Suttons Tony:
As this is about Nostalgia and I was only in Transport for the first ten years of my working life perhaps this is the place to put some of my memories, i.e. 1958 to 1968, I started work at Inter City Transport of ■■■■■■■■■■■ at their London Depot in 1958 which was situated opposite Holloway Womens Prison and occasionaly a released prisoner would come to look fror a lift home up north were some funny tales were heard including female prisoners who had been behind bars for at least 2 years were all of a sudden pregnant, this was a bit of an eye opener for a youyng 15 year old as I had been taught that “ladies” were pregnant for 9 months, also we had a sub contractor on local work who used to have some Bedfords on rag work that used to visit both Pentonville and Holloway Prisons and they told us of a young plumbing apprentice working in Holloway who had been raped by some of the Women inmates, well I thought I’m in the wrong job, where’s the Stillsons, but in truth the young 16 year old boy was in quite a bad way after his ordeal.
Inter City ran mostly Leyland 8 wheelers with load of Albions of various sorts including some 8 wheelers that had been built for the aborted Ground Nut Scheme in Kenya, Some AEC 8 wheelers, my favorites, and some old Atkinsons including one or two having the accelerator in the centre between the clutch and footbrake,
I moved from Inter City to Sutton & Son (St Helens) London Depot which was situated funnilly enough behind Pentonville Prison, where I worked as a trailer mate until I was 21 in 1964 when I took my Driving Test on one of Suttons old Atkinson 8 wheelers which was a good 7 years older than I was and when I arrived at the Wood Green Test Centre the examiner said that he had never taken a test in such a big Lorry before, I told nor had I, but it turned out ok, that was the only time I had ever had "L"plates on. I should point out that Alfie Suttons old Atkis may have been old but they were in fine Mechanical condition as all his vehicles normally were and also most of the oild Atkis which had come off BRS where a bit like Triggers Broom in that they had been heavy 6 wheelers but Sutton had new light weight chassis fitted and turned into 8 wheelers with single drive and new cabs but would not need new LW Gardners. Shunting for Suttons included all sorts of work including flats of allsorts, occasional Tankers including a rubber tank that could also be a flat, not entirely a success.
I left Suttons to go on to the BRS at their Cressy Road, Hampstead Depot which was the London Depot for the North West and our Depot code was CJ, I trunked and/shunted mainly Bristols but this did include a right load of rubbish from some of the North Western Depots like Greenhays, Manchester and Preston to name just two. I was very surprised at the condition of BRS motors in comparison with Suttons motors and this includes the new Guy Big J’s with the ■■■■■■■ 220, crap motor, good engine, and AEC Ergonomic Mandaters which were the first crap AEC’s I had come across and I had driven Mk3’s and Mk5’s which were good motors.
I really don’t know anything about M&E work, in fact the nearest I got to Continental work was picking up a tank trailor of the ferry at Tilbury, but I have driven some real old beasts including Scammels etc, most of which were older than I was, and an old ERF with the accelerater in the middle and after reading some of the comments about the old British Lorry I think there is a lot of missunderstandings and ill informed oppinion.
I got married in 1968 and decided being jack the on the lorries would have to change and I left Transport and ended up in Television (behind the camera) and worked for Thames Television for over 23 years and also as a freelance, I am now retired and live at least half of my life on the Costa Blanca, Spain.Tony
Hi Tony. Just found your text. Brought back many memories as my “love affair” with transport/haulage started at Cressy Road. My step dad was a trunker from there . His main vehicle in the '50s was an AEC 4w Box which ran to Greenheys. His name was Ernie Morey (Tichie), only very short. Used to sit at an angle to reach pedals! Many a memory of cafes and stops for a kip - Coventry centre and West Brom, outside car factory. From there I went on to J & H Transport Services (see old drivers forum). Those days could never be repeated and should be recorded!