This livery was short lived as the fleet changed to ARC drab colour scheme.
Foden half cab operated from Meadow Lane, St.Ives
My apologies for posting in an old thread but I found this while googling for something else and have a litte extra information.
I was born & bred in St Ives, Hunts (now Cambs) and St Ives Sand & Gravel was part of my childhood and adolescence - the father of one of my friends was a Director of one of the small companies that formed St Ives Sand & Gravel - their main gravel pits were between the March-Cambridge railway line and the River Ouse, the railway line being busy with coal trains bound for London & South-East but avoiding the East Coast Main Line.
The gravel pits were accessed along Meadow Lane but had to be accessed by the gravel trucks using a railway level crossing as the bridge under the railway was too low - when they aquired their Foden half-cabs, they had the roofs cut down by about 4" to allow them to get under the bridge and reducing their journey times - this work was carried out at HW Oldmans, a small agricultural engineering firm in St Ives where my father worked - at 16 I joined Oldmans as a weekend & school holiday job from '63 to '66 - the Fodens were brought into the yard one at a time to have the roof chopped, re-welded and re-painted.
The modification wasn’t a success as drivers were injuring their heads when they hit the lowered roof on rough ground, inevitable really given their task - so the Fodens came back to HW Oldmans to have their roofs lifted back up to the original level! I did get asked to move one down the yard and found the steering incredibly heavy.
I’m not sure if it was St Ives Sand & Gravel trucks involved, but many of the trucks involved in building the then Diddington Reservoir, later known as Grafham Water, which has a big earth dam, suffered transmission issues when they got stuck on site - this was countered by modifying their propshafts using hollow tube instead of solid steel and meant the tube twisted when they got stuck instead of damaging the transmission, easily replaced on site - HW Oldmans had a nice steady job removing the universal joints from the twisted shafts and reassembling with new tubes.
Hope that helps with some local detail.
Ruperts Trooper:
My apologies for posting in an old thread but I found this while googling for something else and have a litte extra information.
I was born & bred in St Ives, Hunts (now Cambs) and St Ives Sand & Gravel was part of my childhood and adolescence - the father of one of my friends was a Director of one of the small companies that formed St Ives Sand & Gravel - their main gravel pits were between the March-Cambridge railway line and the River Ouse, the railway line being busy with coal trains bound for London & South-East but avoiding the East Coast Main Line.
The gravel pits were accessed along Meadow Lane but had to be accessed by the gravel trucks using a railway level crossing as the bridge under the railway was too low - when they aquired their Foden half-cabs, they had the roofs cut down by about 4" to allow them to get under the bridge and reducing their journey times - this work was carried out at HW Oldmans, a small agricultural engineering firm in St Ives where my father worked - at 16 I joined Oldmans as a weekend & school holiday job from '63 to '66 - the Fodens were brought into the yard one at a time to have the roof chopped, re-welded and re-painted.
The modification wasn’t a success as drivers were injuring their heads when they hit the lowered roof on rough ground, inevitable really given their task - so the Fodens came back to HW Oldmans to have their roofs lifted back up to the original level! I did get asked to move one down the yard and found the steering incredibly heavy.
I’m not sure if it was St Ives Sand & Gravel trucks involved, but many of the trucks involved in building the then Diddington Reservoir, later known as Grafham Water, which has a big earth dam, suffered transmission issues when they got stuck on site - this was countered by modifying their propshafts using hollow tube instead of solid steel and meant the tube twisted when they got stuck instead of damaging the transmission, easily replaced on site - HW Oldmans had a nice steady job removing the universal joints from the twisted shafts and reassembling with new tubes.
Hope that helps with some local detail.
Every little helps, Thanks for the info, I am still piecing together a fleet list and gatherimg snippets of information from all kinds of sources, surprisingly there is very little in the Huntingdon Archives about the company so it’s time consuming scouring the registration records, I have yet to start on Cambridgshire records, anything is useful.
Cheers, Nick
love them half-cabs 
wonder if there’s any restored ones or survivors (from any co.) still about?
carryfast-yeti:
love them half-cabs
I believe that the St Ives Fodens used the ‘dumper’ type half cab so I’m not aware of any of those still around. Tilcons Fodens generally used the S50 single cab (with the reversed sloped windscreen) for tippers and tankers and a member of this forum was restoring one of those.
Pete.
I’m looking for any pictures showing this company’s vehicles in the 1950’s and '60’s. They had a number of Foden tippers and dumpers, both on- and off-road models. I don’t know what other makes they operated. They also had a small fleet of buses/coaches for staff transport. One of these was particularly interesting, being a rear-engined Foden coach with a Burlingham Seagull body, registration number PDH 295. They reputedly used this from 1964 to 1966. Does anyone have any recollections of this coach, or a photograph (even in the background), or photos of any other Foden buses used as staff transport with any other companies?
Hello Fodenway, in the March edition of Heritage Commercials ,no.243, there is an article on St. Ives. They also did one on them in 2008 and both featured some good photos. In a thread on old Norfolk companies there is a post from me answering someone who enquired about St. Ives and I told him about a photo I have of a Mk.5 Mammoth Major with a dolly loaded with a concrete beam I had recently won on e-bay. I also have a photo of a '50s two-stroke Foden coach, operated by Allenways from, I think, Birmingham. The Foden Works Brass Band used a 1952 bus (two stroke) and I kept an article about it from a very old Truck magazine and although I’m not really into busses and coaches it goes well with my collection of Foden regalia. Sad old git aren’t I. Regards, Haddy, Gt. Yarmouth.
haddy:
Hello Fodenway, in the March edition of Heritage Commercials ,no.243, there is an article on St. Ives. They also did one on them in 2008 and both featured some good photos. In a thread on old Norfolk companies there is a post from me answering someone who enquired about St. Ives and I told him about a photo I have of a Mk.5 Mammoth Major with a dolly loaded with a concrete beam I had recently won on e-bay. I also have a photo of a '50s two-stroke Foden coach, operated by Allenways from, I think, Birmingham. The Foden Works Brass Band used a 1952 bus (two stroke) and I kept an article about it from a very old Truck magazine and although I’m not really into busses and coaches it goes well with my collection of Foden regalia. Sad old git aren’t I. Regards, Haddy, Gt. Yarmouth.
Thanks Haddy, I have the articles you mention, and I know exactly which coaches you mean. The ex-Band bus has been fully restored by a fellow Foden Society member and has been back on the road for a few seasons, one of its first appearances was at Plaxtons Coachbuilders’ Centenary open day at Scarborough. That makes at least two sad old gits then! - Kevin, Barnsley.
fodenway:
I’m looking for any pictures showing this company’s vehicles in the 1950’s and '60’s. They had a number of Foden tippers and dumpers, both on- and off-road models. I don’t know what other makes they operated. They also had a small fleet of buses/coaches for staff transport. One of these was particularly interesting, being a rear-engined Foden coach with a Burlingham Seagull body, registration number PDH 295. They reputedly used this from 1964 to 1966. Does anyone have any recollections of this coach, or a photograph (even in the background), or photos of any other Foden buses used as staff transport with any other companies?
Hi fodenway,
I have a few pics from the St.Ives days around the time when ARC took over.
If you look in the model trucks section there’s some pics of the half cab mixer I made up a couple of years ago.
viewtopic.php?f=35&t=34665&start=630
This is a cutting from CM mag.
This artic was tipping at Willington plant around '68
A fairly new 6LX half cab mixer in Greenwoods colours before being repainted ARC yellow.
A little more info on the Foden Coach for you fodenway,
PDH 295.
Model PVRG6, chassis no. 32282. Burlingham C37C body no. 4962.
First registered Feb. 1952 to Pearson, Walsall.
There is an Arthur Hustwitt (Memorial) Collection photo available from NA3T whilst in service with Pearsons taken at Wembley in 1954.
transportphotos.com/road/photo/HuA0502-a
Hi Fodenway.
My brother in law drove one of the half cab 8 wheel mixers for St Ives,when they were building the M1,from Crick northwards.The reg number was 687 EEW,and his mate had a 6 wheel mickey mouse Foden reg number 572 FEW.I was 12 at the time and used to go with him on the odd occasion.I used to sit on the heater box looking toward the back of the cab.I remember at the time they were green cabs with a grey mixer,and i had some photos once,but they are long gone.Nice to see the pictures on here though.
TNT Overniter:
Hi Fodenway.
My brother in law drove one of the half cab 8 wheel mixers for St Ives,when they were building the M1,from Crick northwards.The reg number was 687 EEW,and his mate had a 6 wheel mickey mouse Foden reg number 572 FEW.I was 12 at the time and used to go with him on the odd occasion.I used to sit on the heater box looking toward the back of the cab.I remember at the time they were green cabs with a grey mixer,and i had some photos once,but they are long gone.Nice to see the pictures on here though.
Hello TNT Overniter,
I’m trying to piece together a St.Ives fleet list, the first number (678 EEW) I already have but not the second, was the Mickey Mouse 6-wheeler a mixer or tipper?
Shame about your pics…I’m always looking out for numbers & photos so thanks for posting the numbers.
Hi
572 FEW,was a 6 wheeler mixer,not sure what engine it had,ive got a feeling it was a two stroke.
skandiahamn:
TNT Overniter:
Hi Fodenway.
My brother in law drove one of the half cab 8 wheel mixers for St Ives,when they were building the M1,from Crick northwards.The reg number was 687 EEW,and his mate had a 6 wheel mickey mouse Foden reg number 572 FEW.I was 12 at the time and used to go with him on the odd occasion.I used to sit on the heater box looking toward the back of the cab.I remember at the time they were green cabs with a grey mixer,and i had some photos once,but they are long gone.Nice to see the pictures on here though.Hello TNT Overniter,
I’m trying to piece together a St.Ives fleet list, the first number (678 EEW) I already have but not the second, was the Mickey Mouse 6-wheeler a mixer or tipper?
Shame about your pics…I’m always looking out for numbers & photos so thanks for posting the numbers.
Just wondered if you had seen this that I put on another thread earlier.
skandiahamn:
A little more info on the Foden Coach for you fodenway,PDH 295.
Model PVRG6, chassis no. 32282. Burlingham C37C body no. 4962.
First registered Feb. 1952 to Pearson, Walsall.There is an Arthur Hustwitt (Memorial) Collection photo available from NA3T whilst in service with Pearsons taken at Wembley in 1954.
transportphotos.com/road/photo/HuA0502-a
pearsons old coach depot is still standing just off pleck road walsall,will take a photo soon and post it
Hiya this is sitting in Rush green along with a sister truck they belonged to St Ives sand and gravel it was 8 years ago
they might have been cut up as Brough has had a clean up
I’ve just blown up to photo and the no plate is VEW81and i think the other was VEW82 or 84
John
3300John:
Hiya this is sitting in Rush green along with a sister truck they belonged to St Ives sand and gravel it was 8 years ago
they might have been cut up as Brough has had a clean up
I’ve just blown up to photo and the no plate is VEW81and i think the other was VEW82 or 84
John
Cheers John,
The other one was 82, they were the first two stroke half cab 6 wheelers St.Ives had.
TIPIT:
Just wondered if you had seen this that I put on another thread earlier.
Thanks TIPIT, it’s not a picture I’ve seen before, although it’'s not a nice scene can I copy it to my collection please, TKs were never a substantial motor when involved in a collision.
Cheers,
Nick
Yeah feel free to copy it.
Cheers, Paul.
Hello scandiahamn.
Just came across your thread on old St ives sand& gravel registrations,When i left school in 1965 i got a job in a local quarry here in south wales and i can remember clearly some numbers that may interest you.
foden 8x4 tipper BEW 551C
FODEN 8X4 TIPPER BEW 982C
FODEN 8X4 TIPPER CEW 421C
FODEN 8X4 TIPPER LEG 407F
FODEN TIPPER 8X4 JEG 90E
FODEN TIPPER 8X4 FFL 122D
FODEN MIXER, RITEMIXER FEW 124D 8X4
COMMER VAN 688 EEW
DODGE TIPPER 4 WHEEL 574 GEW
DODGE TIPPER L W B. AEW 199B
ATKINSON 8X4 FLATBED 725 SEW
DODGE TIPPER 4 WHEEL 479 HEW
DODGE TIPPER 4 WHEEL 504 EEW
HOPE THESE ARE OF INTEREST regards gah1950.