Evening Gentlemen…bobs along this old thread, does it not?
Bit like me today, you see one of my fields has a little brook running through it, nothing spectacular, in summer a pleasant little water course meandering through beautiful water meadow at the bottom of the hill on which our nearest village stands. But now, swollen with copious rain, she is a fearsome torrent, running at about 5000 gallons a minute, backing up, and spilling over the meadow land from the bridge carrying the road into the village, and already by early this morning creeping over the gardens of the houses that should never have been built on its banks…but they were!
How so? Well we common agricoles are now forbidden to dredge, or clear the watercourses on our land by those Enviroment Agency chappies, for fear we disturb the wildlife that we have lived with since Noah`s time. The net result, the water courses are shallow, even more so the bridge holes, so the watercourse cannot carry the volume of water, and it spills out everywhere.
Thus this fair morning, (an easy day for me), I popped the old HyMac up onto the low loader, and myself and Mr Deere set off on a rescue mission! Now both the Hy Mac and me are “mature”, but those old girls are great to work with, and you can really get a move on, digging wise. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and good work was done, and the water is flowing where it should, not where it was going to go.
Feeling happy, I was just chaining my old girl down, then into the glow of Mr Deeres beacons hove two white council vans…and a silver Mr Enviroment Shogun. A rather aimless conversation ensued, the two old boys from the Highways totally understood what I had done…less so the well educated teenager in the smart green fleece! One of our new “executive” villagers had telephoned every one available, to report an elderly man vandalising the “village amenity stream” B…r me, …I own the B…y ground. Quite upset me it did, I can tell you.
But to get to the point in question…when I am working my old mind wanders, and I got to thinking about Guy. They were a flexible lot at Fallings Park,I remember Chris Humphries at Calor Gas telling me about the Big Js adapted by ■■■■■■■ to run on LPG. for Calor. Then of course, when Midlands BRS wanted their Big Js to be fitted with NH290 ■■■■■■■ around 74, wellGuy did it! And no doubt Trev H will confirm their outstanding performance…and prodigious thirst!
I wonder just how much an 8LXB Big J would have cost back in its day? For J&A Smith were canny with their pounds,and the 70s were a time of hyper inflation,(I seem to remember seeing chassis price rises circ 30% over a two year period), and as a bench mark I recall that in 72, a Big J 6LXB was about 6.6k, and by 74 must have been around 9k! So what price an 8LXB?
The outfit that I appraised in 74, (mainly for the Highway Superlightweight trailer), was registered PWG48M, and was without doubt 8LXB powered.( Perhaps an ex J&A Smith man may confirm this). No Gentlemen, it was not a Seddon, although gingerfolds idea does have some attraction. I wonder just how many Seddon tractors they ran?
Dave the Renegade has posted images of MA Evans 8LXB, but I wonder just how rare they were? I expect that 5Valve probably has some idea…but if his hip is like my knee…well that would be the last thing on his mind!
Away to my Bollinger…Im late for my bed, apologies for rambling on…
Cheerio for now.
No doubt even at this moment there is a devious “Photo Shopper” at work trying to rectify matters in order that the “true believers” can save face. 
