I was born at home in North End, Pompey 1960. The nickname comes from my first real driving job for a dodgy outfit based in NW10 and it’s stuck with me ever since. Apart from the old Guinness brewery (long gone now) there were many trades associated with North Acton/ Park Royal, but they all moved elsewhere (including Park Royal coachbuilders, who moved to Cumbria of all places). I’ve done the long-haul flight back “home” and return more times than I care to count: for all that I’m still an Englishman (whatever that means these days) and that “green and pleasant land” line still gets my tear ducts working, I’m more at home here these days than I would be Up Over. This is just my personal experience, I don’t judge anyone for theirs and I don’t want to be judged for mine.
Park Royal was closed not long after AEC shut.They were building one of the numerous Routemaster replacements the Leyland Titan. The local MP tried in parliment to keep it open but it fell on deaf ears. Park Royal was taken over by AEC many years earler and they both suffered the same fate under Leylanf
1975 to 1985 was probably the most eclectic time for road transport in this country.
Up until the mid 60s we were restricted to locally produced vehicles or British offerings, forced upon us by tariffs on anything imported from anywhere other than the Commonwealth.
As trucks were expensive, their lives were long with various commercial vehicles still earning a living, meagre in many cases, during the decade in question. Flat tops, gates and tarps were the most versatile and order of the day.
Petrol was (relatively) cheap and still common on local trucks and a few still lingering on interstate routes, some with LPG or dual fuel conversions. Diesel was yet to dominate but helped along by Cummins, Detroit, Cat, Mercedes, Volvo and Scania in the first part of the decade.
By the end of the decade we had the widest choice of brand ever, from Europe, incuding UK, USA and home grown products.
With mergers, acquisitions and the death of British trucks, slowly the choices have narrowed. White aquired Reo, Autocar and Diamond T, then failed themselves. My flavored truck, Western Star was the phoenix raised from the ashed of White. It went through various ownership from USA, Canada and Australia before being swallowed up by the seemingly unstoppable Mercedes Benz behemoth. MB also took control of Freightliner, Mitsubishi and Detroit Diesel. Freightliner was a budget built, plastic, American custom build truck. Western Star was a quality built custom, every bit as good as any Paccar truck. Now Western Star is a Freightliner with a different bonnet and grill. The only engine offered is a Detroit. MB used the best of Detroit’s tech in their engines and regardless of the name on the tappetcover, they’re basically the same engine. Nowadays if you want a bonneted truck it comes with a Freightliner badge, or the same truck as a cabover, sports the crows foot.
Volvo are similar sponging up Renault and Mack. Renault are no longer available here, but again Mack if you want a bonnet, Volvo for cabover.
Aren’t MAN and Scania entangled with VW. Both have a presence here.
Kenworth are now the premier trucks in this country and the only independent, although they have been part of the Paccar organisation forever.
Both manufacturers and transport providers have become behemoths controlled by bean counters, rather than people with a passion, or at least a passing interest in the industry of which they chose to spend their working life.
Transport companies have become end to end logistics businesses, with no real knowledge of the task at hand. They don’t see any differences in various trucks, apart from the price. It’s easy to see which company is offering the keenest price, in any given quarter, suddenly all the logistics companies have new MANs, Mercedes or povpac Scanias.
The older, established, family run companies that have survived or rejected the logistics boom appreciate the greater reliability, life and residual value of older Western Stars and new Kenworths.
Very interesting, you mentioned MANs a couple of times, didn’t they swallow ERF after the tie up between the latter and Western Star?
Not sure of the timelines but I met Peter Foden of ERF at a small lunch given by a local driver agency keen for my business. He was a very nice man, quiet and unassuming but when he spoke it was always interesting. This would be late 80s/early 90s I think and I think they were still independent then, but if not, I know a man who does. 
The only other person there was a Nottingham MP whose name escapes me now, and deservedly so. 
Not sure mate but it sounds feasable. Western Star offered a largely unsuccessful Commander, custom engine and running gear with an English cab. I only saw one in the flesh. About that time Penski (of American racing fame) on the scene with the dealership for Western Star, MAN and Detroit engines. Coincidence, or are MAN tied in? Maybe Penski has a multibrand dealership.
I thought MAN and Scania were tied in with Volkswagen.
VW own both Scania & MAN under the Traton name. It shows too with the interior quality of the newer Scanias.Not a patch on the older stuff but very similar to MANs of 15 years ago quality wise . Volvo tried to buy Scania but were blocked by the monopolies commision i think so how could VW be allowed in?
Just finished watching Bruce fettle an old Detroit diesel two-stroke engine in an old converted bus. looks a bit toasty there.
It started without a full turn
I think I’m right in saying there was a tie-up with Roe at one point but as you say it all fell over anyway.
I presume the fad for the Argosy a decade or more back was because they were cheap, or am I wrong?
In my amateur opinion, your summary of the conglomeration of previously distinctive marques seems spot-on: minor correction - it’s Daimler Truck who own M-B, FUSO (previously Mitsubishi heavy vehicles) and Freightliner. On that subject, M-B Group have a significant stake in (wait for it…) BYD. The Volvo truck division seems to have escaped the fate of its car sibling i.e. being owned by Geely. MAN has been tied with VAG since the late 70s IIRC, but it seems ownership of Scania (once SAAB-Scania) has, as ramone points out
Again, in my amateur opinion, the problem with all these mergers/ conglomerations is that you always end up with an average product. While Daimler has improved FUSO from horrendous to barely acceptable, they’ve dragged M-B down to a median product - the gear selector on a 2651 Actros is the same as the one in the Sprinter van, and equally rubbish. I understand the idea of standardising production, but good grief, where does it end.
AEC or ACV which it became owned both Park Royal and Charles H Roe. Roe was taken over by Park Royal in 1947 but then AEC bought Park Royal in 1949. Leyland closed Roe in 1984 so it outlasted both AEC and Park Royal.The workers at Roe started the company up again trading as Optare making smaller buses which we called Hoppers over here. They went into financial hardship but were bought by … wait for it … Ashok Leyland. They moved to Sherburn in Elmet , i’ve delivered there a few times the place was organised chaos .I don’t know if they are still there it was about 6 years ago that i was last there.
Mercedes have certainly suffered quality wise and service wise too.Our 7 units are never out of the local agents and there’s no urgency to turn them round.The oldest is 10 years old and should really be put out of its misery by now.They have been serviced from new by the main dealer. All autos i haven’t seen a gearstick on a Merc since a 2004 i didn’t think you could get one.It could be a German thing though because we had 5 brand new MANs in 2011 and they were exactly the same.Fault after fault i think 3 had engines blow up.Everytime any of them went in the dealers we didn’t see them for weeks.All on R&M but they could never get the parts. Progress hey!!!
Thanks for filling me in on stuff I didn’t know e.g. Roe starting up Optare and Ashok buying the whole concern.
This is the sort of (nowadays) trivia I like learning about.
I work these days for a global US-based concern (no names) and all the linehaul drivers I’ve had a yarn with would take any old Volvo over a new M-B. Obviously my chats are not a representative sample, but I think there’s a trend here (no, I’m not saying Volvo units are perfect, see the new FH series for example).
They were well priced for what they appeared. Well specced and appointed, unfortunately they weren’t robust cabwize. The gearlever came out of the dash, with a bit of wear it became very vague, but I may have been spoilt having the gearlever go straight into the top of the box, for over 20 years.
My snapshot was far from complete, I didn’t mention Iveco who swallowed up Ford, International and Fiat. Strangely the amalgamation appears to have resulted in a smaller presence than Ford or Inter had individually.
A point on Geeley owning Volvo cars .Volvo Truck tried to buy back the car division but like the Scania deal they were knocked back.Enter the Chinese
Not to mention Magirus-Deutz. Never having driven one I couldn’t say how good it was, but I always liked the look of the Iveco/ International TurboStar.
It’s all succession. Decades ago it was Japanese imports “ruining” the British car market; 15-20 years ago the Korean cars queered the Japanese pitch. Now the Chinese cars are everywhere, and they’re getting better by the week. I can’t see which industrialised nation will succeed them from where I am, but “rise and fall” is a perennial fact.
My first motor after transits and a Fiat Daily was a 7.5 ton Magirus Deutz. Air cooled hydraulic brakes a very ordinary thing.I drove a few TEC cabbed Ivecos and Turbostars. The 190/30s we had were very average but the Turbostars with the 360 in were quite agile and would really dig in on the hills.They all had 13 speed Fullers.Then we got a 190/48 that went up Windy Hill fully loaded (38tons) dropping half a gear just before the top. The cabs were very cramped and they fell to bits but the 360/480 engines were excellent
This one’s a bit rare.
They were a bit controversial when first released. With a long bonnet, 48" bed and a forty foot trailer they were a few inches overlength, and hounded by NSW police for it.