Christmas in July at Panton Hills Hotel.

On Sunday, July 25 2010 we took the Volvo to the Panton Hills Hotel for the Historic Commercial Vehicle Clubs Christmas in July. A convoy had started at Williamstown and followed the Yarra River Scenic route but we met up with the vehicles at Templestowe. It was a fine day, we had been watching the weather reports for the previous few days, because as you may be aware, we never take the Volvo out in the rain, so it was a great day for a drive. The event was being filmed, for a future H.C.V.C promotional video, so the first picture, below is of John talking to the video man.

The event was organised by Graham & Shirley Pollard, whose Austin Ute is shown above. It was a great day, thanks to Graham and Shirley.

International Acco owned by Des & Lynn Judd and the neat Chev, owned by the Laffans,

John Leadbeater's Austin and Russell & Jean Marshall's 1942 Ford.

A nice little Bedford

Peter and Tracy Rochow's 1976 C60 Chev and Warwick Bryce's Leader, which he purhased from Calleja Transport.

Donnie McGregors 1960 Ford F500 and a TK Bedford.

A well restored Chev and Bruce and Helen Paroissien's 1955 AR162 International.

An International Scout.

Ken Whitworth and his C16100 Inter fire engine.

Dave Horne's Land Rover and an International & Nissan owned by the O'Halloran family.

Stephen Cosrtorphan's 1957 Diamond T.

Les Arnold's KS5 International.

These photographs are of John, in front of his father's truck. They were taken around 1947. At the time, the family were living at a timber camp near Toorongo, they later moved into Rokeby, where Les was carting timber out of the Baw Baws and Noojee and also pulpwood to the Maryvale Mill. The photographs were taken at Glen Huntly, where John's grandparents lived. The truck was a 1943 KS5, we don't have any other details but you can just make out the name of the previous owner - Minifie of Warburton - on the door.

Above, is John and his sister Lynette and that's John below.

Leylands and Fleetways

This is the new Leyland, No.138, John was given at Fleetways, brand new from the 1967 Motor Show, where this picture was taken. It was a Leyland Beaver, with the Leyland 680 powerplus engine, and a Page & Page lazy axel rear suspension and the first ergomatic cab sold in Australia. John had it for six months carting steel and general freight based at Fleetways Bertie Street, Port Melbourne depot. He then returned to the car carrier division.

This photo, above taken in 1969 was another Leyland Beaver, No.66, which he drove. It was identical to No.138 except it had Franklin airbag suspension. No.66 was used for container work and general freight – occasional Interstate and country work.

That's John and Jim Forrest lined up in front of Peter & Maureen Kitchin's Road House at Wallace, also in 1969. Jim's truck was painted in Mt Maunganui Transport colours, they were an off shoot of Fleetways.

Volvo N10 - Sales brochures

Here's another series of Volvo N10 photographs, from a sales brochure we acquired from Ebay. In case you missed the first one, click here. This brochure, in this post, is from 1976 and was printed in Swedish.

Front cover.

I don't speak Swedish, but I have run the heading En palitlig och rationellt byggd lastbil som trivs med tunga laster through Google translator and it comes up with A reliable and efficient built truck that thrives with heavy loads.

Google translator translates Varje forare har sina krav pa arbets-miljon, de flesta uppfylls i en Volvo as Each driver has its requirements on labor-one million, most of them met in a Volvo. Obviously not a smooth translation, but you get the picture.

I have put the heading Ett klokt lastbilsval lagger grunden till god transportekonomi through Google translator and it translates as A wise choice truck lays the foundations of good transport economy.

Finally you don't need to speak Swedish to know that this is telling you that Volvos look as good from underneath as they do on the road. Actually the heading in Swedish is Den val avpassade drivlinan hojer effektiviteten och sanker kostnaderna and translates as the choice cut powertrain increasing efficiency and reducing costs.

Volvo N10 - Sales brochures

It has been a while since I have done a blog post, so I thought to myself, what is it you are all just waiting to see? The answer, of course, is pictures of Volvo trucks! Thanks to the wonders of Ebay we have been able to purchase a few Volvo Sales brochures, so below are some photographs from a 1974 brochure. The brochure was printed, in English, in Sweden. If you can get enough of these pictures, then click here, for another post.

Front cover.

Sales pitch - The trucks of the N10 series are designed and built for the type of long-distance and short haul duties which demand unusual speed and stamina...the Volvo N10 is a trustworthy and economical truck. When John was working for Actrans he was sent to Adelaide carting two eleven ton containers of frozen lamb. He was travelling with Jimmy Nolan who had exactly the same load. Jimmy was driving a Kenworth with an 871 and when they both fuelled up at Nhill, the Kenworth had used double the amount of fuel the Volvo had used.

This text accompanied the illustrations of the chassis variations, shown above. The Chassis of the Volvo N10 is purpose built to simplify superstructure work. The upper face of the frame is entirely smooth, there are no joints or rivet heads to complicate bodybuilding. Furthermore, the width of the frame is constant and the frame members have an extra large web height which offers numerous benefits including simpler attachment. The fuel tank is located low-down and outboard of the frame to give plenty of room between the tank and the frame for anchorages, brackets and pipes. The frame meners are newly designed to combine lightness and strength with exceptional resistance to peak loads.

Back cover.

Korumburra Working Horse and Tractor Rally, Nyora

This Rally was held on March 20 & 21 2010 and takes place every year at TGS Sands, South Gippsland Highway at Nyora, just past the Bass Gas plant. It's a great event and has everything - there’s a truck display, then a tractor pull, heaps of old tractors – the Harry Ferguson Club have a display every year, old cars, stationary engines, draught horses ploughing the paddock, shearing exhibitions and cute baby animals. There is an old working chaff cutter and the local Historical Society Display. Plus good food and everyone's friendly. About 20 trucks were displayed - we took the Volvo and the 1976 Freighter trailer and there were two other European trucks there - which took the European Truck Count to a massive fifteen per cent of all trucks displayed! What a sight, but still we were sadly outnumbered by the non Europeans.

Here's our 1976 N1025 Volvo and 38 foot Freighter trailer.

1983 Scania.

A 1974 LS 1418 Benz, belonging to Eric Shingles.

1923 Ford, which was part of the display with the 1915 Cliff & Bunting "New Reliance" chaff cutter (below)

Norm Nettleton's 1975 J3 model Bedford, which he purchased at this same event last year.

Graeme & Judy Johnston also had a TK Bedford, with the Toyota Dyna on the back.

There were two Leylands on show - above is a Hippo and a 1977 model is below.

Ken Stephen's 1969 Kenworth.

1977 Dodge owned by Glenn Lancey.

Sam Capes 1956 De Soto. I love this truck and it's even my favourite colour.

1942 Lend Lease Chev.

Ross Turnbull's TK Bedford, Graeme Latter's 1954 R180 Inter, the Leyland Hippo and Warwick Bryce's Foden with the Rolls Royce Meteor engine on the back.

Proving once again that Internationals are the most popular trucks on the Truck Show Circuit - here is a line-up - J.T Clark of Poowong's 1970 C1300 , John Ferguson's 1949 KB6 , John Denholm's 1962 AB 180.

Jock Crawford's 1974 C1610 Inter.

Roy Bright's 1924 Inter and Ian Latham's custom built Inter.

1967 C-line International.

1964 AB 150 Inter.

1973 International, belonging to Lloyd Hunter.

International Acco C2050.

Finally, competition is tough in the tractor pulls, so Ian Latham thought he'd bring along a tank to blast the competition away. It is fitted with a 671 GM.