Atlas express

Found this picture on web, worked for Atlas for years never new they had these, it has seen better days,wondered if any old Atlas men on here know which depot had them

atlas 7.jpg

Presume this is the Atlas Express you mean atlas man ?
transportphotos.com/road/photos

HuG0423-d1.jpg

Yes that’s the one

Glasgow used to have a 86

neil0965:
Glasgow used to have a 86

Hi thanks for that, did they just have the one or did they have a full fleet or was it for a particular job, I was at Leeds for a number of years and trunked all over but never saw a Volvo in Atlas green

Only one as far as I knew. I lived next to the Edinburgh depot as a young daft on trucks lad.
Glasgow then had a very different fleet to most other depots. A series ERF, big J Guy and F86. Not sure what else.

Thanks for responding We had AECs then we got Ford D series 2417s then the Cargo when they came out, I know someone had a Bedford TM but not sure which one, could have been Warrington or Dunstable and some depots had Leyland Mastifs,

Wellingborough depot bought my fiat 170/26,2nd hand , vbd363w
Lucky them
Tony

remember them having an Iveco but that was on a B plate full sleeper cab, was supposed to come to Leeds but one of there units broke down so never came, think there was also a Maggie duetch (forgive spelling) but don’t know were they came from

Ashford Kent went in for the real heavyweights …a Bedford KG and a Commer Maxiload both with Scammell couplings. :laughing: And we had a J4 as well.

You certainly had a mixed bag, we had Fords and Leyland and later the old ERFs that united carriers didn’t want, we also had a DAF 2100 got that about 12 months before they closed us down

Edinburgh was AEC and clydesdales changing to mastiff and bedford TM.
Night trunks were- Nottingham, change over at 177 Flyover on M1
Dunstable, change over Forton M6
Birmingham, changeover Burton services M6
Leicester, changeover at Atlas depot at Newton ayclffe.
There was latterly a changeover at Carlisle. Cant remember where that was with Leeds seems to come to mind?

Aberdeen and Glasgow depots ran to Edinburgh each night.

Hi we had a Glasgow trunk from Leeds, think it changed over at Gretna, I think that was the only Scotch that we ran, but I could be wrong

Well atlas man
That picture you found on the net is actually mine, and was taken a few years ago of the old gal rusting away at Rush Green Motors and the reg no is LHS 725L if that’s any help to you. I couldn’t get a photo of the front but it definately had Atlas Express on the headboard.

Rob

015.jpg

Thanks for that, I hope you don’t mind me posting the picture but it did raise my interest as I worked for Atlas for many years and never new we had anything like that Volvo, it would be great if a picture existed of the Volvo when it was working, and I do apologise for posting picture without asking, I don’t suppose you worked for atlas and it was your motor and you have any more pics

atlas man:
Thanks for that, I hope you don’t mind me posting the picture but it did raise my interest as I worked for Atlas for many years and never new we had anything like that Volvo, it would be great if a picture existed of the Volvo when it was working, and I do apologise for posting picture without asking, I don’t suppose you worked for atlas and it was your motor and you have any more pics

Hi
No I don’t mind you using the pic, it always makes me wonder how they end up where they do the power of the net I guess.
I cant help you with the F86 I’m afraid the only thing is it would have been registered between 1972 and 1973 in Renfrewshire Scotland you had a depot that way maybe it ran out of there, (Bridgeton Glasgow)
My only connection with Atlas Express was when I was a nipper me old chap was a subby with a Hawson van for them he would have worked from the Hampshire area for them and that’s as much as I can help you with. ps who swallowed them up one of the bigger players I guess

Rob

Hi thanks for that, United carriers took them over about 1987 and then by 1989 they closed Atlas down, pity as it was a good company to work for not the greatest tractor units in the world but they did the job :smiley: but as I said never knew they had the volvo

About 1974, my gaffer at Ripponden & District, asked me to take a lorry over to the Atlas depot in Manchester, as they could not cope with all the deliveries they had for the Manchester area. When I got there I soon realised that " could not cope " was a massive understatement :open_mouth:
Even more of a shock was when the harassed looking manager pointed to two bays of goods piled up to the rafters, much of it squashed and obviously damaged etc. He said all he wanted me to do was help my self to a full load of any thing to get the piles down a bit, oh and we can’t tie any of it up to paperwork so we won’t be giving you any !!
I rang my gaffer to explain what was happening, he was a bit upset and asked to speak to the manager, who then put me back on the phone.
My gaffer asked me to bring a load in and we would make our own delivery notes out from the addresses on the goods back at Ripponden.
I think we only did a couple more loads because we were getting a lot of grief from the deliveries, late deliveries, part deliveries etc. Even though it was not our fault, it was damaging our reputation, and our gaffer said never again !!
Regards, John.

Hi I think Atlas improved a lot after that, we never had that kind of problem at Leeds, I used to know a lot of the lads that worked at Ripponden motors, used to take tea with them at Briggs café at Drighlington on most afternoons, a good set of lads

I sold quite a few D 2417 to Atlas and sealt with a chap called Bob Hine at Malvern and they went to Leicester and Nottingham.They had thier own bodyshop at Collvile and Brian Morton dealt with that side.The manager was John Woodfield and ran a parcels opp. called Pacefrieght.Here is a bad pictureof another vehicle