revman:
Casual Observer:
As can be seen from photos , was in extremely poor condition & has since been used for component recovery & broken up.Was one of a fleet ran by Glasgow District ( or City ) Council , for waste transfer duties , using tipping & flat trailers
highways operated this one
When you say Highways operated it, do you mean Strathclyde Region Council?
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during my visits to scrap yards i had noticed for years the younger the motor the faster they deteriorated, not leaving much for the restorers apart from big fabrication of panels or if lucky finding a new old stock item,
The reason Ford had to jack the Berliet cab up so high is usually given that the ■■■■■■■ engine is taller than the Berliet engine. How about this:
youtube.com/watch?v=vZKrnC0NPt0&t=8s
The cab floor is no higher than normal, there is a ■■■■■■■ underneath and the engine hump is lower than on a Berliet.
[zb]
anorak:
The reason Ford had to jack the Berliet cab up so high is usually given that the ■■■■■■■ engine is taller than the Berliet engine. How about this:youtube.com/watch?v=vZKrnC0NPt0&t=8s
The cab floor is no higher than normal, there is a ■■■■■■■ underneath and the engine hump is lower than on a Berliet.
Engine sump v ground clearance ?.That sump is as high or higher than the spring hangers. 
youtube.com/watch?v=BrCrTs-wFjA 3.34
youtube.com/watch?v=BrCrTs-wFjA
Is this a Mk.1 Transcon? The typeface of the letters on the side suggests so. Apart from the front panel, are there any other clues?
Contributors with an aversion to nerdery should look away now.
These are pics from the video of the Transcon in the Italian graveyard:
Here is a Mk1 Transcon:
…and here is a Mk2:
The Ford still looks quite modern to me. Were they good from a driver’s point of view?
Correct me if I’m wrong on the differences
Mark 1
4 bar white / painted grill
Transcontinental on the silver bit on the door. (No engine size mentioned)
Indicator light on the wing just orange.
Mark 2
black grille
Transcontinental 4428 (or whatever nomination of engine fitted)
Indicator on the wing combined with a sidelight
Sure there’s more, I’ll start thinking now haha
Edited now
The most obvious Ford letters on the top bonnet / hatch
Moved and used the blue ford logo on the mark 2
Tubbysboy:
Correct me if I’m wrong on the differencesMark 1
4 bar white / painted grill
Transcontinental on the silver bit on the door. (No engine size mentioned)
Indicator light on the wing just orange.
Mark 2
black grille
Transcontinental 4428 (or whatever nomination of engine fitted)
Indicator on the wing combined with a sidelight
Sure there’s more, I’ll start thinking now haha
Edited now
The most obvious Ford letters on the top bonnet / hatch
Moved and used the blue ford logo on the mark 2
I would agree with all of it, but the bit about the indicators seems to have a few exceptions. The blue Mk2 in my last post has no sidelight. The Italian one has most of the characteristics of a Mk1, but it has sidelight/indicators. Most Transcons conform, though. Maybe the changes did not coincide exactly? Maybe some of them have had those parts replaced with the incorrect one?
This is what we came here for- solving trivial mysteries, in so doing improving the world not one jot. 
[zb]
anorak:Tubbysboy:
Correct me if I’m wrong on the differencesMark 1
4 bar white / painted grill
Transcontinental on the silver bit on the door. (No engine size mentioned)
Indicator light on the wing just orange.
Mark 2
black grille
Transcontinental 4428 (or whatever nomination of engine fitted)
Indicator on the wing combined with a sidelight
Sure there’s more, I’ll start thinking now haha
Edited now
The most obvious Ford letters on the top bonnet / hatch
Moved and used the blue ford logo on the mark 2
I would agree with all of it, but the bit about the indicators seems to have a few exceptions. The blue Mk2 in my last post has no sidelight. The Italian one has most of the characteristics of a Mk1, but it has sidelight/indicators. Most Transcons conform, though. Maybe the changes did not coincide exactly? Maybe some of them have had those parts replaced with the incorrect one?
This is what we came here for- solving trivial mysteries, in so doing improving the world not one jot.
Trivial ■■ Haha
Although I think you maybe correct, have gone through some of the photos on here and seems to be random regarding the sidelights / indicator
I do remember that they hardly worked and at Mot time lots of fiddling with the bulbs and wires was needed
Same as the top lights on the Sandbach assembled ones
Maybe Fodens were not used to putting functional stuff above the height of the rocker cover.
The thing about that Italian relic is that it sports the model number, which is a Mk2 feature, but in Mk1 letters. The Mk2 letters were in a fancy typeface. Also the model number is a Mk2 one. The Mk1 version would have been a 4234.
I am thinking that Ford’s response to the Italian 44 tonne/352 bhp rule was to introduce the 4435 early, to get round the Italian rule. It would not have been too difficult to tweak the pump on the Mk1’s engine (NTC355, 342bhp to BS141Au, IIRC), to get 352 bhp DIN. To sell the thing to the Italians, putting the uprated specification on the badge would help sell it. The alternative explanation, of course, is that the proud driver of the vehicle doctored the badge. Some research is in order!
Did I say that non-nerds must look away?
I’m not sure Ford even denoted the Transcon as MkI or MkII although there is a website quoting that, we had a fleet of them at Van Hee in Newcastle and I can’t recall ever using the Mark terms. Ford carried out updates continuously over the period they were built, which wasn’t long about 7 years, some sources say 1975-82, some 75-83. The early builds had what people thought was a fourth air tank under the battery box but this was a Bypass filter which the later models had on the NTE engine, as for other differences I think they just came in during the period of production rather than with one model or the other. The one I drove was a T Reg 1 Aug 78-31 July 79, it had the small blue Ford sign on the Black grille (quoted for MkII) but still had the NTC small cam engine, so right on the period when these quoted MkI and MkII’s came about. Four pics below, two of the vehicle I drove (not me in pics but driver who had it from new in France), note Bypass filter, other two pics of Sister Transcons, one with small grill badge the other with the lettering, bypass filter now gone. Franky.
Hi Franky, Thanks for posting these great shots of Van Hees Motors, I remember T C. He was a great lad, Take care & stay safe, Regards Larry.
Danish.
It seems that Ford had a bit of indecision about the bypass filter, and there was a bit of mix-and-match at the change-over point. The big letters can easily have been retro-fitted to a later model, as Michel’s pic shows. Maybe some operators, or even Ford dealers, swapped them for the small blue oval, to make their vehicle look up-to-date?
The one thing I have not seen is the model number of a Mk2, in Mk1 letters, on a (probable!) Mk1. Someone, whether it was Ford or a proud driver, has gone to some trouble to make those badges. If it was Ford, or its Italian subsidiary, then that suggests that there was an “official” Mk1 4435, which had an NTC engine- not a Big Cam. That is the point of intrigue.
The point is, Ford was happy to make up a new model, to suit a market. Under the skin, I bet it is a 4432, maybe with some heavy duty options in the chassis department, like 13 ton springs, for instance. The Italian one up there^^ had the earlier typeface, which looks the same as Berliet used on the same cab.
