Memories of Reliant vans

Last month’s feature on three-wheeled vehicles asks if anyone remembers the three-wheeled Reliant vans as shown on page 24 of OBM432.

I well remember these handy little vans with their motorcycle front wheel and girder forks that stuck out at the front. I was a schoolboy in Caterham, Surrey, in the 1950s and recall two of these vans being in use by a company in Townend called Ibbotsons. They were blacksmiths, ironmongers and farriers. The vans were signwritten with the name of the company and would be seen running around the town. I once saw one of the two charging up Church Hill, a long one-in-six hill from Caterham Valley. The little van was taking the hill at a good speed so maybe it had the V-twin JAP engine as depicted in the OBM article.

Doug Barton, Wokingham, Berkshire