Just how mant LD vans did Mother’s Pride run? I reckon the bakery must have taken around 50% of production- there seemed to be millions of them!
Never mind the Bolly, I’m off for my quart of Chateau Erdington.
first lorry I drove,john gornalls bedford
Retired Old ■■■■:
moomooland:
I’m guessing mid 1950s, Moomooland, but where?
Birchfield Road, Perry Barr Birmingham in 1960 
Spooky how we all thought it was Brum! And not too far out with the date, either.
The clue for me was the Marsh’s ad. I used to haul pigs from Gloucester market to Marsh’s slaughterhouse at Brierley Hill. As soon as the lorry pulled up I would be surrounded by urchins desperate for a look at the porkers going to their last home. Bloodthirsty little b*ggers ! It was probably the only chance they had of seeing a farm animal.
P.S. Unless you count the school trip to Dudley Zoo!
Hiya…i notice the only thing not British on that street is the Buck’s(yanky)sign above the shop. funny how things change.
John
i remember in the early 60s jimmy cockie from glasgow had an 8 wheeler tk he used to load fruit from london markets to glasgow i bet he struggled over shap & beatock . anyone got any pics?
Hi, Larry,
Just looking at that photo & it crossed my mind to wonder what sort of payload that little artic carried? Presumably a petrol engine with naff-all horsepower, trailer made of inch-and-a -quarter timber and a railway box which must have weighed two or three tons.
Well the A 5 Bedford was a 5 Tonner but as an artic on 3 axles it would probabley carry 10 Ton perhaps ?, & it would most likley have a Perkins P6 Diesel engine or a Bedford 300 Im not too sure if the Bedford 300 was fitted to the A type, I know it was fitted to the first TKs in the earley 60s. Regards Larry.
We used to have a couple of P6-engined Bedfords (even an R6 in a six-wheeler) but I would have thought the A-series in the photo would have had the chrome & yellow-ish “Diesel” badge on the offside of the front panel had it been equipped with a Perkins or Bedford oiler. The 300 was indeed offered toward the end of the A-series run but I have a feeling that this was after they modified the grille.
Personally, I have never driven an A-series artic, or indeed an S-type. Our first artics were TKs, which were later phased out by ERFs & ergo AECs.
Well I drove a A Type Bedford Reg 1953 TVK 123, & That had the Perkins P 6 In, It was a flying machine & allways loaded to the gunnels 7/8 Ton It coped with the weight & It also had good brakes, which was a bonus when running over the Standege & Shap Fell which I did every week in those days. Regards Larry.
. This firm had a very big flour and farm feed mill in Barrow -in - Furness They had about 10 Bedfords this one had small framed tanks so if not a full load would fill out with bagged stuff this was 1999 not a lot of farmers had silos then Frank
Leyland 680:
. The year was 1959 not 1999 Sorry. Frank
Bedford Lorries,Motorcoaches,Buses and Vans.TruckNetUK.
PART 5,PAGE 6.
PARTS 1,2,3 and 4 are all on page 3 of this Thread,and now after some delay because of me doing
others things,here is PART 5 of my good look at Bedford history 
.
Just before I examine the reasons why Bedford failed,probably the most consistently
successful Bedford model during the 1970s and 1980s was the Bedford CF Van,Pick Up Truck,etc,
made by Bedford from 1969 to 1988.From 1973 it was sold in Germany and certain other European
countries as the Opel Bedford Blitz.The CF underwent several updates,including one in 1976,one
in 1980 - the CF1 - and another one in 1984 - the CF2;There was also the CF Electric,a battery
electric vehicle produced from 1982 to 1987.General Motors retained the rights to the Bedford
marque name,QV point 6,PART 6.
Beford CF Van OTU 919Y
A typical Bedford CF Van.The Ford Transit was the market leader,and the Bedford CF was in 2nd
place.
flickr.com/photos/leicester- … 421545676/
Bedford CF Electric Van:-
google.co.uk/imgres?q=Bedfor … 6,s:0,i:87
Bedford CF Ice Cream Van NDS 749N Mr Whippy Ice Cream:-
flickr.com/photos/leicester- … 611450410/
Bedford CF Luton Van ELV 455Y Liverpool Salvage Corps
The Salvage Corps is part of the Fire Service. This Bedford is now preserved by the Merseyside
Fire Museum:-
fireflash-delta64.co.uk/elv455y[kh]8301.jpg
Bedford CF Light Pump Unit Fire Engine A861 DAS Highlands and Islands Fire Brigade at Drumnadrochit Scotland
Rochdale Fire Museum.
fire-engine-photos.com/pictu … r19303.asp
BEDFORD.THE DEMISE.
From the 1930s straight through in to the late 1970s,Bedford was very successful both in the
United Kingdom home market and in export markets the world over,and they were market leaders
in at least some sectors of the commercial vehicle market.In other words,Bedford’s truthful
and famous advertisement slogan - BEDFORD.YOU SEE THEM EVERYWHERE - was still true in the
late 1970s and it seemed that it would remain to be true forevermore.You would have been
astonished to know that,by as early as September 1986,the Bedford motor vehicle marque would
cease to exist:General Motors stopped making Bedford Commercial Vehicles 
.Why?
Bedford TM:A Sales Dissapointment.
1.The Bedford TM Heavy Lorry Range was not the success that Bedford and General Motors had hoped
for,one of the main reasons being that many misguided and narrow-minded lorry operaters were not
broad-minded enough to accept the superb Detroit Diesel Two Stroke Engines that powered some
TM models 
.Which was a very strange attitude to have when Detroit two stroke diesel engines were
very successful in long distance haulage lorries,motorcoaches,city buses,fire engines,
construction and earthmoving vehicles,military vehicles,etc,in America and other countries! 
- and
also in the United Kingdom in applications such as the Scammell Crusader and Samson .
Engine options included the Detroit Diesel 8V-92T V8-cylinder 387 BHP Two Stroke Diesel Engine,
and,later on,the ■■■■■■■ E290 four stroke engine became available which was too little and too
late to turn the TM in to a major success.Another reason for the shortfall of sales was that the TM entered
a crowded market place,which was already full of established heavy lorry manufacturers.
2.The Bedford TK models were becoming outdated and were losing sales.A newly-designed tilt cab
replacement had been projected to be introduced in 1974,but,due to under investment,this new
model - which was basically a down-sized TM - was cancelled .
The Swan Song.
3.In 1980 the new Bedford TL tilt-cabbed Medium Weight Lorry Range was introduced,which was a
more refined TK and later largely replaced the TK,both petrol and diesel engines were available
and the weight ranges were 5.69 tonnes to 16.3 tonnes GVW’s for rigids and the GTW’s for the
tractive units were 16.26 tonnes and 19.3 tonnes.
The TL range was gradually improved over the years:An all turbocharged diesel engine line up,
an improved cab,Techliner cab option and so on.
But the TL had probably come on to the market too late,it was also up against tough competition
and the world’s economy was in a deep recession:Bedford’s TL civilian Swan Song could not save
Bedford. Indeed,not only Bedford was in trouble,but GM’s British Vauxhall motorcar division was
in trouble too:Vauxhall/Bedford lost £57,397,000 in 1981.
Fortunately for Vauxhall,in 1982 it launched the all new Cavilier Motorcar,which turned out to be
a great success! …and Vauxhall have gone from strength to strength ever since .
Bedford TL 4x2 Aeroplane Refueller Air Total at Duxford:-
flickr.com/photos/ianpressph … 610001198/
Bedford TL 4x2 Flat-bodied Articulated Lorry LLZ 4961 Trevor Haydock:-
ccmv.aecsouthall.co.uk/p56657171 … #h32afb59a
Bedford TL 860 Boxvan-bodied Mobile Workshop Lorry B861 NEF North Yorkshire Fire Brigade Whitby
Fire Station:-
fire-engine-photos.com/pictu … er6561.asp
Bedford TL Crew-cabbed Boxvan-bodied 4x2 Emergency Rail Rescue Vehicle Road-Rail Vehicle
flickr.com/photos/merf29/5170034905/
Bedford TL HCB-Angus Pump Escape Fire Engine D94 TTL Lincolnshire Fire & Rescue Service
Callsign 93,Wainfleet Fire Station,near Skegness,then moved to Lincoln:-
flickr.com/photos/essex999/5609278286/
PART SIX OF Bedford Lorries,Motorcoaches,Buses and Vans WILL FOLLOW SHORTLY.
This was my Mate Les Purdons Little Bedford till last Year
Ben.
Evening all, VALKYRIE, Irealise your great enthusiasm for the subject, and acknowledge your diligent research, but the demise of Bedford cannot be summerised by the fact that the UK haulier did not like the Detroit Vs, and did not buy the TM, or the late arrival of the TL range! Perhaps , without going into a lengthy statistical analysis, a little historic compilation is necessary. For no other reason, than the acknowledgement of the efforts of so many employees of Bedford at all levels!
Bedford produced over 2000,000, lorries from 1931, to 1986, 60% were sold for export. In 1969 Bedford produced 71,500 lorries , in 1985,14,500 were produced, over 6000 being UK registered. By the end, in 1986, the workforce of 10, 000, had shrunk to 4000. By 1988, at the end of the military contracts, less than 1000. How so??
The West European industry had a capacity of building approx 600000 heavy truck chassis in 1986, the actual combined Truck markets had a capacity to absorb 400,000 chassis, a gross overcapacity to build of 200,000 chassis, someone needed a big field!!
The responsibility for Bedfords demise rests firmly with management at Detroit. GM was a motor car orientated company, for any executive to be posted to the Truck side, was to “wither on the vine” GM executive programme envisaged an average stay in any divisional position at three years. Hardly condusive to continuity of purpose.
Some of you will remember GMs World Truck Programme, Headquartered in Pontiac Michigan. The theory, plants around the world build lots of “standard” components, these are shipped everywhere, and built up into “modular” GM designs, to suit local markets, at very low component cost. Theory works,…practice does not! Bedford was a key player, as well as assembler. One of my French colleagues left Saviem, joined GM, and eventually ended up at Pontiac. His tales of terminally boring, unproductive meetings, colleagues that wished desperatley to re-join any of GMs car divisions, and a total lack of awareness of the “lorry market” world wide, made for sad listening.
Yet in 1983, this operation concluded that there was more potential in global terms in the truck market, than in cars…hence the seperation of Bedford from Vauxhall! Yes, Bedford was a "key " player, working with GM subsidiaries in Brazil, the US, and Japans Isuzu.
Look what GM had, the TK had sold in a 20 year life over 500,000 units, the first British built vehicle ever to achieve such volume. sold in 150 countries, a big seller in Australia, the Benelux, South Africa, the Portugese GM plant had by 85 produced 10,000units. 1980 the TL replacement for the TK arrived, to hit the largest sector of the UK market. The market total volume was 79000units, 43000 of which were 4x2 rigids. Ford were a key target, so the TL was priced below the Ford figures, but margin retention above “Factory gate price” was low. And the UK truck market was to nosedive!
By 1984 the situation in GMs Truck division was dire, revenue based on falling export and domestic sales, coupled with inadequate profit retention could not be addressed in isolation. GM needed to find a partner for Bedford. Bob Price GMs European Executive began a European search, Enasa, spains loss making owner of Seddon Atkinson,extensive, and unproductive talks. But suddenly, there was Germanys MAN, on the ropes, virtually bankrupt in 1985, and a willing partner. SO, how did the Federal German Government “engineer” a 100million loan from Mercedes, (who had long co-operated with MAN), to “save” MANs bacon at the last minute!! Against all EU rules, (but is it only us who play a straight bat…of course it is)!! GM, profited by access, under seperate agreement , to MANs military cross country vehicle expertise for their US military products. A little recompense!
By 1986, the situation for Bedford was summed up by Eric Fountain, who was Bedfords Director of Corporate Affairs, in the statement, (and I paraphrase since it has been some years since the speech)“the UK truck industry will be in serious problems, unless we, and Leyland find partners soon”!! It was pretty obvious, really a marriage made in heaven, (if you wanted a long term UK truck industry), but it was not to be.
The Deal, between GM and Leyland was put together at the same time as the Ford Fiat, (Iveco) deal, one worked, one did not.Why, because despite considerable synergy between the partners, Bedford and leyland, one with an old range, one with new, one with a new assembly plant, one with an old, (but incredibly valuable site), with executives that knew that it would work,Les Wharton of Leyland, Paul Tosch of GM. The deal collapsed, and in quick order Bedford was no more!
The villains, David Andrews ,of Land Rover, Paul Channon, HM Government, the Cabinet, who caved into “jingoistic” keep land Rover British demands , and the rapidly shrinking domestic and export markets…not British hauliers not buying the TM, and TL.
Cheerio for now.