Blimey, nice pics there, especially the interior, wish more trucks interiors were that practical. 
The one that ■■■■ Rivers drove in Destination Doha is not the Burnley-registered vehicle in some of those pictures, it was SLO 707R.
That means there were two, although someone told me a long while back that the Marathon in Destination Doha wasn’t owned by Astran - hence the reason it didn’t carry their livery.
Looking at those pictures again, the vehicle depicted isn’t in their livery either. Were these factory tractors loaned to Astran?
Good pics KW, just a quick question, does anybody know what the angled plates under the side windows are for?? Never seen anything like that before. At a guess I would say it would be to stop unwanted visitors hanging off the windows if they were down or something like that?
Maybe truckyboy, egg on legs or some of the other ex M/E old hands might know.
Saw a Marathon in the early 80`s in Congorrezo outside Milan that had solid “chicken wire” type plating attached to all the side windows and lower part of the screen. It had a small fold down flap on the drivers side so the driver could reach out (peages??) if he had to. 
Cheers, bullitt.
COOL!!! I dont know where you guys find some of these old pics but keep em coming!
Bully
good Pics again Keith,
Looking at those exterior shots seems to look more like a Leyland publicity shot, did Leyland try to get Astran to buy Marathons? by lending them a truck
I know BRS bought them
What can one say except please keep on digging these old masters out of your hidey holes where every you have them hidden and put them here
when one looks at these pictures then we know where the so called
design enginers of mainland europe got some of there ideas from,
Wheel Nut:
good Pics again Keith,Looking at those exterior shots seems to look more like a Leyland publicity shot, did Leyland try to get Astran to buy Marathons? by lending them a truck
I know BRS bought them
I’m waiting for a reply to a mail I sent to an old friend who worked at Astran at the time they shot the Destination Doha film,because I seem to remember he told me many years ago that the BBC would only do the film if there was a British truck involved in the trip.
That’s when Leyland stepped in to supply the truck driven by ■■■■ Rivers.
My friend also told me that it only did the one trip as it kept breaking down.
The shots are actually from a brochure depicting the ‘Special’ cab for the Middle East.
That’s the tale I heard as well.
I tell you something them seats look well comfy
And that setup with the cooker looks well cool 
not too keen on the shagpile carpet though 
simon
interesting pics kw. i wouldnt mind living in that cab now, it must have felt superb in those days
That bloke lying on the bunk looks a bit like ‘The Bandit’ (Burt Reynolds)
I also seem to recall some magazine coverage at the time mentioning the ‘insistance’ that a British built truck was featured in the film.
Cracking pictures Kw,i’ve got loads of pictures of Marathons and Mandators as my dad used to drive them around Europe for P.J Butler from Oldbury.He used to do Europe in day cabs,where as i wouldn,t go over in anything with no bed,heater etc.My how times have changed!,he was showing me his old passports and photo’s only yesterday,i would love to put them up,but still don’t have a clue how to do it.
Great pics KW please keep them coming
Spot on those KW, you cant beat the old uns
Here`s one of Mr Hoppers Transcon.
get that pic on of the brs marathon if u can,i dint kniw how 2 get that pic u sent me on here 
Wheel Nut:
good Pics again Keith,Looking at those exterior shots seems to look more like a Leyland publicity shot, did Leyland try to get Astran to buy Marathons? by lending them a truck
I know BRS bought them
Here`s the BRS one, i know its been on here b4 but its worth seeing again
And a nice fleet photo
JB:
interesting pics kw. i wouldnt mind living in that cab now, it must have felt superb in those days
i agree that looks good what a setup with the cooker spot on.
1, question if this was up against the f88 and scania 111 why didnt it make a bigger impact that cab looks spot on for the driver.
Typical Leyland problem of the time - it was starved of R&D money, so the product was never completely finished when it went on sale.
It has already been recorded on here that the one given to Astran for Destination Doha kept breaking down - a lot of firms simply didn’t trust the vehicles on European and Middle-East work.