Pilgrimage to the home of Scania

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Scania Press Release / September 24, 2015

Driving four classic Scania trucks across northern Europe to Scania’s headquarters in Sweden was the trip of a lifetime for a group of friends from the Netherlands.

Having taken their classic Scania truck on trips to Germany and France, the Jansen family from the Netherlands have now taken the vehicle to the home of Scania in Sweden.

The family and their friends rode in a convoy of four classic Scania trucks with two trailers rebuilt into campers, that made the pilgrimage from the Netherlands to Södertälje, near Stockholm, over the recent European summer.

“We had been thinking about going to see the place where Scania comes from for a couple of years,” explains Margo Jansen, whose husband André rebuilt the Scania Vabis L110 that the family travelled in. “Sweden is a beautiful country, and so we made it a holiday.”

Classic Scania models

André Jansen rebuilds trailers as a hobby and created the camper that the family lived in during their road trip. It is a fully functional home away from home, with a bedroom, kitchen and a bathroom with a shower.

“It’s nice to stay in,” says Margo. “We travel in it quite often. We’ve been to France and Germany, and my husband has travelled with it to England.”

Margo says André has long appreciated classic Scania models. “My husband always admired the old Scania Vabis models with the long noses. He knew those trucks from his father’s charcoal company.”

In 1998, André started searching for a truck for himself, and in the summer of 1999 he came across a suitable Scania Vabis L110. The truck had been completely stripped down by the previous owner who had started renovating it.

“Fortunately he had also collected a lot of new parts,” says Margo. “But it was one big jigsaw puzzle. It took my husband six years to restore it on his spare time. It was a huge project, but it was very satisfying.”

The home of the Scania trucks

When they are not travelling around Europe in their truck, the Jansen family likes to attend meeting for enthusiasts of old trucks, some of which are organised by their own club, Old Transport Achterhoek. The organised club-meets normally attract 100-150 old trucks and are a good opportunity for owners to come together and talk about their passion.

This summer’s holiday trip lasted almost three weeks, of which two days were spent in Södertälje.

“We went to the museum and took some beautiful pictures of the old Scania building,” says Margo. “We had lots of fun and achieved our goal: showing Södertälje and the Scania Company to our trucks. Once in our lives we and our Scania trucks had to see it.”

Photo gallery - http://newsroom.scania.com/en-group/2015/09/24/pilgrimage-to-the-home-of-scania/