Truck Fests: A new world and a suitable case for snapping

Readers know I have a penchant for classic and vintage vehicles and enjoy visiting weekend events where enthusiasts gather to show off the objects of their desires. We’ve done cars, from the mid-1890s to the early 1990s, we’ve looked at classic motorcycles, with the decade before WWII being my favourite era. We’ve even done military vehicles and aircraft. Add to that a dollop of vintage computing at Bletchley Park and I thought we’d done it all. Until I met the truckies, that is.

Truck meets had fallen well below my radar in the past, but news of an event at the ever-entertaining British Motor Museum at Gaydon caught my fancy. Gaydon is where they make Jaguars, Land Rovers and Aston Martins in a huge complex, part of which is devoted to the museum.

Kings of the road

Unlike most motor museums, the criteria for display space is that the vehicle has to have been manufactured in Britain. And, in most cases, that means within a near radius of Gaydon itself. From Cowley in Oxford to Longbridge in Birmingham and to nearby Coventry, a city considered to be the traditional home of the British car industry, motor factories were once ten a penny. Now they’re more like ten a yen or ten a rupee.

This is no longer the case, although the Jaguar Land Rover Group’s HQ and BMW’s Mini production line are still within the former golden circle. The Museum site, set between the JLR works and Gaydon interchange (Junction 12) on the M40 motorway, is big enough to accommodate large exhibitions. And when it comes to trucks, you do need a large gathering spot.

Truck heaven

I took along my Leica Q2, an ideal camera for trundling around vehicle exhibitions and again enjoyed the wide 28mm focal length. I didn’t miss having a bagful of primes, nor a zoom (not even that zoom of zooms, Leica’s excellent SL 24-90, which I have forever regretted selling—but more on in the near future).

The Q2, like the Q before it, is my favourite “eventing” camera. I find it perfect, except that it is too big and heavy to fit in a pocket and that’s the only reason it isn’t glued to my hand permanently. Can’t have everything.

Trucks, or “lorries” as we used to call them in Britain when I was young, have never much interested me. I’ve not taken much notice, probably because I’ve never had a licence to drive one, nor have I ever owned a place big enough to accommodate such a huge object of desire. Classic and vintage cars are bad enough, requiring a secure and comfortable garage (not to mention a well-stocked workbench) and motor bikes are a little less of a palaver to look after. It’s one of the reasons I set my sights a bit lower — a few vintage Leica bodies need only a shoebox, not a hangar.

When I arrived at the Gaydon truck meeting on September 11, I entered with an open mind. It was something different. But, as I happened, I was entranced and staggered at the amount of attention paid to these behemoths, with their wonderful decoration, customised cabs and themed imagery, many based on country and western music. And the truck owners proved ready and willing to pose and enter into the spirit of things.

Country & Western tip

Most of these tractor units, I was told by an enthusiast, are in daily use and it is staggering that they can be kept in such perfect cosmetic condition. A former haulage contractor I bumped into showed me how to tell a daily drive from a show unit — the working trucks have well-greased coupling bases, which, according to my research, are called “fifth wheel couplings”. The show units tend to have decorated couplers.

A bit of research discloses that the world of truck events is alive and kicking ass in a big way. The Truckfest at Newark is coming up on October 2 and 3 and claims to be the biggest event of its type in Europe. There is also a truck racing championship, again something that had escaped my notice.

This is a world I haven’t hitherto discovered, but I’ll be looking out for more opportunities to get up close with these wonderful subjects for photography.

A cup of coffee works wonders in supporting Macfilos

Did you know that Macfilos is run by a dedicated team of volunteers? We rely on donations to help pay our running costs. And even the cost of a cup of coffee will do wonders for our energy levels.