Brilliant and comprehensive research by Valkyrie, although I had hoped that by now more of us would have realised that Bewick was “pulling our collective plonker”. All this negativity on Dennis’ part has been designed to throw us off the scent of that stack of engines holed up in his barn in th’ills. It has been documented on several occasions (mostly by me!) that the dastardly ■■■■■■■■ was in the habit of hijacking new Big Js on their way from Fallings Park to Maddiston, swopping the engines and making a pretty packet by shipping the almost new motors to Hong Kong for use in the Chinese junk (how appropriate!) trade. The whole scam fell apart when (a) those nice Smith brothers found that their Guys went twice as fast as they were expecting, albeit at a slight fuel disadvantage and (b) Hoo Flung Dung found that the 8-cylinder engines turned out to be of no more use than anchors for his fleet of turbo junks.
And now he innocently asks where the rest of those Gardner 8s went. I would refer you to that barn in the ■■■■■■■■ fells alluded to earlier in this post.
THE GAME’S UP, DENNIS. I await your generous offer of an appropriate bribe!
Retired Old ■■■■:
Brilliant and comprehensive research by Valkyrie, although I had hoped that by now more of us would have realised that Bewick was “pulling our collective plonker”. All this negativity on Dennis’ part has been designed to throw us off the scent of that stack of engines holed up in his barn in th’ills. It has been documented on several occasions (mostly by me!) that the dastardly ■■■■■■■■ was in the habit of hijacking new Big Js on their way from Fallings Park to Maddiston, swopping the engines and making a pretty packet by shipping the almost new motors to Hong Kong for use in the Chinese junk (how appropriate!) trade. The whole scam fell apart when (a) those nice Smith brothers found that their Guys went twice as fast as they were expecting, albeit at a slight fuel disadvantage and (b) Hoo Flung Dung found that the 8-cylinder engines turned out to be of no more use than anchors for his fleet of turbo junks.
But ironically the answer as to why the things were as rare as hen’s teeth is the fact that Guy user and Gardner ‘fan’ Dennis himself obviously didn’t order any.Probably because at the time he was buying Atkis with ■■■■■■■ motors in them instead.
Bewick is quite transparent in his ■■■■ taking, there’s no malice or offence intended in any of it from what I’ve read on here, it’s just good old fashioned banter.
newmercman:
Bewick is quite transparent in his ■■■■ taking, there’s no malice or offence intended in any of it from what I’ve read on here, it’s just good old fashioned banter.
Well done Valkyrie - I rather thought you’d come up with the goods in the end, having made such a good start on your research a couple of years ago! Nice to see that they all had 9-sp Fullers, just for pudding! Robert
Many thanks NMM for your excellent perception of the content and true meaning of my many posts on this thread ! however just for the record am I to take it that I am being held totally responsible for the 123 pages and many hundreds of posts over the past 7 years plus and anyone else that has posted over the years is completely absolved by the PC Brigade ? It makes me wonder what other disasters have befallen the World which could possibly be hung around my neck. Talk about having a sense of humour blockage Are we now moving towards a “banter free” zone on TNUK, as per many other areas of modern day life Maybe we or I should from now on predicate our posts with the heading " This thread and subsequent posts may contain “Bollox” which may or may not offend" a bit like the stupidity they put on bags of nuts i.e. “This product may contain nuts” !!! The mind boggles ! Cheers Bewick.
Bewick:
Many thanks NMM for your excellent perception of the content and true meaning of my many posts on this thread ! however just for the record am I to take it that I am being held totally responsible for the 123 pages and many hundreds of posts over the past 7 years plus and anyone else that has posted over the years is completely absolved by the PC Brigade ? It makes me wonder what other disasters have befallen the World which could possibly be hung around my neck. Talk about having a sense of humour blockage Are we now moving towards a “banter free” zone on TNUK, as per many other areas of modern day life Maybe we or I should from now on predicate our posts with the heading " This thread and subsequent posts may contain “Bollox” which may or may not offend" a bit like the stupidity they put on bags of nuts i.e. “This product may contain nuts” !!! The mind boggles ! Cheers Bewick.
Look on the bright side at least the professionally offended haven’t sent you to pre mod Coventry.
As I see it this thread would’ve have ran out of steam a long time ago if not for the denials from Bewick, I’ve enjoyed it and I hope it continues, even though there’s evidence to support what most of us already knew, it’s an entertaining thread and some good information has been uncovered.
An honorable mention for the patient in the junction 9 loony bin is also due, as infuriating as he can be, there has been some excellent posts in retaliation to his nonsense. As an aside, how’s the weather in Coventry?
Fab stuff Valkyrie - thanks for chasing all that info up
I’m sure Dave the Renegade would be pleased to see the conclusion to this - I am staggered to look back nearly 7 years to having a chuckle about the thread while looking at another 8 cylinder with him!
newmercman:
Bewick is quite transparent in his ■■■■ taking, there’s no malice or offence intended in any of it from what I’ve read on here, it’s just good old fashioned banter.
ERF-NGC-European:
Well done Valkyrie - I rather thought you’d come up with the goods in the end, having made such a good start on your research a couple of years ago! Nice to see that they all had 9-sp Fullers, just for pudding! Robert
0
Well please excuse me for asking, Is this a painting or a real photograph,■■?Regards Larry.
ERF-NGC-European:
Well done Valkyrie - I rather thought you’d come up with the goods in the end, having made such a good start on your research a couple of years ago! Nice to see that they all had 9-sp Fullers, just for pudding! Robert
0
Well please excuse me for asking, Is this a painting or a real photograph,■■?Regards Larry.
It is an image of what the painter saw with his own eyes - a kind of evidence in itself. His paintings were meticulous in detail and if says 240 on the grille you can bet that that is exactly what he saw!
And I agree with NMM’s observations about Dennis’s wry humour, by the way! Robert
newmercman:
An honorable mention for the patient in the junction 9 loony bin is also due, as infuriating as he can be, there has been some excellent posts in retaliation to his nonsense. As an aside, how’s the weather in Coventry?
To be fair we’ve had Anorak and Ramone and yourself saying that what was clearly to all a Mandator was definitely without a shadow of a doubt a Mercury and Stanley Knife saying that May was going to be returned with a massive majority.
Which just leaves the question for Bewick why did he seemingly buy ■■■■■■■ engined Atkis but not even one 240 Gardner engined Big J ?.Which would possibly provide the clue as to rarity of the mystical beast.
ERF-NGC-European:
Well done Valkyrie - I rather thought you’d come up with the goods in the end, having made such a good start on your research a couple of years ago! Nice to see that they all had 9-sp Fullers, just for pudding! Robert
0
Well please excuse me for asking, Is this a painting or a real photograph,■■?Regards Larry.
It is an image of what the painter saw with his own eyes - a kind of evidence in itself. His paintings were meticulous in detail and if says 240 on the grille you can bet that that is exactly what he saw!
And I agree with NMM’s observations about Dennis’s wry humour, by the way! Robert
Hiya,
I’ve seen a Big J in BRS guise at I think Wolverhampton depot it was
purporting to be an 8XLB complete with 240 Percy badge but alas it
was a 180 Percy and what a heap of crap they were when there was
the far superior Roller and ■■■■■■■ engined jobbies available, got
to admit I drove the J’s on and off throughout their production run
and never came across or heard mentioned a J with the 8XLB, And
as yet other than known mock-up’s no photographic evidence of the
beast ever being made at Fallings Park so strange when the vehicles
are not too far in the past and there was such a lot produced.
thanks harry, long retired.
harry_gill:
Hiya,
I’ve seen a Big J in BRS guise at I think Wolverhampton depot it was
purporting to be an 8XLB complete with 240 Percy badge but alas it
was a 180 Percy and what a heap of crap they were when there was
the far superior Roller and ■■■■■■■ engined jobbies available, got
to admit I drove the J’s on and off throughout their production run
and never came across or heard mentioned a J with the 8XLB, And
as yet other than known mock-up’s no photographic evidence of the
beast ever being made at Fallings Park so strange when the vehicles
are not too far in the past and there was such a lot produced.
thanks harry, long retired.
Notwithstanding the no brainer buying choice between 8 LXB v ■■■■■■■ or Rolls,57 8 LXB versions built in total at most is anything but ‘a lot’.
Which can only leave the answer that either operators who wanted one didn’t know the option existed or they actually knew it was available but predictably went for the Rolls or ■■■■■■■ option instead.Or possibly even a combination of the two scenarios.In which case an answer from Bewick as to his buying choice between ■■■■■■■ Atki v 8LXB BigJ might at least help to answer some of the questions regarding its rarity.
Add to the mix the fact that Gardner engines were hard to come by, the 57 8LXB engines installed in Big J chassis probably had a long waiting time from order to delivery and these would have been special order chassis too, Guy could get away with a bulk order of 6LXB, ■■■■■■■■ Rolls or Leyland engines knowing they would sell from stock. Anybody wanting an 8LXB would’ve had less wait buying one from Atkinson or ERF who could build chassis as stock having a long list of guaranteed customers for such a chassis.
Or maybe large hauliers like SOM were trying to stem the rising cost of diesel as with most large haulage companies fuel was probably the biggest annual cost and with the exceptional fuel economy of the 8LXB plus the additional reliability made SOM approach GUY
With the possibility of ordering a large number of Big Js fitted with the Gardner 240
Then it’s likely Gardner agreed to the order with it being such a large one
Just a thought
newmercman:
Add to the mix the fact that Gardner engines were hard to come by, the 57 8LXB engines installed in Big J chassis probably had a long waiting time from order to delivery and these would have been special order chassis too, Guy could get away with a bulk order of 6LXB, ■■■■■■■■ Rolls or Leyland engines knowing they would sell from stock. Anybody wanting an 8LXB would’ve had less wait buying one from Atkinson or ERF who could build chassis as stock having a long list of guaranteed customers for such a chassis.
Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk
Also I wonder if the uncertainty at the time regarding Seddons takeover of Atkinson and the possibilities of new vehicle designs led Gardner to be a little more generous to who it sold its engines to
It makes me wonder what other disasters have befallen the World which could possibly be hung around my neck. 
Talk about having a sense of humour blockage 
Are we now moving towards a “banter free” zone on TNUK, as per many other areas of modern day life 
