Cars that work for a living. Taxis and more, pictures and stories.

[Dyslexic Viking]

Found 3 more photos of old Norwegian taxis

 

Taxis are the easiest to find pictures of but have finally found another one. 1958 Minor pickup bought new on a smallholding in Norway and the owner got many years of service out of it.

1958 and new and the owner is so happy he found the accordion

 

Transporting hay in the 1970s

 

And it leaves the farm in 1992

[Dyslexic Viking]

Got my car magazines in the post and as always there are some stories from the old days. 

The author who wrote this story grew up in a small village in rural Norway in the 1950s and reminisced about the local taxi owner/driver. Like most places in the countryside then, the taxi also functioned as the local ambulance, so there always had to be someone near the phone, which was difficult as he also ran a small farm. So it was mostly the wife that looked  after the phone and in case of emergency she went out and fired 2 shots with the shotgun to alert her husband.

Who in such cases would come running like hell into the house and quickly change clothes and then get out in to the tired 1930's Buick and disappear in a cloud of smoke down the gravel road. This continued for many years. The Buick was finally exchanged for a used Mercedes, which after a while was exchanged for a new Volga that came to serve the area for many years.

I love stories like this and certain things really was better before.

And have also found a couple more old photos of Norwegian taxis.

[Dyslexic Viking]

More old Norwegian taxis

[Dyslexic Viking]

More old Norwegian taxis

First Mercedes taxi in Vadsø

[Dyslexic Viking]

I have come across another picture of Norwegian taxis and I really like this one. The picture was taken in Oslo in 1970 and there are 6 Mercedes taxis here, 5 W110 fintales 4 of these I can say with certainty are 2 generation W110 due to the turn signals and 1 W115. And none of the taxis have the Drosje registration plates, so they probably started phasing them out now.

[Dyslexic Viking]

Picture from the late 1960s in Norway of a Datsun 130 diesel and the Z plates shows that worked as a taxi in Vestfold county in Norway. 

[lesapandre]

On 21/06/2023 at 16:51, Dyslexic Viking said:

Norwegian ambulances

The fifth one down is a Humber Snipe MK2 - about 1950 - these were usually sold as a saloon car or Thrupp and Maberly in Cricklewood London did conversions to convertibles and limo's - for Rootes. That body looks very 'American' behind the A pillar tho - so I'd guess it's a Norwegian conversation on an export chassis? 

What a find!

[Dyslexic Viking]

5 minutes ago, lesapandre said:

The fifth one down is a Humber Snipe MK2 - about 1950 - these were usually sold as a saloon car or Thrupp and Maberly in Cricklewood London did conversions to convertibles and limo's - for Rootes. That body looks very 'American' behind the A pillar tho - so I'd guess it's a Norwegian conversation on an export chassis? 

What a find!

Yes, I'm guessing it's a Norwegian bodywork and it's rare to see a Humber here and I've never seen another as an ambulance, so this is possibly the only one here.

I wonder why a Humber was chosen as a basis for an ambulance as this is very unusual choice for Norway.

[Dyslexic Viking]

@lesapandre

I've been looking now for Humber ambulances in Norway and came  across another one surprisingly quickly, so there were actually several.

This is a 1948 Humber delivered to Stavanger hospital in 1949 and built in Stavanger as an ambulance.

 

This seems like an expensive choice of ambulance for a then poor Norway so I guess it was given as a gift to the hospital by a rich person. Norwegian ship owners were known for doing this and it may have happened here as well.

[lesapandre]

Rootes were keen exporters - here they are exhibiting their range in Poland in 1949. 

With the Post-War vehicle shortage maybe they hoped to get into the local market but failed ultimately.

The car had a 4-litre side-valve engine - ponderously slow really - and outgunned by anything on an American chassis - particularly after the US motor industry moved on to V8's.

Rootes cars were nicely made but under-engineered. They went bust about 1965 and were taken over by Chrysler.

[High Jetter]

The Rootes name staggered on to the late 70s though. 

[lesapandre]

Yes quite a turbulent time for poor old Rootes.

By mutual agreement, from mid-1964, Rootes Motors was taken over in stages by Chrysler Corporation, which bought control from the Rootes family in 1967.

The new name for Rootes Motors Limited – Chrysler UK Limited took effect at midnight 30 June 1970 - (cited in Business Diary 'The Uprooting of Rootes goes ahead' - The Times, 1 July 1970.)

The various marques they held continued their old names to the mid-1970's - the Hillman Avenger then, for example, becoming the 1976–1979 Chrysler Avenger.

But by about '76 all the venerable Rootes names had sadly gone - including  Humber.

Would have seemed possibly inconceivable to the driver of that substantial ambulance that in not too many years the well- respected brand would be no more!

There is a really excellent Rootes archive in the UK:

https://www.rootesarchive.org/

Web shows a couple of similar big Humber ambulances of this era surviving in New Zealand.

I've never seen one in the UK - but there is one on the web with a boxier body held by the Ambulance Heritage Society.

[Dippy]

You cant beat a brick for a workhorse, heres my sadly missed 940 at Beaulie having towed the caravan and everything else.

Im sure my future will involve another.

 

[Dippy]

The brick had to go as I needed more pulling power so another great workhorse was bought which is still serving me well  3 years later.

[EyesWeldedShut]

46 minutes ago, Dippy said:

The brick had to go as I needed more pulling power so another great workhorse was bought which is still serving me well  3 years later.

Boy, those old Jensens had smol tyres by today's standards - what's that fitted? Ditchfinder 50/105 R6 99T ?

[Dyslexic Viking]

More old Norwegian taxis

1938 US Ford

 

1955 US Ford Country Sedan late 1950s in Alta

 

1958 US Ford Country Sedan 

 

1950 Mercury in 1955

 

These are the taxis in the Rena area in 1959

From the left, Pobeda, Mercedes, 1953 Chevrolet, 1956 Chevrolet, 1952 Plymouth. 

[Dyslexic Viking]

Came across this photo from Mandal Norway from 1959 and in the photo are two of the towns taxis a 1956 Chevrolet and an early 1950s Desoto.

[artdjones]

Were car taxes lower for taxis in Norway? I know a lot of taxis in Ireland were US made cars that normal people wouldnt be able to afford to run. On the other hand, they were spacious and could take a beating.

[artdjones]

That's a driver on the rank in O'Connell Street in Dublin, around 60 years ago.

[Dyslexic Viking]

18 minutes ago, artdjones said:

Were car taxes lower for taxis in Norway? I know a lot of taxis in Ireland were US made cars that normal people wouldnt be able to afford to run. On the other hand, they were spacious and could take a beating.

I'm not an expert on this, but I think that one would get back the VAT, which here is 25% on a lot and then there are also tax write offs on purchase.

There were mostly more expensive cars here too, but I think it paid off in the long run. Many cars were in taxi use for around 10 years here, this was quite common, my Mercedes had 9 years as a taxi, so even though it was an expensive purchase it probably was worth the cost.

[Dyslexic Viking]

More old photos of Norwegian taxis.

Chevrolet. This shows the variety of work they had, there were few cars then so they were hired for a lot of things. This time wedding driving, this driver also had the driving which today would have been to an ambulance so an estate was needed to get in a stretcher.

 

Most of common where the cheaper US brands such as Ford Chevrolet Dodge and Plymouth, but occasionally some could afford something more expensive such as this Buick.

 

Horten Norway in the mid 1950s, so this Chevrolet is approaching 10 years old.

 

Slightly rare Opel dominance here and a GAZ/Volga but not sure about the 2 rear ones.

 

Plymouth on Vanse Norway.

 

I think the closest is a Kaiser?

 

Chevrolet

 

Mo I Rana Norway 3 Chevrolet and 1 Ford

 

1940s Ford

 

Large selection of US cars. The Ford on the far left may be pre war.

 

Norwegian drivers.

[artdjones]

On 21/07/2024 at 14:40, Dyslexic Viking said:

More old photos of Norwegian taxis.

Chevrolet. This shows the variety of work they had, there were few cars then so they were hired for a lot of things. This time wedding driving, this driver also had the driving which today would have been to an ambulance so an estate was needed to get in a stretcher.

 

Most of common where the cheaper US brands such as Ford Chevrolet Dodge and Plymouth, but occasionally some could afford something more expensive such as this Buick.

 

Horten Norway in the mid 1950s, so this Chevrolet is approaching 10 years old.

 

Slightly rare Opel dominance here and a GAZ/Volga but not sure about the 2 rear ones.

 

Plymouth on Vanse Norway.

 

I think the closest is a Kaiser?

 

Chevrolet

 

Mo I Rana Norway 3 Chevrolet and 1 Ford

 

1940s Ford

 

Large selection of US cars. The Ford on the far left may be pre war.

 

Norwegian drivers.

It would be a bit of a bummer for the bride if someone in town had a heart attack while she was on the way to the ceremony.

[Scruffy Bodger]

My daily driver and workhorse. I put it over the 90K miles mark last week.

[EyesWeldedShut]

1 hour ago, Scruffy Bodger said:

My daily driver and workhorse. I put it over the 90K miles mark last week.

That one of them trendy roof tent/tentbox things? 😀

[Scruffy Bodger]

1 hour ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

That one of them trendy roof tent/tentbox things? 😀

I wouldn't want to stay in it if it was!

It also had a massive brown stain on it 🤢 My mate woke up to it in the bed the one morning apparently 😳 Turned out his Mrs had come in the night before absolutely wasted with a chocolate bar for comfort food, passed out and the whole lot had melted in the night 🤣

[Dyslexic Viking]

After almost 10 years of reliable and good service from a 1950s Plymouth, a Norwegian taxi owner from rural southern Norway switched to a new Simca Ariane in 1962. He was not happy with this one.

 

So it was replaced early with what I assume was a used Mercedes Benz W111 this is an unusual and expensive car to use as a taxi here back then it even has a sunroof. The Mercedes gave much better service and was in use until the early 1970s. One thing you can notice, before 1971, a registration number followed the taxi permit, so both cars have the same registration number and the Plymouth mostly likely also had the same and the car before that. So now after all these cars, the registration plates are clearly quite tired as you can see on the Mercedes. 

[Dyslexic Viking]

1940s or late 1930s Plymouth taxi in Norway.

 

Opel Rekord taxi in Oslo.

[Dyslexic Viking]

Pobeda taxis Oslo Norway

 

Plymouth taxi in southern Norway. K registration plates are former Vest Agder county.