Scania – Big Black & Moody!

Posted on February 15, 2012 by truckbloguk

Here you go driver, here’s you new motor, A LHD Scania R730 V8………….No not really, I think I was day dreaming again. I have a friend who goes by the name of Mick Moody, some of you may know him. He is a trucking legend (I said trucking) in his own right and well known of the international fridge circuit for running a smart fleet across the water. These days he has relaxed back into buying and selling a few top quality trucks. If you go to the Moody International website you get 2 options, the haulage side or the used trucks side, but I accept no responsibility for leading you into the used truck side as I don’t want you lot rying to sue me for damage to your wallets.

Mick often send me pics of some of the beasties he has for sale but usually i’m not quick enough to get them on the blog before they are sold, so today is the today. If this is already sold by the time I publish this (9am Wednesday) I will eat the proverbial hat!!

This beautiful piece of Swedish engineering is up for sale and at just 13 months old is probably just coming into herself. I don’t need to give you too much sales blurb as the photos say it all really. The few details you will want to know are; Jan 2011 60 Plate, Left Hand Drive, 56,000 Kilometres on the clock, 2 Peddle Opticruise, Scania Griffen Enhancement Pack, finished by Mr Moody adding the comment “She’s the dogs danglies!” I have to say I totally agree. Its just a shame that Mick didn’t accept my first offer of 2 bags of chips and 2 truckblog stickers as an exchange!

If you are seriously interested in this truck, please get onto Moody International sharpish as i’m sure it won’t be around for long. Mick’s email address is; mick@moodyinternational.co.uk – I’m off to find lots of things to sell.

If Anyone Can, Cannon Can!!

Posted on February 12, 2012 by truckbloguk

This is one of the few photos I have that were taken by my relation, the late Dick Snow. I often wondered who that is walking in the shorts, until the other week I had no idea. I received an email from a Peter Cannon, a well known name to most of you Middle East trucking fans. Peter was one of Astrans original drivers and also went on to be transport manager for the now legendary transport company. Peter said; “The “tall chap” walking towards the camera beside a line of Astran trucks is me!!! JAN 774K was Snowys Scania 1st in line, then mine AMY 147H with the taller trailer. don`t know the 3rd one possibly WLO 95G.”

Being ever the faithful blogger I was delighted to hear from Peter, as I am delighted to hear from any of the men that were the original Long Haul Pioneers. I asked Peter if he felt like it, would he mind sending me a few unseen photos, as he had contributed quite a bit to Ashley Coghills book. Being a true knight of the road, Mr Cannon has been very obliging and has sent over these brilliant pics. The photo email stated a very true, but probably unstated statement; “Unfortunately at times of drama in the mountains in the snow there was never time or opportunity to mess around taking photos consequently there are very few photos of the real hairy bits but several posed ones!!” I hadn’t thought of it before, but it is probably very true. In the good old days it was far more important to help your fellow drivers out of a sticky situation, rather than the modern trend of videoing it on your mobile to stick on Youtube or You’ve been framed!!

The following photo was quite significant as Peter thinks this is him offloading in Kuwait on the 1st trip there in probably 1970.

As per the photo in The Long Haul Pioneers book, this is another shot of AMY147H crossing yet another river in Turkey. I wonder if a modern camera would give so much detail, just look at the steam coming off the brakes!

And finally for this little installment, is this photo of AMY in Pakistan. Peter said: “AMY outside the Marriot hotel in Islamabad Pakistan on the 1st trip there. The hotel has been featured on the tele` recently as militants have set off bombs there !!!!!”

These photos are just brilliant, please respect that they are Peter Cannons own photos. I can’t thank Peter enough. If you or anyone you know has an equally good collection of such nostalgic trucking then do feel free to email me, ben@truckblog.co.uk and i’ll publish them here on the blog for all to see and share the tales. Thanks Peter, I hope there is more to come.

Where in the World is This ACH Truck Parked??

Posted on February 10, 2012 by truckbloguk

Once again Neil Jarrold of www.euro-wheels.com has come up with a photo that is just brilliant! Just look at it……… What more can you say. Although it does raise a load of questions;

1) Where was it taken?
2) Is the Fiat behind the ACH Volvo truck RHD or LHD
3) What is the significanace of the double white stripes on Italian bumpers?
4) What happened to ACH Volvo WJO 677R?
5) Have you got any ACH photos you want to share?

If you have any answers to these questions please leave a comment or email me; ben@truckblog.co.uk I have a thing for ACH so any photos will be well recieved.

Batman – Superman – MarshMAN

Posted on February 9, 2012 by truckbloguk

Is it a bird, is it a plane, not it’s super-Steve!! Marsh that is. Back in November your friend and mine, Steve Marsh Express was asked to transport some art, modern art, down to an exhibition in Courchevel 1850, France. Courchevel I hear you repeat to yourself, yes Courchevel its that rather exclusive ski resort in the French Alps. Marshy got the call to transport the sculpture work of artist Mauro Perucchetti, to the Courchevel Festival. Mr Marsh sent me some snaps of the stunning scenery but none of the cargo, so he described it as “Batman/Superman & Jelly Baby statues.” Not really knowing what Marshy meant by Jelly Baby statues I had to have a look for myself and sure enough they can only be described as the aforementioned Jelly Babies. This modern art stuff can be strange can’t it? There is pretty well nothing that can’t be classed as art. Personally I like a good old piece of picture art, nice scenery, good composure, some good detail and of course an ideal subject. Something like this works well………..

If my idea of art is not the same as yours perhaps the press release for the exhibition is more your thing. When you can, have a look through the gallery on Mauro Perucchetti’s website, you can see the Jelly Baby sculptures. If you look hard enough you’ll see a white marble carved sculpture of Batman and Superman, which actually is quite good, I like it. Anyway this isn’t weirdartblog.com.org so i’ll leave the opinions of modern art to those who claim to know what they are talking about!

Stunning views those mountains, quite steep too some of them, they look great as a backdrop for the little MAN. Come snow or shine Marsh’s little MAN seems to cope. So after unloading his arty farty load, it was time to head off to the reload. This time Switzerland was the loading point. 340 ish kilometres from Courchevel to Niederbipp, CH. The load was some tools and machinery GB05 STE had delivered out to Niederbipp two weeks earlier. They had been used to repair some machines at a papermill, but now had to be returned to Darwen, Lancashire. All in all another good trip for us to marvel at (ref to superheroes I think you’ll find!). Hopefully if you click HERE you can see a Google map of the trip. I thought i’d give it a go and see if it works. For now i’ll leave you with Mr Marsh heading off into a mountain filled sunset, until the next time……………………. Italy, France and Ireland next.

Manton European Freezer Freight Part 9

Posted on February 7, 2012 by truckbloguk

I can’t quite believe we have made it to Part 9 of this, seemingly popular mini series. Mantons first appeared here on the blog, as I photographed one their Scania 143 on my childhood Industrial Estate in Braintree, Essex. Since the 21st February last year I have received a continual flow of Manton related info and photos. Contributers include one Dave Manton and a number of ex-Manton drivers, including Tim Speight and now I’ve had contact with Dave Peirson. Mr Peirson says he worked at Manton from 1986 and was there for about 3 years. In this time he was lucky enough to pilot the Scania above and below, F917 CUM, from new. Although having checked the DVLA vehicle checker, it says that F917 CUM was first registered 13/02/1989 which would have been near the end of Dave Peirsons 3 years at Mantons, although this is perfectly plausable of course. As it goes the DVLA checker also says that this truck has been out of road tax since 02/02/2004 so where is she now? According to the checker she hasn’t been exported. Do you know of her where abouts?? email me; ben@truckblog.co.uk or leave a comment.

The photo above was taken at Levante Beach, Benidorm, Spain. Mr Peirson said that they were “Parked up waiting to load.” You can’t deny that they are parked up, but i’m not so sure that parking on the beachfront was the only option, although back in the gold old days of International Trucking, there was no vehicle tracking so you could go where you liked and in all honesty most boss’s wouldn’t be bothered if you parked up on the beach or not, if you were parked up for a few days. Afterall the romance (GW) of the job were these far flung places across Europe. I know where I would have parked! I’m sure that Dave Manton falls into the easy going catergory. This photo actually unlocks another piece of the Manton puzzle. Back in Part 6 top Manton photographer Neil Jarrold sent a photo of a blue Scania pulling a Manton fridge. The truck was liveried as “Reiblein International” and that was all I knew, but now, thanks to Dave Peirsons email, the mystery has been unravelled. The email simply says; “In the back ground, in just the shorts, is Joe Reiblein also from Wetherby who also drove for Mantons before getting his own truck.” There you go. The photo of Reibliens truck obviously dates after this one, perhaps on this very trip Reiblein decided that he’d become an owner driver, who knows!

The next 2 photos Dave Peirson sent are a stark reminder to everyone, that while we all love trucks and driving (you do otherwise you wouldn’t have read this far!), the dangers of the job can easily be forgotten untill some thing like this happens;

Shiny truck rolling through France heding for the land of straw donkeys one day, not so shiny truck rolled onto its side the next. Not nice. Luckily for this driver he escaped with bumps and bruises. Dave Peirson says; “This driver had a mishap on his way to Spain. He was ok though. Can`t remember exactly where it was but I think it was south of Tours, France. I had to pick driver up on my way back from Spain.”

Were you part of the Manton dynasty? Have a tale to tell or a photo to share of these lovely green trucks from Yorkshire? Then get emailing; ben@truckblog.co.uk or leave your comments below. Thanks to Dave Peirson for his imput and I hope he has some more to offer.

HELP Finding: Scania 111 – Reg: XDH 849S

Posted on February 5, 2012 by truckbloguk

This week at blog HQ I had an email from Danny Harrison. He is trying to find out where his dad’s truck XDH 849S ended up or what happened to it after its life at BJ Adams. The truck was a Scania 111, sleeper cab, 4×2 tractor unit. Danny say’s his dad, George Harrison (no not that one) drove XDH 849S for about 5 years in the early 1980’s, but the last time they saw the truck was in Maidstone, Kent some time in the 1990’s.

Danny went on to give me the following info, in the hope someone out there can shed some light on what happened to the old girl;

“My Dads name was George Harrison and he and his mates, Johnny Edmonds, Keith Farrow, Eddie Childs all ran out of the Ruberiod Brimsdown, Enfield. It was in the early Eighties. He worked through BJ Adams and Graham Markham. Lots of work was to Cundell Corrugated in Chelmsford, loads of rolls of paper to them from Ruberiod then reload from Cundell with waste paper to Norwich Corrugated or Wormages in Norwich. Or they’d take paper to Louth, Reeds I think, then backload of steel from Scunthorpe to Murex in Waltham Cross. Yes I did spend every non school day with my old man at work.”

Can you help Danny and George? If you know of this truck, Scania 111, reg no XDH 849S, where it is, where it went or who may have owned it after BJ Adams, then please leave a comment, or email me; ben@truckblog.co.uk

Hopefully Danny is going to email me some more of these classic old photo’s from his early years bunking off, sorry when he was off school. Who’s is the Seddon Atkinson Borderer??

T A X I !!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted on February 5, 2012 by truckbloguk

A very good man by the name of Michael made me aware of this little video and I can tell you it’s cheered me up no end, after todays Dover truck spotting trip has been snowed off. Who would of thought the Germans had such an ironic sense of humour, I mean sending the New Actros to the MAN factory to pick up some one who has called a taxi, thats just genius!

Big CAT’s & Big V8’s

Posted on January 31, 2012 by truckbloguk

Those lovely yellow CAT machines need a good start in life, just like any little kitten does, so the boys at Ascroft Transport from Tarleton, Lancashire only use the best trucks to get them delivered. The latest edition to the fleet are 2 brand new identical Scania R560 V8’s, both are 6×2 midlifts with the Topline cab and factory fitted airhorns. The trucks have also been jazzed up with a visit to Kelsa to fited out with no less than 4 light bars. The black Scania’s have a rear facing Kelsa Bakbar and front facing Lobar, Visorbar and Beaconbars, all of which can be found on the Kelsa website for what ever your make of truck. As it goes Kelsa do sell to countries outside the UK, so ask them for a price to ship to where ever you are.

Ascroft run a mainly Scania fleet, but also have Volvo and DAF too. Usually the fleet colour is blue, but due to contractual agreements, a few trucks are operated in CAT’s black and yellow colours. Running in a top customers colours is fine untill you want to reload from your customers competitors, then I guess it can be a little tricky. I’m not sure if CAT signed up to have the V8 Scania’s pulling their machines but at least the V8’s do purrrr along, so it probably just adds extra feline effect!!

Portugese MAN-O-Juice

Posted on January 29, 2012 by truckbloguk

He’s back!! No not the man from Del Monte, but our old friend Steve Marsh, know to be known as the MAN from Um-Bongo! It may be a name from the past for most us, but surely you remember the Um-Bongo song on the TV advert?? These days I don’t think that it is sold in the UK, but I think there is a campaign to bring it back. “Um-Bongo Um-Bongo they drink it in the Congo” or Portugal as Marshy can testify. The load out to the Um-Bong factory in Lisbon, Portugal was chemicals. The good old concept of tipping and reloading is fairly basic to all drivers especially us, sorry, you owner drivers. So my old pal Mr Marsh sorted himself out a reload. A pipeline repair machine from Vale de Feto,Pombal, Portugal back to Swindon, nice. Having driven the 120-ish KM to Vale de Feto, Marshy received a call from the Um-Bongo factory to say the chemicals he delivered were to replace some faulty ones and now they wanted the faulty ones to go back to the UK. Marshy said;

“A Few miles from Vale de Feto I got a call to go back to Lisbon for the faulty chemicals the ones I took out replaced. Of course the staff at Vale were on dinner and the only one who knew about the machine for Swindon was off site. Eventually I got loaded and then I had a mad dash back down to Lisbon. I got there at 16:50 and they closed at 17:00″

Don’t you just love it when a plan comes together! A double collection from Portugal and the 2nd drop just 30km from Steve Marsh Express, Warrington base. That is what you call logistical excellence! As you can see the photo below was taken at the Um-Bongo factory, note the tasty juice liveried car.

If you need Marshy’s services then go to his website, www.stevemarshexpress.co.uk or send him an email; office@stevemarshexpress.co.uk or if you want to contact me I can put you in touch, ben@truckblog.co.uk if you can’t wait too long there is more Steve Marsh to come in the next few weeks.

Kersey Freight Friday – It’s Back!!

Posted on January 27, 2012 by truckbloguk

Finally I hear you cry! Those big white DAF’s of Hadleigh, Suffolk based Kersey Freight are back on the blog, 4 months and 11 days after it’s first appearance. A lovely snow filled trip to Italy and back, provides a lovely back drop for photos and Kersey driver Geraint (Taffy) Richards, has taken a few crackers. I’ve been banging on to my good friend DC at Kersey Freight to send me more photos as his (and JM’s!) trucks go further and further from their Suffolk countryside base. Although Paris is a regular destination, the trucks are covering more and more ground, often finding themselves heading into deepest Germany and over the Alps into Italy. I was tempted to write this blog myself after getting the info from DC today, but his description is great, so I think I’ll use his words.

“We loaded a full load of Water Based Emulsion to be kept at +5’C ex Northampton to Caleppio Di Settala, Italy. Taffy took the easy road into Milan on the Ralpin piggy back train from Frieburg to Novara!!! Although due to being on the waiting list, Taffy had to wait 24 hours until finally getting the 11 hour train ride through Switzerland to its final destination in Novara.”

“Once off the train he proceeded to Milan to offload the paint and reload from one of our clients 5kms away from the tip. Once loaded in Milan with no return trains available he decided to head for Mont Blanc Tunnel and parked at Aosta. Saturday morning was ready to move but the Blanc was closed for 3 hours due to risk of avalanche. After finally getting the order to move, Taffy started the climb to the snowy Mont Blanc!!”

“On his decent he stopped near Chamonix (Check the spelling) and took a couple of nice pictures for you! Then Taffy made his way into France and rested in Troyes that evening.”

“Sure you will sex it up a bit” – Opps! that bit was meant for me, sorry DC!! Any way that is a great come back, lets just hope its not so long before the next episode of Kersey Freight Friday hits the blog. Not sure there will be quite as much snow on the next trip, but even so the Alps always make for good photos so keep them coming Kersey drivers and subbies. Email me; ben@truckblog.co.uk . Thanks to driver of K18 KFL Geraint Richards, for the photos.

	David on Scania Centurions – The…
	Antdad on Renault AE Magnum = 1990-…
	Shu on Scania Centurion #86
	Alison sagar on Lady Louise
	truckbloguk on Centurions – Stand up

www.truckblog.co.uk

Email: ben@truckblog.co.uk