The emergence of this photo of our Bedford RL Breakdown taken in Southampton after we had painted out our name on the cab doors and handed it in for Part Exchange for a Scammell (More of this later) decided me to write about our three breakdown trucks. It will come in three segments.
Whilst thinking of what to write it seemed obvious to slot in about our mechanics and maintenance facilities at the time and I hope no one finds it too long winded (Please tell me & I’ll edit part 2 & three) but I think its better to put everything into context & reasoning.
Its hard now to believe until about mid 1960s we could pride ourselves that none of our vehicles had ever been towed, & by God we made up for that in future years. I suppose there were two reasons. The first being we were seeing the retirement of drivers who had worked for us through the war & the 1950s & in the 60s a new breed were coming. Not better or worse for that matter but different.
Up to the 50s and into the early 60s drivers had taken such a pride in their vehicles. Washing them no doubt often in their own time and servicing (Changing Engine oil, filters and greasing) themselves. Even our 1956 Ford 4D which went through head gaskets like diesel always made its way home.
Come the 60s drivers drove. I think it was not only due to attitudes but wage structures that perhaps were more efficient in the sixties.
When I was about 10-11 years old I went into my Grandfather’s House 14 Marmaduke Street Spennymoor (Next to the Garage) & was introduced to a Frenchman. (Or more correct a French born man who had probably about 1910-18 emigrated into England, Spennymoor to be specific) & my Grandfather & he were talking about Ford Model Ts The Frenchman (I cannot remember his name) sounded exactly like Maurice Chevallier with his French accent & until about 1930 had a shop on King Street Spennymoor (For Spennymoor people opposite Bella Dents) I think he probably sold vehicle spares but at the back of the shop he had a workshop where he had conducted his business as a mechanic specialising on repairing Ford model Ts . Which I suppose was quite profitable but had a time limit. He had however repaired my Grandfathers first vehicles. They were talking about that if My Grandfather bought an old Model T 1 ton truck he would make it like new as he could make the engines run like a clock. I wish they had but he died a few months later.
My Grandfather’s first Driver Mechanic was my Uncle Jim or to be more correct my father’s mother’s brother who was my Great Uncle. My Grandfather gave him a job in 1926 (Aprox) and he stayed with us until he retired about 1972. He was an extremely cleaver man, could turn his hand to anything and thorough but extremely slow. As I said all servicing was done by the drivers and he did de-carbonising of engines changed springs etc. Engine reconditioning & changes were done until the early 50s by Adams & Gibbon or Sherwoods Darlington (Usually at their Hurworth premises). I do remember sending engines into British Engines Newcastle and a company named something like Northern Engineering but by then my dad himself would take the engines out, and later got a tremendous amount of help from Jack (Doug) Kempsey who had married his cousin Olga Burt & Father to Alan, Christine and Mark Kempsey.
Dad had joined the Army during the war and been trained by the Army as a vehicle mechanic. He told stories of reconditioning an army Jeep & when asking for a new set of valves been told here is a piece of steel, there is a Lathe over there, make your own. Dad was posted to Edinburgh where he was put in a lady’s house as a lodger whilst travelling daily to the docks to be trained as a Barge Engineer (Although he didn’t know at the time in preparation for the D day landings) This was to be followed by 6 months at the Gardiner Engine factory. He was told although Petrol Engines were King, after the war Diesel would take over & he would get training that would stand him in good stead. He was however invalided out of the Army with his bad eyesight before this could happen.
Jack Kempsey was an extremely cleaver man. He had served his time as a Tool maker and reminded me vey much of a chap who does repairs to cars (Often very technical) on a TV show where they buy cars do them up improve & sell. Jack was a very clean worker who cleaned components before working on them and certainly not a ‘Grease Monkey’ Although he never worked for us used to come along to Marmaduke Street almost every night after work & stay till 7 to 8 o’clock helping dad. Saturday however was the day for servicing the vans & Jack was there almost every Saturday often working to quite late in the afternoon.
Time moved on and mid 1960s dad decided he needed to employ a Driver-Mechanic to do repairs & drive if a driver was off sick etc and we employed George Hardy who lived at Ferryhill. You couldn’t meet a nicer hard worker than George but a hard worker who works so hard and gets through so much work who is very quick & slipshod who forgets to tighten nuts & bolts up can be very dangerous. George came along just before we got our first TK which I’ve already told about. A failure because it was a 4 cylinder & that vehicle started the towing. I don’t know how much George’s slip shod mechanics contributed to the TKs failures but things changed from George’s appearance at Marmaduke Street & the addition of our 4 cylinder TK to the fleet which by that time was almost all Bedford SBs with a 2 ton Morris FG & a Morris J2 Luton.
So the time came for us to recruit our first full time mechanic, a chap called Vic Young. I cannot fully remember what happened to George Hardy but I think he probably went onto driving a small van. Although I was quite young when Vic Young joined us, I learnt a very early lesson. In these days before plating and testing. You cannot, in general trust a mechanic to inspect & repair because the temptation in many is to ignore some problems so they can put off the repair for another day, particularly if they want an early finish on a night for example. Things with Vic came to a head when our Morris J2 luton was pulled in by MOT inspectors and given an immediate GV9, even though Vic had had it in for almost a full day checking it over & repairing 2 days before. With the possibility of a public enquiry into our maintenance Vic was given immediate dismissal.
Looking for a good mechanic dad was recommended to approach ■■■■ Porter who at the time was working for Dents Transport at Tudhoe Colliery. Harry Dent was not known for overpaying and our wage offer was very acceptable but ■■■■ had spent his time at Dent’s working on Atkinsons with Gardiner engines and was very reluctant to change. One of his conditions of coming to us was he would never be expected to drive, no matter how short staffed we were ( This was in the days before HGV licence) and during his years with us he never did.
It was about this time we bought our first Bedford RL (Pictured) It was bought from Vas of Amphill Bedfordshire together with a new crane. Ex-army of course but it was in exceptional condition with low mileage. ■■■■ Porter adapted to army body & modified it suitable for a breakdown & fitted the crane.
To be continued.
