Home 

  MAN TGX XLX, ERIC VICK LIVERY,
MODELLED BY OXFORD DIE CAST
  
 
 
   
  
 
Following the appearance of Eric Vick's 6x2 ERF tractor unit JDG 209 V at the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway Steam and Vintage Gala at Prestbury in October 2008 - and in model form at numerous model engineering exhibitions by the Mellor Brothers - Swansea based Oxford Die Cast have produced a 1/76 scale model of the Hardwicke based firm's newer MAN TGX XLX 6x2 tractor unit and three axle BoAlloy curtainside trailer.

Like Oxford's Die Cast previous offering of a DAF XL in the livery of Prestons of Potto, the German built common rail engined tractor - registration WX08MYV - with its full standing height sleeper XLX cab coupled to trailer EV 196 is limited to 2000 examples.






Eric Vick Transport started in 1950 and is still a family owned business based in from where they specialise in international haulage of a wide range of products, from photocopiers and medical supplies to automotive parts and soft drinks. The company offers services including next day delivery within the UK, France, Belgium, Holland and Luxemberg, 48-72 hours delivery to Germany and the rest of the Europe and weekly deliveries to destinations further afield. The Eric Vick Transport fleet comprises modern articulated trucks - all complying with the latest international legislation and includes 21 tractor units and 40 trailers. Most are equipped with a sliding roof, enabling customers to load overhead by mobile or gantry cranes. Satellite tracking equipment is also a standard feature for security purposes.

This particular livery also features Eric Vick's telephone and fax numbers as well as the web address transportericvick.co.uk which has now been replaced by www.ericvick.co.uk







The aerodynamically styled MAN TGX series of tractor units is available in both 4x2 and 6x2 versions with different wheelbases and many other options including manual and TipMatic gearboxes.  The power behind the slogan "More power per hp, more kilometres per euro" comes from a range of  prime movers including D20 (320 bhp),D28 (540 bhp) and D28 (680 bhp) diesels.





MAN - with its distinctive lion logo - traces its origins back to the St. Antony ironworks, founded in Oberhausen in 1758 as the first heavy industry in the Ruhr valley - set to become the workshop of a united Germany after 1871.  In 1808 the St Antony merged with two other ironworks  - Gute Hoffnung ( Good Hope) and Neue Essen - to form Hüttengewerkschaft und Handlung ( Iron Mining and Trading Company) Jacobi.  

Hüttengewerkschaft und Handlung Jacobi was renamed Gute Hoffnungshütte (GHH) in 1873 and in 1921 bought up Vereinigte Maschinenfabrik Augsburg und Maschinenbaugesellschaft Nürnberg A.G., Augsburg, or United Machine Works Augsburg and Nuremberg Ltd.

Vereinigte Maschinenfabrik Augsburg und Maschinenbaugesellschaft Nürnberg A.G., Augsburg had itself been created through the 1898 merger of the 1841-founded Maschinenbau-AG Nürnberg and Maschinenfabrik Augsburg AG of 1840.

From 1921 Vereinigte Maschinenfabrik Augsburg und Maschinenbaugesellschaft Nürnberg A.G., Augsburg was known as Maschinenfabrik Augsburg Nürnberg AG, or simply MAN, a term that had first been used in company reports as far back as 1903.





Maschinenfabrik Augsburg AG could trace its roots back to Ludwig Sander who, in 1840,  started production of relatively simple steam boilers, cast iron parts and machines for the textile industry.

Carl August Reichenbach took over the factory in 1844 and together with his brother-in-law Carl Buz created the foundations for more complex high-quality mechanical engineering.
New products included high speed book printing presses, steam engines, steam boilers and water turbines.

This organisation was known as "Reichenbach´sche Maschinenfabrik" and after its transformation into a joint-stock company in 1857 was named "Maschinenfabrik Augsburg".

Maschinenfabrik Augsburg AG had been responsible for the first German rotary printing press for newspapers, the 1873 "System Linde" refrigeration plant and had helped Rudolf Diesel build his first engine in the 1890s.

Maschinenbau-AG Nürnberg meanwhile was founded  in 1841 by Johann Friedrich Klett under the name "Maschinenfabrik und Eisengießerei Klett & Comp." and produced cast iron products, cranes, steam engines, railway carriages and  machines for the testing of materials and bridges.  From 1902 the Nuremburg works also outshopped large gas producing machines with steam turbines being added to the range in 1904 and utility vehicles in 1915.

 In 1924 the newly renamed MAN displayed its first diesel lorry at the Berlin Motor Show which went into fleet service with the Bavarian Post Office.

Although MAN marine diesels licenced built in America proved troublesome and unpopular in the US Navy's submarine fleet from the 1930s onwards, MAN produced tanks including the Panzer III Aus F and the hull for the Panther tank which featured a Rheinmetall-Borsig designed turret.

After Germany's defeat and division in 1945, Allied forces took control of GHH and broke up the company, although GHH was to merge again with MAN in 1986, basing itself in Munich while the MAN Museum remains in Augsburg. 1945 was also the year that the North British Locomotive Company acquired the right to build MAN diesel engines under licence which eventually found their way into the "Warship" diesel hydraulic locomotives built in Glasgow for British Railways Western Region.

After Germany's defeat and division in 1945, Allied forces took control of GHH and broke up the company, although GHH was to merge again with MAN in 1986, basing itself in Munich while the MAN Museum remains in Augsburg.  1945 was also the year that the North British Locomotive Company acquired the right to build MAN diesel engines under licence which eventually found their way into the "Warship" diesel hydraulic locomotives built in Glasgow for British Railways Western Region.

In 1965, out of the "M.A.N.- Turbomotoren GmbH, Munich" - founded in 1958 as a development organisation for aircraft power units and after the acquisition of the shares of "BMW-Triebwerkbau GmbH", "M.A.N. Turbo GmbH" emerged which, in 1969, became a part of the "MTU Motoren- und Turbinen-Union München GmbH":  founded  by M.A.N. and Daimler-Benz.   In 2010 MTU engines can be found powering most of Britain's InterCity 125 fleet as well as German Leopard II tanks

In 2010 MAN also owns part of Swedish truck builder Scania and is itself part owned by Volkswagen while on 19 May 2009 MAN completed its transformation from a German public company  (Aktiengesellschaft, or AG) to a European public company (Societas Europaea, or SA)