PAUL GEE's PHOTO COLLECTION (Part 1)

gingerfold:

DEANB:
Chew Bros mercedes.Only single wheels on the trailer,most were double back then.

6

It’s a lightweight trailer design, either a Pitt Tandem-4, or a similar type made by Primrose. The restricted the GTW to 26 tons. With a light unit coupled to one of these the payload was only a couple of tons less than a 32 tonner. E.G. an AEC Mercury tractor unit plus Pitt tandem-4 we ran tared off at 7 tons, so a legal 19 tons payload. Mr Bewick had a similar take on getting a quart out of a pint pot in his early years.

Thanks for your comments “gingerfold” :wink:

smallcoal:

DEANB:

smallcoal:
These are from pete359 collection the aec my uncle drove and I had for shunting in the abbey steelworks the scammell was used internal down the bos plant cheers John

Thanks for the pics John, heres another of Joint Motorways ERF’s.

1

Andrew had this erf done up in joints livery excellent pic of the joints artic credit to you both cheers John

That looked nice,thanks for posting the pic ! :smiley:

smallcoal:
1 of hills, sharples of eardisley and An old Atki tipper

Great pics John, thanks for posting ! :wink: :laughing:

moomooland:
0Morning Dean,
Sent Paul’s picture to Martin Sykes, chairman of Sykes Seafoods, who are still very much in business today here is the reply i recieved…

That brings back memories, Paul.
We started running our own vehicles on a daily basis to Aberdeen in the late sixties, but the Fords we used could not stand the continuous non stop use.
In 1969 I bought my first ERF from Peter Foden, who later became a good golfing friend.
He equipped them with Gardner Diesel engines derived from the marine engines manufactured by another good friend, Paul Gardner, and which could run for ever at a most economical rate (8 miles per gallon).
My father went ballistic when he heard the price of £5,000 for the first one as the Fords only cost £2,000, but at least I wasn’t woken by reverse charge calls each night from drivers broken down on Shap with 10 tons of fresh fish.
The vehicle in your photograph would be early seventies, by which time we were shipping them over to Denmark via Harwich, mainly artics, and collecting fish from all round Jutland.
At our peak we ran 15 artics and 5 rigids, covering south west and north east Scotland, Cornwall, Devon, Denmark and Holland as well servicing the whole of England and Wales.
Now all our transport is sub contracted, but some of our vehicles are still used in Grimsby, but no longer ERF’s.
Regards
Martin Sykes
Chairman -Sykes Seafoods.

Thanks for posting that message Paul,intresting bit of history ! :wink: :smiley:

Punchy Dan:
What a detailed and pleasant reply .

Agreed ! :smiley:

ChrisArbon:
Sometimes I think we are truly blessed by some of the stuff that gets posted on Trucknet.

Indeed “ChrisArbon” there is some fascinating stuff posted ! :wink:

240 Gardner:

gingerfold:

DEANB:
Chew Bros mercedes.Only single wheels on the trailer,most were double back then.

6

It’s a lightweight trailer design, either a Pitt Tandem-4, or a similar type made by Primrose. The restricted the GTW to 26 tons. With a light unit coupled to one of these the payload was only a couple of tons less than a 32 tonner. E.G. an AEC Mercury tractor unit plus Pitt tandem-4 we ran tared off at 7 tons, so a legal 19 tons payload. Mr Bewick had a similar take on getting a quart out of a pint pot in his early years.

I remember Chew Bros (from Blackburn) running some 400 Series, but I don’t remember sever seeing this Merc

Thanks “240 Gardner” for your comments. :wink: