The pneumatic governor quote reminded me of our first FG which was a Morris, (Others we got later were either BMC or Leyland) a 2 Tonner, which had 3.8:itre 4 cylinder BMC diesel with crash gearbox & no power steering, of course,
It was supplied new by the then Sunderland Morris agents Turveys, as a chassis scuttle and put into Marsden Coachbuilders Warrington and a pantechnicon body about 800cu ft fitted . Reg no DPT100B In A licence days you could only replace within a small amount of the unladen weight without an enquiry & as it replaced a 15cwt Bedford CA Luton, it just qualified.
All our other vans were over 4 ton unladen and I think at that time it was up to 3 ton unladen you could drive at 17 (Even in pre HGV licence days) So I think my dad had me in mind when it was ordered. However timing was out as I was too young to drive when it first came,I was staying on at school for A levels and so a driver was allocated it.
I did drive it a few times when I was 16 and learning to drive on L plates.I found it a bit of a pig, and wished like my friends I could go to a driving school & learn on a normal car. I even took ny test on my 17th birthday present, a Rover2000 which was not the ideal size for 3 point turns, but my father said I had to be ale to drive anything. Then during my school holidays the driver was sick for a few weeks so during that time I had the pleasure of driving it. It would cruise up hill & down dale at 50Mph but that was it and one of the jobs it did twice a week was taking a load of pajamas from a Co. Durham Clothing factory to Banner Textiles Altringham. It was a job I particularly didn’t like because I needed to leave Spennymoor at 5-00AM t get to Altringham for about 9.00 as it took them about 3 hours to unload and they started at 9.00 & needed to be first or I’d have to wait for them unloading anyone before me.
So it was on a bright Summers day 1965 I was crossing the Pennines at Standedge heading for Manchester in DPT100B when I came upon about 3 HGVs doing about 25 & saw the two lane road going into a three lane The FG was maintaining its 50Mph as I started to pass, but as it neared to peak, it started to struggle so I changed down to 3rd and the governor immediately cut my speed down to 20. I could see the road going back into two lane & could see the eyes of the first of a long line of HGVs approaching and I can imagine the cursing I got as I had no alternative but cut in on the final wagon I was passing.
When operators licencing came in it was easier for us to increase the size of our fleet but the restriction was the size of our premises. It took two years of negotiating with planners to build our new depot where we eventually had parking for almost 200 vehicles but our old premises in the centre of Spennymoor were at bursting point and so we bought 3 FGs 30 cwt like the one in the picture as they were O licence exempt & didn’t count in our total. We had 3.8 Litre engine in these & they were about as big as you could get a 3.5 ton GVW in those days, certainly bigger than the two Transits & one Bedford CF we had Marsdens build for us,
All in all the FGs were good vehicles DPT100B did 12 years with us as did the other 3 Marsdens. We also had a 350 platform truck which we fitted a compressor to & it was used by our tyre fitter. We also inherited a 3 Tonner with 1,000 cu ft luton when we opened our Wellingborough depot and we brought it back to Spennymoor, reconditioned it and used it on Local removals.
Our last FG which we bought new about 1982 was another 30 cwt & we put a lightweight largish boxvan body & ran it along with a 1,000 cu ft TK out of our Wellingborough depot,
As I said all in all strangely for British Leyland the FGs were good vehicles & their 3,8 litre 4 cylinder diesel was a good engine.
