pete smith:
Hi Saviem,
This one from Netherton or Birmingham? ( G.Dowlings Pic) Cheers Pete
Evening all,
Pete, Trev, the Leyland is parked in a street off Ryland Street, central Birmingham, by the glass warehouse. Rylands had two wreckers, that .600 powered one, and a Matador. Sometimes the Leyland was operated from the Fleet Hire operation at Colleshill, where the Black Oil contract for Fina ran from. Later it became the main Contract Hire base for the Group, and then had White Trucks Concession bolted on!
When I was at Old Hill Motors, Dudley Motor Company was still going in Saltwells Road, with the D serie lorries. Then they closed, and Ryland bought the premises, and moved Old Hill up there as Ryland Dudley. But for years Old Hill had used that triangular piece of ground behind Saltwells Road as a compound, bounded by the Canal, and accessed (at a funny angle), from a gate just below the brow of the bridge by Danks`s, along the main road into Old Hill from Dudley.
Nasty little entrance, and when we used to get a delivery of new Thompson "Trailmobile " 33ft trailers, (normally two high), their drivers would leave them on the uphill slope of the bridge, rather than try to back in themselves. So it was my job, (as a Junior Commercial Vehicle Salesman), to nip up with our “shunter”, a rather careworn Leyland Comet unit ex Petrofina, (having jump started it), and pop them into the yard. An easy 10 minute skive off work…
And as such I anticipated it being, one dark wet and windy day I think 1970…anyway, having coupled up, climbed back into the wet cab…(there was a distinct lack of glazing in our shunter), put the piece of sacking inside the closed drivers door to prevent what little rain I could, entering my workplace, and damaging even more my worn, blue suit,I banged her into reverse, and completely blind reversed into the bumpy yard…no problems as I felt the trailers and unit rolling in and out of the ruts, my concern being my suit…or what little of it remained vaguely dry!
I stopped, into first, just to ease the bogie out of what I anticipated to be some cavernous rut, and she stalled…start, again…oh thank goodness she did…few revs…and the cab shot up like a V2 rocket…B…, (but thank goodness, she did not stall), …I ripped down the sacking from the door…pushed my head out into the torrent…and there were just the tops of the Michelin tyres peeping out from the gently lapping waters of the Birmingham Canal Navigations!
And that Gentlemen is how I came to experience the pulling power of Ryland Garages Matador…and the ribbing of my colleagues, (and many who enjoyed my discomfort from the vantage point of the bridge parapet)…“call yourself a driver”■■?..well yes…I suppose!
The Matador was written off one day, when returning down Powke Lane Blackheath, towing a “broken” Mk 1 Atkinson 180 ■■■■■■■ laden Black Oiler combination, which overtook the Matador, bending the bar, and tossing the old girl to one side…nasty bank Powke Lane back in the early 70s, Sam Anderson`s Scanias used to whistle up and down it from their yard at the bottom…and did they carry some weight on those battered Northern trailers!
The only other breakdown lorry that I can remember Ryland Dudley having was ex Halls of Finchley, after Bill Whale bought them out, and into the Group. She was an ex dustcart Seddon, Leyland .400 powered, with a double drive back end grafted on, and (I think), either WW2 Holmes twin boom set up, or something similar…But I was long gone from these shores then!
rigsby, appreciate your kind message, thank you.
Happy memories…boy I never ever lived that day down!
Cheerio for now.