Truck Shite

[The Old Bloke Next Door]

[CreepingJesus]

On 20/03/2026 at 07:23, Spottedlaurel said:

Random 50p purchase of this magazine at the autojumble last weekend, I thought the Bedfords may be of interest:

Working in a basket over the live lane of the opposite carriageway looks a little 'exciting'.

Good to see they use a pot to make their tea! Mr Palmer looks like just the sort of chap who would be the District Commercial Engineer.

They look like a removal van body, but would the chassis be something heavier duty to carry the lifting mechanism?

They were a bit more sparing with the use of cones back then.

Of the pair of them JHA 417L made it to 1995, but there's no record of 418L (nor the Cortina if I read the plate correctly as YYE 273L).

One to recreate at 1/43 scale @danthecapriman?

No, they'd be regular Bedford TK chassis; there's no real need for anything heavier duty, because the subframe of the hoist spreads loads out quite a way. Even if there's any doubt, landing legs usually sort it out, as you see on HIABs, although I don't see any on these it wouldn't be unexpected if they had some. They're interesting things though! I reckon Mr Palmer took the old tower wagon concept a stage further, and given that Marsden's were in Warrington, it probably made to-and-fro over the project more manageable. He wasn't far off the mark, despite them looking a bit of an evolutionary dead-end, but I bet the crews appreciated the thought. Work space and facilities in one walk-through package? Excellent!

I have a feeling he probably enquired about bus chassis, and there'd be no reason not to - maybe cost and availability took him to Marsden's - because the one thing both have in common is keeping the CofG reasonably low, which is possibly a reason for their existence, and why they don't seem to have landing legs. Maybe he intended them to be more mobile, but as the article says, the traffs were keeping them under control, so they couldn't just hop between jobs. Hence they became an evolutionary dead-end. There was no advantage in not choosing an off-the-shelf product.

[The Old Bloke Next Door]

[The Old Bloke Next Door]

 

[worldofceri]

That Chinese-six pigeon hauler is fantastical. Also liked for the 7-axle Dutch(?) wagon and drag.

[High Jetter]

Intrigued by the Tarmac side-tipper - anyone identify it?

[Volksy]

34 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Intrigued by the Tarmac side-tipper - anyone identify it?

I think it's  a Sentinel Steam Lorry..

 

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, Volksy said:

I think it's  a Sentinel Steam Lorry..

 

Cheers, I did wonder about a steamer, didn't make the link though. Love the resto one on here.

[SunnySouth]

On 26/03/2026 at 11:49, worldofceri said:

That Chinese-six pigeon hauler is fantastical. Also liked for the 7-axle Dutch(?) wagon and drag.

The six wheeler is a Bedford Val, legendary 60s coach chassis. That one has the standard Plaxton front end, treatment, so either a period custom build or a later mod from original coach spec.

[High Jetter]

3 hours ago, SunnySouth said:

The six wheeler is a Bedford Val, legendary 60s coach chassis. That one has the standard Plaxton front end, treatment, so either a period custom build or a later mod from original coach spec.

I'd guess a convert. Dealer I worked at had one that had been converted to a car transporter.

[dean36014]

I used to regularly see pigeon transport trucks going over the heads of the valley road. I can't remember the last time I saw one now. Wonder if it's no longer a thing anymore.

[catsinthewelder]

Theres a 7.5T one in Shropshire that my friend drove until recently, used to park it in the yard at work.

[worldofceri]

23 minutes ago, dean36014 said:

I used to regularly see pigeon transport trucks going over the heads of the valley road. I can't remember the last time I saw one now. Wonder if it's no longer a thing anymore.

Curiosity got the better of me so I looked it up; Still a thing! Although a shadow of its heyday it seems plenty of folk still race pigeons.  Looks like this Renault is the modern successor to the Bedford above. Less conspicuous I suppose, looking like an ordinary curtain sider until you spot the pigeon motif; I expect there are many others around that are unliveried.

[EyesWeldedShut]

29 minutes ago, dean36014 said:

I used to regularly see pigeon transport trucks going over the heads of the valley road. I can't remember the last time I saw one now. Wonder if it's no longer a thing anymore.

Sure is - we had a racing pigeon knocked down into our back field  by a peregrine  two years ago that we traced to a fellow in Ireland - it had come over on a lorry via Fishguard and they were all released on the Pembrokeshire/Carmarthenshire border. 
Once she was healed & carbo-loaded we re-released her on the same day as another race  from there - I have never seen so much loose feather flying around - she made it back over the Irish Sea. 
They had a couple of these (photo nicked off FaceBook)

 

[RoadworkUK]

18 hours ago, High Jetter said:

I'd guess a convert. Dealer I worked at had one that had been converted to a car transporter.

I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that it was a custom build by Plaxton.

Certainly looks like Duple did one or two:

[The Old Bloke Next Door]

[The Old Bloke Next Door]

[The Old Bloke Next Door]

[danthecapriman]

On 29/03/2026 at 16:54, The Old Bloke Next Door said:

 

 

Mack B61😍

Definitely is king of the road. I wonder what happened to it? No record on dvla.

[warch]

On 22/03/2026 at 09:22, The Old Bloke Next Door said:

These were the ones used in the The Living Daylights, two Series III Lightweights (disguised as Russian 'jeeps' and a Series III 'hero' vehicle from the opening scene. 

[RoadworkUK]

3 minutes ago, warch said:

These were the ones used in the The Living Daylights, two Series III Lightweights (disguised as Russian 'jeeps' and a Series III 'hero' vehicle from the opening scene. 

Ahhh! I'd been trying to identify those 'Russian jeeps' for years. That explains it. Still my favourite Bond film. That desert airstrip scene was superb, with a very stirring soundtrack.

[warch]

15 minutes ago, RoadworkUK said:

Ahhh! I'd been trying to identify those 'Russian jeeps' for years. That explains it. Still my favourite Bond film. That desert airstrip scene was superb, with a very stirring soundtrack.

They're definitely Landrover based, but looking at them may well be normal Series IIIs (you can see the barrel sides which the lightweight version didn't have). I think the Timothy Dalton films were really good, especially considering that they came out during the golden era of action films. 

[warch]

19 minutes ago, warch said:

They're definitely Landrover based, but looking at them may well be normal Series IIIs (you can see the barrel sides which the lightweight version didn't have). I think the Timothy Dalton films were really good, especially considering that they came out during the golden era of action films. 

Actually they're disguised Landrover 90s, the dash/switchgear and position of the fuel filler is a dead giveaway in the film sequence. 

[RoadworkUK]

5 hours ago, warch said:

Actually they're disguised Landrover 90s, the dash/switchgear and position of the fuel filler is a dead giveaway in the film sequence. 

Ha, the bits of dashboard visible and the radiused bits of bodywork make it obvious in hindsight!

[warch]

15 minutes ago, RoadworkUK said:

Ha, the bits of dashboard visible and the radiused bits of bodywork make it obvious in hindsight!

The 90 model was only about three years old when the film was made, so it would have been quite expensive to procure two of them (they were about £10k each in the mid 80s). 

[Volksy]

20 minutes ago, warch said:

The 90 model was only about three years old when the film was made, so it would have been quite expensive to procure two of them (they were about £10k each in the mid 80s). 

In the grand scheme of things, that's pennies in a blockbuster film production. 

[warch]

48 minutes ago, Volksy said:

In the grand scheme of things, that's pennies in a blockbuster film production. 

I'm more used to tv series production budgets where anything obviously old or buggered was bound to end crashed or on fire (The Professionals) or in a canal/other convenient body of water (Last of the Summer Wine). 

 

[Metal Guru]

14 minutes ago, warch said:

I'm more used to tv series production budgets where anything obviously old or buggered was bound to end crashed or on fire (The Professionals) or in a canal/other convenient body of water (Last of the Summer Wine). 

 

Last of the Summer Wine mainly crashed bath tubs although that Triumph Herald took a hammering with Thora Hird “driving” and they must have got through a few clutches and gear boxes.

[The Old Bloke Next Door]

[The Old Bloke Next Door]