Yorkshire MVT Crank Up York 19th April 2009

This was our 10th year outside the Castle Museum and we were doubly blessed with good weather and an amazing turn out of over 60 vehicles of all ages and makes. 

For those of us to the west of York the 10.30am meet in the lay-by at Tadcaster proved very popular. There was quite an impressive line up prior to the convoy into York which took the A19 turn off the A64 as last year, but at this point the vehicles became well spread out prior to arrival at the Castle.

This is sociable do with a steady stream of interested public and others who pass by wondering what it’s all about but never seem to want to ask. I spent some time talking to George Lovell from the North East who has sold his French Jeep and given some of the proceeds to Nev for his very attractive 1978 Land Rover Lightweight.

We had a very pleasant visitor from Belgium, Benny de Maeyer, in his newly acquired Dodge WC 62 ( the 6 wheeler) which he had bought in Blackpool and was driving from coast to coast to catch the ferry from Hull that evening. For the first leg of the journey across the Pennines he had Paul Higgins, Area Secretary S. Cumbria and North Lancs for company, but he left mid afternoon on his own for Hull docks.

I’m glad to report he got home successfully. The website for his group is VMMV website if you want to have a look. He says it will shortly be also in English. A direct link to the pictures can be found here.

It’s good to see new vehicles join us and the first of these to catch my eye was a 1953 AEC Militant Artillery Tractor in post war gloss owned by Simon Daymond from Leeds which he has owned for some 15 years, but only recently decided to get it into show condition.

seem to recall him saying these were quite scarce and he has yet to fit canvas, but nevertheless a very worthy addition to the large vehicle fleet our area.

A second post war gloss vehicle lorry arrived a little later. This was driven by a young lady who turned out to be the owner and restorer of the 1952 Morris Commercial MRA1. Hazel Coulson from Pocklington had just finished the 3 year restoration and had sprayed it herself to boot ! Made me feel very inadequate, but credit where it’s due she had made a lovely job of it and again I suspect very few of these have been preserved. 

Tony pointed out that the presence of 3 DAF 66YAs was a rarity and all 3 were grouped together on display. I suspect they are a very pleasant open top tourer in the sunshine and all 3 looked to be in excellent condition.

Nearby were 3 of my favourite vehicles, M35 trucks , which I always refer to as Reos rightly or wrongly, owned by Nick, Dale and Dave Mc Coull. Despite being introduced by the US Army in 1951 and still in use, they still look and sound the business. A far cry from British lorries of the 1950’s!

John brought along his Series III Land Rover in that unmistakable Berlin urban Camouflage which I think looks excellent but I’m not sure how such a bright scheme looks in a cityscape. I presume it acts like the dazzle scheme on warships and destroys the outline.

Duncan Simpson, who I met at Leeds Armouries last year with his newly acquired Bedford MW, joined us in the layby at Tadcaster with his beautiful retro BMW motorbike and in his guise as ‘Billy the Biker’ took photographs of us both in convoy on the A64 but also at the Castle. 

If you want to see his photographs visit http://rides.webshots.com/album/571209004zzBemM

It’s great to have something different and his shots from one of the bridges on the A64 are something we do not normally see. Many thanks, Duncan.

I think it’s safe to say that an enjoyable day out was had by all and we even gained a little sun tan in the process. The endless traffic on the A64 was less enjoyable and I wished I’d stuck with Chris and Mike and gone a slightly longer route home via Boston Spa. With a detour to drop off a 25 pounder gun shield en route (the joys of having a wagon!) I finally got home some 3 hours later at 6.30.

Mike Humphreys 
Press Officer