Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2023 i Classic & Vintage Commercials

Welcome to the August 2023 issue of Classic & Vintage Commercials. As I write this, the show season is well underway; I made my usual trip to the Classic & Vintage Commercials Show at Gaydon in early June, and our man David Reed went along to Kelsall. The latter is a show I’ve always wanted to visit personally but for various reasons the date never seems to have fitted – maybe next year. Both these shows were very wellsupported, as you’ll see in our report on Gaydon on pages 42-45 of this issue and, later in the year, our report from Kelsall. But overall, I have noticed that some of the bigger events have experienced a slight fall-off in attendance while at the same time some more local events have…

The Leyland Society is 25 years old this year which, given that their magazine “Leyland Torque” is published four times a year, also means that the magazine is publishing its 100th issue. The club are celebrating both events with a bumper, full colour 72-page issue of the magazine and, to mark the anniversary further, they are making copies of this available to non-members for £12 including post and packing. Appropriately, the 100th anniversary issue also includes a “very detailed index” comprising more than 2500 entries for subjects covered in past issues. Alternatively, if you are a Leyland owner, or have an interest in the marque, Society membership costs only £30 a year, and entitles you to four issues of Leyland Torque and several other benefits. To find out more, go to…

Away from his work on CVC, our Editor has a number of personal background projects. One of these, which has been inspired by various sightings since he arrived in Lincolnshire around twelve years ago, is a booklet entitled ‘Strange Signs of Lincolnshire.’ Or maybe ‘Strange signs of the fens’ if the boundary needs to be extended. Anyway, one such which is destined to be used is this rather interesting lorry-shaped weathervane spotted not far from Mablethorpe recently. It appears to be above a lorry yard of some kind which is otherwise hard to spot, so maybe it’s intended as a directional guide. Or maybe it’s just an advertisement. Anyway, it’s clearly been up for some time, and we think the six-wheeler depicted has a definite 1980s or 1990s look about…

One bonus of being a lorry enthusiast is that you’re never bored when out on the road nor, for that matter, if you’re in a place you haven’t visited before. There are always plenty of wagons to feast your eyes on. This is true too of foreign parts. While most ‘normal’ folk fly off to exotic places to sample the scenery and night life, ‘truck nuts’ like me just look forward to seeing foreign lorries. There are no foreign lorries in this month’s helping of period pictures – just good old British stuff. Well, okay, except for one. Enjoy… Back in the ‘fifties and ‘sixties the Milk Marketing Board (MMB) played the leading role in the collection, treatment and distribution of that precious white liquid we rely on so much. Typical…

CVC reader Stephen Lock was, it would be fair to say, ‘born into’ lorry driving with older brothers, uncles and a cousin all working for a North Devon cattle haulage business. One brother Jimmy subsequently rose to what was considered the top of the driving profession by qualifying as a tanker driver. A young Stephen often accompanied family members in the cab during school holidays, and there was never any doubt that he would also follow the family trade. After obtaining his HGV licence aged 21, he spent 30 years driving lorries the length and breadth of England, Scotland and Wales. And as you’d expect, an awful lot happened during that long career; he hauled everything from cattle and concrete to guided missiles. He also kept diaries of everything that…

I am restoring a Dodge lorry for a customer and am looking for some help. The owner’s father started their haulage business with a similar lorry, hence him wanting this one restored. I am a traditional panel beater and generally make and repair body panels for vintage and classic cars/ racing cars. As a long-time reader of your magazine and having had an interest in old lorries for as long as I can remember,I was delighted to be asked to bring this one back to life. I have struggled to find much information on this model except from a few websites suggesting it was built from the late 1930s until mid-1940s in Kew.From images of similar vehicles it is possibly a 121or101B model designation? The registration is EBB249, and date…

I wish to add more regarding Leyland Marathons and BOC Transhield, as discussed in your April and June issues. BOC Transhield did indeed operate a fleet of Marathons on Marks &Spencer refrigerated work from the Transhield depot in Crewe (Now Gist) in 1983/1984, as mentioned by Gordon Mitchell. These machines being S&T registered (so obviously bought 1977/78) and presumably replaced the Guy Big Js used in the early 1970s alongside Bedford TMs &latterly Leyland T45s. Transhield was formed in 1969 and Ithink the first base was in Barnsley They then opened up others in Cumbernauld for Scotland, Bristol, Hemel Hempstead, (I think Crewe was opened in 1980) and Faversham in Kent. Faversham’scustomers included the Marks &Spencer stores in Paris and Brussels. There was a French subsidiary of BOC Transhield known…

Scammell’s first Motive Units, or MUs (Scammell’s terminology for the tractor unit) in the early 1920s were chain driven and had solid tyres. A tractor and trailer combination was known as an Articulated Eight, or Articulated Six depending upon the number of wheels. The early cabs offered only some protection for the driver as the side doors had no windows. By the late Twenties, pneumatic tyres were fitted, although initially only to the front wheels, and the cabs became more substantial. From the Thirties, pneumatic tyres were fitted all round. After WW2, the cabs, wheels and tyres were largely unchanged from their pre-war counterparts. A motive unit with a trailer was now known as a Lightweight Artic. Squared off front wings with built-in headlamps began to appear in the mid-1950s.…

As a regular reader of your magazine, many of the articles bring back so many memories of my time behind the “big wheel”, so thought the attached photo may be of interest. Taken just after I began driving heavies at the age of 21, the attached photo of the S20 Fodens of the National Coal Board were used to convey spoil from the colliery at Penrikyber, up the steep gradients to the tip site. (I’m nearest the camera in 402 TTX). When the infill of the tip was completed, I then moved to the NCB’s Central stores where we had Commer 7.5 ton flatbeds. In 1968/69, I was driving mobile exhibition units. One was a Commer walk through, and the other a pantechnicon built on a Bedford chassis. At this…

As aregular readerofthe CVC magazine I was interested in the model corner section of the magazine and the Thames Traders.Back in the sixtiesIlived justoutside Hastings in East Sussex and Istill do. My late father drove alorry for R NFrench, alocal form that is still in business today,collecting milk churns from local farms and taking them into Farmers Direct Dairy’s at Silverhill in St Leonards –now the site of an Asda supermarket. To do this he drove a Ford 6D Thames Trader. These lorries were the mainstay of the fleet,and once they came off distance general haulage they were putonmore local work such as site work or milk collection. They were really a good workhorse. I expect our Editor Mr Simpson can relate to the company and many others in the…

Numbers were down somewhat due to clashes with other events over the bank holiday weekend, but this event still caught the eye, and as ever, was well worth alook. Here are some of the vehicles taking part.…