Franklin Marshall, a history story
1918 – Thomas Franklin is born.
1932 – Franklin is given an apprenticeship in engineering with a car manufacturer
1938 – Franklin starts his own company servicing and manufacturing agriculture equipment including their own tractors. Company is called Franklin Agriculture
1939 – WW2 breaks out.
1941 – Franklin are asked to run a defunct car factory. Tasked to get it up and running, to provide vehicles for the war effort, they start the process of building a general purpose vehicle that Franklin had designed.
1942 – The Franklin Agriculture Rhino, named WO2200, is rolled off the production line. This has internal panels that fold down to provide seating in the rear. Folded up gave cargo space.
1945 – WW2 ends and Franklin
1946 – Company gets rebranded as simply Franklin and the first civilian vehicle is rolled out. The car is named the HiWay and was aimed at getting families mobile. Point of fact is that the HiWay is the only vehicle that has retained its name, all the way through to the present day.
1947 – Ministry of Defence is founded. The WO2200 is renamed as MOD2200.
1948 – Franklin decide to release the Rhino MOD2200 in a civilian model, the CIV2200. This is slightly more comfortable that the military version but still retains most of the characteristics of the original, except you could get it in more colours than beige and green.
1949 – 1968 Cars get produced and this will be updated once those cars have been planned out.
1968 – Jim Marshall buys a controlling stake in Franklin and rebrands the company as Franklin Marshall. Marshall announces that the company will keep the HiWay brand.
1969 - present - cars are produced
