REACHING THROUGH TIME

It is all too easy to think of the British Leyland era as being the downfall of many a UK truck marque, although of course in many cases it was. However, the basic plan in those days had huge potential, to bring together the best of both worlds, use developments from its various companies to pull together and utilise commonality of components to cut costs. To some extent that worked in the car side of the business, but in commercial vehicles the foreign makes were already making headway and while Leylands, AECs and Albions were re-badged and duplicated, Scania and Mercedes-Benz innovated.

Scammell as a marque was trading on former glories, its stock-in-trade was split three ways between oversees oilfield and mining trucks, UK heavy haulage and military transport, both at home and abroad. All of these sectors were in decline to varying degrees and Scammell, with the possible exception of its Routeman had never managed to compete on equal terms with other UK makes on distribution and day work models, while the Crusader’s initial flourish wasn’t sustained.

However, its well-proven recipe of mixing innovation with tradition was still alive and well at Tolpits Lane and when, in the late 1970s, British Leyland wanted to develop a range of two new heavy trucks, it of course turned to Scammell. The two models shared many components, the bonneted S24 Landtrain was intended mainly for export and military use, effectively replacing both Contractor and