Here's to 2011

Compliments of the season to all you old truck nuts. I hope 2011 brings health and happiness, a bit of chrome and not too many oil leaks!

Thanks to Andrew Blacklock for the festive Scammell.

Reflections of Sandown 2010

For the second year running the Historic Commercial Vehicle Club of Australia's annual display day was threatened by some pretty average weather. The days leading up to the show on November 28 were pretty soggy but, unlike last year, cleared sufficiently by Sunday to make things quite pleasant. Even a little bit of drizzle didn't prevent a very good turn-out of trucks. Despite the good numbers there was a surprising amount of regulars who didn't make it which was a surprise. Having said that, the 'new' vehicles present made you forget what was missing pretty quickly!

Here's a small selection of the photos I took on the day - all with a particular, and rather obvious, theme. More of my photos (and a few other guys) can be found on the HCVC Forum - Sandown 2010. Keep an eye on your November weekends for Sandown 2011.

Macungie 2010

It's been a bit British truck focussed since I resurrected the blog so thought it was time to rectify that by going all-American. Macungie, Pennsylvania is well-known for its Mack factory but also hosts the annual convention for the Antique Truck Club of America. As to be expected a lot of Macks attend and to say the models present span more than 90 years is certainly no understatement. Here, thanks to long-time ACC supporter Jeff Lakaszcyck, is a small but good dose of some of the best gear you can find in the States. I like to keep up with the US scene but most of these trucks were new to me (or at least the current paint schemes were). Thanks to Jeff for the photos and his supporting captions.

I think this is the oldest truck to ever feature on ACC - a 1917 Duplex 4x4 dump owned by Donald Barlup.

One of my favourite trucks of all time. This is a Mack 1931 AK-6 (the AK was the shaft or belt-driven version of the chain-drive AC - wish I could remember which!) owned by well-known Mack collector Gary Mahan.

At the lighter end of the scale was Ritchie Pasquarella's 1936 Dodge MC panel.

One for you Inter nuts. It's a toss-up as to whether the D-series or the KB-6 is the best looking IH, I reckon. With that lovely long nose I'd have to say the D. This is Erv Bickford's stunning product of 1939. There's something about the smaller pre and immediate post-war prime movers/tractors that just looks right (even without a trailer).

I have a serious soft spot for Macks from the '30s and '40s and this stunning combination is no exception. Greg Nuss has hooked his 1939 BX to a 1938 Mack trailer (didn't know they made trailers as well) which is loaded with a 1938 Caterpillar D17000 diesel.

Besides LAD-cabbed Leylands and Albions, it is the Mack E-model that stops me in my tracks. I have seen a couple in Australia but nowhere near enough. If anyone knows of any around, please let me know. I promise not to drool ... too much. Oh, Jeff's photo is of Henry Greiner's 1947 EH. Magic.

From the best-looking Mack to the best-looking Acar. Robert King's 1951 DC102 is perfect in its understated finish (as understated as an orange chassis can be). A stunning machine.

For Bugly - the Wotherspoon Commer

Bugly - Roland Turner - requested to see some photos of the Commer featured below in the Alice Springs entry. Well, here she is in all her glory. First a pic of her in our shed and then her arrival at Sandown Raceway for the HCVC's 2008 Display Day. She has since had signwriting done and now gets about carrying engines as can be seen below. You might notice the hubs don't quite match the age of the cab. That's because she's a C-model (CB etc) with an earlier Mk IV cab - the best of both worlds perhaps?

Mike and Mal are working on another Commer and last time I spoke to Mal he was on the trail of an LAD-cabbed Leyland. Clearly a man of class.

The obvious question - where is this AEC now?

Hunter Valley Classic Commercial Vehicle Club member Scott Fayth found this business card in his travels. After picking myself up off the floor, my first thought was, naturally, where is she now (does she even survive?) and did anyone know her during her working life? Indeed, did she come to your rescue?

A stunning machine - note the sleeper cab as well - that must have been working well into the 1980s. Given the mobile number reference, could we hazard a guess at the late 1980s? It's possible Molly's Towing is now Molly's Tilt Tray Service of Heatherbrae, NSW (just north of Newcastle).

I'd love to hear more ... at the risk of hearing she is no longer with us.

Festival of Yesteryear - 2-3 October, 2010

Alice Springs 2010

As I write Mike and Mal, Purveyors of old English crap (seen here at our place before Sandown 2008), will be, er, winging their way to Alice in the Commer (at least I think they were leaving this early). I take this opportunity to wish them, and everyone else travelling to Alice in any way (especially in old trucks), all the best and I hope you have a hell of a lot of fun.

Take lots of photos!

Boxer out of the box

New Zealand native, Leyland 'Steer' owner, regular ACC contributor and all-round top bloke Mike Houghton sent in photos of this Boxer which is new to the Kiwi scene and active on road runs. Looks good for a recently retired worker, doesn't she? Well, there's a surprise in store. Mike sums up the reality:

"One owner from new, 13,000km, still in original paint and never been dented. It's amazing what's still lying around in sheds!"

'Amazing' would have to be the understatement of the year. A dream truck for anyone surely. Long may she roll.

HCVAQ Cleveland - 25-26 September, 2010

A truck for every occasion

Long-time ACC reader Brent Ladyman in Western Australia has been busy over the past few years restoring the ‘C-model’-cabbed trucks you see above – namely two Commers and a Dodge.

The Dodge D2F on the right was Brent’s first project and is powered by a 6-354 Perkins. She is used as the main farm truck with the tipper proving useful when filling the combine seeder. The ‘Dodge’ badge gave Brent a lot of trouble as he tried to source the letters. He eventually turned to a mate and sign-writer who did the computer artwork based on the Commer badge. The letters were then laser cut in 6mm brass before being chromed. The results speak for themselves and, as Brent said,

“Total cost $130. Bargain.”

The next project was the yellow Commer (a CB, I believe). Originally operated by a local transport company in Katanning, the truck is powered by a Vale Cummins 185hp V8 diesel. As you might guess by the red beacon on the driver’s side, the CB serves as Brent’s fire fighting unit and is equipped with a slip-on tank and pump (can just see the tank in the photo).

Finally, the truck on the left is a CE built between 1968 and 1974 and powered by a TS3 215 Knocker driving through a six-speed box (makes it a CEGV?). The engine was reconditioned with the kind help of Kiwi Knocker expert Mark Erskine. The VC cab shown in the photo will be used for this truck as the original was too far gone. Double headlights will replace the singles and an original flat floor will be fitted. There is apparently still a lot of rust to repair but this truck is well on the way to joining Brent’s fleet.

Post-war Commers are proving to be very popular to restore and it is great to see the attention this important make is receiving particularly the later-cabbed models.

Thanks to Brent for the photos and info and to Howard Pettigrew’s Commer Connections for its help with my model guesses!

10,000 visitors - thank you

It's probably been a while since the counter ticked over the 10,000 mark but thank you to everyone who has visited (I suspect at least 1,000 of those visits were me!) and continues to do so.

The recent email announcement by me about the Golden Oldies club sponsoring ACC has currently come to nothing due to a restructure of the club. I need to speak with someone tonight to get an update but this blog is currently being resurrected and will have some new posts on it by the end of the approaching weekend.

Thanks again to everyone who has been patient with my recent unreliability. Life's been a bit empty without old trucks and contact with the great people that own them so here's hoping I can get things going to where they were and I thank you again for continuing to visit and for supporting this site.

Andy Wright

Third Hunter Valley Vintage Truck Muster - 14-15 May, 2011

After the success of the last Muster, the Hunter Valley Classic Commercial Club is at it again. With Alice Springs and Dubbo in August this year followed by the HCVC's Sandown show in November (and the 'hangover' they'll create), the 2011 Muster is perfectly timed for that next big old truck adventure. This is only the third Muster but the HVCCVC has already set a high standard and the combination of old trucks and vintage steam must certainly be unique among regular classic commercial shows.

They also produce a bloody awesome show flyer - the best I've seen.

Now also sponsored by Vintage Trucks and Commercials magazine - VTCM

AEC Returns Home

Many of you will have seen photos of this AEC at a recent show in Queensland. She created quite a stir among the Hunter Valley Classic Commercial Vehicle Club members as she is a former Newcastle Haulage Transport truck. The HVCCVC are very keen to maintain contact with their local transport history - the surviving and very active Smith's beer trucks and Paul Campbell's former Rover Motors Leyland Leopard are perfect examples - so it comes as no surprise that this truck returned to Newcastle on Friday. Bought by collector Paul Harrison (I've seen a Bedford TK and Mack B-model in his colours) she is a wonderful addition to the population of active AECs in the region.

Thanks to Andrew Blacklock for the news and to Graham Kircher for the photo.

History Of Transport Heritage Truck Display, Lancefield - March 20-21, 2010

Lockhart's National Historic Truck and Commercial Vehicle Show - March 6, 2010

New email address

Hi everyone

Just a quick post to let you know of my new email - aircrewbooksATiinet.net.au

We've changed ISPs and although we had a connection on Thursday the modem/router has only just arrived.

Andy

Through The Fence

We headed up to Parkes on Friday and while Jodi was seeing the physio I decided to go hunting. Well, I wouldn't really call it hunting since I already knew what I was looking for. Having found the trucks several months previously, I had the chance to stick the camera through the fence ... since I had remembered to bring the camera! The Inter K5 and the solid-tyred gear below (Albions, Karrier etc) were in the same yard in the LIA. It turns out the owner is an Albion nut and I'm hoping to see his collection when I tag along with a club run towards the end of February. The Karrier was a particular surprise as we had not seen it when we first stumbled upon the ancient Albions.

Below: the Karrier.

The owner of the crane below said she is "a bit of a mongrel". I was unable to identify the chassis because, as you can see, the truck is surrounded by sheet metal and other scrap. Since I was wearing shoes that were as suited for scrambling over scrap as newspaper is for water-proofing - I had planned to go truck hunting yet didn't wear my boots - I erred on the side of caution despite my tetanus shots being up to date. I was also making a bit more noise than usual for the purposes of making any of the locals living under the scrap aware of my presence! So, that's my excuse for not getting better photos.

I first spotted the crane on the way out to the airport. During the war Parkes airfield was used by the RAAF as a navigation school. I was looking for a memorial plaque but was disappointed to find a specific memorial lacking. It was interesting to see the foundations of the classrooms, admin buildings and dormitories though. Anyway, on the way back I stopped at the water tank fabricator's yard that housed the crane. The owner was a friendly bloke and I would have liked to have had a good chat with him but didn't want to interrupt his work. It occurred to me the Ford part of the truck - the cab and front-end - was about the right age for a wartime vehicle so, at a bit of a stretch, it's possible it might have served locally with the RAAF. Like I said, a bit of a stretch!

On the way home we stopped at Forbes for a late lunch (check out The Mezzanine if you're passing through - great food). On the edge of town is a couple of paddocks with a mix of machinery including a Bedford D-type and this van. My first thought was she is an old outside broadcast van. I asked Bruce Gunter whose Dad drove a Bedford OB van for Channel 10. He recognised this as a Grace Brothers removalist van. Either a Bedford or a Leyland, there were quite a few of these on the road in the '60s/70s.

On the subject of the Bedford OB van, I'll be posting a story by Bruce about his Dad's experiences over on Bedford Trucks Worldwide - http://bedfordtrucksworldwide.blogspot.com/ - shortly.

NRMA Motorfest 2010

Long-term ACC contributor Andrew Blacklock has sent in these pics of some of the 'heavies' at this year's NRMA Motorfest in Sydney. Closing off a few of the streets of the city's CBD and filling them with classic vehicles - only good things can come of that - is an Australia Day tradition. The public are shuttled around by buses from the Sydney Bus Museum (12 buses on the job this year).

Travels of an unemployed West Wyalong blog editor - Part One - NOW WITH WORDS!

Above: Pat Morris took me to see this Beddy soon after we moved up here. I haven't seen a lot of S-types - the Big Bedford - in my time but they've always been of interest. Many disappeared when the TK arrived on the scene. In the great scheme of things, the TK's engine access trumped the R, S and the earlier C ...and it didn't even have a tilt-cab! I've since found a potential buyer for this truck so hopefully she'll be going to a very understanding home. Below: the Groat family who own the Mack E on the front page of ACC also have this old Gardner-engined Atkinson. She was used as a paddock harvest truck up to a couple of years ago and, as you can see from the radiator shot, she still has the Silver Knight badge. It is there, honest! The owner commented that she smoked a lot when cold but I told him that was a standard Gardner thing and it's a joy to behold!

Above: another Groat truck is this 1976 TK. I'm calling it a TK as I can't remember the official designation. An ex-railways truck, she now serves as the fuel bowser. Would make an interesting truck to restore. Imagine all the friends you could take with you! Below: one of four Thornycrofts seen on the day we went to see the LAD Albion below, this one is cheaply available with the cabs and other parts we found below. Just drop me a line as I'd like to pass them on to a home that has the time to restore them.

Above: this funky Austin had a very interesting rear bogie set up. I just wish I had taken a good photo of it! Below: also included with these Thornycroft cabs was a chassis, radiator grille and another engine.
The LAD Albions (white and yellow), the Austins and the Fordson V8 above were all found on the same property. The Fordson photo took a few goes with a fun backdrop of backlit clouds. This was the best of the lot. The original words for this post disappeared when I originally wrote them. Have only now had the time and inclination to write them all over again!