Indholdsfortegnelse for September 2021 i Heritage Commercials

Well, my wife and I finally got away for a short break – three nights in London, staying in a hotel in Notting Hill – and yes we did see the famous book shop! We had an excellent time visiting Portobello Market, The Tate Gallery and we walked through Birdcage Walk seeing the wild parrots and many other species of bird among doing other touristy things. The break was blighted somewhat when we got back to the Newark Northgate NCP car park where we had pre-booked a space. For some reason it wouldn’t accept our ticket on leaving and was asking for an extra £50. So we reversed out of the way of other traffic, and I went back to the railway station to seek help. No one could help…

Here’s an event to note in your diary. Saturday 30th October 2021 – 17th Samuel Ledgard Society Transport Collectors’ Fair at Pudsey Civic Hall, Cote Lane, Pudsey, near Leeds, LS28 5TA. Open 10am to 3pm. Admission £3. Enquiries: Barry Rennison, email: rennison@cc-email.co.uk, phone: 0113 236 3695, webpage: www. samuelledgardsociety.org.uk. Barry Rennison Chairman The Samuel Ledgard Society…

At shows and rallies, the Walsh brothers, Ken and Ray, usually bring two or three restored classics. One piggybacked on another. And, for the last few years, a third kitted out with a lounge area, kitchen and sleeping accommodation. Their present hospitality vehicle is the 1961 Austin FG-based ex-Aberdare, South Wales, mobile library. While the owners of many restorations at these events are often nowhere to be seen, one or both of the Walshes is generally on hand to answer questions. Ray says that Ken – who tends to take care of the meeting and greeting – would gasbag with a parrot if it wanted to talk about restoring old trucks. Ray handles the catering side – with a hint of ‘keep out, that’s my department’. Understandably, as he fits…

During the mid-twentieth century, bus companies either bought a dedicated breakdown lorry for the company’s own use, relied on a third-party commercial service or, increasingly, converted a redundant bus from their own fleet into a service vehicle. Companies with a decent size fleet manifest made do with an old, time-expired model of a single or double decker bus, chopped-up around the rear to provide a working area and, if management were sympathetic, some cover for the recovery crew. Sometimes, it was done neatly with two bays of the passenger compartment retained; others had their bodywork unceremoniously hacked off with a welding torch with no attention to aesthetic detail, but usually just enough was left to offer some shelter and storage. Our 1965 picture of ex-Bradford ‘Leyland’, 296 KU, is a…

FLORIDA 1 In the April 2021 issue of Heritage Commercials, there were some pictures from the mid Florida truck show in Leesburg FL. One picture was a Mack DM restored and owned by DeBerardinis of Orlando FL. Here’s a picture of one of the work fleet we unloaded on Friday, 18th June in North Lauderdale. Tony Mendham, Florida DANSKIN PHOTOS I was delighted to see eleven of my photographs featured in the two articles about Danskin of Srathkinness (HC April and May). Most of them were taken at the Londonderry Lodge Café in North Yorkshire, although there were three exceptions. The Volvo F86 NES 637R, was taken at Norman’s Café, Brotherton on 1st July, 1986. The F86 PWG 176R, and the F88 with the sheeted load XCG 601R, were both…

I can still hear David Coupland’s wonderful distinctive voice either thrown across the car park or booming down the phone line. While such a memory – of course – is always coupled to the vision of his wife Shirley’s beaming smile. Throughout the ‘90s and noughties, Team Coupland were to be found here, there and almost everywhere. Whether it was recording a classic vehicle road run, steam engine rally, tractor ploughing event or witnessing the nail-biting spectacle of seeing a massive heavy haulage load on the move, then the Lincolnshire-based ensemble would probably be in the thick of the action ensuring the moments were saved for posterity on film. Being in the right place at the right time with the right camera – ideally tripod mounted – pointed in the…

There were around 50 military vehicles ranging from motorcycles, half-tracks, recovery trucks and troop carriers. One of the stars was a 1972 ex-Army Bedford MK owned by Malcolm Redston from Taunton. Malcolm acquired the MK in serviceable condition with a good cab, which is unusual, as the cabs are known to rust. This gave a good base to refinish the bodywork in deep bronze-green gloss which would have been typical of the period in the London District. In Military terms, this model is classed as a four-tonne 4x4 general service (GS) truck, which is powered by a Bedford 330 multi fuel six-cylinder engine with four-speed synchromesh gearbox and two-speed transfer box providing four-wheel drive. The military specification includes a Turner five-tonne ‘belly-mounted’ winch which is capable of pulling from the…

In last month’s issue of Heritage Commercials, we introduced you to Arthur Brent who made the progression from traditional to motorised horse power in the mid ‘20s and eventually set up as an owner driver at Oxenhope in West Yorkshire in 1947. It was to be the local wool traffic which kept Arthur busy and this was primarily as a sub-contractor for the large operation of Jack Bell. While Bell’s were to have their long distance fleet nationalised into British Road Services in the late ‘40s, Arthur kept his head down and was to actually double his fleet when his son Clifford joined him after doing his National Service seeing action in the early ‘50s conflict in Malaya. Our guide through the Brent story is Clifford’s son Richard. And while…

He and co-owner Neil Morgan own a collection of more than 30 buses of all eras. As he refreshingly explains “They’re toys. Big toys, but toys. When we park them up together it’s like a Dinky toy set. When you’ve got the breakdown wagon, the coach, the bus, just scaled up.” “Maidstone and District Bus Company converted it into a breakdown wagon and mobile workshop” Speaking to Darryll you cannot help but get wrapped up in his enthusiasm for collecting historic buses and displaying them across Kent, Sussex, and Hampshire, not that he, like the rest of us, have had much opportunity to do any of that for the last 18 months, in fact one of the last purchases to add to their collection was an extremely rare 1959 AEC…

Ican’t say with any certainty, but I think I may have stumbled on what might possibly be, the last working Volvo FS7 in the UK. And even then, the term ‘working’ might be construed as something of a loose description. That’s because the tractor unit I found is no longer taxed and tested for use on the road, it’s solely used to shunt trailers in a yard. But nevertheless it is working and doing a job. The good thing about K776 MTR, is, it was only about 35 miles away from my home, and it didn’t take too much detective work to track it down. But before I tell its story, a little bit of history about the FS7. A hybrid “The FS7 is a bit of a mish-mash. It’s…

Tiverton Museum of Mid Devon Life was established 61 years ago by a group of local volunteers who saw everyday life changing. There are approximately 13,500 objects, and 25,000 photographs and archival items in the collection. The museum is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) and registered charity. Two recent awards on Trip Advisor were Certificate of Excellence 2019 and Traveller’s Choice Award 2020. Full Accreditation as recognition of museum standards was awarded by Arts Council England. A broad collection of objects relating to the history of Mid Devon, spans the wool trade of the 1700s to the arrival of John Heathcoat’s lace factory in 1816. The largest object is the GWR steam engine 1442 ‘The Tivvy Bumper.’ I was intrigued to find the local life and industry gallery. This included…

Roddy and his brother William own Brian Patterson & Sons, a family-run business started by their father. The company has a long and successful history, providing quality crane hire to Perth and the surrounding area. “My father Brian was born in Scotland and formed the company in 1946 when he left the army,” said Roddy. “Our original yard was in the north-east of England before the family moved back up to Scotland. We had several depots including one in Aberdeen, but shut them down when Scottish Agricultural Industries (SAI) finally closed.” The family’s current yard is at Aberargie just south of the Tay estuary, and a short distance away from the main M90 motorway. Up until recently, the brothers were still running a small haulage fleet, but their primary business…

Electric power distribution is one industry that has long relied on trucks of all sizes and configurations to transport everything from large transformers and sub-station equipment, to the distribution of stores and many single-purpose tasks. In the state of New South Wales, the earliest supplies of power to the capital, Sydney, and its inner metropolitan area for instance, were handled on a local council basis, which ultimately became too unwieldy and was replaced in 1936 by the Sydney County Council (SCC). As the SCC spread its services north and south of Sydney, trucks played an ever-increasing role. Over the years, many different makes were purchased on a tender basis, and while there were some US-sourced vehicles, British breeds dominated the SCC fleet, although our ‘home grown’ RFW did manage to…

Shows, road runs and fairgrounds aside, ERFs are sadly very thin on the ground these days. If you are really lucky, you might still see one hard at work on the road, and the chances are, if you do, it will be an EC. The only other model still lingering on in use on the UK roads is likely to be an ECX – which many feel was ERF’s last real truck and not a German with a British badge. And even then, the truth is, there are not many ECXs left in daily use on general haulage. Emissions, scarcity of parts and just their age – they are all pretty much 20 years old now – means ECXs are themselves now a rarity. The ECX was never aimed at…