Well the one my mate had used to whistle all the time & when you changed gear & the Flapper on the top of the tail pipe went up & down It was a great sound, Regards Larry.
No such joy with the tankers Larry, as you can see above, the pipe came out under the front bumper.
A couple here that Chris Webb may be interested in seeing.The Buffalo was quite a popular lorry with the tanker companies when they came out.Townson Tankers of Oldham ran quite a few of them on Petroleum and Chemical work they got them to replace the Mandators & Mercurys.Opposite way around at Townsons Russell,the drivers came off them onto the Marathons and then onto the Volvos if they were lucky.
I had a Marathon on Shell contract John, when I went to BP the Marathon stayed at Shell.
I hated every minute on the Buffalo but eventually got one of the first of the High datum Roadtrains we got and the tank was up rated to a tri axle and 38 tons.
Here’s a few from my Young HGV Driver Trainee days a British Leyland, Cowley. As you can imagine our fleet tended to favour 1 manufacturer 
. The pic with me in was the 1st day after I’d passed my Class 1 aged 20, been out with 7 cars on the transporter, this 1 like the white 1 in Unipart colours had a L12 engine with a straight 6 box, the ‘N’ reg had a 10 speed range-change with a fixed-head 500, we had ‘P’ reg’s with the fixed head 500 too, but they had 8 speed range-change boxes. The fixed 500s had the exhaust going up the back of the cab & sounded sweet, & they went like hell-in -the-night once you got them wound up, they’d leave the newer Buff’s for dead! My Dads depot had 3 Buffalo’s on the fuel, Mobil, I think the Oil Companies went for them hoping they were going to be as reliable workhorse as the AEC Mandator/Mercury of which they bought in their 100s, but they never were really, I know Dad was quite happy to give his up when they gave him a Bedford TM with a E290 ■■■■■■■ 
Pics were black/white for some reason . Tried again now colour■■? 
Bloody computer’s! Ah well, just thought I’d put 1 on to show the old colours!
View from the back with the L12 engine model. This 1 had the day before lost a fight with a motorway bridge, driver was shaken but un-hurt
adr:
View from the back with the L12 engine model. This 1 had the day before lost a fight with a motorway bridge, driver was shaken but un-hurt
Were the L12`s any good?
ramone:
adr:
View from the back with the L12 engine model. This 1 had the day before lost a fight with a motorway bridge, driver was shaken but un-hurtWere the L12`s any good?
We had quite a few on general haulage and they were very reliable as the motor was loosely based on the 760 aec but they were nearly all fitted with the 6 speed box rather than the fuller 10 speed which loosed them down performance wise.
Saying that I ran daily to Liverpool with 22t of billets, my mate I ran with had a Sed atki with a 290 ■■■■■■■ and I was rarely more than 5 mins behind him at the drop.
Trev_H:
ramone:
adr:
View from the back with the L12 engine model. This 1 had the day before lost a fight with a motorway bridge, driver was shaken but un-hurtWere the L12`s any good?
We had quite a few on general haulage and they were very reliable as the motor was loosely based on the 760 aec but they were nearly all fitted with the 6 speed box rather than the fuller 10 speed which loosed them down performance wise.
Saying that I ran daily to Liverpool with 22t of billets, my mate I ran with had a Sed atki with a 290 ■■■■■■■ and I was rarely more than 5 mins behind him at the drop.
Cant understand why they hindered them with a 6 speed box
ramone:
Trev_H:
ramone:
adr:
View from the back with the L12 engine model. This 1 had the day before lost a fight with a motorway bridge, driver was shaken but un-hurtWere the L12`s any good?
We had quite a few on general haulage and they were very reliable as the motor was loosely based on the 760 aec but they were nearly all fitted with the 6 speed box rather than the fuller 10 speed which loosed them down performance wise.
Saying that I ran daily to Liverpool with 22t of billets, my mate I ran with had a Sed atki with a 290 ■■■■■■■ and I was rarely more than 5 mins behind him at the drop.Cant understand why they hindered them with a 6 speed box
We ran them on collecting steel & seat frames from South Wales back to Cowley, delivering Unipart spares all over the country from 733 warehouse, delivering new body shells all over England/Scotland/Wales, & even delivering show cars all over Europe to Motor Shows, so they got about a bit! They were on the whole very reliable, I agree why they didn’t have the range change like the 500s I don’t know cos it would have given them that extra pick-up with the faster shift!
Our’s were S reg same spec but in Unipart colours, think the one I had was HBW 117S, spares were trunked up to us in Smethwick by the Cowley drivers, we then delivered them to the Midlands area and Wales.
Hi Trevor h , look on the Oxford firm topic , Chris (adr) ex British leyland driver has put on some Buffalos from the Cowley site and one was in Unipart colours .
Here she is Trevorh
Front view of previous pic’. The other pic’ shows 1 of our Jumbo trailers, with the 40’ container on it was used to carry show cars.
JAKEY:
Here she is Trevorh
Looks like F.Brown is delivering a load of Pirelli tyres in the background and a stack of Goodyear tyre stillages on the left. Happy days ! 
Jakey,
Do you remember an old guy called Tony who drove one of the buffalos, he always had “old thunder” written on the front,smashing bloke he always was smiling, never on a downer.
Another driver there I remember was Pete (from adderbury ?) he later had a snack bar on the Banbury road.
All the drivers that came in from Cowley were a good crew, they certainly made those old fixed head motors fly !
It was Pete Hawkins from Adderbury, he took on the snack van when he left Leyland.
