Vintage Roadscene Archive

Vintage Roadscene Archive is a series of one-off publications taking a comprehensive look at key aspects of road transport history from lorry manufacturers, operators and industries. These publications are featured in a largely pictorial presentation, using the resources of well-known photographic archives, backed up by the memories of enthusiasts and industry professionals who were there at the time. Vintage Roadscene Archive provides an unrivalled wealth of information and period pictures go to make up an ongoing series which will build into a library of interest to all transport enthusiasts. With each issue you can be assured of interesting and informative reading, enhanced with top-quality pictures of various aspects in road haulage.

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VINTAGE ROADSCENE ARCHIVE BEDFORDS YOU ONCE SAW THEM EVERYWHERE

INTRODUCTION • Is Malcolm Bates the right person to compile a volume on Bedfords? There are, he modestly admits, several other characters better placed thanks to their intimate knowledge of every Bedford rear axle ratio and chassis option nomenclature. Trouble is, you just cant fit that kind of detailed ‘Magnum Opus’ into 100 pages. Instead, what we have here is a selection of interesting archive material that, hopefully, you might not have seen before. And, as Malcolm attempts to explain, a few personal reflections on how the Bedford brand became part of our lives…

BEDFORD TIMELINE

THE EARLY YEARS FROM ZERO TO HERO • It’s hard to believe, but the Bedford brand was born and had already reached a dominant position in the commercial vehicle market within the eight years between 1931 and 1939. That’s ‘hard to believe’ because surely we need to ask what all the other competitors for that market share were doing at the time? Looking the other way? But the real success story was how the same basic chassis and running gear made for a suitable lorry as well as a bus or coach, as this selection from the Archives helps illustrate…

THE O-TYPE WHO NEEDS A LEYLAND? • Surely everyone has owned at least one Bedford O-Type? Lesney Matchbox did ‘em. Dinky did ‘em. And there’s bound to be a heavily overloaded example at the head of every tailback on Britain’s outdated road network every Holiday weekend. But what is really surprising is that so many Bedfords survived long enough to be restored to their former glory suggests Malcolm Bates, while excavating the site of his childhood sandpit on the off chance of finding his old Dinky Bedford tipper…

THE ‘BIG BEDFORD’ ERA THE ‘S-TYPE’ AND NORMAL CONTROL SIBLINGS • What is there to say? The launch of the ‘S-Type’ was a master stroke. It took the Bedford brand into a whole new sector of the market at just the right time and started a relentless move up the vehicle weight range by the mass producers that, together with Commer, would directly take-on the manufacturers of bespoke ‘heavies’ for the first time. But perhaps the question we should be asking is: What were the directors of Ford doing at the time? Or BMC? They all must have been on an extended holiday.

CAB FORWARD. OR NOT? THE TK/KM/TJ RANGES • Just as the S-Type had several advantages over the products built by the competition at the time, then the same applied to the new ‘TK’ when it arrived. It looked different, but without being too ‘quirky’ to frighten away the punters. Like the S-Type, it had the ability to do the work of a ‘proper lorry’ at mass-produced prices. But the icing on the cake? That was the stylish all-steel cab that offered car-like comfort and ease of entry and exit for the driver and up to two loaders. As standard.

THE BIGGER IDEA THE TL AND TM • Even as recently as the early 1990s, the very idea that any ‘roadscene’ devoid of a Bedford chassis of some sort would be unthinkable. Even to someone who didn’t necessarily like Bedfords. They were ubiquitous. And of course ‘Everywhere’....