Passions have a strange way of suddenly taking hold of people. Six years ago, the Johnson family – Adam, wife Camilla and son Ethan – had never had anything to do with old lorries and now they own three Scammells, which they love. There’s no particular reason as to why it came to be so. Adam simply went to an auction one day and bought one on a whim, and so it began.
There has been a historic family connection with lorries as Adam’s great-grandfather, Archer Johnson, established a haulage firm in Sydenham, south-east London. By the 1970s, A Johnson & Sons had a proud fleet of Bedford TKs and Kew-built Dodges, but Adam hasn’t been involved with haulage himself, instead working in farming and green waste recycling.
His first ‘old thing’ was a 1910 Crossley engine purchased about 20 years ago, but things escalated in 2017 when he bought a Mk VI Bentley he’d been storing for someone else. Then, in October 2018, he went to a Cheffins sale with the intention of buying an antique clock but instead came away with a 1952 Scammell MU (Motive Unit) in the livery of Cherry Blossom boot polish. Camilla had always liked the look of old bonneted
