A shrine to Swedish supremacy

Gaydon Truck Show report

Thanks to waning interest in the bus and coach scene, as previously discussed on this blog, I am finding myself increasingly drawn towards trucks. As part of this conversion, I paid a visit to the Classic Truck Show at the Heritage Motor Centre in Gaydon on Sunday and found it a very interesting event, with over 200 real vehicles and countless fine models on display, so here I recount my experiences as a first-time visitor.


The first thing that struck me is that the trucking community seems to have far fewer obnoxious characters than the world of bus enthusiasts. Nowhere did I encounter the all-too-common scenario of people standing in front of a vehicle chatting for what seems like hours on end, completely self-absorbed and oblivious to photographers trying to get a shot of the vehicle, but instead the majority would instinctively move out of shot on seeing a camera without even being asked, which was a most welcome change. 

Although open to vehicles of all ages, the show was dominated by those from the seventies, eighties and nineties, which I found a little surprising given that there is a separate event in September, the Retro Truck Show, exclusively for lorries of this era. I suppose this is a consequence of trucks generally having much shorter working lives than buses or cars, so anything over about fifteen years old is considered a classic, but even so it was a bit odd seeing vehicles at a classic show that are much newer than some still in use with showmen. By all accounts, exhibitor numbers were larger than in previous years, so much so that some rearranging of the display areas was necessary to squeeze them all in, and every space in front of the museum was filled with lorries.

I like Scania Streamlines but a dozen of them is too many.

The exhibits were very much dominated by the Swedish duo of Volvo and Scania, with countless examples of both marques on show. Scania Streamlines in particular seem to be the 'in thing' at the moment, no fewer than twelve being present; although the Streamline is one of my favourite cab designs, seeing a dozen of them in one place was really overkill. In contrast, the Dutch were very poorly represented by just one DAF and an unusual FTF, and the Germans fared little better with a solitary MAN and a couple of Mercedes. The complete absence of Japanese lorries was also worthy of note; although these never really caught on in the UK they are surely just as deserving of preservation and would make a welcome change from the Swedish ranks. It should be remembered however that this is a two-day event and I only attended on the Sunday, so there may have been some other exhibits only present on Saturday that I didn't see.

The only Ford Cargo at the show.

Of the British marques, ERF were out in force thanks to the presence of REVS, the Register of ERF Vehicles Society, with comparatively few Fodens. Only one Guy seemed to be present, along with a handful of Seddon Atkinsons and Scammells, the latter surprisingly not including any Crusaders. Another surprise given their popularity was the presence of just one solitary Ford Cargo, other Fords including a small assortment of D-series and Thames Traders and a single Transcontinental. Contemporary Bedfords fared a little better, with various examples of the KM, TK, TL and TM ranges on display, but the Leyland T45 was not well represented by just two vehicles, the once-common Roadrunner being notable by its absence.

The Rowe Hillmaster, a Cornish lorry for Cornish people.

Amongst all the Swedes and ERFs, some rare and unusual vehicles could be found, including a Barreiros Dodge, the prototype Leyland Marathon, a 1950s Fiat imported from Italy, and a Rowe Hillmaster, built in Cornwall specifically to suit Cornish conditions. Exhibits came from all parts of the UK, with the Cornish contingent not far away from several Scottish fleets, and a few even ventured across the water from Ireland. The majority of the drivers being professional truckers, such long distances are of little consequence to them, and one thing that amused me on the entry form and wouldn't be found at any other type of vehicle show was the question "will you be camping in your vehicle?", but with spacious sleeper cabs and bodies or trailers converted into living accommodation this would be more comfortable than a tent or caravan.

Just a small part of the P.C. Howard collection.

The big fleets noted for their vintage collections such as P.C. Howard, Ken Thomas and Lloyds of Ludlow were out in force, and this is another notable difference between the bus and truck worlds. Whereas many present-day operators in the former have little interest in preserving their heritage, it is common practice among trucking firms to restore a collection of classics in their own livery, even if they were never operated when new. Heavyweight lorries may have dominated the show but light commercials were not forgotten, with a small but interesting collection located near the museum building, together with a Ford Transit club stand and a display of tractors. 

The majority of lorries on display were tractor units but it was great to see so many towing trailers that in many cases were loaded. A common approach to maximise the number of vehicles attending was for one exhibit to pull a low loader with others on the back, which must have made a splendid sight on the road. Relatively few were in authentic liveries as worn when new, the usual practice seemingly being for the current owners to apply their own names, another difference from bus preservation where the emphasis is very much on restoration to as-new condition and non-authentic colour schemes are frowned upon.

43 years old and still in daily use, brilliant!

Many of the exhibits were the usual type of overdone showtrucks laden with chrome bling and expensive paintwork and polished to perfection, but those in authentic working condition caught my eye more. Two particular favourites that the perfectionists no doubt looked down on were a 1972 Volvo F88 that is famously still in daily use on timber haulage, crudely brush painted and covered in oil stains, and an ex-fairground Foden S80 that looked like it had literally been pulled out of a hedge complete with peeling paintwork and algae, but was fully road-legal and driven to the event.

Turning to the models, it was pleasing to see so many displays in my favoured 1/76 scale as there is some snobbery towards the smaller scales from the majority of modellers who work in 1/24 or larger, and I noted from the programme that nothing smaller than 1/50 has ever won best in show. While the large scale models are impressive in their own way, their sheer size makes super-detailing easy and they just look too perfect, so achieving similar levels of detail on much smaller models impressed me far more. The huge remote-control models fascinated me with their array of working features, but are no doubt very expensive and impractical and needed a whole room to themselves to be exercised in.

Reminiscent of the classic film 'Hell Drivers' with Patrick McGoohan.

The majority of trade stands seemed to be selling 1/50 scale models and there were no bargains to be had among the handful of 1/76 traders, including one rip-off merchant selling brand new Oxford Diecasts for much more than their RRP, so I didn't spend as much money as I expected but came away with plenty of inspiration for future projects. It was great to meet up with several old friends and also to introduce myself to people I have spoken to online but not previously met in person, and I spent several enjoyable hours talking modelling with a brilliant bunch of people.

Despite the overwhelming dominance of Swedish lorries, I found the whole experience most enjoyable and am keen to visit again next year, and at some point in the future I may even apply to display my own model collection. Although there were possibly too many Volvos and Scanias, at least they were all different, unlike the lines of boring identical red Routemasters that frequent so many bus events, and a truck show is certainly a more colourful and varied spectacle than most bus rallies and seems to be frequented by a different class of person. If anything there was too much to see in one day and I'm sure there were plenty of interesting things I missed, so a return visit will be most welcome.