MC museum Torsång english version

Motor museum Torsong Sweden
Pictures current 2008, 2010, 2011
Text and pictures Björn Bellander
Back Swedish version Official website

since 060105
Updated
2011-12-19
© Björn Bellander
Created 2010

Kanske i ett gammalt soldattorp residerar Motormuseet. Ref 1

The motor museum in Torsång is wonderful situated just beside where river Dalälven makes a bend around the community of Torsång. Here Family Örtlund are born and grown up in the area, has hired a little cottage and since 1963 built up this high class MC Museum with old motorcycles which are found around this place and of course if they find an old car from early 20th it is as interesting as a motorcycle.

They have also a collection of old children toys. Everything from railway locomotives and wagons from all years. An old time grocery shop is also built in a corner and the cashier serves for the entrance fee. About 7 older mopeds are also collected, but the main interest is for motorcycles. For the moment, 2010, a sleeve valve motor car of Pope Knight is on the way to be renovated. Earlier a Willys Overland from 1923 was shown, but this car is placed in another place for the moment. One younger family member use it during summer for veteran rallies. I have met him twice on the rally roads.

A museum of this dignity will often get offers from other people who want to make their own museum better. It is told that a German was interested in Wanderer motorcycles wanted to buy the whole museum. He said that for the right price everything may be bought. He learned something new in Torsång.

The main age of these exhibits are from 10th to the 20th. The owner, family Örtlund have in their whole life lived in this area and built up their knowledge about old cars and bikes.

Creating a museum can be done in different ways. Several of the bigger museums in Sweden have got their level by buying an older collection. In this way they have no closer connection with their exhibits.

An example of this is when the museum in Simrishamn bought the hole collection from Skokloster in Sweden. The same is valid for Sparreholm and others.

The main builder for this little museum is Erik Örtlund and for help has been his woman Inger. The father for Erik may also has done something in this, because Erik did start with collections as late as 1963.

The Torsång museum has a very modest cost for the visitors. Only 25 Skr. For this price The nice lady follow you and can speak in English or German about their old motorcycles and also some owner history. After this you can buy a cup of Coffee or tea with a micro waved soft cookie with sugar for 10 Skr.

If the sun shines there will be a nice opportunity to sit down in front of the entrance door to chat about old cycles. If you put your words right and if Erik Örtlund think that it is worth to tell some you can get to know much of old motorcycles and life in Dalarna.

This bike is a Antoine from Belgium. Ref 1

Antoine 1903 - 1910
This cycle is made by a producer in Belgium. Antoine company was placed in Liege and started 1899. This firm was on duty between 1903 and 1910. The cycle on the picture is one of the first models.

Antoine produced mostly engines which were aimed for their own one cylinder cycle. Later they also produced V-twins and 1905 4 cylinders. They also bought Kelecom engines.

The company also supplied engines to other producers. They also built aircraft and car engines as well as complete units.

The construction engineer was Paul Relekone. He went later to FN.

The engine is taped because it was part of a question in a veteran rally.

MotoReve. Ref 1
Moto Reve 1909
This cycle was sold from Hedemora MC museum to Germany. Later Torsång MC museum paid the owner in Germany for it with special spare parts. As the old owner says, the cycle has come home again.

Wanderer. Ref 1

Wanderer 1914. Ref 1

There was a reseller in Dalarna for Wanderer motorcycles during the 10th and 20th. This is the cause why the MC museum has several cycles of this mark. They were sold during the years 1902 and 1929.
These cycles started to be manufactured 1903 in Sachsen Germany. Then it had their own engine and the camshaft was placed in front. This camshaft affected two valves placed on the front side of engine. Because of this the inlet pipe became long as it ended on the upper side of inlet valve. Later a two cylinder V-twin sold 1928. I have only seen one another Wanderer in Falköping MC-museum Sweden.

Wanderer built several types of motor vehicles and because of this hade bad control of their economy. After 1930 the factory was taken over by NSU and the quality was raised, notwithstanding Wanderer was assumed to have good quality.

NSU later sold through their license for production to Frantisek Janacek in Czechoslovakai 1927. The main construction for this machine had been done by Alexander Novikoff 1927. The company could not stand the costs and went bankruptcy 1929 and the company was taken over by Janacek.

The production was moved to Czechoslovakai. From the name Janacek and Wanderer a new mark was established JAWA. This cycle hade prop shaft and steel pressed frame, just like Nimbus and Zündap later. The engine was in one piece with gearbox and had the cylinder lying and pointed forwards. Such a cycle can be seen at Sinsheim motorcycles and Audi museum.

During WWI many cycles was used by the German army. After this was a new 184 cc single cycles was sold and became very popular.

NSU 1902. Ref 1

NSU 1904. Ref 1

In the 1930th NSU was the largest manufacturer of motor bikes in Europe. On the other hand this firm started 1900 in the city of Neckarsulm to produce knitting machines and their name was Neckarsulm Strickmachinen.

The name of the bike became first Neckarsulm Fahrradwerke, but it was supposed to be a difficult name for a bike. Instead it was called NSU. Compare with Yamaha which from the beginning was a company making music instruments and Suzuki which was a textile company. During the period between the wars they designed a motorcycle like a band wagon equipped with Opel engine. This small "motor bikeband car" helped the farmers after the war to save the growth of the year, when all tractors had been taken as war booty by the Russians. See Sinsheim military.

In the beginning NSU started to use Zedel v-twins, but thought they could make a better one themselves. In the 50th NSU was much involved in competitions and record driving. They built special models for this. They also produce a scooter of their own and had licenses for Vespa and Lambretta. In the 60th NSU bought a license to build Wankel engine, developed and produced mc:s and cars for this concept. This was very expensive and was the direct cause for NSU to run into economical problems. VW-Porsche bought the NSU company.

Today the big factory locals, which was not so much damaged during the war, are rebuilt with a nice museum, locals for other companies and living apartments.

Adlker 1906. Ref 1

It is a pity that the mark Adler disappeared from production in the middle of 1950th. Up to WWII the company had a good production of cars, motorcycles and office machines.

This should have been a security for them to manage the competition after the war. But no. First the board failed to modernize the car brand Adler and the production ceased 1948.

The plan was to concentrate on motorcycles and office machines. Soon the motorcycle production had to cooperate with Triumph as the factory became placed in the English Zone and Triumph had taken their latest mc constructions. It was not possible to produce the same cycle both in England and in Germany.

This became the end of a long time production which started already 1899. Now they had only the office production left. This was bought 1960 by the American Litton concern, who then 1978 sold it to Volkswagen. Lastly 1987 Olivetti in Italy bought Adler. When the computerizing came Adler was overtaken by a Holding company.

This kind of selling and reconstructing are normally the end of a company. All these different companies have now taken all free money. In this case there was only the buildings left. They were rebuilt and rented to different companies. That is the way.
About Adler cars see Motortechnica or Svedino car.

Compare, in Sweden, where the buildings of the different companies are sold and rented the locals for their most profitable rests.

Hobarth 1919. Ref 1

Hobarth 1919
It is easy to think that Hobarth is a MC produced in Australia, when the capital town in Tasmania is named Hobarth.

This cycle comes from England and the company was working between 1901 and 1924. Coventry was an industrial center where many different products were produced.
In the beginning it was bicycles at Hobarth, Bird & Co 1911.

The first motor driven cycle was introduced. The engine was bought from Precision Company. Also ladies models were presented.

After the war small engine cycles were sold with Villers, Jap or Blackbourne engines. Also frames were delivered to other producers.

Ariel 1930. Ref 1
A translation of the picture.
Ariel 500 cc DE Luxe OHV 1930
This cycle was bought in Hedemora on the 10th of May 1930, by Gustaf Bonde, blacksmith at Kvarnsveden paper works.
The cycle got registration no W345.
It was used 1930 - 1940 and 1945 - 1951, mainly for transportation between home and his working place at the old mountain in Falun.
Gustaf Bonde was one of the cycle enthusiasts who worked at this company. There he privately constructed and built own engines an cycles. Probably he use the machine works of Kvarnsveden for his purposes, This work took so much time of his ordinary work that he had to stop that's why he must buy a working cycle.
Present owner is Gösta Backlund.

Ariel 1902-1970
One of the most successful marks in England. In the beginning of mc history the development went ahead like stepping in stairs.

For Ariel it started with bicycles 1870. At that time James Starley invented the wire spoke wheel. This was a necessary invention for motorcycle progress. Benz used it on his first 3 wheeler 1886. Next step was the invention of rubber tire which hadn't go applicability until 1898. The wire spoke wheel was produce by Starley's company, which later became Ariel. Their first motor bicycle came 1901 as a three wheeler with DeDion engine.

Ariel went of course bankruptcy as all other firms, but was saved by Charles Sangster. He got Ariel on feet again with a 2 stroke motor, 3 geared box and kick start. Charles son Jack took over and continued with Jap engines until a famous designer named Val Page was employed. He brought with him a concept for a four cylinder engine which was called Square four. This type was kept together with twins as far as to the end of 1970 when discontinuing was inevitable in spite of a possibly contract for the English defense.

Ariel got constructions from BSA who had taken it as war booty. With these Ariel made their models Arrow and Leader.

FN Nordstjärnan. Ref 1

FN Herstal

FN History

FN Motorcycles

FN 1902-1965
FN was a company which was established just nearby Sarolea in the Belgian town of Herstal.

Here they started to manufacture, what all other firms did, bicycles and motorcycles. The bicycle from FN had the curiosity to be driven by a prop shaft instead of a chain. This bicycle was on the market 1898. The first motorcycle came 1901. It had a 133 cc motor and was driven by a riveted leather strap for "chain". The engine capacity was successively increased from 133, to 188, 300, 347 to a four cylinders engine with 748 cc.

By this reason it was called Type 700. FN is known for its unusual front spring construction which came after the WWI. They had bought it from Switzerland. 1959 they produced their own mopeds with several different names. For ex. the sport model Rocket. Together with Sarolea they designed a type S.

1967 the last moped left the production line of FN.

This cycle is back to the owner. Ref 1
Rex one exhaust. Ref 1

Rex single cylinder cycles. The lower from 1929 equipped with 500 cc engines.

Rex Acme was the English version. It was established by the brothers William and Harold Williamson. They produced first cars in Coventry but went over to MC:s 1904 and used engines from other producers for ex. JAP. Telescope spring was used already 1906. 1908 the cylinder was inclined forwards. As a curious thank you the board fired the brothers 1911 and started to mount their own produced engines. The company ceased production 1933.

For a while there was popular to mount two exhaust pipes from one valve. It was thought shown that this didn't gave the cycle any better qualities. Royal Enfield had also such a model. The owners closed this exhaust pipe and drove with only one muffler.

The name Rex was produced in several European countries like Sweden, Germany, Italy and in England. Here it was called Rex Acme.

Links
Swedish Rex MC
More Swedish Rex
Rex V Twin
Rex Acme

Bunis 1934-37. Ref 1

Bunis was a mark which is so rare that you cannot find anything on the internet. Anyway it was a Swedish small workshop who produced own engines to their cycles. Zoom the cycle and study the nice valve arrangement. In the 30th there were lots of black smiths and engine workshops who build their own frame and often used an engine of their own. Some were specialized on only engines.

Cleveland 1920

This motorcycle was built in Ohio America 1915- 1920.

They started to produce 2-stroke engines which were very light. These had good selling mostly because of price and they were easy to lift up from the mud holes in the road of the time.

Later the frame strengthened and the engine was updated to 270 cc. The cycle got light and the magnet was removed. Battery ignition was introduced.

A few trials with 4 cylinder cycles were done 1926-29. This types was very alike Hendersson and ACE.

The last trial from Clevland was a 350 cc machine before the mark disappeared from the mark.

Links

Cleveland
4 cylinders pictures

Adler 9/24 1922.
I got the privilege, at my visit 2010, to visit Örtlund's renovation room. Here the were working on an Adler and also one Minerva. The Adler was later ready this year and shown on the road. This car cam from the area of Dalarna. It had been stored for a long time waiting for renovation. I didn't understand how the should be able to get ready the few months left this summer. Any closer information about this car is not available unless the delivery to Sweden 1922 and readymade in Germany 1917.
From the Swedish traffic registry it is found that is is a )/24 with 22 hp and went into traffic i Sweden 1922. Later information from the museum says that the car is manufactured 1917 and cam to Sweden 1922. According to the Adler book by Werner Oswald it should be the model KL 8/22 with 4 cylinders engine and 24 hp including mechanical water pump. The first six pictures shows the car during renovation/ assembling, while the last 3 during driving 2011. Look specially on the beautiful speedometer which is original. See also the car parked outside the museum in Torsong. Note also the up to date clothes.

Adler history.
It is not so many persons who have started production of cars without giving it their own name. Heinrich Kleyer is onw of the few. May be his name was impossible to put on a car. He choose Adler instead.

Heinrich started a mechanical firm already 1900. It lasted till 1906 when he reorganized the production over to cars only instead of cycles and 3-wheelers. Adler bought engines from DeDion 1901 and produced a 4 wheeler with fully elliptical springs and prop shaft. 1903 the well known engineer Edwin Rumpler started to work at Adler and produced a complicated car equipped with individual springs, but it became only a prototype. Rumpler owned a patent for swing axle and torsion springs.

One popular car became one which was called kleinwagen equipped with V2 engine. Heinrich realized though that a 4 cylinder engine was what to come. As director he was in charge up to 1932. The chassis followed what was popular at the time.
Adler developed several different models and also engines up to 8 cylinders. The most popular cars had torsion springs in rear and transverse leaf springs in front. The engine was mounted with gearbox pointed frontwards and he cooling for the smaller car circulated by termosiphon circulation. drive on the front wheels. These were named the trump models and constructed by H.G. Röhr. The type of gearbox placement a may be a heritage from Rumpler. Rear drive was Rear drive was introduced 1937 with the Autobahn car. It had a 6 cyl 2.5 l engine giving 50 ps. This type of car had been introduced to Hitler who wanted car suitable for the motor roads. The production of private car ceased 1939. During the was Adler was a sub producer for the war production and many vehicles looked like other marks. The production used war prisoners and for this the director was sent to prison after the war. When war was just over al prisoners had to walk to other prisons in Poland. Trial for new production 1948. This was stopped by Hagemeier who didn't believed in the economy for this. Instead he started with motorcycles, tool machines. MC production ceased 1957. The English Triumph and Adler was fusioned to one company. The English had as war trophy taken the constructions of the new type of Adler MC. After this the Adler company was sold several times to Grundig, Litton, Volkswagen and at last to Olivetti before it came into the hands of holding companies. The company was slowly emptied with money and production ceased 1998.

Several old car marks got birth from a energetic contractor when he bought a car producer which had economical problems. This was the way for Johan Willys who 1908 bought Overland Automotive of Standard Wheel Company.

This company became the next biggest car producer after Ford in America. This went on from 1912 up to 1918. Remember that all production for civilian market went down tremendously when war started. This was not bad for Willys because he earned much money from the military production.

John Willys used all his money to develop his company and products. When he earned much money he had to place them by buying other companies, who had interesting products. He also bought smaller companies who had developed special cars.

In this way he bought several car producers and put his own production of different Willys cars there. Such a place was for Willys Knight produced in Cleveland by Stearns. There were several different car factory here. Here the marked got the sleeve valve car. This type was patented by Knight. Stearn had earlier bought a license for this engine type. This engine characterized by high moment and silent running. It was rather expensive to produce. For this it was sold as a luxury car.

Then some companies were established in Canada like Russel Cooperation and New Process Gears. Even Maxwell Automotive came under the wings of Willys. All John's companies became now so big that it was reconstructed as a Holding company. All parts became their own economical unit, but free to cooperate.

Duesenberg came also in Willys holding company and also Auburn and Cord.

The main important product was though the 4 cylinder Overland and Whippet. You can find a Whippet at Torsby Car museum. But in the whole the goal was to produce a 6 cylinder engine. The car on the picture is a 4 cylinder Overland Touring from 1923-24. A six cylinder car can be seen at Arvika car museum with the remarkable registration number S 1. I was living i Grums some kms nearby and could often see this car at the end of 1940th. Why remember this, my parents telephone number was number 1.

Links
Willys
Willys register
Knight engine
Sleeve valve engine picture
Maxwell Automotive

As all companies which grow to fast without a good connection to market and relationship to it's size. Willys Holding started to decline during the end of 1920th. Several companies were sold to get money. Factories were bought by Holding Units and then rented by Willys. Compare the selling of factory buildings in all countries all over the world during 1970 an 80th. Normally these were rented by former owner. For example ABB in Vasteras.

Well how did the 6 cylinder manage? The banks engaged Walter P Chrysler to make everything profitable. He was also like Willys interested to take over investing objects for his own earnings. Specially the 6 cylinder engine which was not ready developed. Of course it was several tours before Willys created his own company. This was later bought by GM with the 6 cylinder Willys engine.

Willys Overland Motor Company was reorganized, 1936, which still was a large producer. They got now together with Ford order to produce the famous JEEP. The construction company Bantam had not the capacity to produce so many units. You can see a Bantam at Sparreholm and Rydaholm museums Sweden. This made that Willys was bought by Kaiser-Frazer together with the license for Jeep.

1955 it was decided that the remaining of the production from Willys with tools should be moved to Brazil where the last cars of the mark Willys were put together. Later models from Willys like Aero were also done here. Ford continued the Brazil Willys adventure since they had bought the rests of Willys Overland. In America the name Willys disappeared when Kaiser was reorganized to Kaiser Jeep Cooperation. Everything ended up when the Chrysler Concern bought Kaiser and put their hands on the Jeep license. Chrysler was for a while Daimler-Chrysler before it was sold and became just Chrysler again.

Today the memory of Willys is hidden in all these sales at Chrysler, which fate in 2010th economical crises is unsure.

Stearns Automotiv
Russel Car Company
Chalmers Automotive
Durant

Ford modell N
The motor museum in Torsång with owner Erik Örtlund is culture preserving of Swedish old cars. This For N from 1904 was bought new by a farmer in Dalarna Sweden.

The car was stored since before WWII when the owner stopped using it. It is now given away to Torsång museum. The car has hardly been driven and is never reworked or new painted. Note that the models R, S, N had no running board. All three models were delivered during the same period and had separate colors. N was always painted in maroon. Everybody know that T was black. Responsible for production was Walter Flanders, who started to modernize this model and equipped it with running board and integrated fender wings. The old design was just like children wagons.

The selling increased heavily. Walter had organized the production continuosly. For this reason the part deliverers had difficulties to produce part in time. Walter solved these problems. In the same time Ford was planning to start with Model T secretly. After the cost for planning production Flanders was against this so early. This ended with that Flanders stopped working at Ford and started his own car production.

Read more about this on page 5, 6 at Storvik Odds and Ends. The article about Walter Flanders. Only in Swedish

The three car models For N, R, S, Flanders and Pope were all very alike because the engineers had close contact and leading man was Flanders. Yet Ford was the badge that survived.

Pope was equipped with drive shaft. Ref 1

Pope Tribune 1904

Colonel Albert Pope had during the last battles in the civil US war moved his regiment to Petersburg. In this area there was a well established industry which when war was over just waited for get new orders to work with.

Albert decided then to start working with pistols and started production. He was also a so far-seeing man for the hew popular transport way, the bike. In the beginning 1878 it was with so called high wheelers. There were several producers who exhibit them at fairs. Albert Pope bought several licenses and he also made a journey to England in order to study the production process.

When he came back he started an active production and sold 1/4 million bikes. He cooperated with Weed sewing machine factory in Hartford. They had competent workers to make small parts which had to be changeable. Pope also introduced ball bearings for all rotating parts. In this way he was after some in time control over this product. With the exclusive right he started to support cycle clubs and with lobbying for better roads in city centers and environs around the cities. Great amount of bikes of his Columbia were sold.

Albert Pope earned lots of money and he had to invest in new products. It became cars. He also understood that the steel that was used must be improved and started for this a metallurgical lab 1892. For this he got help by Hiram Percy Maxim who became his closest man. Hiram was a great inventor and worked also with radio connections and solving the problems with air planes.

Pope's first car was not a good one as it was not equipped with carburetor. The car instead demanded a bad road in order for the petrol to mix up with air in to fire up. As soon as the rod was even the engine stopped.

Because of these problems Popes was very interested in electrical cars but it was not his aim. The production was held at bike factory Columbia.
Car production did start around 1904. Just as all other car producers he made several models in different price levels. It was 5 different. The cheapest was Pope Tribune 1904 equipped with a 2 cylinder motor. After this came Pope Toledo, Pope Hartford and the odd electrical model Pope Waverly. The last was also produced in a small series in England.
His cars were considered as very trustworthy and carefully built. His cars was soft running and followed the unevenness of the roads primary because of the type of springs. The construction of the frame of the car was also very soft. Pope was also ahead of Ford to

build cars with interchangeable parts.

His cost were though too large for 5 different car models and the company was bankruptcy already 1907. He had some production up to 1914, but at this time Albert Pope was already dead since 1909. The last vehicle was a motorcycle with a V2 engine.

Pope Manufacturing Company

The MC Museum in Torsång is a popular stop for many cars and mc clubs. The pictures above show when MCHK Mälardalen had stopped for a look.

Often these trips are done by older MC enthusiasts and usually quite many of them are out driving.

Most visitors are car market clubs. One of their goals are this museum. Then there is only 0,5 km to the harbour of Torsång where they find a nice restaurant. If you don't want to spend this money there is a pizza place on the other side of river Dalälven.

The museum offer you coffee for only 10 Skr and entrance 25:-. This is gladly paid a beautiful summer day.

Links to different MC-Clubs:
Exchange of links. Mail bjorn.bellander(at)telia.com
Motala Touring Club
Ignite MC
Classic Honda Club
Svenska FJR klubben
Harley Davidson Club Sweden
Norsk Moto Guzzi Club
Vestby MC Club
------------------------------------------
Storvik Prylmuseum

Links to other MC museums
Nationalmotorcyclemuseum Australia
Mc museum Sinsheim
MC-Collection Stockholm
MC Museum Hedemora
MC Museum Falkoping
Rydaholm MC
Technic Grandfathers's time
Eds MC museum
Torsong MC museum
MC Motor Show 2008
MC Motor Show 2010

Pictures from the following owners have been used in bjorns-story.se with the necessary allowance:
Referens 1: © Björn Bellander bjorn.bellander(at)telia.com

Best in Internet Explorer 6.0 or later.
Best in resolution min 1024x768. No. of colors 256.
Videos are tested in Windows Media Player and Nero Player.

© Copyright Björn Bellander