sandway:
I sold my pickup recently. Had her from new and after fourteen years with still less than 100,000 miles on the clock I decided to sell her. She was sold to a chap up near Telford. I hope he is looking after her as well as I did.Do any of you remember your old lorry with affection? Do you wonder what became of her, your travelling companion? Many of you spent more nights with her than with your wife. I didn’t think I was a romantic, well my wife say’s I’m not, by hey, thinking about it perhaps I am. Guess who I share my Facebook cover photo with and have done for many years and no, it aint her indoors.
The lorry I am talking about is CJN 287X. A Scania 112 that I had from new. She was first registered in 81 or 82. I remember the first trip I did with her. It was a Yugo and I shipped over Dover/Zeebrugge. Leaving the port about 0530hrs I ran down the road to the filling station to fill her up. As I pulled in I spotted another Promotor lorry, it was Micky Twemlow and Pam on there way home. Pam came over to say hello followed by Micky. Of course they were both interested in the lorry and I remember Micky asking what it was like having a new one. I replied it was great but it would only be new on its first trip to which he agreed.
The next few years saw us visit some exotic, and some not so exotic, places such as Madrid, Baghdad, Izmir, Moscow and Tehran and many places in between. We never did a high milage as often, if I was working at an exhibition, she would sit there doing nothing till the show was over. However, when I came off the road Dave Boulding took her over. Finally she was traded in at Scantruck Purfleet for a new model. I don’t know what year this was but assume it was about 86/7.
Since then, apart from putting the photo of us on my Facebook page I haven’t thought much about her until a few days ago. I posted ten photos of old Promotor lorries on a F/B site and CJN 287X was one of them. To my surprise I had a couple of knowledgable guys, Graham Standage and Garry Brennan, contact me with news of her. It seems she was purchased by Unitruc in Essex at some stage. I don’t know if they bought her direct from Scantruck but theres a very good chance they did. Garry drove her and said by the 90’s she was the oldest lorry in the fleet and using almost as much oil as diesel. Unitruc’s boss then decided to buy another unit with a shot body but a good engine and Graham, who joined Unitruc in 1990 together with his brother swapped the engines over during a weekend. CJN 287X was given a new lease of life and was kept in service for a few more years. Her old engine was put in the unit with a shot body and worked as a shunter for the next year or two.
My thanks to Graham for the Unitruc photos.
I remember all of my old trucks fondly, granted some more fondly than others. I looked after them all and I’ll never forget hearing the news that a truck I had from new had been written off in a pile up a few months after being sold on…I actually felt bereaved! Most people couldn’t understand my reaction Sandaway, but it sounds like do!
As an aside, and I’ve said it before, I really enjoy your anecdotes and photos, maybe you should write a book?