Thomas Blackwood Murray and Norman Osborne Fulton, both formerly with Arrol-Johnston, founded the Albion Motor Car Company in 1899, starting with seven employees on the first floor of a building in Finnieston Street, Glasgow. Their first car, in 1900, was a varnished-wood dogcart with a flat-twin engine, and in 1903 the company moved to a new works at Scotstoun.
Albion made two- and four-cylinder cars and a speciality of solid-tyred shooting brakes, but in 1909 it decided to concentrate on commercial vehicles, and private car production ended in 1915. During the First World War Albion built large numbers of three-ton lorries for the War Office, and between the wars it grew into one of Britain’s leading truck and bus makers, with bus models named Victor, Valiant, Viking, Valkyrie and Venturer that were exported across Asia, Africa and Australia.
Leyland Motors bought Albion in 1951, and the name disappeared in 1972, although vehicles continued to be built at Scotstoun under the Leyland badge until 1980. The component works survives: after a management buyout in 1993 it became Albion Automotive, owned since 1998 by American Axle, still making axles and driveline parts.
