boden:
The first A plate I ever saw was one of Gilbraiths Roadtrains at Eccles and in 81 on a Saturday morning I gave one of their lads a lift from the A6 at Bamber Bridge down to Charnock .He had been stuck on that 281 miles rule if you had no Tacho, on the Friday .He’d got a lift back down fronm Cleveleys with a British Beef driver who;d forgotten his notes .I’d just loaded from there and wondered why he’'d come in the yard in such a rush.
Gilbraith’s had a contract with BP at Saltend Hull. and had a few 32 ton spread axle tankers on the road. We had Buffalo’s at first and then 3 of us got day cab “Y” reg Roadtrains, The 38 tonners were just coming in so Gilbraith refurbished 3 of our tanks and had a triaxle put under them so we could run at 38T. I had one, an ex Ridings man called ken Wade got one and Gordon Tattersall ex Forth Tankers got the third. We then got 3 new “A” reg sleeper Roadtrains which caused a stir among the other drivers because our “y” reg motors were only 3 months old but the job demanded them so as we were on the contract we got them. We used to do a lot of acid into Lancro at Eccles, maybe it was me you saw. The job was upto Hull Monday and load for Eccles and back to Bury. (night out bus home) 15 miles, car to Bury Tuesday and tip Eccles, load Runcorn back to Bury car home ( 2nd night out) and so on. BP paid exes so Gilly didn’t care.
I have photo’s of both but don’t know how to insert them.
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