Thanks Chris for your usual informative explanation about all things Atkinson, and to a lesser extent Seddon 
You were much closer to Atki’s than ever I was. I had a couple of 9’6" wb Mk1’s but all our Borderers were 10’8" wb. As you pointed out the “tin” bumper was introduced prior to the Seddon takeover but hey! you can’t blame me for missing a chance to dump all things that went wrong with Sed/Atk on the door step of Seddons at Oldham 
All the best for 2017 Dennis.
Bewick:
Thanks Chris for your usual informative explanation about all things Atkinson, and to a lesser extent Seddon
My pleasure, Dennis
And yes, literally I was closer: I was born within sight of the building, and my dad worked there from 1967 until those beastly Seddon people closed the gates.
Best wishes for 2017!!
P.S. You mentioned the missing radiator filler flap: when I first saw it in the yard, it had a horrid red Seddon-badged filler flap, so perhaps some disgruntled Atkinson employee chucked that over the fence into the Ribble
![s-l640[1].jpg](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/uploads/trucknetuk/original/3X/c/d/cde377c4a522e8414db1608a183cb8727bb5c72e.jpeg)
![s-l400[1].jpg](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/uploads/trucknetuk/original/3X/9/d/9d7106c33df550628e8351b312943c8ba0c1abdd.jpeg)
Les that Ouseburn Seddon was a photoshop job I made up from the Vale Transport motor on the previous page, it was so like the old girl I spent many happy times in I had to try a mock up as I had no pics of it. Dad said he had the spotlights fitted when he was on night trunk from Newcastle to Mossley and proved handy over the Standage in the winter, he done that trunk for around three years and the wagon never let him down. Cheers Franky.
Found these on social media
These two photo’s from Peter Davies show the same Seddon Diesel but with different configurations as the 8 wheeler was later converted to a twin steer tractor to cope with the increased weight limit.
Franky.
They have not only got rid of the double drive, but grafted on a hub reduction axle in its place.
![SeddonDiesel4x2rigidflatbed_KB-vi[1].jpg](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/uploads/trucknetuk/original/3X/7/7/77b523a18fae45f1775fffb62505d62d3e94596f.jpeg)
Now this would have been a fair motor in it’s day so if it had an NH180 ■■■■■■■ engine, I wonder what the rest of the spec was ? Power Steering, DB 5:500 box, 4 axle braking and was it an SD8 or DD8, quite a motor all in all I would think ! Cheers Bewick.
It appears to have Kirkstall axles and I would suggest that it would have been fitted with an Eaton or Fuller gearbox. Standard spec was power steering and 4-axle braking.
Hiya “GF”, now I am not clued up on these older Seddons but you surprise me with the use of Kirkstall drive axles Eaton and Fuller boxes ( where they in use at that time) I thought Seddons used Moss Axles and DB boxes during that era ? But bearing in mind what you are suggesting the spec would have been I wonder why they never produced and sold very many 8 wheelers, maybe they just couldn’t compete in the (then) big league ? Just a thought Cheers Dennis.PS why is this post “elongated”, I think the Mods are winding me up 
I think what happens Dennis, is that somebody posts a photo, which instead of being , say 600 x 400 pixels, is say 3,600 x 2,400 pixels. The system’s way of coping with it is to reduce the size of everything else!
John
Its got 2 POSTS sticking out the back. -
Bewick:
Hiya “GF”, now I am not clued up on these older Seddons but you surprise me with the use of Kirkstall drive axles Eaton and Fuller boxes ( where they in use at that time) I thought Seddons used Moss Axles and DB boxes during that era ? But bearing in mind what you are suggesting the spec would have been I wonder why they never produced and sold very many 8 wheelers, maybe they just couldn’t compete in the (then) big league ? Just a thought Cheers Dennis.PS why is this post “elongated”, I think the Mods are winding me up
Hi Dennis. Rumer was Rud Thopson said it had to have a Gardner engine David Brown gear box Kirkstall backend
Leyland 680:
Bewick:
Hiya “GF”, now I am not clued up on these older Seddons but you surprise me with the use of Kirkstall drive axles Eaton and Fuller boxes ( where they in use at that time) I thought Seddons used Moss Axles and DB boxes during that era ? But bearing in mind what you are suggesting the spec would have been I wonder why they never produced and sold very many 8 wheelers, maybe they just couldn’t compete in the (then) big league ? Just a thought Cheers Dennis.PS why is this post “elongated”, I think the Mods are winding me upHi Dennis. Rumer was Rud Thopson said it had to have a Gardner engine David Brown gear box Kirkstall backend
Hi Frank.
You may remember REL207 and REL208. I remember seeing them brand new on Athersmiths forecourt aged about 12. Were they Seddons or AECs?
John.
The late Frank Whalley, an Atkinson man through and through, but who did accept the Seddon takeover, gave me the gen on Seddon’s move into heavyweight models in the late 1950s with the SD4 tractor unit and SD8 and DD8 models. At that time Seddon was using Perkins and Leyland engines (O.350, O.375) in its models and they approached Gardner for engines suitable for its intended heavyweights. Whilst Gardner didn’t exactly refuse to supply Seddon (they did supply in the early 1960s), in the late '50s they told Seddon it was an 18 month waiting list for a 6LW, 8LW, or 6LX 150 (1958). Leyland refused to supply its O.600 / O.680 as it didn’t want any more competition for the Beaver or Octopus, (its most profitable models). This was the period when ■■■■■■■ was just about to break into the UK general market (specialist hauliers such as Wynns had retro-fitted ■■■■■■■ engines into its Pacifics and Diamond Ts for example from the early 1950s), ■■■■■■■ had plans to commence manufacturing in the UK, so it was very happy to supply Seddon with a larger power unit. ■■■■■■■ recommended its known compatible gearbox from America and that was how the heavyweight Seddons came about. From the early 1960s AEC engines were fitted by Seddon, firstly for models sold to BRS, at the insistence of BRS for fleet compatibility at depots running AECs, and then Seddon offered AEC powered models onto the general market, with good success. I think the reason that Seddon didn’t crack the eight-wheeler market, despite a high specification model was that the large eight-wheeler operators were dyed-in-the-wool Leyland, or AEC, or Atkinson, or Foden, or ERF men; difficult characters to convince of the merits of other makes. By 1964/1965 Seddon had tied itself into knots with such a large range of models and specification options it had to rationalise when the Motor Panels cab was introduced.
There must have been some limited supply of Gardner engines to Seddon in the 1950s witness the picture of the BRS Mark 14 shown a couple of posts back, which is also in Nick Baldwin’s A Pictoral History of BRS. It is described as being part of a batch of 10 delivered to Scunthorpe depot in October 1955. It was chassis number 18006 1st registered as NFU319, Gardner 5LW powered, 4 speed constant mesh gearbox, presumably David Brown, and a two speed axle. I used to own a similar 1958 Mark 14 tractor unit except that it was spec’d as 6LW powered and fitted with a David Brown 557 gearbox and a Kirkstall overhead worm rear axle. It also had a David Brown two speed auxilary gearbox mounted mid chassis.