Museum saves famous tow truck from the scrapyard

A tow truck regularly seen on the roads of Derbyshire has been purchased by a motor museum.

In May, Albert Looms shipbreaking yard in Spondon announced its closure after more than a century.

Founded in 1920, the company originally specialised in the demolition and dismantling of rail vehicles before moving into the dismantling of cars and their spare parts in the early 1970s, including a new fleet of Land Rover tow trucks.

Now the Great British Car Journey (GBCJ) has agreed to buy one of the remaining trucks from the 1990s.

The Albert Looms-branded tow truck, once a familiar sight on Derbyshire’s roads, will remain available to the public as part of the museum’s collection.

Richard Unwin, founder of the Ambergate museum, said: “We will park it outside over the summer so it will be on display from today. It will then be brought indoors for the winter alongside our other Land Rovers.”

“It has Albert Looms’ livery and personal registration. Land Rovers are nice and honest, it looks like a 25-year-old car but we don’t plan on doing any major refurbishment to it.

“Albert Looms has been in business for 104 years, but scrap yards are now on the decline. There used to be one in every town in the country.

“We thought the Land Rover told a pretty nice story.”

‘Very pleased’

Ray Kirk of Albert Looms said: “The whole thing actually first came about on Facebook – someone had suggested that the museum should have it, so I called them to ask if they would be interested, which they were.

“We have been withdrawing vehicles since the 1970s, but the original Land Rovers had done an incredible amount of miles and we simply wore them out.

“That one over there is not new, but it dates back to the 1990s and we have been running it ever since.

“They’re workhorses. So once you have a car behind them, it doesn’t really slow the Land Rover down. That’s what they’re made for.”

“The drivers who have driven it, myself included, are really happy. If we had sold it or scrapped it, part of our history would have been lost.”

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