Hiya,
My mistake Larry the Scammell was the “Rigid Eight” and the Guy did a “Light Eight”,
at my time of life I am allowed to make the odd boo boo.
thanks harry, long retired.
hi lads
great picture of the old scammell rigid 8,any of you ever driven one? what would the top speed have been,30mph??
how long would a london round trip take tipping and re-loading starting from newcastle.
regards
sm1
harry_gill:
Hiya,
My mistake Larry the Scammell was the “Rigid Eight” and the Guy did a “Light Eight”,
at my time of life I am allowed to make the odd boo boo.
thanks harry, long retired.
Did the Guy light 8 have the AEC engine in? woefully under powered and single drive.
Hello Pete, yes the Guy Light Eight had the AEC AV470, like you say 140 bhp was not much for an eight-wheeler, but then again even the more heavier built contemporary eight-wheelers only had 150 or 165 bhp. It wasn’t until the early sixties that Leyland and AEC moved up to 192 bhp that there was a discernible difference. The Scammell Rigid Eight in the photo only had 102 bhp from its Gardner 6LW in 1937, but limited to 20 mph. The famous Bouts “Showboat Vans” on these Scammells were reputed to be quite fast by the standards of that time, courtesy of their Scammell 6 speed gearboxes, which was at least one more gear than most other lorries had at the time. Drivers today don’t know they’re born!
Lawrence Dunbar:
0gingerfold:
The model name was Scammell Rigid Eight. The articulated Scammells of the 1920, '30s and '40s were conceived as a complete tractor and tandem axle trailer known as Articulated Eights. Many trailers didn’t have landing legs and dropping the trailer wasn’t the normal practise. It was only in the 1950s that the model name Scammell Highwayman was introduced.Hi “gingerfold” My old Grandad drove this one, The trailer was fixed to the unit & was a big job to drop it, IIRC My granddad told me that the king pin was part of the unit and when coupled up it was a permenant thing involving lots of nuts & bolts to be loosened to drop it off, A fitters nightmare I would have thought, Regards Larry.
That’s a magnificent photo Larry.
gingerfold:
Hello Pete, yes the Guy Light Eight had the AEC AV470, like you say 140 bhp was not much for an eight-wheeler, but then again even the more heavier built contemporary eight-wheelers only had 150 or 165 bhp. It wasn’t until the early sixties that Leyland and AEC moved up to 192 bhp that there was a discernible difference. The Scammell Rigid Eight in the photo only had 102 bhp from its Gardner 6LW in 1937, but limited to 20 mph. The famous Bouts “Showboat Vans” on these Scammells were reputed to be quite fast by the standards of that time, courtesy of their Scammell 6 speed gearboxes, which was at least one more gear than most other lorries had at the time. Drivers today don’t know they’re born!
Morning Graham,
I can remember a friend of mine who drove a light 8 and he still has memories of it now! The Fisher Renwick and Youngs express Showboats where impressive motor’s, I have not seen either about for a few years, the Youngs Express one was owned by Roger Austin from Raunds and he run his dog over with it so he sold it, cannot remember if he also owned the Fisher Renwicks as well? Cheer’s Pete
pete smith:
.
I wonder if this Scammell was an EX WD Motor, Im going off the near side headlamp, The reg no is 1946 but there would be no need for this type of lighting at this time, That’s what makes me think its ex WD, ■■?, Regards Larry.
Lawrence Dunbar:
pete smith:
.I wonder if this Scammell was an EX WD Motor, Im going off the near side headlamp, The reg no is 1946 but there would be no need for this type of lighting at this time, That’s what makes me think its ex WD, ■■?, Regards Larry.
O.K. Larry, you’ve baited the trap and i’m falling straight in 
So explain why the nearside headlamp makes this look like ex MOD? I’m thinking maybe one lamp would be blacked out for convoy duty but see nothing in this photo to suggest anything abnormal?
I don’t mind sitting at the front of the class and holding my hand up like an idiot 
Lawrence Dunbar:
pete smith:
.I wonder if this Scammell was an EX WD Motor, Im going off the near side headlamp, The reg no is 1946 but there would be no need for this type of lighting at this time, That’s what makes me think its ex WD, ■■?, Regards Larry.
Just as a further observation, the distance between the two front axles (and therefore the very small running space between the tyres) looks potentially dangerous to me 
Yes i know, health and safety did’nt hold sway then, as it does now.
Just a further question Larry. You picked out the reg on the Scammel (JVK) as 1946. Can you say for certain what year XGR (Sunderland) would be? I’m sure these were the letter’s on dad’s second “J” type and Ron is’nt sure what year it was bought?
You could be correct on the WD origin of the Scammell Larry, it does seem to also still have the wartime blackout white paint markings on the front and rear wings. No doubt there is a story behind it, after 1945 many ex servicemen wanting to be budding civilian transport men and pre war established companies that could not buy new vehicles during the war, bought surplus ex military vehicles. Many manufacturers had stopped building for the civilian market and turned to producing not only vehicles but military equipment and ammunition during the war and it took some a few years before the Government allowed them to fully concentrate on and return to their pre war sales, the glut of ex WD vehicles filled the gap for a period until events turned back to normal. The Ministry of Supply did allow a small number of civilian vehicles to be turned out over the war years but these would then be allocated by the Ministry of War Transport Dept and any small haulier may have found it very difficult to obtain factory fresh models, of course this would have suited the lorry driving ex serviceman as he would have been familiar to the vehicles he had to drive even though he probably wished he’d seen the last of them! Cheers Franky.
paulycats:
Lawrence Dunbar:
pete smith:
.I wonder if this Scammell was an EX WD Motor, Im going off the near side headlamp, The reg no is 1946 but there would be no need for this type of lighting at this time, That’s what makes me think its ex WD, ■■?, Regards Larry.
Just as a further observation, the distance between the two front axles (and therefore the very small running space between the tyres) looks potentially dangerous to me
Just a further question Larry. You picked out the reg on the Scammel (JVK) as 1946. Can you say for certain what year XGR (Sunderland) would be? I’m sure these were the letter’s on dad’s second “J” type and Ron is’nt sure what year it was bought?
Hi “paulycats” Well Im not certain but I would say 1963, As the B regs came into force 1964, Regards Larry.
Paulycats asked: Just a further question Larry. You picked out the reg on the Scammel (JVK) as 1946. Can you say for certain what year XGR (Sunderland) would be? I’m sure these were the letter’s on dad’s second “J” type and Ron is’nt sure what year it was bought?
XGR registrations for Sunderland issued by Durham Council before 1974 started May 1964 so the J Type was not older than May 64 and before Oct 64 that’s if it was registered from new. The GR signified the Sunderland area, letters before the GR going back to A such as 123 AGR were issued from July 1949 through the years following up to X (no Y or Z) then back to AGR but this time with a prefix year letter B (such as B123 AGR) from October 1964. So you can see your reg fits into a five Month period of 1964. Hope this helps a bit. Franky.
Hi Franky, Sunderland Corporation took delivery of five Daimler Fleetline double deckers in July 1964 registered XGR 865-870. according to lists available on the web. I hope this answers your question.
Cheers, Leyland 600.
Frankydobo:
Paulycats asked: Just a further question Larry. You picked out the reg on the Scammel (JVK) as 1946. Can you say for certain what year XGR (Sunderland) would be? I’m sure these were the letter’s on dad’s second “J” type and Ron is’nt sure what year it was bought?
XGR registrations for Sunderland issued by Durham Council before 1974 started May 1964 so the J Type was not older than May 64 and before Oct 64 that’s if it was registered from new. The GR signified the Sunderland area, letters before the GR going back to A such as 123 AGR were issued from July 1949 through the years following up to X (no Y or Z) then back to AGR but this time with a prefix year letter B (such as B123 AGR) from October 1964. So you can see your reg fits into a five Month period of 1964. Hope this helps a bit. Franky.
Some great info there Franky and thanks to Leyland 600. It all ties in well with the reg of the first “J type” which was a KGR and Ron said that was 1958. Spot on! (the second J type was XGR 768 so this would be near to 100 vehicles before the Daimler buses that Leyland 600 mentions)
Well Larry, i’m still waiting for the explanation regarding the Scammel’s headlights and the link to an ex MOD vehicle? Franky has mentioned the white flashes on the front and rear wings but what about the n/s headlight? Regards Paulycats.
Frankydobo:
The GR signified the Sunderland area, letters before the GR going back to A such as 123 AGR were issued from July 1949 through the years following up to X (no Y or Z) then back to AGR but this time with a prefix year letter B (such as B123 AGR) from October 1964.
The little grey cells are starting fail at this distance in time, but I think the format in 1964 would have been AGR 123B. The B123 AGR format started in 1983 if Wikipedia is correct.
The Scammell Rigid 8 was introduced 1937 and the one in question could well have been commandeered by MOD during WW2 and would have been re-registered as Larry says in 1946 on return to private ownership again. In my very rural neck of the woods and as a young boy well remember two trilby hatted Ministry men pulling up in an a four wheeler lorry at the local hotel for a nights lodgings. The guest register at the hotel wasn’t exactly confidential in a small village where bush telegraph was a way of life.
More info here scammellregister.co.uk/history-of-scammell.html
hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/showthread.ph … d-vehicles
Oily
Chanced upon this one.
Oily
Just twigged Larry posted same pic
The little grey cells are starting fail at this distance in time, but I think the format in 1964 would have been AGR 123B. The B123 AGR format started in 1983 if Wikipedia is correct. Postal.
That’s right Postal got my ‘B’ at the wrong end, shows someone is on the ball anyway but I think Paulycats got the gist hopefully. Cheers Franky.
