Railway MAN

A few weeks back Steve Marsh Express was called upon to transport some train parts from Leeds to South West Wroclaw, Poland. A nice little trip of of 1,016 miles before delivering to a back end train depot in old industailised Polska.  Now if there is one man who could teach you a thing or 3 about taking a picture in a good location it’s our man Marshy. Can my Photographer type friends please leave you feed back for Mr Marsh to encourage him to make more pictures!! I don’t know why but trucks and industrial building / venues do seem to compliment each other. Look at these pictures and see for youself……….

Poland Trip

After arriving at the listed delivery point to the North East of Wroclaw at Olesnica, Mr Marsh and the little MAN were told to re-direct to unload at this old, still used, railway yard. At some point i think Marshy must have wondered if this place was one of those old places in films you see the bad guys hiding in. Queue tense music and dim lights to create an earrye atmosphere. Perhaps the 1750 kgs of train motors were just a cover for some thing much more sinister! (sorry getting carried away with the movie location thing!).

Poland Trip

Poland Trip

Look a strange object in the bottom picture it must be a movie set………. oh no its Marshy’s finger! After seeing the Marsh at the weekend he did say that he did quite like some of these Polish pics. I think one of the best is this one inside the shed.

Poland Trip

I said to Steve that i liked the way he had put the truck to the back of photo and got the trains in the foreground, quite a bit of Photographic talent in that pic, although Marshy’s reply was that he hadn’t meant to do it as he had tried to get the truck in the centre of the photo and missed!! Typical.

Poland Trip

After uloading it was time to head West out of Poland all the way back to Aachen, Germany to reload for the UK. Taking in the gorgeous roadside views of lovely Poland on the way!! Just wanted to include the pic, no idea what i’m talking about now!! (Note to Admin: Put

Poland Trip

Mallorcan Marsh

He is a boy i tell you, living the life of Riley as my Gran would probably say! Gadding about Europe like an international Playboy. A trip a few weeks back landed him on the road to Mallorca, terrible! The call came in for a load of gym equipment to go to a English owned residence some where near Palma, so Mr Marsh packed his favourite speedo’s, bucket and spade and headed off for Barcelona and a ferry to Mallorca.
Mallorcan Marsh
Mallorcan Marsh
On arrival he had been told to head for a parking area where he would be met and taken to the house. While waiting at the parking area what should turn up? yep another MAN 12 tonner, this time a German one.
Mallorcan Marsh
After being collected and taken to the new house it was then time to unload and as it was the weekend Steve decided to help unload and hang around to help as the boat back to Barcelona wasn’t until Monday, so what else are you supposed to do on a mediterranean island for the weekend??! What a place for the weekend…..
Steve Marsh's Pad!
After a weekend of cycling around Palma and being taken out for dinner by the customer steve decided enough was enough and couldn’t wait to get back to Warrington! This one taken back at Palma waiting for the ferry. I do wonder why i had to give up driving some time’s, my desk just doesn’t get around as much!!
Mallorcan Marsh
More Marsh to come, a trip to a dodgy Polish train yard is in the pipeline.

New Year SnowMAN

As promised at the beginning of the year, here are a few pictures of Steve Marsh’s New Years trip to Sweden. While i was enjoying a few drinks in Port Solent gazing out across the marina and looking out to sea, Mr Marsh and the little MAN were busy crossing the high sea’s from Kiel, Germany to Gothenburg, Sweden. It might all be party poppers and champagne to some of us dull old office boys but for Marshy the work never stops, i forget how hard you have to work to keep the wheels rolling but as an Owner Driver work is work and best to make hay while the sun shines and all that. Any way it’s not a bad old life when your in Malta the week before Christmas and then in snowy Sweden for New Year. As you can see there is a fair temperature change from the week before to week after. Plenty of snow and ice in Gothenburg, although the Swedish port seems capable of coping with the snow they get, you can guarantee if that was a UK port it’d be shut with all that snow!!

Steve Marsh Express

After New Years Eve my sunrise on New Years day was not like this, in fact i don’t remember seeing sunrise on New Years Day! Although that ice might have cooled my head off a touch.

Steve Marsh Express

The little MAN easily made it through the snowy realms of Sweden up to Vasteras, where Marshy had to sit it out til Monday before he could tip. This left plenty of time for snow man building and picture taking, doesn’t she look great?? I think this one qualifies for the Steve Marsh Express Christmas card this year, it’d certainly make a better card than some of the one’s i sampled here on the blog.

Steve Marsh Express

As i write this Steve Marsh is on his way back from Malorca, so hopefully some more great pics to come, as long as he makes it passed those French pancake sellers!

Maltese MAN

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!
Maltese MAN

Maltese MAN

In the pic below, note the well worked Eurostar and Streamliner poking its nose in.
Maltese MAN

On the road to Luqa Airport. Excellent advertising for the blog!! (Look Carefully!)
Maltese MAN
Maltese MAN

Unloading at Luqa.
Unloading Aircraft spares for the AOG at Luqa Airport, Malta

Back on the boat ready leave Valetta, having completed part 1 of the trip.
Maltese MAN

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).

Super Swede’s

The ever moving Steve Marsh, has been to Norway twice in the last 2 weeks and returned home via Sweden and Germany. I think the size of the Swedish trucks has caught his eye. I think I’m right in saying Swedish combinations can be a max of 25.25m long, so as Marshy’s MAN is only about 9m long you can imagine the size difference. This first picture was of a Scania that pulled into a service station while Steve was on a break. Looks like a tipper or the like. The second picture is a Volvo that he managed to get along side, this shows how the little MAN is dwarfed by the big truck and trailer combo’s.

Swedish Overlength Truck
Swedish Size Difference

Old MAN & Mercedes still earning a living

This old chap glided into the yard today. On a day trip down from Leicester the old F reg (1 August 1988 – 31 July 1989) MAN was on a flier. According to the driver “She’s great as she has no limiter, means you can a decent days work done!” I’m sure you can. As the old MAN is such a favorite, the owner is about to put another old MAN on the road, but this time a similarly shaped cab but the smaller 3.5 ton Volkswagen LT version, with twin rear wheels. I know it bought back GW’s memories of taking an LT across europe with various loads and broken rear windows! Any way it was lovely to see the old MAN still in such favour, a classic commercial in the making, “It’s having a full refurb and spray job this winter” was the drivers parting call as he tried to keep with his ride. Hopefully they’ll be back next year!

MAN 8153.jpg

On a similar but continental note, our friendly international man of mystery, Sir Steve of Marsh, saw this old old German Mercedes 814 was seen in Austria last week. Still earning its living by delivering new silo’s about the place. Although she doesn’t look as well loved as the old MAN above, she is still earning a penny or two for her owner.

10102010210.jpg

Weekended in Gloomy Italy!!

2 weekends ago now, Steve Marsh was once again weekended in Italy. Parked up near Ravenna on the North East Coast waiting for a Monday morning tip with a hazardous cargo. Once tipped on Monday Marshy took a lovely drive up through the Alps into Swiz and on into southern Germany for reload number 1 and then onto Holland for collection number 2 and back to the UK for a weekend delivery that didn’t quite go to plan! Steve sent me these 2 piccies and said they aren’t blog worthy, but i have to disagree, how can a couple of truck pictures not be worthy on the only truckblog that matters!! By the way if you type “truck blog” into Google what is the number 1 search result………..yes www.truckblog.co.uk

Italy 2010.jpg

Switzerland 2010.jpg

I’m a Morrocan in France

………. Didn’t Sting write a song about that.
Sent in by regular contributer Steve “Marshy Truck Perv” Marsh, this Morrocan is his only other company in the services he is weekended at between Lyon and Grenoble this weekend. For those with keen eyes you can just see the little MAN beyond the front of the Magnum. Looks like a terrible weekend for being stuck in France!!
Moroccan in France

RoMANia Not as Bad as it was???

A recent trip to Brasov, Romania for Steve Marsh proved that some things in Haulage do get better or so it seems. Of all the countries in Europe Romania is the only one that Steve said he didn’t want to go back too after a trip there 5 years ago, so as you may expect he wasn’t looking forward to going back. After the delivery he sent me these pictures and said “Not as bad as i expected, there were fewer horse and carts on the road!”
Marshy in Romania

He came across this little place that was full of dead or cut up English trucks, i think the little MAN was keen to get on its way!
Marshy in Romania

Also the standard photo of Romanian horse and said cart.
Marshy in Romania

Trouble with The Little MAN

Having noticed a few weeks ago Steve Marsh had broken down in Germany, it turns out he’s been having problems with the clutch. A big MAN was called out and supposedly fixed the problem, see below.
Oh Dear Mr Marsh!
Oh Dear Mr Marsh!
A few weeks later Marshy was back to full fitness or so he thought. After loading in Lee on Solent with Helicopter Rotors, he headed off to Milano. But more problems occured with the clutch, some leaking oil or some thing. He made it to Italy and reloaded back in Belgium yesterday. Hopefully the little MAN will get sorted and be back to full fitness soon enough.
Lee on Solent to Milan
Lee on Solent to Milan