Autoshite Lorries

[Bren]

I have a thing for old lorries - ones you used to see as a kid but no longer.

Here are my favourites - 

Scammell Crusader. Absolutely love these - one with the two stroke V8 would be very welcome by me.

And another - 

Scammell Contractor - another I would like to own.

Then there is the Ford D series, Ford Transcontinental - any others?

 

[artdjones]

3 minutes ago, Bren said:

I have a thing for old lorries - ones you used to see as a kid but no longer.

Here are my favourites - 

Scammell Crusader. Absolutely love these - one with the two stroke V8 would be very welcome by me.

And another - 

Scammell Contractor - another I would like to own.

Then there is the Ford D series, Ford Transcontinental - any others?

 

Atkinson Borderers, typically like this one, with a Gardner 6LXB and 180 horsepower. You could also buy them with Cummins and Rolls-Royce engines. And with a Gardner 8LXB. Straight eight and 240 horsepower.

[N Dentressangle]

There IS an old lorries thread, I think, but no harm having another.

All fine choices so far. I'm going to throw in:

and

[RayMK]

Commer TS3.

Fascinating engine which also sounded good.

 

[N Dentressangle]

There was a time we made our own lorries. Wish we still did. Fuck https://www.paccar.com/

[ETCHY]

Leyland Marathon & Leyland T45.

If ever there was an Autoshite lorry it's the Marathon. It looked like a lash up when it was new !

[eddyramrod]

A Ford D was the first lorry I rode in at work, when I joined the council in 1982 for my first season of roadsweeping.  But on my first day this gully-wagon required a second man, so I got volunteered.  I then spent two summers riding in a variety of Ford and Leyland trucks, and Shelvoke&Drury bin lorries, in between sweeping rounds.  In later jobs I managed to drive quite a range of trucks one doesn't see any longer; I'm constantly surprised how few Cargos and Roadrunners are still in service, when it doesn't feel very long ago that I was driving both.  Except it is, it's 25+ years ago.

[mk2_craig]

How about the Quest 80 truck?

I don’t know a huge amount about the mob who built them, other than being based in Telford, but they made shite under-resourced British car outfits like Reliant and TVR look like world class leading manufacturers. 

[Cavcraft]

[Rustybullethole]

30 minutes ago, mk2_craig said:

How about the Quest 80 truck?

I don’t know a huge amount about the mob who built them, other than being based in Telford, but they made shite under-resourced British car outfits like Reliant and TVR look like world class leading manufacturers. 

Looks slightly apologetic.

Sorry guys i just farted it might stink a bit.

[Leyland Worldmaster]

57 minutes ago, mk2_craig said:

How about the Quest 80 truck?

I don’t know a huge amount about the mob who built them, other than being based in Telford, but they made shite under-resourced British car outfits like Reliant and TVR look like world class leading manufacturers. 

I didn't know they made lorries. I knew of this manufacturer because of their rear engine coaches that featured an extremely complex and unreliable transmission arrangement. 

[Mrs6C]

2 hours ago, mk2_craig said:

I don’t know a huge amount about the mob who built them, other than being based in Telford, but they made shite under-resourced British car outfits like Reliant and TVR look like world class leading manufacturers. 

Our very own @quicksilver has some info. on the company and its products here:
https://rustyoldrubbish.blogspot.com/2016/04/a-futile-quest.html

[Pieman]

2 hours ago, mk2_craig said:

How about the Quest 80 truck?

I don’t know a huge amount about the mob who built them, other than being based in Telford, but they made shite under-resourced British car outfits like Reliant and TVR look like world class leading manufacturers. 

Slightly off topic but Brian Whorton passed away only last year.  That business became South Staffs Freight Terminal and is still run by the Whorton-Eales family, who were/are successful stock car racers and of course Ant Whorton-Eales raced in the BTCC for a time.

[Spiny Norman]

 I snapped this oddity a few years ago. Hydrocon crane based on an old Albion chassis. 

[quicksilver]

12 hours ago, ETCHY said:

Leyland Marathon & Leyland T45.

If ever there was an Autoshite lorry it's the Marathon. It looked like a lash up when it was new !

The Leyland Marathon, so named because it would run for 26 miles between breakdowns.

[ETCHY]

4 minutes ago, quicksilver said:

The Leyland Marathon, so named because it would run for 26 miles between breakdowns.

Yeah but it looks like a block of flats. Proper BL make do & mend job.

[ETCHY]

Bedford MK

They look well 'ard !

 

[Vantman]

I am a self confessed Foden licker,the older the better--

 

[delux]

13 hours ago, RayMK said:

Commer TS3.

Fascinating engine which also sounded good.

 

When I was an apprentice (which wasnt yesterday!) the college had one of these engines on a rig in the workshop. We would all snigger at it, shitty old engine, who would have a 2 stroke diesel wierdo engine in anything nowadays?  Whats the point in that etc. Anyway, one day the lecturer started it up! Everyones jaw hit the floor! Even now I can remember the noise from this thing! Like a Tyrannosaurus standing on an upturned plug!

 

[DoverShark]

My father was responsible for the part restoration and upkeep of these in the late 90s to mid 2000s. He left the company long before it closed in 2018.

The one pulling the trailer was used to shift trailers around the estate and I had a few goes at shunting in it. The other vehicles were also used locally as working vehicles. 
 

I don’t know what happened to these or any other interesting vehicles they had after it closed but hopefully in the hands of collectors 

[ETCHY]

1 hour ago, Vantman said:

I am a self confessed Foden licker,the older the better--

 

I always liked the S80, with the headlights that are the size of dustbin lids !

[danthecapriman]

AEC’s Ergomatic cab (and the Leyland & Albion versions) are favourites of mine. The Mammoth Major is probably my favourite.

Scammell Routeman is a gorgeous looking truck too.

From back in the days a lot of effort went into styling things, even trucks!

[danthecapriman]

I always think these are very Autoshite!

 

[ETCHY]

5 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

AEC’s Ergomatic cab (and the Leyland & Albion versions) are favourites of mine. The Mammoth Major is probably my favourite.

Scammell Routeman is a gorgeous looking truck too.

From back in the days a lot of effort went into styling things, even trucks!

Both styled by Michelotti I think.

Both very cool.

[N Dentressangle]

11 hours ago, Mrs6C said:

Our very own @quicksilver has some info. on the company and its products here:
https://rustyoldrubbish.blogspot.com/2016/04/a-futile-quest.html

That then is the sum total of Quest 80's achievements in the UK and is quite frankly nothing to be proud of. 

🤣🤣

[Macscrooge]

3 hours ago, ETCHY said:

Bedford MK

They look well 'ard !

 

Some years ago I asked a driver on a military establishment how the new MAN trucks compared to the MKs.  His reply "it's like the fucking space shuttle!"

[neil72]

Here's a couple i've seen on my travels, the AEC being my fave

[HMC]

there was one of these on wasteland on the outskirts of bolton in the late 1980s. I was fascinated by the cab glazing and the wipers.
 

[ETCHY]

This was my favourite Ladybird book when I was very young.

I daresay there's a few in here that would qualify for this thread.

[danthecapriman]

21 minutes ago, HMC said:

there was one of these on wasteland on the outskirts of bolton in the late 1980s. I was fascinated by the cab glazing and the wipers.
 

Those FG crew buses were brilliant. British Rail must’ve had thousands of them over the FG’s long production run.

I used to mess around in an abandoned one as a kid! It was dumped in field with an AEC Mammoth Major flatbed. I think it was owned by some showman types but they just sat in the field rotting away so when nobody was around me and a school friend used to play in them. It was an M reg Istr.

The cab glazing on the lower corners was to help the driver with seeing the curb for doing deliveries, which the FG was very popular for… Mothers Pride and Co-Op were probably some of the biggest users of them.