Although there is no Super badge on this V8 i think it qualifies for one! Owner Driver Tim Rigby drives this on mainly international duties, pulling fabrications or farm machinery. Tractors are also a regular load to and from the continent, he popped in our yard today as he has done a German reload for us this week. This old girl is up for renewel soon. A 2 year old R620 6×2 midlift is the new apple of Tim’s eye, no doubt it will be kept just as tidy.
Happy New Year bloggers! I’ll start this year as I mean to go on, with a good blog that’ll hopefully entice you all into coming back over and over again!
To start us off Steve Marsh is back….. Twas the week before Christmas and all was quiet, well that was until the Warrington MAN fired up and headed south for a pre-Christmas dash to Malta. Load detail as follows; “Load Manchester and Frankfurt airports for delivery to Luqa airport, Malta. Reload Luqa airport for Heathrow. Plus 2 collections ex Milan for Ashford and Birmingham.” Sounds like a cracking little outing. The boat back from Malta arrived in Genoa on Wednesday 22nd December, so there was a lot to be done to beat Father Christmas back to Warrington!
Great picture!
In the pic below, note the well worked Eurostar and Streamliner poking its nose in.
On the road to Luqa Airport. Excellent advertising for the blog!! (Look Carefully!)
Unloading at Luqa.
Back on the boat ready leave Valetta, having completed part 1 of the trip.
Hopefully the Marsh will continue to supply some excellent blog material throughout the year, just as long as he is home long enough in between trips to email the pictures over! Having made it home for Christmas day, Steve spent New Years Eve on the Kiel to Gothenburg boat, heading for delivery to Sweden. Pictures to follow!
We are currently also exploring avenues to get some live streaming video from the little MAN on its trips across Europe so you never know by the end of this year you may be able to follow Marshy on his travels.
This post was expertly edited by Mrs H Reeder BA (Hons).
So the festivities are nearly over, how many cards did you get? more to the point how many were truck related?? Ether the truck pic with computer generated snow or the real snow pic taken and abused by a rubbish camera, is it possible to create a good authentic looking Christmasy Christmas card??? We had a good selection in so i decided to share a few with you.
First up the good ones. Genuine pictures taken in snowy surroundings, although they can still have a hint of photoshop just for that final festive look! Charles Russell in the Alps and Frosty in his yard in deepest darkest, Suffolk ba.
The next catergory is the, pick your favorite picture and add a festive slogan to it. Not a bad idea shows you at your best at least!! Thanks to Big Al for the classic British Stack. The Scania is Owner Driver Tim Rigby from Taunton.
Then you get your down right, bugger we’ve forgotten to order Christmas cards, awful.
Can you beat these??? email ben@truckblog.co.uk
Bonjour mon ami, Voici quelques images de mon Vincent d’ami français. Basically here are a few pictures from my French friend Vincent. Just like us over here them over there also have Scania perverts lurking in the Garlic fields. Vincent says;
“hello, i am french and i am passionned by the Scania! I have a Scania LB110 super of 1972, a Scania LB 141 of 1978 , 760 000 kms, a Scania R142 6×2 of 1984, 800 000 kms, a Scania T 142 h 4×2 of 1984 , 780 000 kms and a Scania R143 450 Topline of 1992 with 1 800 000 kms !!!”
A nice little collection, i have asked if he wants a nice little blue and white 141 to add to to it…………… he hasn’t said no yet! I think my favorite is the brown 110, very original.
I’m not the only fan of custom 7.5 tonners. This little beauty was Lightning Freights pride and joy. From what i remember the truck featured in one of the magazine’s at some stage, running car parts from the North East out to Europe. I have done a bit of searching and i’m not to sure if Lightning Freight are still going, their website is just a plain white page. If you have any pictures of this DAF 45 in its hey day or as it may be now, please email them to me to put on here, ben@truckblog.co.uk always good to see how these trucks look after a few years. It would also be good to know whats happened to Lightning Freight, if you have any answers email me!! Picture provided by www.trucknetuk.com member dlote2009, thanks.
………To Germany any way. Read on for MAN’s Press release;
“Just like every year, this year will again see two MAN TGX trucks, specially decorated for Christmas, bringing a sparkle to eyes – not only of the children – at Children’s Villages and kindergartens all round Germany, from the first Sunday in Advent to Christmas Eve.
The 16-metre MAN semitrailers with their festive illumination will be touring the entire country, from Kiel to Hamburg, Leipzig, Dresden, Zwickau, Plauen, Coburg, Salzgitter, Wiesbaden, Cologne, Augsburg and Munich to Regensburg. The two Christmas trucks will be visiting children’s hospitals, kindergartens and other social institutions, taking with them truck models made of chocolate and sliding tile puzzles with the MAN Christmas motif as small gifts for the children. The trucks will also be visiting the MAN plants, branches and service partners, as well as some Christmas markets. .Trainees from MAN Nutzfahrzeuge AG in Munich have transformed the two metallic red 540-hp MAN TGX semitrailers into real Christmas trucks: 200-metre long chains of lights, able to withstand weather and washing systems, have been mounted on each of the tractors and their trailers, which have been fittingly decorated for Christmas. The trainees framed the radiator grilles with hundreds and hundreds of LEDs. What makes this year special is the way the trailers have been decorated: the children who make up the motif are all at the kindergarten of the MAN plant in Munich, “Löwenkinder”.
Snow and cold gets everywhere as does that Frost. My old mate Tony van der Nunn has sent these various pictures in the last couple of weeks, while pulling for HC Wilson. As always Tony’s wheels never seem to get affected by the bad weather and salt, no wonder the old girl is still in great condition. The picture of the brown tank, was a little frustrating for TvdN as it was destined for Bahrain, but unfortunatly it was going via boat not over land, so the old V8 only got as far as Southampton dock. The 3rd picture is one of 8 or 9 flatrack loads to Pembroke.
Have a look at these pictures sent over by Astran Director Kevin Letham. This Actros has been painted in the legendary Red and Yellow. The plan is to do a few trips to the M/E and then sell her on to a new life in the sun. The big question being will she be replaced by another Red & Yellow beasty?? The load of pipes were collected from northern Italy and deliver to Losail, Qatar in under 2 weeks. Good going but then again the pilot/photographer was the old M/E hand Roger “Rabbit” Gool, returned from retirement for a few trips. Keep the pictures coming Roger/Kevin!
No need for light bars and loads of spot lights for Leicester Heavy Haulages trucks, they carry around there own light source! This lovely old light ship “Calshot Spit“, has been moved by road From Southampton’s Ocean Village to Trafalgar dry dock for full restoration. The ship guided flying boats into their terminal at berth 50 and warned ships of sandbanks. Calshot retired from service in 1987. She was lifted from the water in 1989 and placed at Ocean Village Marina. Landlocked in concrete, the 140-ton vessel needed to find a new home as its current spot at Ocean Village is under redevelopment. So in come LHH to move the ship to the dry dock. Two huge cranes lifted the ship from its concrete mooring onto the 16 rows of Scheuerleaxles. The outfit was moved by 2 of LHH’s 6×4 DAF Super Space Cabs with ballast boxes fitted. The ship itself measured in at 26m Long x 6m Wide x 15m High and some where between 140 & 160 Ton. Its a good job Gary at LHH is a bright spark and made light work of such a flash job!
As many people know MDF Transport from Gt Yarmouth are fair Volvo fans. MD of MDF Mark Farrow sent me a recent wedge of pictures which i am getting through.
First up this cracking shot of a Lotus F89 after what looks like a service at a Volvo dealership (note the seat cover!!). Mark tells me this lovely truck was sadly written off in Italy in about 1983, while on its way home from the Italian Grand Prix. I have no idea what happened to the valuable cargo it was carrying at the time.
Next up is this hard worked F88. Well travelled by the looks of the cab, GB stickers and cab flags are true signs of a well travelled truck in the 1970’s! Although it does look like its parked in an English field, but why its in the field i have no idea! Have you got any idea? email me ben@truckblog.co.uk
Last but not least. This cracking F89 belonging to MDF. This picture was taken 4 or 5 years ago in Sweden, that’s all i can tell you. Working or Show? Working i hope…
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