Hi,
I had a marathon sleeper for a while with a 250 ■■■■■■■■ It was a reliable motor, i loved the driving position and the room in the cab,downside was the brakes they were awful and if you picked up a trailer with poor brakes you were in trouble with it !
pete 359:
Bewick:
pete 359:
and here is another from the convoy.hi dennis,
that was one of the better trucks on the convoy,to be fair she wasn’t all that old,maybe 3-4 years at most?many others were worn out old soldiers,though i know what you mean,marathons…did you ever run any?if you did i can’t recall seeing one.they went well with a ■■■■■■■ in my opinion.
regards andrew
Hiya Andrew I did run a couple of Mastiffs in my early years which did the job for 2 years ! but the nearest I wanted to get to Leyland products after that was Big Js with Gardner engines !! Sad to say but there was no way you could give your customers reliable service running Leyland . Cheers Dennis.
Trev_H:
Hi,
I had a marathon sleeper for a while with a 250 ■■■■■■■■ It was a reliable motor, i loved the driving position and the room in the cab,downside was the brakes they were awful and if you picked up a trailer with poor brakes you were in trouble with it !
hi trev h,
in my opinion the biggest problem was leyland,especially in the militant 70’s.a firm i worked for had 29 marathons all ■■■■■■■ powered,when the boss went on a trip to the factory he asked "can i meet the chap who puts the rust in our cabs please?"to me the marathon was another example of the british truck industry "missing the ball"there are quite a few marathons on the truck show circuit.
regards andrew
pete 359:
seen at kings park boscombe last september,neil james’ fully restored leyland badger originally from west wales,kidwelly?
sorry boys,
it was from kilgetty,not kidwelly.thanks to member ec14 for clarifiying that.
regards andrew
Hiya Adams butter at Leek run about 10 Marathons they was on trunk between Leek and London colney. Three trips in 24 hours and some would do 4 trips in about27 hours 4 drivers of corse. the trucks would pull in the yard at Leek straight in the wash derv up check oil and water change trailer new driver and gone
A turn round in 15 mins and the same at London colney.they did that run for 5 years and no real problem apart from the cab rotting away from under your feet.DAF 2800s replaced them.
John
pete 359:
pete 359:
seen at kings park boscombe last september,neil james’ fully restored leyland badger originally from west wales,kidwelly?sorry boys,
it was from kilgetty,not kidwelly.thanks to member ec14 for clarifiying that.
regards andrew
Nice one Andrew I remember that Brady’s in Barrow got one of the first production tilt cab Badgers C reg It was the first tilt cab into the fleet and was driven by Joe “The Woodman” Saunders and it didn’t half get worked !! Cheers Dennis.
Bewick:
pete 359:
pete 359:
seen at kings park boscombe last september,neil james’ fully restored leyland badger originally from west wales,kidwelly?sorry boys,
it was from kilgetty,not kidwelly.thanks to member ec14 for clarifiying that.
regards andrewNice one Andrew I remember that Brady’s in Barrow got one of the first production tilt cab Badgers C reg It was the first tilt cab into the fleet and was driven by Joe “The Woodman” Saunders and it didn’t half get worked !! Cheers Dennis.
all those leylands,badger and two pedal beaver,were an awesome machine in there day,legendry.that’s how volvo and scania became so good, they kept the good points of those leylands the performace (for the then new motorway network) and handling and threw away the poorly tilting cramped cab, although ergomatic cabs offer a first class driving position,they are very noisy and nowhere near as comfortable as anything from sweden. fair play john,it sounds like those hard worked marathons earned there keep mate. 
regards andrew
Bewick:
pete 359:
pete 359:
seen at kings park boscombe last september,neil james’ fully restored leyland badger originally from west wales,kidwelly?sorry boys,
it was from kilgetty,not kidwelly.thanks to member ec14 for clarifiying that.
regards andrewNice one Andrew I remember that Brady’s in Barrow got one of the first production tilt cab Badgers C reg It was the first tilt cab into the fleet and was driven by Joe “The Woodman” Saunders and it didn’t half get worked !! Cheers Dennis.
Yea Andrew Brady’s also ran a 2 pedal Beaver ( I think the driver was called Tommy Benson from Kendal ) and also an AEC Mandator( driven by Nobby Clark) but they had that much aggro with the AEC they cancelled an order for 6 AEC Mammoth Minors moved onto atki 6wheel tractors with 180LXBs & Scania 110s .Cheers Dennis.
If you can,t get on with a Marathon talk to the boss nicely and see if you can take over this proper Leyland. Remember to bring a step ladder to check the water and a lot of old rag to stuff in the cracks between the floor boards , oh and a good torch in case it gets to dark. She is registered in Bath but I am sure she would like a trip over the bridge.
Telford Motors wrecker,Penarth Rd.Cardiff seen in 1981
Wales LPG gas
This has got O Huish on the door. Registered in Wales. December 1982
London & Welsh transport service
hi numbum,
cracking pictures again,that old leyland looks a beast! i remember ollie huish’s trucks on bell line containers,they also ran a silver bonneted white road boss2.please keep um comin mate,you have made a happy man very old.
regards andrew
hi numbum,
cracking pictures again,that old leyland looks a beast! i remember ollie huish’s trucks on bell line containers,they also ran a silver bonneted white road boss2.please keep um comin mate,you have made a happy man very old.
regards andrew
Bewick:
Bewick:
pete 359:
pete 359:
seen at kings park boscombe last september,neil james’ fully restored leyland badger originally from west wales,kidwelly?sorry boys,
it was from kilgetty,not kidwelly.thanks to member ec14 for clarifiying that.
regards andrewNice one Andrew I remember that Brady’s in Barrow got one of the first production tilt cab Badgers C reg It was the first tilt cab into the fleet and was driven by Joe “The Woodman” Saunders and it didn’t half get worked !! Cheers Dennis.
Yea Andrew Brady’s also ran a 2 pedal Beaver ( I think the driver was called Tommy Benson from Kendal ) and also an AEC Mandator( driven by Nobby Clark) but they had that much aggro with the AEC they cancelled an order for 6 AEC Mammoth Minors moved onto atki 6wheel tractors with 180LXBs & Scania 110s .Cheers Dennis.
Check out February 2010 issue of 'Classic & Vintage Commercials, there is a black & white piccie of this baby with its original owner Hugh Phillips of Kilgetty. It was yellow & white then, supplied by Jeffrey’s Commercials of swansea. luvvly jubbly.
I remember once reading some wise words on the toilet door of the Midway Cafe in Llangyfellach near Swansea, it read;
Mummy, is daddy dead? ‘No’ Mum said, he’s driving for Andersons !!! 
malcolm kirk:
I remember once reading some wise words on the toilet door of the Midway Cafe in Llangyfellach near Swansea, it read;Mummy, is daddy dead? ‘No’ Mum said, he’s driving for Andersons !!!
Also seen on a toilet door,
Doun the glen came Andersons men
A bunch o fairy dancers
some of them were time served men
the rest were ** chancers
dai “bootsy” harrison used to drive for illtyd thomas and geo. beer,both well known swansea based transport companies. dai can be seen regularly on the uk truck show circuit in his ex harold read erf c series.this afternoon i called to dai’s house in swansea and he kindly gave me a disc containing over 200 photographs of trucks that were based around the swansea area,once a large number of haulage companies worked out of this city,now most of them have gone.this is dai’s photo collection,thanks for sharing it with us dai mate.
illtyd thomas had a large fleet starting with atki’s,then erf,then iveco.here’s the remains of an old atki.
Hi Andrew,
Did Illtyd Thomas do loads out of Alcan Swansea to Shepton Mallett,as I’m sure they were the firm my mate drove for.
Cheers Dave.
they changed colour scheme from the original maroon,to blue.
Dave the Renegade:
Hi Andrew,
Did Illtyd Thomas do loads out of Alcan Swansea to Shepton Mallett,as I’m sure they were the firm my mate drove for.
Cheers Dave.
hi dave,
yes they did do that work.they were a big firm,you would see them on the welsh section of the m4 24/7. dai mentioned you’r mate this afternoon to me,he remembers him well.dai has registered for trucknet,keep an eye out for username daibootsy.you can discuss it with him then.thanks dave.
regards andrew
this one looks fully freighted with alloy frag.
seen in orb works,newport.