Regular readers will know that I am a voracious consumer of second hand books.

eBay, the Lifeline BookFest (no less than a million second-hand books for sale, and all proceeds benefitting charity!), bookshops (both new and used), garage sales – the sources are endless.

The other day one of the books that lobbed into my post office box was an orphan – a single volume of one of the Newnes Motor Repair sets of the 1950s – and perhaps the early 1960s. The book – Volume 3 of probably a 6 volume set – covers commercial vehicles, tractors and general car repairs (but the latter only the subject titles from ‘B’ to ‘E’).

I was browsing it, looking at the different designs of the (mostly) British vehicles when something suddenly hit me.

The names!

These commercial vehicles – trucks, vans, tractors – had the most wonderful, evocative names.

Like?

Well, how about the Karrier Bantam? No, well get your head around the Karrier Gamecock.

All right, perhaps the Leyland Comet – or the Super Comet?

Not happy? Well step into my Leyland Hippo! No, I am not kidding.

Also from Leyland there’s the Beaver, Hippo, Octopus, Titan – or Tiger Cub. I think I’d much rather drive a Titan than a Tiger Cub.

Or, God forbid, a Hippo….

But it doesn’t stop there.

From Scammell there’s the Highwayman, Mountaineer and Constructor. I guess at least these names make sense (unlike the bloody Tiger Cub!).

But wait.

Did you hear about the Scarab Mechanical Horse?  (In fact, it’s a very interesting vehicle with a front suspension design of its single wheel like nothing I have seen before.)

Finally, I’ll leave you with the Thornycraft Sturdy Star.

Um, how can a star be sturdy? A bit like the ‘Strong Planet’, isn’t it? Or maybe the ‘Mega Universe’?

Clearly I was born too late – in the ’50s I could have got a job making up names with Leyland or Karrier or…..