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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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 Posted -
01/05/2009
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06:30
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I wanted to post about British Leyland but couldn't find an approprate topic so I've opened this one.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 01/05/2009 : 06:45
I see that LDV have finally gone into administration. I think I'm right in saying that this is the last direct link with Leyland Motors, one of the oldest manufacturers of wagons in the UK. Over the years I drove many Leylands and they were one of the best motors on the road. At one time they had at least three clocks mounted on standards at the side of the road with the logo 'Leyland Motors for all time'. There used to be one on Shap on the fell just above the Jubgle cafe. It disappeared and I later found that it had been moved and restored and you can still see it in the car park of the museum in Kendal. A sad component of the decline of UK motor industry.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk  |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 01/05/2009 : 06:51
The Leyland clock which used to stand on Shap Fell, now in the car park at Kendal Museum. There was one on the relief road for Blackpool traffic at Preston and another. I have forgotten where it was.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 01/05/2009 : 06:53
I've just realised that the modern British Leyland added their logo above the clock. This was adopted when Leyland started experimenting with gas turbines in wagons and cars, the logo is a stylised representation of a turbine rotor. I one test drove a gas turbine wagon and didn't like it. Remember the gas turbine Rover?
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
moh
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Posted - 01/05/2009 : 13:45
When we had a haulage business we had Leylands - my favourite was the Leyland Bison with the big wind screen. Later we had Volvos.
Say only a little but say it well |
softsuvner
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Posted - 01/05/2009 : 16:26
The odd fact about Leyland that has always stuck in my mind was that one of their first products was a steam-driven lawnmower!
At one time there was a replica (built by the Leyland apprentices) which used to do the rounds of the traction engine rallies. Saw it once but didn't have any film left.
Later on of course the name "British Leyland" became the commercial vehicle version of the the "Black Spot", an organisation which did for many once respectable firms including the products of my home town - the mighty Scammells.
Bit of background from the net: http://www.madeinpreston.co.uk/Road/leylandinfo.html
Malcolm
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Tizer
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Posted - 01/05/2009 : 16:31
I'm sad for the LDV employees but I'm glad the Russian owner Olag Derispaka (or whatever his name is) didn't get his bailout from Godron.
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softsuvner
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Posted - 01/05/2009 : 16:35
In case you thought that I was joking, a link to the original Leyland steamer! :
http://www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/TRANSPORT/mower/mower.htm
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Buzz Lightyear
Regular Member
60 Posts
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Posted - 01/05/2009 : 23:35
First wagon I drove was a Leyland Boxer then a Clydesdale,but preferred the Bedford TK because in those days I could sleep on the shelf at the back.
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 02/05/2009 : 06:53
You must have been short Buzz! I had one on tramp and used to shove the short gear lever out of the way and sleep across the seats.
Moh, that was the Ergonomic cab, the most comfortable cab built at that time. I had a Comet with the same cab and I missed it when we replaced it with the ERF and trailer. The salesman at Reliance Motors asked me what I thought about the cab when we went to buy it and I told him I had seen better henhuts. The Bison was what I always wanted, it was a four wheeler built for a trailer and instead of the 401 engine it had a version of the 600. A third more power and wonderful torque. This 600 block was supplied by Leyland after the war to Volvo in Sweden and was the basis of their successful range that eventually (with Scania) took over the market.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 02/05/2009 : 07:01
I think this is the cab you mean Moh. Piccy of the lad setting off for Worcester with 16 big cows in 1969. In case you are about to criticise, the wagon is unusually dirty because we were very busy and I was doing more hours than you could poke a stick at.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 02/05/2009 : 07:03
PS, I've just realised, if you look very carefully you can see Fly my old mate laid on his cushion on top of the engine cover and up against the windscreen. He always rode there with his head facing me and never stirred until someone tried to get in the cab! I think many people thought he was stuffed!
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Buzz Lightyear
Regular Member
60 Posts
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Posted - 02/05/2009 : 08:05
I remember the amount of family run haulage firms in the area, Prestons, Earby Film,Peel Transport,Jacksons,Fearings, George Gil Stansfields,Bradleys,Higsons,Wilds,there must have been hundreds employed in the industry in this area, happy days !
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moh
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Posted - 02/05/2009 : 10:14
Long hours Stanley - must have been before the tachograph!!
My hubby often went out 4am and did not get back until 10pm - when he was delivering lime to the lime spreaders - he had a Bedford TK then.
We were very busy when they were building the M62.
Say only a little but say it well |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 02/05/2009 : 11:10
Don't tell the traffic commissioners but I used to do 40 hours the first two days of the week regularly. In my last year with the wagon and trailer I did 110,000 miles. And I enjoyed every one of them! Cab happy. I can still hear the exhaust barking at me as it bounced off the walls when you were into the collar up the old Buck Haw Brow, steepest hill between London and Scotland on the old roads, if you could get up that you were OK. Nowadays they have that much power they don't notice the hills. I've seen me have to detour 15 miles to avoid a sharp brew on minor roads, too much weight on to get up! Those were the days, overloaded, no brakes to speak of and we never had an accident. We had wagons at the dairy that were so bad on the brakes they had to be scrapped in 1968 when Barbara Castle brought the new Transport Act in.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Tizer
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Posted - 02/05/2009 : 11:28
There was a photo in the paper last week of a lorry that had turned on its side and the pigs had escaped from it and were running about the street. But the lorry was said to be "only yards from the slaughterhouse". Had would a lorry full of pigs turn over when it must have been going so slowly?
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