14 November 2022
Last week, Towbar Express’ hit the road and headed to Scarborough for a day of filming with Mathewsons Classic Cars for their show Bangers & Cash.
Tom Stanforth (known to most as Towbar Tom), the founder of Towbar Express has now retired from fitting Towbars, but hasn’t stayed still since stepping back. Tom and his caravan tour the UK through the Summer months, hitting the Country Shows, Traction Rally Engines and Steam Rally Shows as well as novelty weekends such as War Weekend and Classic Car Conventions.
Tom’s interest in Classic and Vintage Vehicles as well as tinkering with Traction Engines has been fuelled by his involvement with The Scarborough Fair Collection and Vintage Transport Museum.
The Scaborough Fair Collection is a Museum based in Scarborough, and was founded by Graham Atkinson. Graham has built up a fine collection of Showman's Engines including Iron Maiden, His Lordship, Princess Maud and Excelsior all of which work and are rallied during the season.
As well as collecting Engines, Graham has also collated an impressive amount of Vintage Vehicles, including working Lorries, Emergency Service Vehicles and Tractors. Three large warehouses also enclose various classic fairground rides such as the ‘Gallopers’ and the ‘Cake Walk’, all of which are fully working.
Tom and his entourage of entertainers have teamed up with The Scaborough Fair Collection for the past 20 years, using the amazing mechanical organs as an impressive backdrop, and exhibiting whichever classic cars make the cut for each event.
Mr Atkinson hasn’t stopped adding to his assortment, and recently purchased a 1924 Albion Biscuit Wagon from Mathewsons Auction, at which time the vehicle’s engine hadn’t been successfully started in 7 years. The expertise of Towbar Tom assured Graham that the vehicle was sound, and he took delivery of the immaculate wagon.
Bangers and Cash followed the sale of the Albion (which is number 10 in Graham’s Albion collection), and wanted to follow up the story back at the Museum. Derek Mathewson and a camera crew came to the Museum last week to see whether in fact, the Vintage Wagon would start.
Towbar Tom and his right-hand man, John, soon ended up elbow deep under the bonnet, and with some gentle encouragement (and the addition of petrol) they managed to get the vehicle chugging away in no time.
Derek from Mathewsons (and host of Bangers and Cash) took the vehicle out for a spin, and concluded the Albions story on camera, ready to be aired on the popular daytime TV show.
Keep your eyes peeled! You can catch Towbar Tom on Channel 5, or Yesterday on Bangers & Cash.
