Thirty years or so ago I was at the West of England Transport Collection’s open day at Winkleigh wartime airfield in Devon where I saw a compound full of brand-new Leyland Comets. No, these weren’t the bonneted beasts of the 1950s but the latest tough with no-frills export Comets introduced in 1964 that resembled beefed-up Roadrunners.
I asked show organiser Colin Shears what these Comets were doing there and he explained that they were being fitted with winches and other specialist equipment by Reynolds Boughton, who operated from a massive hangar next door. My only dealings with this firm had been when compiling the Observers’ Book of Commercial Vehicles and they had year after year in the 1970s and 80s sent me details of the massive crash tender chassis they made for the worlds’ airports. There was also the RB44 for off-road work with military and civilian customers from 1978.
Trying to find out more about the earlier days, I was delighted to find that a Devon neighbour, Mike Short, had
