The restructuring of the huge BMC / British Leyland conglomerate throughout the 1960s has been well documented in these pages. Transport historians will most likely record the era as one of ‘consolidation of makes’ what you and I know as the disappearance of so many great British lorry marques. Few are more deserving of that nomenclature than Albion.
In existence from 1899, Albion was one of the first companies to be taken over by Leyland Motors in 1951. From then on, it was a story of Albion’s existing components being replaced in Leyland’s rationalisation, and by the same token ‘asset stripping’ of its engineering innovation into the wider, (from 1968) BLMC group.
In 1972, the Albion name was dropped completely, its model names being carried over onto BL trucks and Albion only re-emerged with a management buy-out in 1993 after years of axle production for BL and then DAF. Albion Automotive continued until its purchase by the American Axle and Manufacturing Company in 1998. From 1972, Albion’s Clydesdale, Chieftain and Reiver model names would grace BL lorries, although consolidation of cab design was confusingly out of step with the rest of the range. The LAD (Leyland Albion Dodge) cab
