Leyland Landtrain

There's a typo in the Great Book of Corgi where this truck is referred to as a 'BL Roadtrain' it is a Leyland Landtrain.

The Leyland Landtrain was a truck that was produced in the 1980s by British Leyland, it was designed to be used in areas of limited infrastructure, where roads may be rough and fuel scarce. The Landtrain was marketed as the first truck specifically built for the African, Asian, Latin American and Middle East markets. The design drew upon the expertise of Scammell Lorries (some of the Corgi boxes are labelled 'Scammell'), which was also owned by Leyland, and had produced a number of successful large military trucks, including the Commander. Similarly, the truck reflected the design of the Thornycroft tractors which were manufactured by the company at the same time. In the target markets for this truck an easy to maintain and robust design was preferred over cutting-edge technology, the chassis was of a straightforward and strong channel section ladder type and fuel tank capacity could be up to 700 litres (150 imp gal; 180 US gal). Sitting behind rather than above the engine also gave the driver the advantage of not getting warmed by heat rising from the engine, an important consideration in hot climates.

Corgi first introduced it in August 1981 (1002) and it was a new departure in a number of ways. Firstly the small scale, it fit more into the Corgi Juniors range being about 1:72 scale. Secondly it came with two trailers, a box van and a tanker. These trailers contained batteries and electronics which enabled a simple remote control set-up controlled by a hand-held clicker. Each click cycled: forward - stop - reverse - stop. In December 1982 it was re-released in the same format but with new 'Yorkie' chocolate bar graphics. This version continued in the range until the Mettoy bankruptcy in 1983. There was a non-electronic Yorkie truck with a three axle unit released in the post-Mettoy era.

In the post-Mettoy years the Landtrain was used very frequently in a simplified, non-electronic form and as you can see below I have found a wide range of variations. It is interesting that in most of the later post-Mettoy versions the unit is a three axle layout in keeping with the full size truck, I don't think it was ever a two-axle design.

Mettoy era
Still Looking
Corgi Small Scale C1002; Leyland Landtrain Artic; Box Trailer, Shell, Petrol Tanker, BP, Corgitronics	Corgi Small Scale C1002; Leyland Landtrain Artic; Box Trailer, Yorkie, Petrol Tanker, Gulf, Corgitronics
Post Mettoy
1984	1984	1985	1985	1985

Corgi Small Scale 1177; Leyland Landtrain Artic Box Trailer, Raleigh Cycles	Corgi Small Scale 1176; Leyland Landtrain Artic Box Trailer, Weetabix	Corgi Small Scale 91500; Leyland Landtrain Artic Flatbed, Mixed Pallets Load	Corgi Small Scale C1002; Leyland Landtrain Artic; 1985 British Truck Grand Prix	Corgi Small Scale C1002; Leyland Landtrain Artic Box Trailer, BF Goodrich
1985	1985	1985	1990	1991

Corgi Small Scale 3400H; Leyland Landtrain Artic Box Trailer, Hershey's Milk Chocolate	Corgi Small Scale C1246; Leyland Landtrain Artic Box Trailer, Dr Pepper	Corgi Small Scale C1002; Leyland Landtrain Artic Box Trailer, Coca-Cola	Corgi Small Scale Code 3; Leyland Landtrain Artic Box Trailer, Corgi Swapmeet 1990	Corgi Small Scale 91500; Leyland Landtrain Artic; Box Trailer, 7 Up
1993	1995	N/K	N/K	N/K

Corgi Small Scale 91320; Leyland Landtrain Artic Box Trailer, Weetabix	Corgi Small Scale Code 3; Leyland Landtrain Artic Box Trailer, Corning Collection	Corgi Small Scale 91500; Leyland Landtrain Artic Box Trailer, FAO Schwarz	Corgi Small Scale C1002; Leyland Landtrain Artic Box Trailer, Royal Mail	Corgi Small Scale C1002; Leyland Landtrain Artic Box Trailer, Kit Kat
N/K	N/K	N/K	N/K

Corgi Small Scale 1186; Leyland Landtrain Artic Box Trailer, McVitie's Biscuits	Corgi Small Scale; Leyland Landtrain Artic Box Trailer, Normans Family Warehouse	Corgi Small Scale 91500; Leyland Landtrain Artic Petrol Tanker, Texaco	Corgi Small Scale C1002; Leyland Landtrain Artic Box Trailer, Yorkie (Not Corgitronics)