Articles that Ben Branch has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more. Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
Ben Branch -
The Cloudmaster DC-6
The Cloudmaster is a DC-6 born in June 1958 at Santa Monica, California. She was delivered new to Eagle Airways, the then major British independent airline, which itself was started during the Berlin Airlift 10 years earlier. After modification to the airline’s specifications the aircraft was registered G-APSA and began flying all over the world on commercial and military charters.
Executive Turntable by Crosley
The idea of owning a record player has largely fallen from the public consciousness over the past few decades, there is still a small number of people who prefer vinyl and because of this, companies like Crosley still make classic turntables.
Jaguar XK120 M Roadster
The 1954 Jaguar XK120 M Roadster was the US specification version of the famous XK Jaguar model, the 3.4 SE engine was an inline 6 cylinder capable of producing 180hp at 5300RPM. This power plant was advanced for the day and same basic engine design remained in production for decades after it was originally introduced.
MuzzleShot Shot Glass
The MuzzleShot is a shot glass machined from a block of billet heat-treated aluminium, each ‘glass’ has a 1.5 ounce capacity and offers a zero-flavour-transfer anodised finish. If you’ve been looking around for the perfect Father’s Day gift and your Dad is a fan of whiskey, firearms and engineering, this may very well be the perfect thing for him.
Lunar Rover Operations Handbook
The Lunar Rover Operations Handbook was standard issue to the Apollo 15, 16 and 17 crews – the date on the handbook listed here indicates that it was the first of the rover manuals as Apollo 15 left from Houston on July the 26th 1971.
Ride & Explore Tee by ODFU
ODFU is one of our favourite boutique motorcycle clothing companies, its founder is a friendly guy by the name of Kevin Wilson who like many of us, loves motorcycles. “ODFU” actually stands for “one down five up” – the transmission layout on a standard motorcycle.
Honda CB550 by Seaweed & Gravel
The CB550 was only produced between 1974 and 1978, its predecessor was the CB500 and it was succeeded by the CB650 all of these bikes were offered under the price point of the iconic CB750 and all of them seem to have developed their own groups of dedicated fans, many of them are finding a second wind as project builds with interesting and creative conversions to cafe racer/scrambler/tracker/Brat-style bikes.
Replica 77 Gloves by Spidi
The Replica 77 Gloves are made in Spidi’s own labs in located north-east Italy, the Replica 77s are a special edition built to the same specifications as their first ever gloves that were originally released in 1977.
1964 Buick Riviera Coupe
This is an original 1964 Buick Riviera Coupe, 1964 was only the second year that the Riviera was sold and these first generation cars were extremely well received by not only automotive journalists, but also from the international car-designer-glitterati.
Shinola Backpack
This is the Shinola Backpack, it’s made by hand from American-made natural canvas, premium leather produced by Horween of Chicago, it has solid brass zippers and cushioned canvas backstraps with adjustable roll buckle hardware.
Oval Shank Poker Pipe by Fat Bastard Pipes
The pipe pictured here was handmade by Alex, he’s an American pipe-maker living in Denmark, he makes pipes to order and if you’d like one, you can click here to visit the ordering page on Fat Bastard Pipes.
BMW Concept Ninety
The BMW Concept Ninety is a new creation by the team at Roland Sands Design, built to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the original BMW R 90 S.