Ahhh God Bless the old 'Brochure King'. Biglorryblog knew he'd come to the rescue with some decent pictures of Britannia refuse trucks and those weird centre steering wheel ERFs and lo...it has come to pass.
"Hi Brian, I'm still rushed off my feet and letting work get in the way of your blog (!) " he tells me, "but I thought I would take five minutes out to indulge myself with the murky world or British Bin Waggons on the 1990's. As I recall it the Britannia was a truck built largely on Seddon Atkinson chassis (and the one in the photo looks a bit 211-ish chassis wise) but these enjoyed only a limited production run, and are no longer with us. Luckily the association between rubbish and Britannia continues to this day with Stoke City playing their home matches at the Britannia stadium. (Only joking, hope they stay up and everything but I'm a Port Vale man myself)"
"The centre-steer bin lorry was built by Seddon Atkinson and christened 'The Leader' which was an odd choice of name since there had already been an Atkinson with the same moniker. Again this design didn't seem to be massively popular and it lead (geddit?) to Sandbach where ERF built the design under the 'EM name (pictured at the top). At this point in time (1998 ish) ERF were having a serious crack at the municipal market and were producing a 'low cab forward' version of the EC, and another unusual beast known as the 'EU (the next one down). The EU may also look familiar - it was derived from the Marshall Utility truck (above) produced by the Marshall SPV company that briefly revived the Bedford marque. Got all that?" Great stuff Richard, and click through here to see a shot of the Atki Leader...
Come in white Leader!
And Leader was also the name of a very good truck designed and built in Australia and sold in quite large numbers both there and in New Zealand; thought I would try and get that one in before Pete Lynch does!
There were a few of the SA Leader chassis in service with Cleanaway in Somerset. I understand that the cab front assembly on the Marshall utility truck was identical to that on the contemporary Marshall Minibus, bus body.
There was also a Morris Commercial Leader light truck in the late 1930s.
Come in white leader what a line!