DEANB:
Carl Williams:
“DEANB”Thompsons Bedford 1978.
Hi Dean, to the right you will see the rear of one of our Bedford Marsdens. If you kook closely it illustrates how they managed to fit the Radcliffe 2 tier tail lift inside the rear so it could be totally enclosed within the rear doors. They did quite a few like these for us from about 1986.
If you compare with this Marsden built trailer in this Ebro advert you can see the ram at the top & the side rails which were all successfully hidden & enclosed by the rear doors.
As you can imagine quite a lot of design was involved by both Marsden & Radcliffe tail lifts, and it meant that when we washed with our Wilcomatic vehicle wash the brushes washing the rear were not obstructed & the flat rear was clean. Often on buses you can see were the brushes leave dirt marks where the rear is not flat.Regards Carl
Hi Dean and Mark,
The photo was from 1980 Motor Show at National Exhibition Centre Birmingham
This was, I believe the first full motor show which combined the Motor show which had always been staged annually at Earls court London and the bi-annual Commercial Motor Show which was bi-annually at Earls Court.
So either the date you have quoted as 1978 is wrong or it is a coincidence that another one of our vans was caught in a photo in 1978. We had quite a few of these vans built identical by Marsden so I suppose they could be two separate occasions.
When I said identical the motor show van was finished to an extreme high standard with the floor inside the rear coloured like floor tiles. The Bedford KG chassis scuttle also was a ‘Special Build’ and the total vehicle was planned over a 12 month period. When we got it back to Spennymoor, I asked our fitters if they could see anything different on the Bedford bit and they said not. In 1948 we had a Bedford on the Spurling stand at Earls Court which again had been a ‘Special build’ and much of the engine had been chrome plated and Bedford had made a huge effort, as had Spurlings the body builder. Marsden always had a high standard of workmanship but they had ‘lined’ some of the paintwork and fitted a better front bumper
Sadly we no longer have The Commercial Motor Show. I have gone to Tipex several times at Harrogate but in fairness its like staying in a Travel Lodge where as Commercial Motor Show was the Savoy, which photos on here show from time to time.
Regards
Carl