The Week in Trucks
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Restoration Project Anyone??
I’m always up for helping a fellow truckers d in this case it’s an old customer. I’ve restored an old Scania and many nights I had the thought of “I’ll never get this done”. Sadly in this case there are plenty of other priorities and the restoration project has to be shelved. At this stage details are a little sketchy but this is or will be once again, a Scania 143 6×2 rear lift. It is up for sale but needs sensible offers please, it’s not a straight forward project. Info as follows;
“I’ve attached pictures of the 143 V8, think it’s a 1993 or 1994. 95% of the parts should be there but can guarantee a few will have been lost. If you know of any one interested or someone who can give me a fair valuation so we know what we should be asking for that would be really useful please as I will quite happily hold my hands up and say I don’t have a clue!”
Honesty is the best policy people! This is likely to be an incomplete kit so does need a home with some know how. The truck is in dry storage near Ripon, Yorkshire. If you are seriously interested and willing to help then please email me directly; ben@truckblog.co.uk
More photos to follow. It looks good to me but is beyond my capabilities and also I’d never have the time. That said a tag axle, flat top 143 does sound very tempting!! 
The Week in Trucks
Brothers from Other Mothers
One of HC Wilson‘s legendary Scania 143’s with a rather large load on doing what this big V8 does best. One of my favourite HCW trucks of all time.
Above Registration H143 TAH.
Below Registration H144 TAH.
One Norfolk registration number apart, we have another well known haulier in the colours of Portbridge. A great fleet and fondly remembered. Both trucks being steel numbered, 143 450’s with Topline cabs. Nice.
#brothersfromothermothers – if you know of a good batch of registration numbers then do comment below or email me.
The Week in Trucks
Europe…. Go Big or Go Home
Here we go people, a new blog contributor and what a belter of a blog cherry popper we have for you. Some of you may know this particular character, he’s one of those quiet, keeps himself to himself and gets on with the job in hand types, well he certainly gets on with the job that’s for sure. Away for over seven weeks working for one of the best international hauliers in the country. Essex International need no introduction what so ever, 100% an international haulier from the roots up, now part of the Grampian Continental group, they cover all four corners of Europa every week. To be fair this particular trip has pretty well covered three of the four corners. To start I’ll put up the map of the “outward” leg, but please ignore some of the route as bloomin Google maps wouldn’t take the boat routes that were actually used.
Starting point was head office in Aberdeen, down to Newcastle-upon-Tyne to load for Motrin in Southern Espania. An easy enough run down to Portsmouth to catch the ferry across to Bilbao, please ignore the map for the ferry part! The good old days were back, with a six truck convoy and much to our mans joy all six had CB radios so you can imagine the banter, just like 1986! Off the ferry boat in Bilbao and straight down through the glorious middle of Spain to Motril. A decent enough trip for most of us but this was of course only the first leg of this one.
Having tipped Motril, sadly the convoy dispersed in various directions and we are off to Bourg en Bresse, France for a trailer change, destined for the Greek / Turkish border. From the middle of Spain’s southern coast across to the Turkish border, very nice. Add another couple of weeks to the tally but off we go. Living the dream springs to mind, well for those who dream of weeks away behind the wheel, covering the whole of Europe. What the old school saying?? “You’ll never earn a living looking out of a window son!”…… balls to that, what a way to earn your living. Anyway trailer swapped and keep heading east up and over the Alps (always stop for a photo going over the top) to the Italian port of Ancona for the Minoan Lines ferry to Igoumenitsa, Hellas.
The motorways of Greece look awesome although surely not enough traffic for us Brits. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to take to a motorway network, like Spain and Greece that aren’t rammed packed with traffic, idiots and whatever else, so you can just get on and get your days Kilometres under you belt before a pleasant evening meal and a bottle of wine for €15……sorry I was close to getting all romantic there. Once into Greece it was head yet further east across the north of the country to the Turkish border town of Kipoi. Due to the nature of the load, it was virtually a single lift off at the delivery point and job done. Lovely jubberly.
Reload details are through and it’s time to head back across Greece to Igoumenitsa for the same ferry back to Italy (ignore the map for this bit again!) Once off the boat, it’s reload in Ancona itself and then northbound and down. A full load of pipes destined for………. Aberdeen. The whole way round Europe and reload back to your home town. Awesome. Perhaps a little easier as an awful lot of oil related work comes in and out of Aberdeen, but even so, that must have been nice to hear for our man Stan. I’m sure the big Scania S730 must know it’s way back to Scotland from most places in Europe by now, so back over the Alps, stopping for the obligatory photo of course, then back up through France to Calais. I have no doubt at all that after a few thousand KM’s of fairly trouble free trucking, with in an hour or so of getting off P&O’s pride and back into Blighty, the wheels would have ground to a halt for some reason or another, most of this reason being the M25.
If you’re lucky enough to have a job like this, you will get to see the whole of Europe. This of course does mean lots of time away from home and the loved ones. That said if you are going to do it, do it with a professional firm such as Essex International they will look after you and of course you’ll end up piloting a top of the range motor for your troubles. If your going to do proper old school European trucking, then do it like they do at Essex International, it’s the only way………
Mountain MAN
…..and he’s back! The MAN always in the mirror, the MAN of quite a few moments on the blog, the MAN about most European towns, the MAN that MAN should be rewarding with the amount of publicity this MAN gets them! Still the best truck on the MAN range and possibly the best 12 tonner on the market (it has a built in fridge unlike the rest).
So it’s been a been a fair while since top blogger Steve Marsh of Steve Marsh Express fame has felt he has done a job worthy of another blog. From what I can work out he’s been busy keeping the Irish Express routes alive and kicking. Plenty of work from the North West out to Ireland, well enough to keep Marshy busy most weeks. Imagine my surprise when I saw the SME availability email come round advertising that he would be empty all the way down in France 74. Now even with my basic knowledge of Europa I knew this is down in the mountains heading for Swiss.
I love Marshy’s emails and I love the fact he still loves his job and getting out and about. Please note even this trip started with a Shamrock Express! Here we go then…….
Bring on the blogs…. Blogtastic !!!!
Mon: Load a full load of shop fittings from Manchester to tip Ireland Tuesday ASAP.
Tue: Deliver to a card shop in Dublin centre. Tried to load a 96” screen from Facebook, Dublin for Telford but security wouldn’t let me as no one had told them I was coming. Had to leave empty handed and no back load. 😢
Wed: Load a full load of assorted building supplies from Lichfield, GB.
Thurs: French travel day!
Fri: Deliver to what will be a very nice ski apartment renovation in Les Gets, France 74.
Mon: Loading a sliding roof job in Bourges, France for Preston, GB.
Like the old days for me too 😊!!
Quel agréable voyage mon bon homme. Nice to get out to mainland Europe I’m sure and not just quick one either. I’m sure a sunny trip to the alps is always near the top of a good trip to France. Hopefully we won’t have to wait to long for the Marsh MAN to appear back on our screens with voyage Europeén.
Retro Show – The Social Part
Another weekend and I’m back at Londra Camp or perhaps even the Hotel National in Belgrade. Loads of the best retro trucks in the UK and a growing number from Europa and all the kings of the road you could ever hope to meet and listen to stories from. The shows this year have become more and more social but combine this with trucks from my childhood and once again an awesome weekend was had by all. For me meeting these Kings of the road is what it’s all about, the stories they can tell, the places they have been and the trucks they have driven, my generation can only dream. To name a just a few people I stood and chatted/listened to this weekend;
- Charles Russell
- Roland Simey
- Nick Bull
- Karl Skilton
- Andrew McDevitt
- Kevin Mackin
- Paul Rowlands
- Baz (if you know you know!)
Big Boys & Their Big Toys
Big boys have big toys we all know that, but when two company directors are as truck mad as the drivers they send all over Europe, then why shouldn’t they have a big toy to play with?? If I could afford a truck and trailer to play with then I’d do the same, at the end of the day with directorship comes big responsibility and big stress, so surely that allows big toys?!
The two directors above are two of the biggest truck nerds you could meet, both nuts about their respective Swedes. The photo was taken en route to the Truckstar Festival in Holland back at the end of July and the two trucks were side by side for a fair distance from what I hear. What a treat for all the drivers coming the other way, 1980’s retro trucking at its best. The other this I hear is that the two of them were giggling like school boys with new BMX bikes oh and something else to do with no speed limiters but I don’t know what they are on about!! 
What a sight, even better with a little black and white. I’m not sure which one I’d rather be piloting, both great to look at, both big cans compared to the competition, both a drivers dream. For me restored trucks don’t get better than these two and I just wish everyone could afford to have a trailer with their tractor units, it just rings every bell on the old skool wall. For me I saw these two and as awesome as the scene is, it just reminds me in every way of two other famous trucks…….
Truckstar Festival 2019 – The Social Part
This years Truckstar Festival, well, what can I possibly say on here that would give you any idea on what this years show was like?! What I have thought of doing is making it a two parter, social part and trucks part, so here we go.
It was hot, now I mean hot, 40’c Friday, 36’c Saturday and a little cooler on Sunday but still over 30. We arrived at the show a lot earlier than in previous years which was good because we got to see plenty of stuff arrive and we were actually in the first wave of old timers arriving. So early in fact that the V8 hadn’t even arrived, let alone be set up and serving like normal. My very good friend Anton Brouwer and his merry team, soon arrived. As you can see above Anton was keen to give me a beer, he did home delivery. The above photo taken by me sitting in my deckchair as the big 140 Super arrived. From this point on the show became what I can only describe as the most social truck show I have ever been too. More so than all 7 visits to Assen or anywhere else for that matter. Why?……. I have no idea, perhaps the heat and the sun? Perhaps everyone trying to get into the shade of the beer tents? No idea but it was awesome. The Dutch are just the best!
I am sadly to young to have ever had the chance to get to Londra Camp in Istanbul, but like me I’m sure we all have a good idea what that place was like on a weekend, buzzing for want of a better phrase! To me this years Truckstar Festival made me think of Londra Camp. James and I met so many people we knew and have met before or not seen for ages, that we bearly managed to make one whole lap of the show truck area. Every 50 metres we met another old face, with who we shared a joke, a beer and had a catch up. Not only out walking the show. By the time evening came, the beer was flowing, old friends were dancing and drinking, then more people arrived at the V8 bar. Plenty more stories, plenty more cheers when the Danish contingent arrived. Then a little later a few more English, Irish and some Germans appeared. It was an endless flow of truckers from all over Europe, all meeting up for some time out, some beer and a good laugh. As with the big truck stops of the 70’s and 80’s some of these people I haven’t seen for a few years or even met before, but we all have a common interest and a common love of Trucks, beer and meeting new folk. It may be you won’t see them again, but that never seems to matter with trucking people. There is never any “ice to break” or any issue of who’s who, we are all there to have a good time. To me this is how I imagine the golden days of international trucking to be. If you’ve been lucky enough to enjoy such a night off in a far flung corner of europa, with a load of drivers you may or may not know, please please please let me know all about it.
The Dutch have a great ability to make you feel welcome and to make sure everyone is included and having a good time. For those who have had the pleasure of visiting the V8 Bar in the Oldtimers section of the show, you will know this is exactly what Anton Brouwer and his team manage to achieve every visit. James and I are V8 bar regulars, but we were joined by the Van Der Nunn’s and also by trucking royalty, mr Mike Tasker. MWT is a proper English international owner driver, proper old school. A long time sub contractor to HC Wilson, there is no where in Europa Mike hasn’t been to with one of his V8’s, everywhere that is except for the Truckstar Festival. Apart from being like a kid in a sweet shop all weekend, Mike was a great example of the whole atmosphere of the show. Never been before, but after the first night at the V8 Bar, he has made some new friends and was chatting about all sorts with all sorts of people, drivers, operators and even farmers who just love old V8’s! GW your turn next.
The Dutch have made trucking a pleasure to be involved with, if you have lost you way with trucks, your job, driving in the UK, then somehow get yourself across the water to, what has become for me anyway, Europe’s trucking Mecca. A few days of trucks in the Netherlands will soon make you realise trucking is cool and well respected everywhere apart from in the UK. Get yourself to Truckstar Festival and this message will be hammered home like Thor in the tool aisle at a DIY shop! There are hoards of youngsters wanting to be truck drivers, most look hardly old enough to drink let alone drive trucks. There are families there who have no ties to trucks or transport and when asked, they will tell you they just love trucks.
Two Three things I have realised;
1) I was born 20 years to late to know what real European trucking was like back in the golden days.
2) I should be Dutch or at least living in the land of the wooden shoe.
3) If you like trucks you should MUST get yourself over to Holland for the Truckstar Festival. If you don’t…… well……. no euro-pop, accordion, trance music for you! Oh or the best trucks and truck people in Europe.
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