DON’T WORRY ABOUT THE ‘MISSING’ PAGES: I have left out some of the Seddon-Atkinson specific bits. If you want the entire Eurotest, go to my thread about LHD Seddon-Atkinson 400s - it’s all there! Robert 
Lawrence Kiely, one of those rare Middle-Easters who also wrote Long-Distance Diaries for TRUCK magazine, had LHD Marathon in about 1976 with a ■■■■■■■ 335 and 9-speed Fuller, registered SLB 344R. I admired his LDDs enormously and at some time or other I copied and pasted a wonderfully enlightening piece about it - probably on his own website. I’m going to be a bit daring and reproduce it here. If he or anyone else objects, I will remove it immediately. Robert 
In the meantime, enjoy:
''Buying that Marathon in the first place most certainly was. But, I was only 24 at the time, too young for any haulier’s insurance to embark eastwards, unless I had my own of course.
Not sure if this Leyland Marathon was a prototype as many farm tractors had been built before. The engine was a 14 litre 330 bhp ■■■■■■■ NTC which was powerful enough in those days but the let down was only a 9 speed gearbox, the Fuller RTO 9509.
Good tough boxes with, I believe, twin layshafts. M+C Steve would know more about these I’ve no doubt. However the Fuller 9513 which as its model number suggests was a 13 speed was far superior. Very common in the Ford Transcontinentals. You needed those extra cogs going up any mountain.
The biggest fault with the Marathon I had, SLB344R, was the cab suspension, or total lack of it. It was LHD so BL got that right although they did not have a lot of capital to produce a new truck when the UK was invaded by Scania 110/140s plus Volvo F88s and the pokier F89.
There was only one bed which when lifted up revealed a stainless steel sink with water tap, cooker, and small fridge. The passenger seat swivelled through 180 degrees so one could then cook away creating whatever gastronomic delight or disaster one cared for.
It was late 1976 during this My Mistake Marathon trip to Tehran that after slithering up Mount Tahir, in the Agri region some 800 kms east of Ankara, the weather deteriorated into a roaring snow storm. Just made the top so decided to pull over and cook.
Round went the passenger seat, up went the bed, cooker on, frying pan hot, coffee cup in hand and some decent taped (CDs had not yet been invented) music roaring away. Think it was Dire Straits ‘Money For Nothing’! Yeah, right.
Suddenly a voice bellowed out,
‘Where do you think you are, on Daddy’s yacht?’
That was the first time I met the late Tony Baker. He had pulled up alongside in an OHS Mac. What a colourful bloke Tony turned out to be, always laughing in the face of adversity.
I can’t really print what he thought of BL Marathons but suffice to say there never was any disagreement!
RIP Tony, you were one of the best.
Laurence Kiely
laurencekiely.co.uk’’
Well, I know the old Marathon had very mixed fortunes and may not have been an ideal wagon to take on long-haul work, but I strongly suspect that it was my kind of ‘drive’ and that I would have enjoyed driving one.
I’ve just noticed that I’ve left the ‘a’ out of Leyland in the title! Does anyone know if you can edit your own titles on TNUK? Perhaps a mod will do it for me… 
Robert
Plenty of info about this TL12-powered Middle-Easter on the normal Leyland Marathon thread. Robert
And then there’s this model…
robert1952:
Well, I know the old Marathon had very mixed fortunes and may not have been an ideal wagon to take on long-haul work, but I strongly suspect that it was my kind of ‘drive’ and that I would have enjoyed driving one.I’ve just noticed that I’ve left the ‘a’ out of Leyland in the title! Does anyone know if you can edit your own titles on TNUK? Perhaps a mod will do it for me…
Just go back to your first post and you can edit it there…found that out the hard way…but do it quick as it won’t let you back in after a few days…
My Dad had a Marathon… he wanted one with a ■■■■■■■ but there was sour note on the deal… A few years before, Heron trucks at Muscleborough sold him a Buffalo… not good… Really not good… The only way he could get rid of it without loosing to much money was to buy a new Marathon… but for some reason the only way the dealer would do a deal was for one with a TL12 in it. I was only about 11 at the time so I don’t know much about the deal other than it was done at Glasgow Motor Show…I got out in it a few tines, and remember the driver saying it went a bit better than the Advent calendar 1924 he had before it… I tried to drive it round the yard one Sunday morning but rumbled by the driver who turned up early… Right old bullocking…
I remember seeing the BRS Marathons on Blue Peter with Peter Purvise …
There’s a good video getting about featuring 5 Wibbalinks Marathons going to Iran… Watch it with the sound of unless you like your uncle Sid doing a bad impersonation the 1970’s organist at Blackpool pier…
Jeff…
robert1952:
Plenty of info about this TL12-powered Middle-Easter on the normal Leyland Marathon thread. RobertAnd then there’s this model…
This was taken when I’d just returned from Baghdad 81/82 before Malc Hillage went in with Curtis
