My poor old van is still laid up, wounded in action. The diagnosis is for a complete new clutch and with any luck I should have it back in a week or so. I’ve been mostly working from home while it has been in dock, which I suppose is nice practice for when I finally retire. It has to be said though that Phil, Suzi, Justine and Melissa have been doing a fine job without me.
For this week’s trip then it was a hired van, A Peugeot.
I have to say I rather liked it. It is quieter and has a better ride than the Vauxhall, but the real benefit is sliding doors on both sides making loading and unloading a doddle. It is not as powerful as the Vivaro and lacks an overdrive top gear, but at least it has aircon. I think when the time comes to change the Vauxhall one of these should be on the list.
My route was to the East of England. I set off north on the A34 and picked up the M40 at Bicester. The weather has turned cooler and a little wet so none of the lovely sunshine from last week. Once on the M40 I bagged my first classic. A Daimler Double-Six in the Mk2 XJ6 LWB body.
These are lovely cars and a classic I’ve often considered for myself. I would really fancy the two-door coupe with the 6 cylinder engine. I had a good long look at this one as it took the same route as me turning on to the A43 to head east, what a treat. The car in the picture is by Vanguards.
My first pick-up was at Chatteris in Cambridgeshire, right in the east of the county and well into the Fens. Fenland is naturally marshy and very, very flat. Back in the days when Hereward the Wake was putting up resistance to the Norman Conquest it was a land of rivers and boggy islands. Of course it is all drained now and is very rich farming country with a lot of food crops grown there. I drove past fields of potatoes and brussels sprouts and in another they were harvesting onions. The fields of grain were in a poor way though, the recent heavy rain had flattened large areas of the crops and that will make it harder to harvest and harder to dry out.
Of course classics in this type of country are not all cars, in the garden of one house I passed was an old Nuffield tractor. Its condition could be best described as potential for restoration. The model above is by Franklin Mint in 1:16 scale.
I also passed a FreshLinc depot.
They are one of the operators frequently found on model trucks, this one is by Cararama. FreshLinc specialise in moving chilled food products from growers to the supermarkets, so no surprise to find them here.
This is also Oliver Cromwell country – very apt as my history podcast has just started to cover the Civil War and my route to my next pick-uptakes me past the site of the Battle of Naseby which was such a turning point in the war. Fairfax & Cromwell’s New Model Army destroyed the Royalist army there in 1645.
Meanwhile I was heading for Chatteris to meet Bev who is selling her father’s collection of diecast cars. He no longer has the space to store or display them so he has decided to move them on.
They are all 1:43 scale cars with a lot of Formula 1. As well as the Minichamps in the photo above there are Vitesse, Panini, Brumm and Rio as well as another collection of the James Bond cars as sold by Hachette as a part-work. I’ve sold more than 50 sets of the James Bond cars, there are 135 in the full series, and they remain very popular, especially the later releases which are a lot harder to find.
Once loaded up I set off west and north towards Hinckley, Stoney Stanton to be precise to meet Brian and Peggy.
I followed the A14 for a big part of the way, spending about half an hour stationary for no apparent reason. At the side of the road there was a massive John Deere dealership, no doubt to service all the big arable farms round about.
We had a nice collection of ERTL John Deere farm machinery though Little Wheels about 8 months ago and they did very well for us. The combine in the photo above is in 1:32 scale so was very large and imposing. Phil made an unboxing video of it and uploaded it to Tik Tok – you can see it here: John Deere Combine. The video has been watched 2.4 million times! According to the comments it was most popular with grain farmers from Ukraine and Poland, but sold to a UK buyer.
Everywhere was really busy on this trip, which usually means going nowhere fast. However sailing majestically towards me on the other carriageway of the A14 was a splendid Jaguar MkIX. I could not imagine owning one of these as a daily driver, they are just so huge. The model is in white metal and is by Gems and Cobwebs.
I also passed, parked up in a lay-by, a Lancia Beta Spider, looking very down at heel and I suspect, broken down. It looked like a potential restoration project to me – although it is pretty amazing to see one of those now as they all disintegrated with rust. I hope the restorer is good with a welder.
Peggy & Brian’s collection is mostly Corgi trucks, a real staple of Little Wheels’ product range. There are half a dozen Franklin Mint cars too, which I always enjoy – I think the King of the Belgians Rolls-Royce is among them and the 1907 Silver Ghost.
As well as the good selection of Corgi trucks there are some by Tekno and a CAT quarry dumper by Conrad, so an interesting selection.
From Peggy & Brian it was just a 15 minute trip to Allan in Hinckley.
Allan had more trucks for me but this time it was mostly WSI and some more Tekno. We have had far fewer of both of these brands through the business than Corgi and they are always very welcome as the detailing is so fine and the finish is exceptional. There are some genuine rarities among them too.
Allan is concentrating his collection more on classic American motorbikes so is letting his trucks go. Some of the Franklin Mint Harleys in his display cases are stunning.
It’s time to head home for the Warehouse now. I followed the M69 to the M40 and turned south. There was a real treat for me on the M40, a Porsche 550 RS Spider. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of these before in the full size metal. They are so tiny and so low to the ground. One of them famously jumped a level crossing in the Mille Miglia by driving under the barrier. The car in the photo is by Minichamps.
As there is no roof I started to feel a bit sorry for the driver because the rain came on.
There was a less happy sight a little father down the M40. It was one of those new Rolls-Royce SUVs. It is not the most graceful vehicle on the road to start with but this one was made much worse by being painted a virulently bright shade of forget-me-not blue, horrible!
The last classic of the day was this car – a Morris Minor in Frilford grey, spotted at the Fyfield filling station on my way home from the Warehouse, I just could not resist the tongue twister there. This car is by Sun Star in 1:12 scale.
I’ve postponed next week’s trip, which was due to be to Worthing to collect a mixed collection of modern & vintage cars. I do not think my van will be ready by then, but surely it will be done for the following week.
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What’s in the Van? – Home
6/7th July – Magor & Westbury
15/16th June – Newcastle upon Tyne
8th June – Bournemouth, Ringwood & Bracknell
1st June – Diss, Stewartby & Brackley
25th May – Rickmansworth
12th May – Kingston & Fleet
4th May – Witham
21st April – Staines
12th April – Dereham
6th April – Warminster
30th March – Doncaster, Gainsborough & Peterborough
18/22nd March – Bedford & Epsom
15/16th March 2023 – London, Hemel Hempstead & Stafford
8th March 2023 – Warwick & Solihull
5th March 2023 – Huntingdon & Bedford
23rd February 2023 – Little Wheels Museum
16th February 2023 – Devon & Dorset
9th February 2023 – Nottinghamshire & Lincolnshire
2nd February 2023 – Gloucester & Hereford
What's in the Van? 
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