, good Vauxhall had its plate quite full between factory reconditioning and new vehicle lines to design. With their resources stretched thin in a multitude of tasks, GM thought best to expedite matters and offer their Advance-Design as a starting point for Bedford’s new lines of trucks.
As is known, GM’s studios had been playing with new ideas throughout the war, imagining the future of the automobile. The shape of the Advance-Design emerged from that unusual interlude in ‘civilian production.’ The final design is largely attributed to Luther W. Stier, who would become head of Chevrolet’s first truck design studio in 1949. As a side note; a young Chuck Jordan started his designer life in GM’s truck studio, sketching possible updates for the Advance-Design (above). GM had such faith in the Advance-Design that it reached showrooms in June of 1947, well before their new sedans appeared for ’49.
Talks between Vauxhall stylist David Jones and Harley Earl got underway in 1948, and it was agreed to use the Advance-Design as a template for Vauxhall’s trucks. Later that year, in November, a Chevrolet 3000 was delivered to Luton, with all design plans handed to Vauxhall’s engineering. The project was coded A-Series.
From the get-go there was no intention to just ‘trace’ Chevrolet’s templates, as Vauxhall’s available hardware made that impossible. Still, with the Advance-Design at their hands, Vauxhall had quite the tool to expedite their work. In short time the Advance-Design’s dimensions were adjusted to Vauxhall’s needs, while retaining the design’s proven body structure and stiffness. Not surprisingly, the TA’s cabin features and measurements were comparable to Chevrolet’s, though exterior dimensions varied (most notably on the fenders) in order to accommodate various loading capacities.
It’s evident in the TA’s final shape that some of the Advance-Design features where a bit too ‘advanced’ for Vauxhall’s production capabilities: the window arrangement was simplified, as well as hood, grille and fenders. Regardless, from all accounts Vauxhall was rather pleased with the final result.
Launch date for was slated for 1952. Chevrolet was already working on the Advance-Design’s replacement by then; but no matter, in the UK the TA’s styling was a cutting edge design. Advanced indeed.
And against the competition, the TA’s cabin must have felt like a revelation to drivers accustomed to confined and dated prewar truck cockpits. In printed material such TA features were extolled; its three seat capability, a better seating position, and its new ventilation system, among many others.
The line found a receptive market and ran until 1957, where a slightly revised version, the TD, lasted until ’58. It was replaced by the TJ, itself being a modernized version of the TA/TD platform. The TJ’s shape finally overcame some of the styling difficulties found on the TA’s development: fenders, hood, and windows looked appropriately more Advance-Design.
The lower capacity versions of the TJ had slightly different styling, with a toothy grille, eyelids over the headlights, and odd bulges on the fenders for a slightly pouchy look.
By the ’60s, the Advance-Design was looking past its sell-by date in a quickly changing European market. While selling in decent numbers during that decade’s first few years, the line was dropped in the UK in ’75.
Not that those in Pakistan or India would have known about such market issues, as the model remained available seemingly forever. The truck stayed in production in India, built by Hindustan Motors, until 1995. It served dilligently in those distant lands.
As is the norm with truck lines, especially long running ones, engine and loading capabilities vary widely. The line had the typical alphanumeric soups that marque specialists delight on: The J1, J2 and J3 were the light duty versions, with loading capability starting around 1500kg, and rising to 2 and 3 tons. The heavy duty lines were the J4, J5 and J6, that went from 4 to 6 tons respectively.
TJs could be had with gasoline (petrol?) and diesel engines, ranging from 214 c.u. to 300 c.u. Diesels were still somewhat of a novelty at Vauxhall, as the TA 4 and 6 ton models had been first in the company’s line to sport it.
The toothy grille in our TJ is a sign that it’s one of the light duty versions, either a J1, J2 or J3. I’ll admit this skull-like TJ is a bit of an oddity for me, as the cleaner looking heavy-duty models are the ones I remember mostly from my youth.
Year? I would be tempted to say early ’70s, but it’s not like there’s much left on this carcass to make a clear assessment. Information online is a bit hard to make out, but the toothy grille TJs seem to have died with the model’s pullout from the UK market in ’75.
With this find being out in a quiet countryside town, it meant that I was -for once- left alone while shooting. A rarity, and a welcomed one. I had a chance to take a few shots with calm, in spite of my wife’s friend frowned face (Look! It won’t take long!).
That serenity allowed me to shoot the interior. One of my few occasions. The interior suggests this baby hasn’t seen action in a while, but then again, I wouldn’t bet on it. You would be surprised at the condition of some of the taxis I’ve ridden in this country.
Yes, we hang on to our hard-earned material goods in these lands. A good number of my finds don’t look like they’ll ever see action again, but darn it if their owners are willing to part with them. “I’ll fix it or sell it someday…” Sure, to whom?
Not that I mind, I prefer for these clues of our past to remain around, scattered and battered as they may be.
Shots done, it was time to finally part back to the city.
So in the end, my wife got me to pay respects to this dormant/defunct TJ. Good thing, for I get a good deal of pleasure from appeasing the curbside deities.
Cohort Outtake: Vintage Bedford Truck From Pakistan Found In Washington
Cohort Outtake: 1956 Bedford A Series Truck – A Mutated Chevy
Very cool find! Something is definitely odd about those front fenders, they almost look like they came from an unrelated vehicle and were mounted on this truck backwards. Bonus points for repurposing a rear bumper as the front bumper.
Did the writer ever mention where these photos were taken?
It was found in El Salvador, in the small town of Apaneca.
In the late 60’s the “light duty” version was available in Uruguay with single rear wheels shod with a “fat” tyre installed at the factory, perhaps as a means to improve the ride. That particular size of tyre was locally unobtainable and most new vehicle buyers had it changed by the dealer. VERY nice trucks.
You beat me to the comment! I’m about to leave for the farmer’s marketi “feria”, and it was a quite common vehicle with those people in the 70’s. There”s a light blue “restored” model still in use, I’ll try to get a pic
Well, I found the truck
From the side, you can see that bananas were at 50 pesos the kilogram this morning (1.25 USD)
The cargo body is clearly much newer than the truck. I don’t know the year of the truck, but if memory serves well, it should be from around 1970.
Nice, thanks for sharing these. Nice to see an old one still in working condition.
Good going! Love seeing trucks, as the old truck salesperson. I also got a kick out of the ad for the roomy cab with three gents dressed in suits. This same gag has been done in The States. I remember seeing a GMC Cabover-engine model with a man in suit. S-U-U-R-E! Other than myself when demonstrating trucks to customers, I know few people who were dressed this way when driving a truck.
Well, there’s this guy called “the suited truck driver” with his own YouTube-channel (he drives a big, one-of-a-kind Mercedes-Benz Actros).
https://www.suitedtruckdriver.com/
That’s a great find! A Bedford TJ, so far, I only saw two of them in the metal. Quite recently, and both fully restored to showroom condition.
The styling of the Bedford TA may be advanced and maybe the cab was a revelation, but I doubt if that was ever noticed on the continent. Not beyond countries like Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands anyway.
The trucking industry in Europe was a local affair and very fragmented in the post-war decades. Almost all countries had their own truck maker(s) and coach -as in cab- builders, the UK was no exception to the rule.
Even in the sixties, many brand new trucks and tractors still got an “aftermarket” steel cab from a regional coachbuilder. The starting point was a rolling chassis, supplied by a truck manufacturer.
Summer 2016:
Spring 2019:
Now, that’s the friendly face I remember.
A few of these seem to be still around the countryside, and appear occasionally for sale on the FB marketplace (no mention whether they’re in running condition). Hopefully I’ll come accross another for a future CC Capsule.
Point noted on the European fragmented truck industry. It’s an extensive subject. I have a couple of old MAN trucks waiting for a future post, both in better shape than this post’s TJ.
When I was a young kid, say in the mid-seventies, I used to write down the truck brands I actually saw on the Dutch and Belgian roads in those days. There must have been at least 20 to 25 names on that list…
About Bedford, initially I thought these were Fords with a sleeper cab…Anyway, keep those trucks coming!
This is fun, the list of yore (roughly):
DAF, FTF, Ginaf, Terberg, Scania, Volvo, Ford, Bedford, ERF, Leyland, Dodge (UK/Spain), Saviem, Berliet, Unic, Pegaso, Fiat, Steyr, Saurer, Mercedes-Benz, Hanomag-Henschel, Büssing, Magirus-Deutz, MAN, Tatra.
A late domestic UK user of the lighter Bedford TJs was W H Smith (the Newsagents/Stationers) who bought them as late as 1975. Can’t find a photo of one, but the cab was orange, the box body brown and the WHS logo in white. About as modern for the times as the cab design was old!
A very familiar truck here in Australia. It’s only in the last ten years that the local hardware shop stopped using a J2 for delivering gas bottles, so they’re still out there working. It wasn’t a restored one, just a survivor. I had no idea these were a development from the Advance design Chev, but now that you mention it I can certainly see it.
Here’s the prewar O-series these Bedfords replaced. You can see why David Jones of Vauxhall jumped at the chance to use the Chevy design as a basis for the new truck.
Wow, these were everywhere here in New Zealand when I was growing up in the 1970s/80s. They were pretty much the default mid-size truck and served just about every purpose imaginable from refuse trucks to (small) tankers to school buses. Still a fairly common sight in rural areas – albeit mostly rusting away in fields, or underneath long-static homemade motorhomes.
Interesting find and writeup, thank you Rich!
As mentioned, very common sight in Australia.
When I was a teen, I had a Saturday job at a garage that used to maintain a fleet of the larger TJs, (@ Peter, you may remember Huttons hams and bacon) I used to do the grease and oil changes on them including the Wisconsin engines on the refrigerator units.
When I was a kid, for some reason I can’t explain, the lighter J2s used to remind me of cows.
Matchbox did a cute ambulance version of the J2.
Indeed I do remember Huttons. I’d often see their trucks unloading at the butcher, with that Wisconsin sounding as if it was about to self-destruct – that must’ve been one somebody else serviced! 🙂
I’d forgotten about the Matchbox ambulance.
Another fine find .
-Nate
As a very young child, I was introduced to a neighbour’s Bedford CA.
I too went looking for the bunk in the rear…and English is my first language.
TJs were not uncommon amongst market gardening types – we had glasshouses on this side of the North Sea, too. Usually run by people with Dutch or later, Sicilian surnames.
The ‘cabover’ TK version generally supplanted them.
Both gradually died out as GM did not bother to invest.
The proportions, even without the hooded headlights on the light duty version, seem very different to an American who is used to seeing our US Advance Design trucks (still a regular sight even on the road, let alone in fields, here). But still very familiar to any kid with a Matchbox/Dinky Toy collection. And often in the background of older nature documentaries about Africa, or in the pages of National Geographic. Whatever GM did to lose that colonial market may be a Deadly Sin in itself.
You found a J series J3 from the wheelbase and rear duals, I got my first truck licence in a 76 TJ6 330 diesel, Bedfords were more than common here they were used for everything, now they are becoming rare most got worked to death several times over, Bedford six engines 214 cube were a popular swap into old Chevs the full pressure oiling Bedfprd six was good for an extra 1000rpm over the old stovebolts naturally Small block Chevy V8s bolt right into Bedford trucks of all sizes from the JO onwards