Old Pond publishing days

DAF at Work: 2800, 3300 and 3600 book advance information

DAF at Work: 2800, 3300 and 3600 by Patrick W Dyer. Hardback book 210 x 265 mm (landscape), 144 pages including approx 190 photographs. ISBN 978-1-906853-37-2. Now in stock at Old Pond at £19.95.

Truck enthusiasts who have read Patrick Dyer's book Scania at Work: LB 110, 111, 140 & 141 will know what to expect - a wealth of photographs, some from the manufacturer, some from enthusiastic amateurs, supported by interesting and informative captions as well as longer introductions which set the scene for each model.

Patrick begins by considering the early history of the company which, although now owned by the American company, PACCAR, and with links to Leyland, has its roots firmly in Eindhoven, Holland.

The bulk of the book is given to the 2800 and 3300 ranges. The author goes carefully through the steady technical progress made by DAFtrucks and shows how, with its attention to driver comfort and economy of operation the marque became a favourite for a wide range of trucking operations.

The company started truck manufacture relatively late, but in the early 1970s it took an industry lead with its flagship 2800. The ‘Supercontinental’ version, with its wide tilt sleeper cab with two full-size bunks and its powerful 11.6-litre DAF engine was a natural for long-haul work.

The successor 3300 and 3600 models took the company into the 1980s, running alongside Scania and Volvo as a long-distance driver’s favourite. The 330 hp engine suited it for the heavy-duty special transport that became a feature of the period. This book is rich in photographs from the 1970s and ’80s. 

Patrick W Dyer works in the automotive industry and is based in Essex. He has written two books for Old Pond: the Scania title mentioned above and Know Your Trucks, a pocket-sized introduction for novice enthusiasts.

Ice Road Truckers Series 3 DVD in stock at Old Pond

Details of Ice Road Truckers Complete Series 3 by the History Channel were given in the blog of 4 May. It is now in stock for online sale at Old Pond at £19.95. 

Old Pond provisional book and DVD publishing schedule May-December 2010

Old Pond Publishing provisional schedule May-December 2010

May
Ice Road Truckers Season Three, History Channel. Four-disk DVD set, approx 10 hours viewing. ISBN 978-1-906853-43-3. £19.95 inc VAT. Details: blog 4 May  IN STOCK

Working Tractors Part 2 (Tractor Barn Productions), presented by Stephen Richmond. DVD, approx 50 minutes plus extras. ISBN 978-1-906853-47-1. £9.95 inc VAT. Details: blog 4 May IN STOCK

June
The Long Haul Pioneers, Ashley Coghill. Hardback book, 320 pages 280 x 220 mm including 345 photographs. ISBN 978-1-906853-33-4. To be published 26 June, £29.95. Details: blog 2 April REPRINTING - NEW STOCK DUE EARLY OCTOBER.

Combine Harvesters: Part 1 1941-84, Chris Lockwood. DVD, approx 90 minutes. ISBN 978-1-906853-34-1. £15.95 inc VAT. Details: blog 27 March IN STOCK

Combine Harvesters: Part 2 1985-2009, Chris Lockwood. DVD, approx 100 minutes. ISBN 978-1-906853-35-8. £15.95 inc VAT. Details: blog 27 March IN STOCK

(The two combine programmes together £29.95.)

 July
Starks’ Harvesters, Robert S White. Paperback 216 x 138 mm, 176 pages inc 29 photographs. ISBN 978-1-906853-46-4. £9.95. Details: blog 30 April IN STOCK

Farming Diaries Part 2 (Tractor Barn Productions), Stephen Richmond & Jonathan Whitlam. DVD, approx 75 minutes. ISBN 978-1-906853-48-8. £15.95 inc VAT. Details: blog 18 June IN STOCK

September
Know Your Buses, James Race. Paperback, 104 x 155 mm (landscape), 96 pages inc 45 photographs. ISBN 978-1-906853-38-9. £4.99. Details: blog 17 June and now IN STOCK  

DAF at Work: 2800, 3300 & 3600, Patrick W Dyer. Hardback, 210 x 265 mm (landscape), 144 pages inc approx 200 photographs. ISBN 978-1-906853-37-2. £19.95. Details: blog 19 May and now IN STOCK

Working Tractors Part 3: Big Power Special (Tractor Barn Productions), Stephen Richmond and Jonathan Whitlam. DVD, approx 70 minutes. ISBN 978-1-906853-53-2. £12.95 inc VAT. Details: blog 8 July and now IN STOCK

October
Know Your Donkeys, Jack Byard. Paperback, 104 x 155 mm (landscape), 76 pages inc 35 photographs. ISBN 978-1-906853-31-0. £4.99. Details: blog 13 July and now IN STOCK

Harwich & Dovercourt:  the photographs of Alfred Smith, David Kindred. Paperback, 234 x 169 mm, 128 pages inc approx 220 photographs. ISBN 978-1-906853-49-5. £12.95. Details: blog 10 August and now IN STOCK

Massive Backhoe Dredgers, Steven Vale. DVD, approx 100 minutes. ISBN 978-1-906853-36-5. £17.95 inc VAT. Details: blog 19 August and now IN STOCK

Ford Tractors 1965-95, George French & Dennis Burston. DVD, approx 90 minutes. ISBN 978-1-906853-51-8. £16.95 inc VAT. Details: blog 29 August and now IN STOCK

December
Seventy Years of Farm Machinery Part Two: Harvest, Brian Bell. Hardback, 246 x 189 mm, 224 pages inc 300 photographs. ISBN 978-1-906853-50-1. £24.95. Details: blog 23 September and now IN STOCK
 
The Potato Files (Tractor Barn Productions), Stephen Richmond and Jonathan Whitlam. DVD, approx 100 minutes. ISBN 978-1-906853-54-9. £15.95 inc VAT. Details: blog 25 September and now IN STOCK

More filming for the new DVD on Ford tractors

Just had a weekend in south Devon recording footage for the forthcoming DVD Ford Tractors 1964-85, following recordings we made last year. Stills from 2009 are on the blog at 22 July and 22 August 2009.

This year we started at Parklands farm, Awliscombe, near Honiton where Ian Maynard demonstrated a Ford 7600 Dual Power (left) belonging to Michael Persey. The tractor was registered in 1976.

A couple of years later, this Muir-Hill 121 first saw the light of day. It is now owned and driven by Peter Ellis, near Axminster. Peter's family turned up to help him cut and load wood from the railway embankment.

Jump another three years to 1981for the Ford 4600 4wd with a Lambourn cab (above left) owned and driven by Edward Underdown at Nag's Head farm, Gittisham. He has just taken the Ford Ransomes TS90 3-furrow plough across river in the area of the Honiton showground.

First prize for classic unrestored tractors at the 2009 Honiton show was awarded to Giles and Val Bamerger of Lomas farm, Honiton for their Ford TW-35 Series II (right). Giles had the 1986 machine handling a Dowdeswell DP7 5-furrow plough.

It was into the early 1990s for Les Ellis's Ford 7840 Powerstar SL (left). We filmed him manuring pasture with a Marshall 10.5 cu m side-discharge dung spreader.

Haches de Guerre - Canadian foresters in Normandy 1916-19 book information

In 1918 the British (or should I say, Suffolk) artist Alfred Munnings toured the camps of the Canadian foresters working in Normandy in order to paint the scenes he found there. This new French book includes some fine Munnings pictures from the visit, including the canvas on the front cover.

Another great recorder was the French photographer Paul Lancre. This book contains many fine photographs by him or from his collection.

The theme of the book is the work of the Canadian foresters in northern France during the second half of the First World War. It is the catalogue of an exhibition at the Orne Department Archives 19 April to 2 July 2010, then at the museum of French Emigration to Canada, Tourouvre, 14 July to 31 December 2010.

The book deals firstly with the Canadian Forestry Corps: recruitment and organisation in Canada; deployment and development from Britain and in France; techniques of forestry work; Sir Alfred Munnings's 1918 paintings.
Secondly, the exploitation of the forests in the Orne region: the various forestry camps; foresters at work, photographs by Paul Lancre; portraits of people involved; the social side of the camps; Armistice and the return to Canada.

Old Pond is pleased to have supplied several of the photograph scans used in the book, copies of images originally from the Imperial War Museum and included in Farming and Forestry on the Western Front.

Haches de Guerre [war axes]: les bûcherons [loggers] canadiens dans les forêts normandes (1916-1919), Conseil général de l'Orne. Hardback 280 x 239 mm, 144 pages including 326 illustrations. ISBN 978-2-86061-03309. 28 Euros. Further information: Pôle jeunesse culture, 6-10 avenue de Basingstoke, BP 528 - 61017 Alençon Cedex, France.

Working Tractors Volume two - forthcoming DVD from Tractor Barn

In their second collection Tractor Boys Stephen Richmond and Jonathan Whitlam have a wide assortment of tractors for you to see and hear in action. They have been filmed at work with a range of implements and accessories on arable, mixed and livestock farms in Sussex, Suffolk and Nottinghamshire. As before, the film-makers include a look at their archives as well as some out-takes.
Stephen Richmond’s lively presentation makes this a programme to keep you awake after the heaviest Sunday dinner.

Working Tractors Volume Two (Tractor Barn Productions), presented by Stephen Richmond. Approx 50 minutes plus extras. ISBN 978-1-906853-47-1. Available now from Old Pond  at £9.95.

Old Pond also has a growing range of other DVDs from Tractor Barn.

Tractors featured in Working Tractors Volume Two:

Case-IH Maxxum MXM 120
Challenger MT 845
Ferguson TEA 20
Doe Triple-D
Fendt Favorit 308
Ford 4100
Ford 5610 Force 2
John Deere 6630
Lamborghini Premium 1300
Marshall 802
Massey Ferguson 3085
Massey Ferguson 6270
Massey Ferguson 8220
New Holland TM 155.

JCB Mark 1 and Stefan Jung book signing at BAUMA 2010

So this was my first visit to Europe's premier construction and related machinery show, a hot Saturday at the new Munich exhibition halls. Of course, I didn't have time to get round it all.

I did get to meet Stefan Jung, co-author of Die Schwerlastspezialisten, the new hardback book about the three heavy transport specialist companies Scheuerle, Nicolas and Kamag.

Stefan (left) was signing copies of his book on the Kamag stand. Its 188 glossy pages are packed with photographs - there must be nearly 500 altogether - each accompanied by brief captions in German. The retail price is 29.90 Euros. More details are on the website of publishers Podszun. The book is available in the UK from Nynehead Books at £28.95. 

Amongst all the glittering yellow, a piece of the UK's heritage stood out like a low-level beacon.

The JCB Mark 1 backhoe loader was centre-piece on the large JCB stand, proudly announced as Europe's first backhoe loader.

When we filmed the story of the development of JCB's backhoe loader we were lucky enough to record the second Mark 1 ever built, the forerunner to this model. 

Ice Road Truckers season three DVD information

Season Three of the Ice Road Truckers saga has been given a new dimension with the appearance of Lisa Kelly. This former school bus driver and state freestyle motocross champion makes light work of handling her Kenworth W900 tractor trailer.

Ice Road Truckers: the complete season three, the History Channel. Four-disk DVD set, approx 10 hours viewing. ISBN 978-1-906853-43-3. Available 10 May from Old Pond at £19.95.

Some of the veteran drivers – Hugh Rowland and Alex Debogorski – are also in the show, moving with it from Canada to northern Alaska. Once again, their job is to use the three-month window of opportunity to haul oversize loads of critical supplies to isolated communities. This time it’s America’s booming North Slope oil fields.

This is dangerous work. The History Channel calls it ‘a job to die for’ and says that the 414-mile Dalton Highway, the most dangerous road in North America, has claimed the lives of more than four hundred people since it was built just thirty years ago.

A pretty woman driver, grizzled veterans, outsize loads hauled against the clock on treacherous, snow-bound tracks – it all makes for fascinating viewing.

To obtain the other Ice Road Trucker DVDs go to Old Pond's earthmoving and trucking DVDs.