Visited Threlkeld digger festivalyesterday, very Ruston Bucyrus! with brother Andy and Millom Haulier Mike Kelly. A good day was had by all. Sadly, no photos, as a photographer I make a good truck driver! The ■■■■■■■ run guys stopped there about half past one. They weren’t hungry - they had gone over old Shap and stopped at Shap village where they were made a big fuss of - I may be mistaken, they were talking about the big freeze of '63 - and the organiser of their feast was either involved in that or the two married buses at the top of shap. Glenn Harley was there with his Volvo, he has recently been to France where he loved driving a long nosed Saurer. He is hosting his Swiss Friends with their 142, in the near future.
I took my Puch 60cc scooter to my Uncle’s in St Boswell’s from Barrow in 1964 and went over Shap. The buses were still there then, but I think they were gone when I started hauling timber for him in 1969. Uncle Jack had driven a Leyland Beaver pole trailer for George C. Croasdale some 10 years before.He told me a tale about a Liverpool lad on his first trip North. He talked to this lad in the bus cafe at the top and warned him of the danger of running out of brakes by the bottom. When he made his slow way down, the lad’s truck was through the wall and into the stream, he hadn’t survived. I was always careful in my 4 wheeler Comet, often to the annoyance of newer trucks with better brakes - but hey, I’m still here!
John