Ham Can Airstream? Wally Byam Holiday

[lwebb]

Folks, I'm posting my site on the progress on my renovation of my 55 Wally Byam Holiday by request. I discovered the first Holiday in 02 in Central Florida and posted questions on the Forum then asking for any info on my new acquisition. Mostly folks just said it couldn't be an Airstream. No one at that time had heard of them, even Airstream!

It took me months to get any information at all. Thanks to several people, specially Fred Coldwell and Al Hasselbart, I was able to begin piecing together its history. Fred did a wonderful article in the Spring of 06 featuring my Holidays. I bought 8 copies!

After a years worth of emails and phone calls , Al Hasselbart wrote and told me he had heard back from Wally Byam expert Bud Cooper who was very familiar with the Holiday and nearly owned one when new. Bud says it was a small production prototype model made only in 1954 to see if the customer would buy the caravan styling as opposed to the typical Airstream styling. The test failed and they were never put into real market production. The prototype unit was built by a Jack Oakley and John Taylor for Wally.

I'm still learning the web site stuff so please let me know if you find things that don't work. I'm sure there are many.
Thanks
Lanny
The URL is
Untitled Document

[lwebb]

Any suggestions? Evidently if you click the "Untitled Document" it will take you there.
Sorry!!!

[azflycaster]

If you look at the html code for the web page it says:

<title>Untitled Document</title>

The forums looks for the title and uses that for the name of the link. Change it in the web code and it will display differently next time you post it.

Great looking trailer!

[CanoeStream]

Lanny, your link is okay -- the tagline (Untitled Document) is what seems to be indeterminate. It's probably titled that way on the uga.edu website.

On AIR Forum pages you can repair links like this:

1. Write a name into you post, Like Byam Holiday
2. Highlight that name
3. Click the hyperlink icon just above the text entry window. The hyperlink icon is circled in red in following image:
4. Enter the actual website URL in the popup window that follows; click OK
5. So you end up with something like this: Byam Holiday

I really appreciate your sharing this great find!

[lwebb]

Thanks Bob, I'll do that next time.
lanny

[66Overlander]

Thought you might appreciate this find. I spotted an unusual trailer in this photo from the 1958 Western Canada Caravan that appears to be an original Wally Byam Holiday trailer. Look at the trailer on the far right.


Here is the link I found it at - it is the last photo in the album:
1958 Western Canada Caravan Photo Album

[balrgn]

That is just too cool, nice job. Looks like you have put alot ot work into it. Saved your link, thanks for sharing!

[lwebb]

Joe, Thanks, That's a great photo! I have only a handful of images of the Holiday back in the day. I was fortunate to get a couple of the 55 from the original owner. I'll see if I can reach him to ask if I can post them. They are family shots with the camper in the background.

Balrgn, Thanks for the kudos. I am having a great time working on it. Due to back surgery and work, I lost a year in the project. I'm already thinking of how I will do things differently on the 54 when the 55 gets done.

I was exceptionally lucky to get the serial number of the 54, 1094 as my WBCCI number. I can't wait to go to my first rally!

[craftsman]

Lanny , nice work. Howdid you end up with two of them. That's like winnning the Lottery twice.

[lwebb]

Hey Craftsman,
Yeah a real fluke. I came across the first on in the back woods of Central Florida while down there fishing and then spent months trying to find anybody that had even heard of it. A couple years later, I was on ebay looking at old campers just for fun and saw one in the Catskills above New York. That's a hike for a Georgia boy but heck I had been living in the luxury of owning the only one. I though hey what if I had the only two. I bid and won and left here on a Thursday night and returned Sunday with the 55 only a couple days short of a divorce.
It was three years before the next one appeared then within six months three more have surfaced. We need to start our own club!