Evening all, Apologies, Im following Johnnie, and going way off thread…but how about the Telma…wonderful device,but yank that little "clicky"lever more than two notches…and brother you could really have problems!!!
Me…(the expert Alpine driver…four years in the mountains… no one knew more…ah the folly of youth)!!! So Im sent by my new Boss in Lyon on a" Mountain Pass driving course"…the ignomy…do they not appreciate that I can cross any terrain, as I have done, for years past, in a trusty Foden!!!
My tutor did not help…typical Southern French…start at 05.30…at 06.15…he consumes two straight Pernods…and a Café Lait…then off we go, me driving…him asleep!
So we find the Alps…but not the bits I know…oh no…bits where the road is still gravel…and the edges unmarked…suddenly I see bits I know…but they are a kilometre away across a valley so steep that it could be light years away…
Remember the overhangs up to Mont Blanc before the road on stilts…well this happy Henri knew of passes with even more worse bits, where the overhang threatened even the big Berliet cab…and the locals were still speeding down…
My gut said change down…Henri`s stick…(for he carried a long thin piece of wood, that he would lay gently across your hand if he did not want you to change gear…and if you did …“thwack” down it came), …so I did not, and the TR combination rolled up the gradient with no drama…
But going down…loose gravel, hairpins that made the steps seem docile…and that drop, oh that drop…that is where I learned not…oh never …not ever…grab a reassuring handful of M Telmas clicky little lever…for if you did…a parachute would be of little comfort!!!
Eight long days I endured Henri`s 06.15 Pernods… but boy did I really learn a lot…No mountain pass could ever hold any fear for me, however overloaded, or underbraked the lorry, however steep the ascent, or descent. Henri, had learned his trade from thirty years driving for Lait Mont Blanc…(and those of you who know this company, and its ability to collect dairy milk from the Alpine farmers by using passes that are strictly “haut catergorie”) know what skill their drivers posses.
It was a master class, and still today I appreciate the skill that I was taught…and auxillary braking, be it Jake, or Telma, or any derivative of either…treat it with respect, and observe the conditions around you…for tears are not a hand grasp away!!!
But to come back to the thread…I once suggested to Pat, that a really interesting LDD would be to send Phill along to Lait Mont Blanc for a few days…but it never happened…sad really.
Cheerio for now.