Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2025 i Classic & Vintage Commercials

The first Nottingham ‘Number 7’ event of 2025 is taking place on Sunday April 27 at, as the name implies, Number 7, Private Road, Colville Nottingham, NG4 2JW. This is actually on the south-eastern edge of Nottingham, just off the A612 and easy to reach with vehicles of all sizes – no need to go anywhere near the city centre, whichever direction you are coming from. These events are hosted by Vintage Lorry Shop, and take place in the industrial estate roads around the premises of a classic-friendly lorry repair business. As the adjacent businesses are closed on Sundays, there’s lots of room to park up. Besides providing a good day out, the event raises funds for Ben – Support for Life. BEN is the automotive trade and services benevolent…

The 21st Cumberland Trunk Road Run took place on September 1 2024, and once again attracted a varied selection of vehicles. There were a couple of changes to the event this year, the main one being a reduction from a two-day to a one-day outing. The start was moved from Kendal to the Gilwilly Industrial Estate in Penrith. The route was still as challenging as ever though, with the entrants being challenged to climb Hartside Pass which rises to 1904ft above sea level. From the top the vehicles had a short break where magnificent views were on offer all the way to the Solway Firth despite the rather gloomy conditions, before the vehicles were on the road again, heading for Alston. Here the route turned north towards Brampton and then…

As we saw back in August, in the 1950s Papworth Coachworks were one of ten companies given contacts to produce the Green Goddess fire appliances for civil defence use in event of nuclear war. While the exact number made by Papworth isn’t known for certain, their civil defence production ran from 1954 to 1957. In addition, a further batch of 25 were made between 1962 and 1965 for civilian fire authorities in the Irish Republic. Today, the manufacture of fire and safety equipment by Supply Plus is one of the few remains of the former Papworth coachbuilding operations that is still functioning, and apart from the Green Goddesses, Papworth’s involvement in fire appliance manufacture didn’t really start until the 1990s, after the business had been taken over. However, Papworth did…

From the early 1960s, availability of new and lightweight materials began to transform the commercial vehicle body-building business. As these photographs that were among several rescued by Alan Robinson when the business closed show, Papworth Coachworks in Cambridgeshire were among the early adaptors of composite construction. Both these photos are dated July 1962.…

SPECIAL FEATURE: FORD TRANSIT AT 60! Back in 1965, Ford’s all-new Transit changed the 15-35cwt van market overnight, and became immediately the market leader. We tell the full story of the entire range, and Mike Neale looks at a couple of slightly different restorations… BREWERY BEAVER A historically significant Leyland gets a full restoration. David Reed tells the story. KENT AND SUSSEX Another garden of England selection, courtesy of Les Freathy. PLUS: Brisk Bedford JO, Pt2 of Peter Davies’ Thames ET6 analysis, Austin K8 & Morris PV model review, all our usual features and, of course, a surprise or three along the way… These features are all planned at the time of going to press. We reserve the right to make changes and amendments if necessary.…

It’s May 26 2022, two days before that year’s annual AEC Rally at Newark Showground, and 27-year-old Connor Baker was helping his good friend Darryl Blakemore prepare his AEC Matador for the event. In this case, however, ‘preparation’ wasn’t just a bit of cleaning and polishing; they were due to set off for Newark “about lunchtime” on Friday, but Connor and Darryl spent most of Thursday evening refitting the pistons into the engine block. But it all came together, Darryl’s AEC was driven to Newark, and parked up alongside another Matador. This one, however, was not in a good way; it was entered by well-known Matador ‘guru’ Matt Foster, and arrived on a low-loader, having not run, Connor established subsequently, for at least 20 years. It was basically a chassis-cab…

The Thornycroft Society recently held its AGM at Clidesden village hall, writes Keith French. It was a very pleasant event and despite a last-minute change of dates was well attended. Like many organisations associated with vintage vehicles the problem of an ageing membership was evident. It has after all after all it’s been many years since one of Basingstoke’s largest employers had ceased trading in the town. I think perhaps I was the youngest in attendance! Despite this there was a good enthusiastic turn out. The official business was undertaken with efficiency by the chairman Garry Bone, then followed a progress report on the Society’s Thornycroft Trusty which had just undergone an extensive engine rebuild which was due to be tested the following week. It is hoped that the vehicle…

Most people are familiar with the ‘Green Goddess’ Bedford fire engines of the Auxiliary Fire Service which were commissioned by the government during the Cold War as civil defence vehicles, in readiness for a nationwide response in the event of a nuclear attack. These were not the only vehicles on the AFS/Civil Defence fleets, however, which included mobile Control Units, Communication Units, Auxiliary Towing Vehicles, Hose Layers, Foam Tenders, Transportable Water ‘Bikini’ Units, Food & Drinking Water Carriers, Mobile Kitchens, Spare Clothing Carriers, Petrol Carriers, Recovery Vehicles, Ambulances, Land Rover and Austin Gipsy Command Cars, Motorcycles, Utility Vans and the humble Personnel Carrier. Many of the latter were long wheelbase Bedford CAL Utilabrakes converted by Martin Walter Ltd. of Folkestone, who were of course famous for their Dormobile conversions, but…

Last month I looked at the Commer Superpoise MkII made by Dinky Toys when the real vehicle was new. They were not quite the only company to make a model of one at the time, and more recently there have been a few white metal and resin models by low-volume manufacturers produced for collectors. These include models of the four-wheeldrive military Q4 GS 3-ton trucks built from 1951 to 1957, with a 13ft 11in wheelbase. Those used the Superpoise cab with front wing extensions to cover the larger wheels and tyres, with headlights mounted on the front bumper rather than in the wings, where they would have been too high due to the increased ride height of the 4x4 trucks. Chad Valley British toy manufacturer Chad Valley made several clockwork…

Time to delve into my photographic archive again to see what may be of interest to readers and enthusiasts out there. This time I decided to feature tankers. Of course, bulk tankers are used to transport all manner of products including liquids, powders, granules and gases etc. Specialist tanks and equipment have been developed and improved over the years to accommodate specific materials, and manufacturers have designed such things as frameless tank trailers and even GRP tanks. So, let’s take a browse through some outfits of the past which include classic vehicle British makes, none of which are manufactured today.…

In the post-war period and long before that, going right back to the early ’thirties, the UK light to medium-weight commercial vehicle sector was dominated by two rivals, namely Ford and Bedford, both of whom were offshoots of American companies. They each had a very different approach when it came to design and engineering. Bedford chose to power their range with an in-line six-cylinder OHV petrol engine while Ford’s choice of power unit was an American style petrol V8. If anything, Bedford scored better in certain respects and their K, M and O models were very popular while Ford’s unusual forward-control 7V models, carried over from the late ‘30s, were becoming a bit outdated as well as being less economical. It might be argued that the 7V wasn’t full-forward-control but…

I first met Andy Tilley’s Volvo FM back in the summer of 2022, when he, along with partner Deanne Gough, were displaying their lorry at the at the Holbeach vintage vehicle rally – a major event in South Lincolnshire. I thought then that it would make an excellent feature lorry. Due to my workload however, it’s taken until this year for me to get out and see it up close. But as I hope you agree, this particular FM has been well worth waiting for. Andy, by the day, is a driver for Fenland Haulage and is out all week in a Scania 560R Super tractor unit, while Deanne is the Transport Manager for two local firms, and also works on farms. Away from lorries – well sort of –…

The British Commercial Vehicle Museum in Leyland celebrated the 60th anniversary of the introduction of their Ergomatic cabs at their annual gathering back in July. Various Leyland commercials were on hand despite the rather inclement weather, some sporting the famous cab design, while other models were also to be seen, including a selection of buses, a couple of which took visitors on a guided tour of the town of Leyland itself. But it was the commercials that were the main focus of the day, here are some of the vehicles that were on hand to help celebrate this historic milestone.…

Until the early 1960s, the A1 still followed pretty-much the same route as used by stagecoaches prior to the arrival of the railways about 100 years earlier. That could sort-of be said of the route today of course, but back then it followed the coaching route even more closely, including running through the middle of key towns along the route. Needless to say there were numerous bottlenecks along the way, and this photograph, dating from November 5 1955, shows a busy scene at Great Gonerby, which at the time was a separate community just north of Grantham in Lincolnshire. The foreground is typically rural, with a dropside operated by Brown Bros on milk collection duties, about to join the road. Their dairy was on Grantham’s Manthorpe Road, and the “whip…

In 2019 a concept vehicle was unveiled by a billionaire businessman. An electric crew cab pickup. Deposits were taken later that year. Deliveries started in 2023 and the recalls started in 2024 for a possible accelerator pedal fault. Are electric delivery vehicles the future? They could be, but they are also the past. Electric vehicles delivered millions of pints a day of milk across the country, down every street in every town in their heyday during the mid to late twentieth century. In 1967 Britain had more electric vehicles than the rest of the world combined, most of them milk floats. I didn’t realise how many ex-milkmen I actually knew amongst my friends and contacts; I asked them for stories about their days ‘On the Milk’ Lee explained that he…