Magnum opus

The Renault Magnum in showland

If I was to ask you to name a typical British fairground lorry, chances are you'd say the classic duo of ERF and Foden, although with those marques gone for over a decade, nowadays Volvo, Scania and DAF are all making considerable inroads into showland at their expense. One manufacturer you probably wouldn't think of is Renault, and there are only a handful of this company's products to be found on the fairs and circuses of Britain.

The Renault Magnum however is one of my personal favourite types as it looks like nothing else on the road with its enormous boxy flat-floored cab and styling that must have been quite space-age at launch in 1991. My love for the Magnum no doubt comes from living in an area where my local fairs are frequently graced by at least one example, so this piece focuses on the Magnums I have photographed on the travelling scene in recent years.

A trio of fairground Magnums in one place, a very rare sight in this country

Daniel Coles

The very first Magnum I encountered in showland service was at my home fair in Buckingham, back in 2005. A showman named Daniel Coles owned two of them with personalised registrations K9 DDC and K10 DDC. The latter, new to Norbert Dentressangle as P897 NNM and still in their livery with evidence of the names being removed from the cab, was purchased in 2004 to pull his Jump & Smile ride, which was a regular at Buckingham for several years. However, he sold this ride without transport some time ago and no longer attends this fair. The Magnum appears to have reverted back to its original registration and been sold in 2016, and is still taxed but I don't know what happened to it.

Daniel Coles arrives in Buckingham with his Jump & Smile behind K10 DDC

Daniel's other Magnum was a V8-engined AE520 version, sold some years before the red one. I never saw this when he owned it but did come across it at Northampton in 2010, by then re-registered back to its original M500 RPC and in use with Mark Thurston's 'Scream Machine' Move It ride. He replaced it shortly afterwards and I believe it briefly passed on to Henry Ive for use with his Tri-Star before being sold for export in late 2011, so this one is definitely no longer to be seen on UK fairgrounds.

A V8 Magnum moved the Move It

John Woodward

The fairground Magnums I see most often are those owned by John 'Woody' Woodward, a regular tenant at many of the fairs in my locality. An early example and possibly now the oldest still in service, K905 WBD pulls his living trailer and is still my favourite ten years after I first encountered it. The registration was issued in Northampton so it has local origins but I don't know who had it new; interestingly K906 WBD was also on the road until recently and is now SORNed so presumably still in existence too. This one is very much a proper showman's tractor with its custom box body, chrome wheeltrims and nudge bars, slogans on the cab and other adornments typical of the industry, and really cuts a dash among the bland Volvos and Scanias that are now becoming the norm on the fairs.

Woody's Playin Games, my favourite of all the fairground Magnums

In 2009 John built a mirror maze show into an articulated box trailer to add to his lineup of attractions, and bought a second Magnum to pull this. S528 SMJ is a facelifted version and another local vehicle registered in Luton, possibly by Renault Trucks UK at Dunstable. After a few years as an artic he put a dolly under the mirror maze and converted the Magnum into a drawbar tractor with a self-built box body. I never managed to photograph the mirror maze load in this form as he sold it not long afterwards and bought a haunted house, with S528 SMJ becoming the transport for this.

As it was originally with the artic mirror maze

Although he now also owns a roller coaster that came with a Scania tractor unit he seems to like, both of John's Magnums are still going strong and to me he is the Magnum Man. K905 WBD continues to haul his living trailer and still looks as stunning as it ever did. I believe he has now sold the haunted house and I didn't see S528 SMJ for a while but it reappeared at this year's Milton Keynes bonfire fair pulling his new shooting gallery.

SMJ in its current form, photographed just last week

John Parrish

Another regular at the Bedford and Milton Keynes fairs, John Parrish also owns a Magnum so it is often possible to see three fairground Magnums in one place on these grounds, a very rare sight in the UK. His 6x4 artic example is L6 MTL (a personalised plate that presumably identifies its original owner, M-something Transport Ltd at a guess), which came with the arcade he bought from fellow showman Henry Turner in 2007 and is still alive and well a decade later.

How a Magnum might look to the children at the fair. They're certainly imposing lorries.

Finished in the traditional maroon and white fairground colours with Parrish's Amusements proudly adorning the front panel, this one regularly goes to Jersey to attend the annual Battle of Flowers parade and fair, and is considerably over the tiny island's strict size limits. Operating on a P30 temporary oversize vehicle permit, it must look enormous in Channel Island traffic with its massive cab, full-length artic trailer and usually a small box trailer behind that.

L6 MTL with its large load

 

Russells Circus

The travelling entertainment industry of course doesn't just encompass funfairs but circuses too. The Magnum is naturally massively popular with French circuses, most notably the famous large red and yellow fleet of Pinder, but there are only a handful in use in the UK, one of which belonged to Russells International Circus. J979 DRH was one of the few Magnums registered in 1991, the year of the model's launch in Britain, and was some eighteen months older than John Woodward's K-reg example.

Almost certainly the eldest Magnum still working in the UK at the time

When Renault UK were looking for the earliest survivor to celebrate the Magnum's 20th birthday this was the oldest they found, and surprisingly had only just been acquired by Russells at the time, changing hands at a mere two decades old. Nicknamed 'Black Beauty' and standing out in a fleet made up mostly of red and white Fodens, it pulled circus owners Rusty and Amanda Russell's huge American living trailer, although it sadly appears no longer to be in use as it has been untaxed for a year now.

That's a big living trailer. This one was 6x2 with a centre lift axle.

Uncle Sam's American Circus

This circus is famed for its fleet of American lorries but also runs some European vehicles. A surprise find in 2012 was a pair of Spanish-registered Magnums parked in front of the big top pulling living trailers. These presumably didn't belong to the circus itself but to a family of Spanish artistes who were touring with the show for that season, and the 'CA' registrations indicate they came from the province of Cadiz. CA-2579-MX was the older of the pair, while CA-0702-HC is the only example I have seen in showland of the third generation introduced after Renault Trucks merged with Volvo in 2001.

Second and third-generation Spanish Magnums touring with a British circus

 

Tyrone Smart

This is one I know little about as I only ever saw it once. M18 MNT turned up at Thurstons' Easter 2012 fair in Bedford, apparently owned by Tyrone Smart for use with his motion simulator ride, seemingly a popular duty for Magnums. A plain white 4x2 artic, it was a facelift model and significantly newer than its registration would suggest, being built in 2001 but first registered in 2004 as X548 NNK so possibly an import from Ireland. The newest fairground Magnum I have seen, he owned it for a couple of years and it has not been taxed since 2013 so is presumed to have been scrapped then after a fairly short life.

A Smart Magnum. The only time I ever saw this one.

 

James Messham

Another I have only seen once. The Wall of Death motorcycle stunt show is another important part of the travelling community, with examples often appearing at vintage fairs. One owned by the Messham family featured at a one-off summer fair in Milton Keynes during 2010, with transport provided by Magnum S647 VKL. Again a white 4x2 artic, it had changed little in its new role except for the addition of a crane behind the cab to assist with the build-up of the show, and has also now been exported, leaving these shores in 2012. If I remember rightly there were three Magnums here too as John Woodward was also in attendance with his mirror maze.

Don't mess with Messhams' Magnum

This article only covers the Magnums I have personally seen and photographed on the fairs and circuses of Britain and there are a handful of others out there, notably Slaters Amusements in Cumbria who are fans of the type and run at least three. There aren't many of them though and showmen really haven't taken to the Magnum in large numbers so it remains a rare and distinctive sight among the travelling community that really stands out among the usual fare.

That said, those who do own examples seem happy with them and some early models that were already on the elderly side when acquired are still going strong after a decade or more with their current owners, so there can't be much wrong with the Magnum. It's one of those trucks you either love or hate, and personally I always enjoy the sight of a Magnum on a fair or circus ground as they just look so different and make a pleasant change from the nondescript artic units that are beginning to dominate the industry.