| Property | Value |
|---|
| rdfs:label | |
| rdfs:comment | - During WWII they converted vehicles for war work. It was in 1950 that the firm entered the field of light fabrication, a move that was to play an important role in its history. In 1952 they started building tractor cabs after a request from a local farmer to create somthing to protect his tractor driver from the worst of the exposed Downland weather. The Lambourn tractor cab was born! Lambourn’s engineers devised a simple light structure, and it was not long before new designs were ready to fit the most popular makes of tractor - Fordson and Ferguson. A simple design of a canvas top over a light steel frame suited the company’s existing manufacturing operation and had the great advantage of being much quieter in use than tin panels which tend to vibrate.
|
| owl:sameAs | |
| dcterms:subject | |
| dbkwik:tractors/property/wikiPageUsesTemplate | |
| abstract | - During WWII they converted vehicles for war work. It was in 1950 that the firm entered the field of light fabrication, a move that was to play an important role in its history. In 1952 they started building tractor cabs after a request from a local farmer to create somthing to protect his tractor driver from the worst of the exposed Downland weather. The Lambourn tractor cab was born! Lambourn’s engineers devised a simple light structure, and it was not long before new designs were ready to fit the most popular makes of tractor - Fordson and Ferguson. A simple design of a canvas top over a light steel frame suited the company’s existing manufacturing operation and had the great advantage of being much quieter in use than tin panels which tend to vibrate. It is reported that Fifty were sold in the first year and trade grew at about 70 per cent per annum until literally thousands were finding a ready market both at home and overseas. By 1965, when a two-door weather cab was introduced, annual sales totalled 8,000 units designed for over 40 different tractor models. In the 1950's the business expanded rapidly and the various operations were separated in some new facilities. The biggest building the firm had yet seen was put up on the north side of the works to house Lambourn Racehorse Transport Service Ltd.The old garage facilities being taken over for tractor cab production. By the 1970s tractor manufacturers were fitting their own cabs to comply with the new safety cab rules. Lambourn still supplied cabs for export markets and to some manufactures for niche markets such as low profile cabs for dairy & stock farmers with low buildings. During the mid 1970s demand surged when a shortage of tractors resulted in dealers buying export models without cabs and fitting after market cabs. The Engineering & Coachbuilding business disappeared by the 1980s, but the Racehorse transport operation continues. When the Lambourn Cab business closed the former production director set up Cab Parts and Accessories Ltd, which is now based in South Wales.
|
