Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2024 i Heritage Commercials

The late May Bank holiday saw the heritage community come together at Laughton in East Sussex. Hundreds of classic cars, tractors and military vehicles jostled for attention against an equally large turn out of classic heritage commercial and steam transport vehicles. The oldest commercial vehicle on display this year was P Robertson’s 1921 Ford Model T Sv 5188 with a 1925 Ford Model T truck Ds 9694 coming a close second. All around the showground, thousands of people saw a wealth of interesting vehicles ranging from bus recovery trucks, flatbeds, and a variety of single and double decker buses, mostly from across East Sussex and nearby Eastbourne. One of the more unusual vehicles was a Land Rover 2B Forward Control Vehicle built as one of three in 1968 for Southern…

One of my key commercial vehicle contacts is Norman Young of N.D. Young Transport Ltd near Blandford, Dorset. Norman telephoned me during the summer of 2023 to highlight that Chard Junction would be closing soon and he would be taking the last load of aggregates out with his Volvo FM 460 eight-wheel tipper. Due to a museum meeting on this day, I was not able to meet Norman at the 2.30pm time slot for his arrival. However, I was able to be present an hour before to meet workers Martin Jaynes and Simon Land. Martin and Simon kindly showed me around the workings and highlighted a collection of superb photographs. Many of these reflected the commercial vehicles that were used at Chard Junction and those operated by local companies that…

As one of the rally season openers, Abbey Hill always contains a notable variety of commercials and this year included a notable selection of entries attending for the first time. This was also the first Abbey Hill following the passing of two long standing members. Cecil ‘Ces’ Turner was a committee member for 42 years and was the motorcycle steward. The section is now run by his granddaughter, Mandy. Cecil’s greatest legacy is the Yeovil Freewheelers Blood bike charity, an organisation he started in 1978. Alan Gordon Fry from Tintinhull, near Yeovil was a founder member and pillar of the steam preservation movement and was also well known for his lorries and low loader transport. The diligent efforts of the Abbey Hill Team and exhibitors were a fitting reflection of…

JULY 2024 COVER: BEDFORD KM INSIDE: Transport Museum, Volvo F7, The Lorry Battle of Britain JUNE 2024 COVER: A SHROPSHIRE SOJOURN INSIDE: Aussie Tippers, Peugeot 304 and a holiday horsebox MAY 2024 COVER: FABULOUS FORDSON INSIDE: Morris Commercial LC5, and a Fruehauf trailer rebuild APRIL 2024 COVER: DODGE 300 INSIDE: Scammell Crusader, Austin A35 van and Highland trucks MARCH 2024 COVER: SCAMMELL CRUSADER INSIDE: Austin Twinshaft Commercial, Recovery Lorries and Iveco FEBRUARY 2024 COVER: TWO AUSTIN SEVEN VANS INSIDE: Dennis Eagle Elite chassis, the Bedford Story and a DAF collection JANUARY 2024 COVER: IVOR OWEN & SONS INSIDE: Shropshire lorries, the Bedford story and Citroen vans DECEMBER 2023 COVER: FODEN FLEETMASTER INSIDE: 1936 Commer van, the Bedford story and a Century of Kenworths NOVEMBER 2023 COVER: LEYLAND DAF INSIDE: Swiss…

The Citroën C15 vans were launched on the UK market back in 1985, originally available in either red or white, rather clever marketing at that time depicted them on a wine bottle label, named as ‘Visa Van Rouge or Blanc’, and worthy of note is that all UK Citroën C15s came without side windows, all connected additional taxation for commercial vehicles, however, later it is thought that they could be added as an optional extra. Blue was a later option added to the colour range. I was lucky enough to catch up two C15 survivors and their owners down on the English Riviera, Van Rouge owned by Adam Margiotta from Dawlish and Andrew Midgely from Kingsteignton. It was agreed to meet up with them near Labrador Bay to snap the…

Amberley Publishing has very kindly sent me this most interesting book to review. The author, Malcolm Batten, first visited Brighton for the run in 1971, and has been back every year it has been held since then. This second book on the subject of Malcolm’s, features highlights of the years from 1996 to 2022 which was the 60th anniversary run. The London to Brighton Historic Commercial Vehicle Run is a must see event for preserved commercial vehicle owners and enthusiasts alike. The first run taking place in 1962. Until 2019, the run was traditionally held on the first Sunday in May, vehicles travel roughly 60 miles from London to Brighton where they line up on Marina Drive for judging and prizegiving. There is a rolling minimum age limit of 21…

Being a large and close-knit family, everybody had a part to play in the business with the youngest, Laurie, looking after the transport operations. Around 1955, he had been travelling between Darwin and Alice Springs on a weekly basis keeping an eye on the portable rock crushing plant that kept moving up and down the 1,000 Mile Road as it was known then. The plant was shifted as required to different locations, and would spend no more than three months at any one site. As a result, Laurie spent a lot of weekends in Alice Springs during that year, and would regularly notice a bloke of smaller stature and German extraction, loading a Mack and two trailers belonging to Ted Stiles who traded as Outback Transport. This bloke turned out…

In May, the quintessential Kentish town of Faversham played host to its annual Transport Festival weekend. On the Saturday visitors could take free trips around the town in historic buses, whilst on the Sunday the medieval town square was filled with classic motor cars. Hidden in plain sight among the MGs and Rover’s, however, were some marvellous examples of commercial vehicles ranging from the small to the powerful in the form of two steam rollers. Alongside the steam rollers was a fine 1933 Sentinel S4 affectionately known as ‘The Lion’. A late arrival on the Sunday was a 1906 Alley and MacLellan steam wagon.…

As always, I put the date of the Kelsall steam rally in my diary and made sure I was free to make the annual pilgrimage. It’s a bit of a drive from my home in Spalding to sunny Cheshire, but it’s always worth the effort, and this year’s show was no exception. As always, there is a massive emphasis on ERFs, and over 250 were on display over the two days, a mix of oldies from the 1930s right through to plenty of ECs, ECXs and even a rare ECS model. Foden was also well-represented with a healthy contingent of 4000 series and Alphas alongside those models from between the wars as well as from the 50s, 60s and 70s. There were plenty of first time attendees, and I was…

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Ford in the early 1960s had produced many good commercial vehicles but they hadn’t been as successful as Ford had hoped for. The company needed a reliable lorry that was competitively priced and attractive to potential buyers. It also needed to fill the gap in the market left by the Thames Trader and the Trader K. Ford in Britain had been granted a fair amount of autonomy on the design of their vehicles to suit British needs and tastes, but with the Model D came American engineering assistance. The Langley plant in Buckinghamshire (prior to the county border changes in 1974) was chosen as the birthplace of the new truck. The first models to be designed and built were the lowest payload capacity vehicles of the D range consisting of…

One of the great plus points about being involved in the reporting of classic commercial vehicles for ‘Heritage Commercials Magazine’ is liaising with the people behind the story. In this case, it was Station Commander Mike Cotton who approached us. “London Fire Brigade has the most beautiful fire appliance which we, collectively have restored over many years and I am sure your readers would love to hear about it”, he emailed. That was in 2017. Things happen in people’s lives, ours included, but slowly, together, we built the ET’s story. We have finally arrived in June 2024 with the background to a most beautiful example of the fire appliance builder’s art. Enter stage right and please take a bow, OXT 779. Mike Cotton was a serving London Fireman based at…

Three Okefords Preservation Society Ltd scheduled their Shillingstone Steam & Vintage Rally weekend at Shillingstone, near Blandford, Dorset in May. Due to the heavy, thundery showers on the Saturday, the Sunday of the show was cancelled writes Joseph Lewis. Around 60 listed commercials presided over by Section Leader Norman Young ranged from a 1930/1931 Ford AA Farm Truck to a newly acquired 1988 ERF E10 325. Somewhere in between came a ‘late entry’ 1951 Bedford OLB former Brewery and Coal Merchants lorry owned by N.D. Young Transport Ltd and a 1969 Bedford TK owned by Sean and Sara Barrington from Shaftesbury displaying a Koenigsberg 62 key Dutch street organ built in 1920 by the Koenigsberg family in Antwerp. Gratitude to Mike Welch, Chairman and all Committee Members and helpers.…

Compared with other hobbies, trucks books are still relatively thin on the ground, but over the years there have been some great books written on a variety of subjects all associated with commercial vehicles. It was early 1978 when I first got an interest in lorries, as nine-year-old me started watching the mass of different vehicles, in all manner of liveries passing on the opposite of the M6 carriageway between Junctions 6 and 4. My parents were making numerous trips from our home in Birmingham to the towns and villages in Warwickshire house hunting and undertaking house viewings as my dad geared up to move us closer to his new office in Warwick. An estate agent would ring up, arrange a viewing and me, my brother and sister would be…