The Caldwell Vale Truck & Bus Co. was an Australian automobile,

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

, truck and tractor manufacturer from 1907 to 1913 in the

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

suburb of

Auburn Auburn may refer to: Places Australia * Auburn, New South Wales * City of Auburn, the local government area *Electoral district of Auburn *Auburn, Queensland, a locality in the Western Downs Region *Auburn, South Australia *Auburn, Tasmania *Aub ...

. The company started in 1907 when Felix Caldwell and Norman Laurie Caldwell of South Australia filed for a patent covering ''"Improvements in and connected with driving and steering motor propelled vehicles"''. In short, the patent was for a

four-wheel-drive Four-wheel drive, also called 4×4 ("four by four") or 4WD, refers to a two-axled vehicle drivetrain capable of providing torque to all of its wheels simultaneously. It may be full-time or on-demand, and is typically linked via a transfer case ...

system with four-wheel-steering. Later they combined with Henry Vale of New South Wales and in 1910, the trio applied for a patent covering ''"Improved power steering gear for heavy motor driven road vehicles"''. Few technical details have survived about the marque and roughly 40 examples of the vehicles appear to have been made. A

touring car Touring car and tourer are both terms for open cars (i.e. cars without a fixed roof). "Touring car" is a style of open car built in the United States which seats four or more people. The style was popular from the early 1900s to the 1930s. Th ...

, it is known to have had four-wheel drive, a 30 hp six-cylinder engine and four-wheel steering. The company also built a fair tractors. In 1912–13, the company lost a court case to do with the performance guarantee of the trucks and was taken over by Purcell Engineering in 1916. A surviving example can be seen at the National Road Transport Hall of Fame in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia. Another surviving example can be seen a
Booleroo Steam & Traction Preservation Society Inc
It can be seen running at their yearly Rall
BS&TPS Facebook Page
Photo showing working at their 2018 rally
1910 Caldwell-Vale tractor in Action
File:Cladwell vale truck.jpg , A 1910 Caldwell Vale truck loaded up with bales of wool. These models have a top speed of six miles per hour. File:Caldwell vale tractor.jpg , A photo of a 1910 80 hp Caldwell Vale tractor. It featured four wheel steering and an additional cooling tank mounted on the rear, suggesting that the front radiator alone was insufficient to maintain a normal working temperature for the engine.

References

{{Reflist Defunct truck manufacturers Truck manufacturers of Australia Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of Australia