sutty1983:
Denian International’s 2x ERF Olympic’s shouldering Scania 113 360 G893 ABJ
Left hand side is our S622 CNW EC11 405 ■■■■■■■■ with Eaton 16sp syncro box
Right hand side is our N36 DWU EC10 350 ■■■■■■■■ with Eaton twin splitter boxWe were setting off with N36 DWU to load at ICI Wilton, Teeside, 22x 1ton bags of plactic injection moulding beads for delivery to Piacenza, Italy.
free parking in the early stage of the sunderland empire i seem to rember
Malcolm Cully was the second malcolm
Jason Parker is Jasper
Harry Peacock got P670UUA brand new the smaller cab than P660UUA
I got it when he left and Eugene got it after me
Nigel Green drove the four wheel tractor unit for some time later
And please never forget Bones from Elland drove the E + G reg blue scania`s feeding trailers to us at Dover on a sunday mornig so we didnt come home too soon…lmao
Big Al went on to work for Belgate then Thorntons from liverpool after Gummy` Dave Sunderland gave up
I started in M308 SWR which due to Rod Stead tuning kept cracking exhaust manifolds But hey it went like ■■■■ off a shovel
Rod Stead now works for scania as a mechanic at skipton
Dave Sunderland now lives in Bradford and is a land property developer
Thank you Heigold for your post, It brought some memories back, haha
Do you remember another lad Matthew Benson worked alongside Jasper & Bones on the UK side bringing trailers down for turn-rounds?
Yeah, remember E240 TWY Scania 112, Sunny kept that tractor unit, it was half way being restored to the original two-tone blue livery, got painted white primer and parked in the corner of the yard, it was there for years. Did Sunny buy that from Bob Farnell at Halifax?
Don’t know what happened to G893 ABJ - 113 360, as pictured above in between our two ERF Olympic’s.
Bones ‘Alan Charnock’ is driving for Collett, Halifax now a days.
Do you remember Sunderland’s mechanic Paul Durham think he was in to his Harley Davidson bikes?
I still keep in touch with Big Al, he called around to see Denian at Christmas, with news Sam wasn’t well, she was taken poorly in Italy, managed to eventually get her back to Halifax, which further investigation was going on, haven’t hear anything since. Should get in touch with him, I’ll text later. Yeah Big All went to Paul Oxtoby ‘Bellgate’ until they closed, Big Al is driving a white Magnum for European Road Freight, Hull used to be Dave Ridby, he is still going strong down to Italy.
What was the record for being away, I seem to recall Big Al setting a record of 13week?? Remember Adrian ‘Stench’ he was going to break Alan’s record, but can’t remember if he did or not.
Haha, yeah I remember M308 SWR in the yard, with a cracked manifold!!! Sounded the dogs B*ll**ks! haha
Really good to hear about Rod Stead, he is a funny bloke!
Yeah Dave Sunderland has bought a lot of land in the Holmefield Industrial Estate at Halifax, and he is developing land the putting warehouses up there, I see his machines working in there ‘DMAS’ I haven’t seen any trucks though, he seems to be doing alright for himself.
Do you remember another Owner Driver from Halifax, Russ Gledhill, he subbed for Bellgate for years, then for Collett, Halifax. He had a metallic blue Scania 143 450 left ■■■■■■, K225 GSO. That machine really did fly!!! Russ bought it from Peter Gilder at Gloucester, it was originally owned my Robbie Duncan, Banff, Scotland. Russ has sold all his motors now and is driving a double-drive Actros for Collett, Halifax.
great photos mate. use to run italy meself with a lot ov them drivers you mentioned.brings back some happy memories. wer r they all now. 
big al later joined us at bellgate do you remember toxic terry ex helliwells he was a character.not to mention some ov the others. will dig out some pics of italian trips. regards john rose63.
Hello John Rose,
Thank you for your post,
I do remember a couple of lads from Helliwells, Tuxford, the two which I know quite well are ‘Super Ted’ and his lad Ross, I believe Ted went to Walkers and Ross is on for Hutchinson heavy haulage. What did happen to Helliwells?
Do you remember Alan Wright who came from down Retford/Tuxford way, he came to drive for Denian, Halifax for a while, I remember the first time I met Alan it was at Avandero’s at Thrapston, we had an ERF E10 325 ■■■■■■■ J884 YWY, Alan jack-knifed it down in Barcelona, I remember him phoning up saying he hadn’t slept for 3days, and that he needed a break, why we asked, he said I jack-knifed your truck the other day and couldn’t sleep!!! I remember there was some fiberglass & filler work to be done when the unit came back.
Russ Gledhill used to be a driver at Bellgate, before going on his own, as well as his Scania 143 he had a couple of Iveco’s one I remember being a 17 lire V8 Turbostar.
Yeah dig some picy’s out when you can, it would be great to see them, I’ll dig some more of mine and post them on here. Cheers. 
Russ Gledhill’s Scania 143 450 
hello sutty. some great pics mate brings back happy days running italy. never forget the times we all had at carisio and sisters arluno 
. my mate wheelnuts put some pics on somewere mate. more to come. remember any ov these names.tricky mickey. keith smith. mick franks.big ted. phil walker sadley passed away.tom bell.simon from goole.steve smith aka tutty.big frank now with brian yeardleys.shaun pooleman . big john waddy and his brother gary.all old bellgate drivers .
Hello Sutty,In the late eighties and early nineties I was on for BEAVER out of Fartown,Huddersfield.A mate of mine at the time was Bernie Boot,mad as a box of frogs but a good mate all the same(does anybody remember him?).Around the early nineties we were running a blue Kenworth a couple of you might remember,Bernie managed to blow it up at Campogalliano and I ended up with it because I could do the spanners as well.We were all doing weekly round trips then, but mine were taking 3.It burned all the wiring out on one trip(12 volt running electrics that convert to 24 for starting),chewed a diff up on another and lost top gear altogether.It really was a pile,still?.. happy days I remember bumping into some of the names that have been mentioned and remember Sunderlands motors down in italy and france.At the time we did some subbying for UFO.Crap rates but good clearance in Dover if I remember.Did a couple of trips for a guy called JOHN HEPPENSTALL as well in the nineties,now there was a character.Happy days. 
eugene molloy . big al and sam. they came to bellgates from sunderlands. not seen them for a long time.
all use to stop at phils brienne in them days. anybody no wer phil went to it was sometimes a race to get there on a sat nite depending on how many collections you did on a friday. allways a good weekend tho
bet not many english trucks use that route now from chalons to bourg en bresse it was a very popular route then. not to mention the old NR504 from pont d ain to chambrey a dangerous road thro the tunnel du chat. happy days .
Hi John,
Yeah I remember Phil’s at Brienne very well,
I remember the first time I was week ended there, me and Ian ‘Denian’ ran down Saturday and got to Phil’s 11pm French time, 1hr late, but we decided to push on.
We only just got parked in the entrance.
There was Eugene Molloy, Malcolm Cully & Tony Farnell ‘Kangaroo’ who I knew straight away, Ian went to bed, Eugene and the lad from ACK took me up to the disco at Tornus, then when that closed we went back to Phil’s we were still sat at the bar at 8am Sunday morning, I was wrecked! I was only 15 at the time!
I remember Eugene telling me about his brother who when they were growing up as kids had to go for counselling for wetting the bed, it was Eugene urinating on his brother during the night, haha even if there was no truth in it, I remember it been hilarious at the time, even more so after a couple of pints of laughing lotion. haha
I took some photo’s of the parked trucks in the muddy parking area, I have attached them below.
10pm Sunday night and as we was the first out, we was on the front door, until Eugene did us on a steep hill, to the AS24 at Belly.
I remember the CB was full of banter, The Cargo Rapier ERF broke down on us, so we stopped to help, turned out the selector fork had snapped in the twin splitter, only 9gears available, he was struggling to set off on a steep gradient, the clutch didn’t smell to great!
We eventually got to the AS24 at Belly, the laughing and banter continued, soon passed the time of re-fuelling.
I have posted some of my photo’s below, let me know what your think, enjoy
Sutty
