Indholdsfortegnelse for February 2024 i Heritage Commercials

The red C-cab van UX 4810 represents an early Type AD. It has some very interesting vintage features, such as levers at the steering wheel centre to control the ignition and fuel mixture. However, this very smart little van has a secret past, it was not a van when new! It left the factory in 1929 as a Type RK fabric bodied saloon, ch. No. 76782 car no. A7-9274, eng. No. 80280. In the late 1990s, it was bought by Barry Goodman, its fabric bodywork and frame were totally rotten and beyond saving – so were scrapped. A brand new, replica van body from John Heath Coachbuilders Ltd., was purchased and fitted (this often came as a kit of parts with very detailed, handwritten assembly instructions). The finished van looks…

LONDON’S SCANIA BUSES By David Beddall and Liam Farrer-Beddall Three more books kindly sent in by Amberley Publishing, starting with this one, London’s Scania Buses. Since first arriving in London in 1989, Scania has provided various models to operate in the city from the N113CRBs which were purchased by London Buses Limited in the early 1990s and then Metrobus had a fleet of single-decker Scanias in 2002. After that, the N94UD and Scania OmniCity double-deck models operated between 2006 and 2012. Although Scania didn’t operate as many buses in the capital as other makes, they still provided a reliable service for many years. With the introduction of new rolling stock along with standardisation, this spelt the end of Scania in London service. This book by David Beddall and Liam Farrer-Baddell…

The Elite chassis made its debut at the 1992 Torbay Wastes Management Show on Dennis Eagle’s stand. Displayed were various 4x2 17, 6x2 mid lift axle 24,700, and 6x4 26-tonne chassis, fitted with Dennis Eagle’s Phoenix refuse collection bodies. This chassis was to revolutionise the UK waste industry with its one step walk through cab design, enabling the crew better access in and out of the cab, thus reducing injury. This was achieved by positioning the engine behind the cab. The cab was available in either crew or day cab configurations, with the crew cab accommodating either a driver and five crew, or a driver and four crew. Its day cab variant could accommodate either a driver and three crew, or a driver and two crew. Available as either a…

Born in Glasgow, Scotland, and christened Desmond James, he came out to Australia in 1928 with his mother and two sisters. At age 14, he worked as a telephone switchboard operator at the Wentworth Hotel in Sydney city. Later on, he held the same position along with bellboy duties at Usher’s Hotel, also in the city, but by age 16, Jim found himself alone as his mother went to South Africa to be with her other son. Through the Salvation Army he went to work at ‘Tindary Station’, east of Bourke in far north-west New South Wales, a part of Australia without any doubt, in total contrast to his native Scotland. After about two months, Jim had an altercation with the station manager. The mists of time made recollections a…

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 trucks, lorries from Shropshire and the Bedford story OCTOBER 2023 COVER: ATKINSON BORDERER INSIDE: Bedford PC van, Swiss trucks and Renault 5 vans SEPTEMBER 2023 COVER: AEC MANDATOR INSIDE: Thames Trader, The ATHS Show and US West Coast Trucks AUGUST 2023 COVER: Ford 11Y truck INSIDE: A35 pick-up, Recovery lorries, Leyland Beaver JULY 2023 COVER STORY: Recovery Lorries INSIDE: Thornycroft, The Humber story, DFD Rhodes of Australia JUNE 2023 COVER STORY: Albion Super Riever INSIDE: Foden S39, Unconventional lorries, Leyland FK7 MAY 2023 COVER STORY: Singer Nine Van INSIDE: Foden…

At the Retro Truck Show in Gaydon in September, my eyes were naturally drawn to a restored Leyland DAF 95.350 FT sleeper cabbed tractor. Despite ‘only’ dating from 1987, examples of early 95 series – the original look of the Cabtec cab DAFs – are actually relatively few and far between in the UK. It belonged to Steve Holes, who also owned the smart 3300ATi dating from 1986 parked alongside it. We got chatting and he told me about his collection of classic DAFs plus the fact he also operates two top of the range, all bells and whistles XG+530s. We exchanged numbers and I arranged to come and see both his modern trucks for our sister title Trucking, but also his fine collection of classics for Heritage Commercials. And…

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Like so many of us, I have a moderate, if somewhat diverse, collection of truck brochures. Excitedly scurrying around the Earl’s Court Commercial Vehicle show as a schoolboy, I gathered everything that the young ladies attending the stands could dish out until my York Trailers polythene carrier bag was stretching under the imposed loading, and the LeyParts cardboard cap made my head itch. House moves, lack of office space, you name it, means that the stacks have diminished over the years. I now have one or two of this make and that model, but for one marque I have a fairly comprehensive catalogue. They are not even all shown here, mainly because many of the front covers are quite plain with text only. Scammell trucks have always been special to…

The first armoured trucks rode on 12.00.29 tyres, raised on axles well off the ground, for their work in Malaya, with the weight of the armour putting quite some strain on the standard suspension. Due to the shortage of metal, the, probably 8mm, sheet was allegedly recycled from a scuttled Japanese battleship in Singapore Harbour (from research by Gordon A. McKinlay of New South Wales) and the clever guys in the local 40 Base Workshop REME who mated it together, sometime between 1951 and 55. The RL-vehicle structure had cupola openings mid-centre in the roof, front and back, for machine gunners and six doors, two in the cab, two mid-way along the body and two at the back. The First Battalion of New Zealand troops was known to have used…

A Fletcher & Co. Ltd., was a major player in the R.E. Mason Group of companies, and as such this group operated the largest fleet of Sentinel diesel trucks in the country at any one time. Later, many of these trucks were converted to TVW’s using Gardner LW engines in the eight wheelers and Leyland Power Plus 350’s in the six wheelers. A lot of the conversion work was done in the Station Road garage at Ibstock, some cabs for the six wheelers were fitted here but the eight wheeler cabs were fitted at Warrington I believe. These mods were all carried out under the guidance of Ron Johnston, managing director of Fletcher’s and a major player within the group. Ron was known by all in the Speedway world as…

Earlier this year, an 800hp tractor unit was unveiled in China, where, admittedly there are higher gross weights – not to mention more than a few cases of ‘overloading’ – and so it probably makes sense. Here we currently have the 770S Scania at 770hp as the most powerful production series truck sold in the UK, although Volvo is expected to launch a 780hp model early in 2024. Such power is an extravagance not needed for 99.9% of haulage applications, but whatever the power there is no shortage of takers if it is the most powerful available. I’ve said before, Scania could announce an 800S tomorrow and the orders would come in regardless of whether operators needed it or not. But it wasn’t always that way. Today, there is a…