Tyneside wrote, Franky
Been trying to think of the timeline here, Cawthorns were taken over by Hargreaves somewhere in the seventies possibly around the time the photo was taken.At that time they were based at the r/bout on TVTE. Leyland Motors owned the depot next door to Armstrong Cork. Leyland pulled out and Hargreaves moved into the vacated depot and closed the old place at the r/bout.
I know the lad we are talking about still worked there at that time, and was a charge hand on the back shift which worked 4.00pm - midnight. He left to work for the Fire Service late seventies. IIRC the workshop was somewhere along South Shore Road.
Tyneside
Well that is likely Ken, the workshop was on South Shore Rd in fact it still is but they just use it as a store for old office furniture etc. Bit of a waste it would be ideal for a local Haulier. We moved further along to Baltic Rd around the beginning of the Millennium, turn left at the junction where Shorts yard is/was, then first right onto Baltic Rd and the Technical Services Centre is at the end. Its called that because it holds not only the vehicle workshops but the Ops Servicing (they do the BA Sets, light pumps, RTC gear etc) and the Stores, these were also in different locations before the move. Ken told me a story of when the Brigade had a Simon Snorkel hydraulic platform on an ERF and he was told to take it back to its home Station after servicing by another fitter. On the way back he did a sharp turn and the whole platform swung out and demolished a bus shelter and lamp post, fortunately no one got hurt, it turned out the lad who worked on it hadn’t locked the platform after servicing it. He did say when he got out his legs turned to jelly ha. A pic of the ERF below, as the type mentions it was first used in the Callers fire. Franky.
