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birds eye view
Page 94
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by the Hawk
D Small world
Colleague Tony Wilding, on the trip to Northern Norway with Scanias which he reports on in this issue, was in the middle of dinner at a hotel in Lakselv, not far from the northernmost part of Europe, when an English voice behind him broke through the mixture of German, French and Swedish at the table to ask: "What the devil are you doing here?" It was Ken Martlew, engineering director of Dennis, who was on a holiday cruise along the Norwegian coast and was ashore to spend just this one night in the remotest part of Western Europe.
0 Organic diversion
Many surprising things happen on tests such as that run by Scania, and Tony tells me of a delightful interlude when one evening the party was being shown over a pretty church in Northern Sweden. Typical of the area, the church was fitted out with the finest wooden furnishings including a fine harpsichord-type instrument.
Hasse Brander, Scania's always-active press man and a natural musician, delighted the company with a brief impromptu concert, and followed this up with an equally appreciated demonstration of the rich tone of the organ in the church.
LI Social Tory
Laboured flippancy having greeted the naming of the new Minister of Transport, I suppose we'll have to get accustomed to St. Christopher House, the MoT's London headquarters being known as Peyton Place. John Peyton was "at home" there last week, meeting the Press informally over a glass of wine.
The new Minister revealed charm and quiet humour, but seems more likely to follow in the footsteps of the previous Minister—in being an unspectacular, steady administrator—than to emulate the tactics of a Marples, a Marsh or a Castle.
Although this was an informal occasion, Mr. Peyton did hint at a dislike of openended subsidies for public transport and a lack of support for the idea of a roads board. He showed a realistic attitude to the role of the goods vehicle—and said he wasn't happy about some results of the 1968 Transport Act, notably in respect of the railways. A truly Conservative man, I'd say.
0 Kilted Barber?
A puzzled frown detected on the normally smiling face of Eddie Barber at the Essex LDoll eliminator at Walley on Sunday was not occasioned by any problems of the competition, of which he is organizing secretary. It was simply that he'd just read the introductory page in his nicely printed Essex programme, which ran: "a nationwide event which is run in a series of Regional Eliminating Contests such as you are seeing today in Aberdeen". The rest of the piece being also in Scottish vein, he could only assume that Aberdonians will be reading in their programme how generous Ford Motor Co has been to make available its Warley headquarters in their fair city of the competition. Printer's pie!
El Sorry, Jack!
Mind you, we're feeling far from lilywhite ourselves just now. Our collective CM heads are bowed in shame. We missed Jack Brown, managing director of Atlas Express, and chairman of the vehicles security committee, out of our published Birthday Honours list.
The scourge of transport thieves, and the driving force behind so many enterprising anti-theft developments, Jack was awarded a very well-merited OBE.
LI Lovely livery Fashions in vehicle livery are changing, but the commercial vehicle remains a colourful part of the road scene. Examples abound in the latest edition of Michelin's Tyre News, which has blossomed into full colour to celebrate its 50th issue, and devotes a doublespread to liveries. Hauliers and own-account operators both get a good showing.
Its sister paper, Tyre Traders' News has also gone coloured to keep TN company and features a pair of pages on the veteran motorbike run to Brighton: all goggles and gleaming brass.
0 Agog
I'm waiting for a body. Two bodies, to be precise. And I gather that thousands of other people are waiting, too. In the latest version of the gimmick of sending appropriate models to prospective customers, Unit Body Developments' advertising agents have sent hosts of little chassis out through the post (mine was a DAF three-axle) with a message promising a boxvan body to follow within 10 days and a Luton a few days later.
Well, its one way of selling bodies suppose. But can anyone get the chassis to put them on?