Quick Pick of Channel Spotting

Posted on July 9, 2012 by admin

Although I run this little website for like minded truck types, I honesty still feel self concious (if that’s the right wording) about taking photos of trucks…yes really. I’m not like the Neil Jarrolds or Ferdy De Martins of the world, who happily take photos willy and indeed nilly. For what ever reason i’m still not a confident wagon snapper. Anyway I thought it’d be a let down to my loyal readers if I didn’t take a few photos while sitting in Calais waiting for my boat. The dock wasn’t busy and I was only snapping out the truck window through a handy sized gap in the car transorter next to me, so the photos are not that great, they are a bit dark. The wagon above arrived in Calais, followed closely by a slightly smaller version. Both Scanias are Austrian registered and are used on the F1 Grand Prix circuit. They are used to build the hospitality units that we all see on the TV. I did have a tip off they are just for the Red Bull team, but i’m not sure how true it is, as it seems a little odd for a racing team based in Milton Keynes, UK to exclusively use a truck mounted crane company from Austria. Leave your comments please.

Speaking of F1, parked next to me was the above Mercedes Benz Actros car transporter (you can just the KFL logo behind). This one was parked behind two others and there was also one at the front of my lane. As you can see they are all loaded up with the F1 support vehicles. Each silver Mercedes Benz car or Vito was marked up with its purpose, such as; Media, Medical, Race Support (the 6.3 litre AMG estate!), Extraction (??) etc etc. Very smart.

Being in Calais you’d expect to see a Norbert, but these days you don’t see French registered ones. Just like everyone else ND now uses Eastern European registered trucks. Plenty of other Eastern Europeans about including this odd liveried Bulgarian Scania. Apparently it is supporting the Aston Villa captain who has Cancer or Leukaemia, but is a Bulgarian national hero (I don’t know much about soccer anymore), but Mr Lloydswell Dodsworth filled me in.

Much to my delight there were also a host of little Tonka trucks of all nationalities coming and going. First a very old and over worked Red Atego. I think the number plate looked Hungarian, but what ever it was, it did look like it should be on it’s last return journey to its home land.

This little MAN drawbar was obviously not sure which boat, lane or line he was supposed to be shipping to the UK on as he was already in a lane when I arrived, but over the next 45 minutes, manged to change lines and line a further 3 times. I wonder if he ever got to the UK, or even if he wanted to get to the UK in the first place?! Remember 4 axles, means a GVW of 26,000 kg, according to my some what sketchy, previous research!

An English truck, heading off into France on a Friday morning. It would have to be some thing special and it was. A 7.5 ton Iveco Eurocargo Pigeon Carrier! The truck was a 54 plate and had a sleeper pod on the roof, so it must go a fair distance. Although it would be quite cosy with the 2 drivers in the cab.

Driving on the boat, there were a few more Angleterre trucks heading home. Armoric Freight Volvo and another big cabbed Mercedes Atego, that I want to say was Dods & Brown, but i’m sure that’s wrong. Please correct me.

I saved the best til last. This could be my current perfect truck, apart from, as another well know MAN TGL driver agreed with me, they should have put those fake side panels either side of the fridge unit!

If I was offered this truck with Euro work or a big artic with Euro work, I would honestly choose this. An MAN TGL LX, 12.250 with a Lamberet fridge body. Spare wheel, long range tanks and still with tyre shine on, this must be its maiden voyage to the UK and hopefully not its last. I think it needs a sun visor though. If I was Neil Jarrold, I would have walked off to find it and take some more pics and I wish I had. I think it was parked behind the Armoric Freight Volvo, unfortunately not on my boat. For any one rich out there who wants an investment, buy me one of these in blue and I will make your money back two fold!

There it goes…..Proof I was taking my pics through the body of that F1 transporter above. I do wish I had the time to spend a Friday or Monday sitting in Calais proper spotting……One day.

Mediterranean MAN (It’s Photo Heavy!)

Posted on June 24, 2012 by admin

A very leading photo, Marshy and TB on the move heading towards Athens. Where could they be off too?? With Marshy’s track record the answer really is; Anywhere!

How about that? I think that narrows it down some what. Mr Marsh sat in Lavrio Port, Greece waiting for the Salamis Lines ferry to??….you guessed it Cyprus. The job loaded in North Shields, GB and delivered to the vessel “Lewek Falcon” in Larnaca Port. The cargo was a 5 ton winch. The MAN for the job was Steve Marsh! Our top blogger and owner driver of Steve Marsh Express. Just while i’m hovering over the S.M.E. sales desk, there is really only one man worth trusting with such a job, when it’s crucial to get to a far away destination on time to meet a vessel that’s in Port for a few hours, call THE MARSH!

Now although we all love a photo Marshy didn’t start snapping until the sun started to shine, so first up on the way was the Port of Ancona in Italy. This place must be awesome. From what I can tell it is always rammo wall to wall with trucks, ships and any thing that will fit on a boat to the Islands of the Mediterranean. Luckily for our little MAN there was just room for him on the end of the row, while waiting for the Minoan Lines boat to Patras (I finally got a Minoan Lines sticker!). There was also a chance for the classic shot of truck next to ferry.

After arriving in Greece it was across to Lavrio in Greece for the Salamis Lines ferry to Cyprus. Having reached Lavrio, it was time for a weekend break before getting the Cyprus tub. Marshy wasn’t the only one weekended in Lavrio. Also in Lavrio port were 2 Jordanian’s who were putting 4 trucks on the boat to Israel to sell back in Jordan. Then they were flying back to Germany to pick up 2 more trucks. For those of you who aren’t too familiar with ferries to Cyprus, most tend to be multi-drop. By this I mean they tend to do a bit of a round trip rather than straight back and fourth. This ship was also bound for Haifa, Israel as well as Limassol. I know its out of focus, but Marshy spoke to this Dutch DAF driver, who was empty on his way to Israel, with what looks like a container trailer.

Dear Mr Marsh, I’m sorry to say I can’t remember which boat scene was the outgoing and which was the return. The on board boat shots are always good, as you can see who else is busy doing similar trips. I remember one leg out or back was quite busy from what Marshy said. Have a good look at both pics as I have no idea which is which, but the Greek Scania horse box is in both!

On arrival in Limassol, you are always greeted with some ex-pat trucks and of course every driver who goes has to get a pic of the Salamis Lines Scania 111 shunter. See if you can guess which well known UK haulier’s Volvo has a new life in the sun, leave your comments below.

…Too easy for all you spotters! As you can see on arrival it was straight off the boat in Limassol and on the road to Larnaca. About 70 km down the road is the Port of Larnaca where the ships winch was safely delivered to the Vessel.

All that’s left after tipping is a wander back to Limassol, a wait for the boat back to Greece and then a long empty run back to Neuwied near Koblenz in Germany for a prearranged load back to the UK. Marshy has now been to more Mediterranean Islands than any gang of pesky Mosquito’s that we are all plagued with on our holidays. Saying that a week after his return from Cyprus the little MAN was right up North in Finland and then last trip, last week he was back at yet another Mediterranean island, but a lot, lot smaller, still a top class story to be told….another blog for another day. Now it’s time for the little MAN to have a rest under a palm tree and wait for his ferry back to Greece. Nice one Steve!

MAN Makes New Friends

Posted on May 22, 2012 by admin

What happens on sunny Mondays in Suomi? It seems the answer is meet up with other Western Europeans heading home. Our little friend Steve Marsh has this week been to Pori, Finland (yes really, I know he has just come back from Cyprus…some people get all the glory!). After receiving his email looking for a reload, I had to admit that i’m not that big in Finland. The only person I could think of was Dutch long haul trucking legend, Frank Hoogenboom and his beautiful black V8 Scania. Mr Hoogenboom spends his weeks taking flowers from the Netherlands to St Petersburg, then he reloads in Finland on the way home. I sent Frank a message telling him about Marshy, but unfortunately the message got a bit lost in translation, so Steve Marsh headed to Finnlines Helsinki Port to ship back empty to Travermunde, Germany.

Low and behold I then receive this picture message from Marshy. It turns out he parked up next to Frank waiting for the ship. I dare say Frank noticed the TB sticker on the little MAN and a new friendship was born…..ha ha ha I make myself laugh! Any way, Marshy was gutted that when he checked the photo and it was blurry, but on this occasion I really like the effect. I better also mention the white Scania in the middle is also Dutch and I think it’s driven by Henk Prins. The little MAN would give the big Scania’s a run for there money mileage wise I reckon, although I think the big black V8 may have a coat or 2 more polish on it than the little MAN!

New Truckblog Stickers Now on the Road!

Posted on March 9, 2012 by admin

The new Truckblog stickers are now in circulation, getting themselves around the UK and Europe. If you drive a truck any where in the world you can of course buy one as long as you send in a photo of where you have stuck it with some thing in the background, like Steve Marsh’s effort above. This is the first one “On the Move” that I have received, although Marshy has said it its not the greatest photo. The best thing is that he is showing the sticker off on it’s first trip, which is a good one, this photo was taken in Norrkoping Docks, Sweden. If you’ve got a sticker or you are getting one, click on the Truckblog Stickers heading on the home page of the blog. Then once stuck on your truck, email me your photos; ben@truckblog.co.uk

While on the way up through Germany to Sweden, Steve Marsh woke up one morning to see that his truck had had a baby! This little tilt turned up and looks like a mini-me version of Steve’s MAN TGL. I’m not to up on my vans but I think this could be a Renault Master perhaps?? Any way hopefully there will be more Truckblog stickers on the move to come!

Marshy’s New Year Marathon MAN

Posted on February 28, 2012 by admin

How many km’s do you clock up in round trip?? How many do you think this little 12 ton MAN TGL does?? Probably more than most give these little trucks credit for. Back in January your friend and mine, Steve Marsh, embarked on mini marathon around Europe. I’m hoping that if you click here you can see THE MAP of Marshys New Year Marathon.

View Larger Map

So what did Steve get up to in his 9 day, 4,367km round trip? Pull up a sand bag and i’ll tell you a story;

- Start Culcheth, Warrington Thursday
- Load Thursday Westhoughton, Lancashire
- Ship Dover Calais
- Arrive in Vercelli, Italy on Saturday
- Unload Monday
- Load Baldenheim, France on Tuesday Morning
- Ship Calais Dover
- Home to Culcheth, Warrington Wednesday
- Ship Holyhead Dublin Thursday
- Deliver Limerick, Ireland Friday Morning
- Load Collinstown, Ireland Friday Afternoon
- Ship Dublin Holyhead Friday night
- Deliver Crewe, Cheshire on Saturday Morning
- Home for tripe, black pudding, liver and onions Saturday lunch.
- Walk the Whippet Saturday afternoon (I made this bit up.)

So you see, size doesn’t matter when it comes to covering big distances. For the narrow minded of us, these little trucks can cover just as many, if not more km’s a week than their big brothers. Another blog regular from Australia, runs a mini artic and he covers the whole of Oz driving his little rig, and can legally cover more of Kangaroo Land than the massive Roadtrains they have out there. Perhaps this helps explain my love for a tonka toy that does long distance work, its just more unusual I guess. Have you covered a decent round trip in a short space of time?? Legal (ish) stories only I think is best, email me; ben@truckblog.co.uk

Oh the romance of long distance lorry driving! Marshy keeps apologising for sending me photo’s that always have his table and chairs in. I don’t mind at all, it’s part of the job. How many drivers these days stop, park up and stay in their cabs all day every day?? Not Mr Marsh, my only worry is there is never any food on his table!!

…..Keep the photos coming Steve, I now have people emailing me asking if all is ok when we don’t hear from you for a few weeks. You have fans, it’s official! If you have any urgent cargo requirements please contact Steve, he can do vans as well if needs be, he says he is happy to quote on anything, but for his own vehicles 5 tons is his limit. Have a look at the website; www.stevemarshexpress.co.uk

Batman – Superman – MarshMAN

Posted on February 9, 2012 by admin

Is it a bird, is it a plane, not it’s super-Steve!! Marsh that is. Back in November your friend and mine, Steve Marsh Express was asked to transport some art, modern art, down to an exhibition in Courchevel 1850, France. Courchevel I hear you repeat to yourself, yes Courchevel its that rather exclusive ski resort in the French Alps. Marshy got the call to transport the sculpture work of artist Mauro Perucchetti, to the Courchevel Festival. Mr Marsh sent me some snaps of the stunning scenery but none of the cargo, so he described it as “Batman/Superman & Jelly Baby statues.” Not really knowing what Marshy meant by Jelly Baby statues I had to have a look for myself and sure enough they can only be described as the aforementioned Jelly Babies. This modern art stuff can be strange can’t it? There is pretty well nothing that can’t be classed as art. Personally I like a good old piece of picture art, nice scenery, good composure, some good detail and of course an ideal subject. Something like this works well………..

If my idea of art is not the same as yours perhaps the press release for the exhibition is more your thing. When you can, have a look through the gallery on Mauro Perucchetti’s website, you can see the Jelly Baby sculptures. If you look hard enough you’ll see a white marble carved sculpture of Batman and Superman, which actually is quite good, I like it. Anyway this isn’t weirdartblog.com.org so i’ll leave the opinions of modern art to those who claim to know what they are talking about!

Stunning views those mountains, quite steep too some of them, they look great as a backdrop for the little MAN. Come snow or shine Marsh’s little MAN seems to cope. So after unloading his arty farty load, it was time to head off to the reload. This time Switzerland was the loading point. 340 ish kilometres from Courchevel to Niederbipp, CH. The load was some tools and machinery GB05 STE had delivered out to Niederbipp two weeks earlier. They had been used to repair some machines at a papermill, but now had to be returned to Darwen, Lancashire. All in all another good trip for us to marvel at (ref to superheroes I think you’ll find!). Hopefully if you click HERE you can see a Google map of the trip. I thought i’d give it a go and see if it works. For now i’ll leave you with Mr Marsh heading off into a mountain filled sunset, until the next time……………………. Italy, France and Ireland next.

Portugese MAN-O-Juice

Posted on January 29, 2012 by admin

He’s back!! No not the man from Del Monte, but our old friend Steve Marsh, know to be known as the MAN from Um-Bongo! It may be a name from the past for most us, but surely you remember the Um-Bongo song on the TV advert?? These days I don’t think that it is sold in the UK, but I think there is a campaign to bring it back. “Um-Bongo Um-Bongo they drink it in the Congo” or Portugal as Marshy can testify. The load out to the Um-Bong factory in Lisbon, Portugal was chemicals. The good old concept of tipping and reloading is fairly basic to all drivers especially us, sorry, you owner drivers. So my old pal Mr Marsh sorted himself out a reload. A pipeline repair machine from Vale de Feto,Pombal, Portugal back to Swindon, nice. Having driven the 120-ish KM to Vale de Feto, Marshy received a call from the Um-Bongo factory to say the chemicals he delivered were to replace some faulty ones and now they wanted the faulty ones to go back to the UK. Marshy said;

“A Few miles from Vale de Feto I got a call to go back to Lisbon for the faulty chemicals the ones I took out replaced. Of course the staff at Vale were on dinner and the only one who knew about the machine for Swindon was off site. Eventually I got loaded and then I had a mad dash back down to Lisbon. I got there at 16:50 and they closed at 17:00″

Don’t you just love it when a plan comes together! A double collection from Portugal and the 2nd drop just 30km from Steve Marsh Express, Warrington base. That is what you call logistical excellence! As you can see the photo below was taken at the Um-Bongo factory, note the tasty juice liveried car.

If you need Marshy’s services then go to his website, www.stevemarshexpress.co.uk or send him an email; office@stevemarshexpress.co.uk or if you want to contact me I can put you in touch, ben@truckblog.co.uk if you can’t wait too long there is more Steve Marsh to come in the next few weeks.

Scotts-MAN

Posted on September 9, 2011 by admin

Its been a while since my friend and yours, Steve Marsh appeared on the blog. Like the rest of us, Marshy too has been a little quiet. Only doing quite alot of what he classes as locals, France, Benelux and Germany. Apparantly these destinations dont make the best photographs! Any way some where else Marshy doesn’t get to too often is the Tartan Territory. Since I’ve know Steve, I think I only rmember him going to Scotland once before. Unfortunately Steve picked that week where Scotland suffered a lot of flooding, back in August. Oh well you can’t have every thing!! Any way Steve has a lovely little 12 ton MAN, so a little wet weather even’s the Karma a bit!

Having delivered a local to Dunkerque, a reload was needed. It turned out the reload involved meeting a Spanish 18 tonner in Calais and transhipping the cargo. Mr Marsh has apologised for not getting a photo! Having loaded it was straight up from Calais to Invergordon in Scotland, to make the delivery. The above pictures were taken on the banks of the Cromaty Firth, just south of Invergordon. For those of you who dont know that part of the world, most times you can see the coast you tend to see some sort of oil related marine vessels. As in this photo you can see Marshy artistically placed the oil rig in the background. Very artistic Steven, great wheel trims by the way!!

There is more to come from Marshy, including a fleet photograph in Lodz, Poland (not so local).

Transit-MAN

Posted on July 23, 2011 by admin

Good title for the piece i think. My effort was going to be White Van MAN, but i have been overruled by both the wife and Marshy. A recent trip to Hamburg for the famous Steve Marsh Express 12 Ton MAN, was an automotive based round trip vehicle fest. The export load was parts, stock and bits and pieces for the new Mclaren road car. Delivered to a posh car dealer in Hamburg and at the same time an Ontime Automotive Mercedes Atego delivered a the actual car. I have got pics of the car rolling out of the Ontime truck, but i’m sorry to say this is a TRUCK blog not a car blog, so those pics are banished to the photographic vault.
Unfortunatley this Hamburg delivery was part of a round Europe run that Marshy missed out on. Originally Steve quoted on a run starting in Paris and then on to deliver to Brussels, Hamberg, Zurich, Milan, Monaco and finally Marbella. In the end SMEX did the Paris one week and then Hamburg the following. Not quite the same as the big run but good fun all the same.
As always after a delivery there needs to be a reload. Some how with all of his contacts Steve doesn’t seem to fail on the reloading front very often. This time round a very photogenic reload was the order of the day. A complete Transit Van shell from Geeste, Germany back to the Ford Factory in Basildon, in truckblogs very own home county of Essex. Now i dont know about you but i’d say that it was rather a good fit.

Just look at those shiny wheels disc’s! Just as a note for all of our older readers, isn’t it nice to see a well equiped proper tilt?! Expertly stripped and prepped for loading, even a propper step ladder to aid our driver in his efforts, it’s almost a forgotten art, like roping and sheeting!

Steve Marsh Express Meets BJS International

Posted on May 31, 2011 by admin

Whilst looking about on my Flickr page i started thinking how me and Marshy were both owner’s of Hatcher cabbed MAN’s. Back in the day i had a 7.5 tonner but Marshy’s was a 12 tonner, naturally he was one step ahead. My truck definitely lived up to my expectations and was doing the mileage of any big truck if not more day after day up and down the motorway, Glasgow 3 times a week from my base in Braintree, Carmarthen daily for a week, exactly 4 1/2 hours each way every day, i loved it! Marshy was undoubtedly doing similar mileage but the majority of his was continental with a bit of UK, where i was vice versa. I never quite worked out why i didn’t do more continental?? i think it was probably that i was just so busy doing my thing i never got round to getting more into it. I used to see V99 STE around quite a lot, i often used to wave in the hope he’d wave back, but with out any luck, i think Marshy was just too busy doing his thing while i was doing mine. I think there is a big “what if” here some where. What if we had been going the same way and had had time to stop for a cuppa………….

I often wonder what would have happened if i had got more into continental express type work. There was clearly a market for it a few years back and Steve Marsh is testament to the fact there is still a market for it now. With the office job i do now for HC Wilson, each week we have a couple of job offers that would suit some thing like a 12 ton rigid, more often than not if we can’t cover it some how i end up offering it to Steve. I do wonder if I’ll ever go back to it, running a little rigid, i think the answer is one day yes it would be nice, or perhaps we should get one at Wilson’s!?

I have no idea why they are my favourite type of truck, after all a simple person would call a 7.5 tonner a van!………… that’s a totally different blog all together! I guess at the end of the day there will always be a market for these cracking little rigids with in haulage, but how many there is the unanswered question. Like all area’s of our industry the numbers have declined and only the fittest survive. These day’s with all the driving license issue’s and pallet networks offering such silly cheap rates it makes Steve Marsh Expresses daily life all the more difficult. I think what a lot of companies/customers miss is the personal touch, the knowledge that Steve loads and Steve will deliver. The load isn’t going to get transshipped 5 times and put on a number of different vehicles before being delivered. Is it that customers have realised that their goods are more important than always getting the cheapest rates? Hopefully there will always be a need for a little rigid otherwise in the years to come I’m not going to be able to buy my son one! (if he wants one of course!). Any way enough of this inane banter. Keep the little trucks rolling that’s what i say, everyone loves a Tonka toy!! So until the BJS empire is rebuilt, best you keep calling Marshy.

Railway MAN

Posted on May 4, 2011 by admin

A few weeks back Steve Marsh Express was called upon to transport some train parts from Leeds to South West Wroclaw, Poland. A nice little trip of of 1,016 miles before delivering to a back end train depot in old industailised Polska. Now if there is one man who could teach you a thing or 3 about taking a picture in a good location it’s our man Marshy. Can my Photographer type friends please leave you feed back for Mr Marsh to encourage him to make more pictures!! I don’t know why but trucks and industrial building / venues do seem to compliment each other. Look at these pictures and see for youself……….

After arriving at the listed delivery point to the North East of Wroclaw at Olesnica, Mr Marsh and the little MAN were told to re-direct to unload at this old, still used, railway yard. At some point i think Marshy must have wondered if this place was one of those old places in films you see the bad guys hiding in. Queue tense music and dim lights to create an earrye atmosphere. Perhaps the 1750 kgs of train motors were just a cover for some thing much more sinister! (sorry getting carried away with the movie location thing!).

Look a strange object in the bottom picture it must be a movie set………. oh no its Marshy’s finger! After seeing the Marsh at the weekend he did say that he did quite like some of these Polish pics. I think one of the best is this one inside the shed.

I said to Steve that i liked the way he had put the truck to the back of photo and got the trains in the foreground, quite a bit of Photographic talent in that pic, although Marshy’s reply was that he hadn’t meant to do it as he had tried to get the truck in the centre of the photo and missed!! Typical.

After uloading it was time to head West out of Poland all the way back to Aachen, Germany to reload for the UK. Taking in the gorgeous roadside views of lovely Poland on the way!! Just wanted to include the pic, no idea what i’m talking about now!! (Note to Admin: Put

Mallorcan Marsh

Posted on April 16, 2011 by admin

He is a boy i tell you, living the life of Riley as my Gran would probably say! Gadding about Europe like an international Playboy. A trip a few weeks back landed him on the road to Mallorca, terrible! The call came in for a load of gym equipment to go to a English owned residence some where near Palma, so Mr Marsh packed his favourite speedo’s, bucket and spade and headed off for Barcelona and a ferry to Mallorca.

On arrival he had been told to head for a parking area where he would be met and taken to the house. While waiting at the parking area what should turn up? yep another MAN 12 tonner, this time a German one.

After being collected and taken to the new house it was then time to unload and as it was the weekend Steve decided to help unload and hang around to help as the boat back to Barcelona wasn’t until Monday, so what else are you supposed to do on a mediterranean island for the weekend??! What a place for the weekend…..

After a weekend of cycling around Palma and being taken out for dinner by the customer steve decided enough was enough and couldn’t wait to get back to Warrington! This one taken back at Palma waiting for the ferry. I do wonder why i had to give up driving some time’s, my desk just doesn’t get around as much!!

More Marsh to come, a trip to a dodgy Polish train yard is in the pipeline.

New Year SnowMAN

Posted on March 8, 2011 by admin

As promised at the beginning of the year, here are a few pictures of Steve Marsh’s New Years trip to Sweden. While i was enjoying a few drinks in Port Solent gazing out across the marina and looking out to sea, Mr Marsh and the little MAN were busy crossing the high sea’s from Kiel, Germany to Gothenburg, Sweden. It might all be party poppers and champagne to some of us dull old office boys but for Marshy the work never stops, i forget how hard you have to work to keep the wheels rolling but as an Owner Driver work is work and best to make hay while the sun shines and all that. Any way it’s not a bad old life when your in Malta the week before Christmas and then in snowy Sweden for New Year. As you can see there is a fair temperature change from the week before to week after. Plenty of snow and ice in Gothenburg, although the Swedish port seems capable of coping with the snow they get, you can guarantee if that was a UK port it’d be shut with all that snow!!

After New Years Eve my sunrise on New Years day was not like this, in fact i don’t remember seeing sunrise on New Years Day! Although that ice might have cooled my head off a touch.

The little MAN easily made it through the snowy realms of Sweden up to Vasteras, where Marshy had to sit it out til Monday before he could tip. This left plenty of time for snow man building and picture taking, doesn’t she look great?? I think this one qualifies for the Steve Marsh Express Christmas card this year, it’d certainly make a better card than some of the one’s i sampled here on the blog.

As i write this Steve Marsh is on his way back from Malorca, so hopefully some more great pics to come, as long as he makes it passed those French pancake sellers!

Maltese MAN

Posted on January 1, 2011 by admin

Happy New Year bloggers! I’ll start this year as I mean to go on, with a good blog that’ll hopefully entice you all into coming back over and over again!

To start us off Steve Marsh is back….. Twas the week before Christmas and all was quiet, well that was until the Warrington MAN fired up and headed south for a pre-Christmas dash to Malta. Load detail as follows; “Load Manchester and Frankfurt airports for delivery to Luqa airport, Malta. Reload Luqa airport for Heathrow. Plus 2 collections ex Milan for Ashford and Birmingham.” Sounds like a cracking little outing. The boat back from Malta arrived in Genoa on Wednesday 22nd December, so there was a lot to be done to beat Father Christmas back to Warrington!

Great picture!

In the pic below, note the well worked Eurostar and Streamliner poking its nose in.

On the road to Luqa Airport. Excellent advertising for the blog!! (Look Carefully!)

Unloading at Luqa.

Back on the boat ready leave Valetta, having completed part 1 of the trip.

Hopefully the Marsh will continue to supply some excellent blog material throughout the year, just as long as he is home long enough in between trips to email the pictures over! Having made it home for Christmas day, Steve spent New Years Eve on the Kiel to Gothenburg boat, heading for delivery to Sweden. Pictures to follow!

We are currently also exploring avenues to get some live streaming video from the little MAN on its trips across Europe so you never know by the end of this year you may be able to follow Marshy on his travels.

This post was expertly edited by Mrs H Reeder BA (Hons).

Super Swede’s

Posted on October 26, 2010 by admin

The ever moving Steve Marsh, has been to Norway twice in the last 2 weeks and returned home via Sweden and Germany. I think the size of the Swedish trucks has caught his eye. I think I’m right in saying Swedish combinations can be a max of 25.25m long, so as Marshy’s MAN is only about 9m long you can imagine the size difference. This first picture was of a Scania that pulled into a service station while Steve was on a break. Looks like a tipper or the like. The second picture is a Volvo that he managed to get along side, this shows how the little MAN is dwarfed by the big truck and trailer combo’s.

Old MAN & Mercedes still earning a living

Posted on October 13, 2010 by admin

This old chap glided into the yard today. On a day trip down from Leicester the old F reg (1 August 1988 – 31 July 1989) MAN was on a flier. According to the driver “She’s great as she has no limiter, means you can a decent days work done!” I’m sure you can. As the old MAN is such a favorite, the owner is about to put another old MAN on the road, but this time a similarly shaped cab but the smaller 3.5 ton Volkswagen LT version, with twin rear wheels. I know it bought back GW’s memories of taking an LT across europe with various loads and broken rear windows! Any way it was lovely to see the old MAN still in such favour, a classic commercial in the making, “It’s having a full refurb and spray job this winter” was the drivers parting call as he tried to keep with his ride. Hopefully they’ll be back next year!

On a similar but continental note, our friendly international man of mystery, Sir Steve of Marsh, saw this old old German Mercedes 814 was seen in Austria last week. Still earning its living by delivering new silo’s about the place. Although she doesn’t look as well loved as the old MAN above, she is still earning a penny or two for her owner.

Weekended in Gloomy Italy!!

Posted on September 18, 2010 by admin

2 weekends ago now, Steve Marsh was once again weekended in Italy. Parked up near Ravenna on the North East Coast waiting for a Monday morning tip with a hazardous cargo. Once tipped on Monday Marshy took a lovely drive up through the Alps into Swiz and on into southern Germany for reload number 1 and then onto Holland for collection number 2 and back to the UK for a weekend delivery that didn’t quite go to plan! Steve sent me these 2 piccies and said they aren’t blog worthy, but i have to disagree, how can a couple of truck pictures not be worthy on the only truckblog that matters!! By the way if you type “truck blog” into Google what is the number 1 search result………..yes www.truckblog.co.uk

I’m a Morrocan in France

Posted on August 21, 2010 by admin

………. Didn’t Sting write a song about that.
Sent in by regular contributer Steve “Marshy Truck Perv” Marsh, this Morrocan is his only other company in the services he is weekended at between Lyon and Grenoble this weekend. For those with keen eyes you can just see the little MAN beyond the front of the Magnum. Looks like a terrible weekend for being stuck in France!!

RoMANia Not as Bad as it was???

Posted on August 20, 2010 by admin

A recent trip to Brasov, Romania for Steve Marsh proved that some things in Haulage do get better or so it seems. Of all the countries in Europe Romania is the only one that Steve said he didn’t want to go back too after a trip there 5 years ago, so as you may expect he wasn’t looking forward to going back. After the delivery he sent me these pictures and said “Not as bad as i expected, there were fewer horse and carts on the road!”

He came across this little place that was full of dead or cut up English trucks, i think the little MAN was keen to get on its way!

Also the standard photo of Romanian horse and said cart.

Trouble with The Little MAN

Posted on July 8, 2010 by admin

Having noticed a few weeks ago Steve Marsh had broken down in Germany, it turns out he’s been having problems with the clutch. A big MAN was called out and supposedly fixed the problem, see below.

A few weeks later Marshy was back to full fitness or so he thought. After loading in Lee on Solent with Helicopter Rotors, he headed off to Milano. But more problems occured with the clutch, some leaking oil or some thing. He made it to Italy and reloaded back in Belgium yesterday. Hopefully the little MAN will get sorted and be back to full fitness soon enough.

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