Hello Pete. Glad to see you found us here on TNUK. We’re always pleased to see new faces. Unfortunately there’s not to many who post from your era but its the early years that interest me most so any little anecdote is always welcome. Even if you don’t post often you’re always welcome.
I’ve attached a couple of photos posted by Tony Grainger of guys you knew. Tony is still around and drops in now and again.
One incident well remembered took place during development of the ford Fiesta. Pre production models were regularly being shipped to Germany for wind tunnel testing etc. One car arrived back in the UK to be unloaded at Dunton Green for collection by Fords own transport. On unloading and parking in the warehouse/workshop it was found to be complete with a full size crash test dummy. Somebody thought the dummy should be enhanced so a ‘meat and two veg’ was duly constructed out of fibreglass and placed in position. It really was a beauty, fully detailed with all veins and wrinkles etc and left the dummy very well endowed. The ford flatback eventually arrived to pick up said car and was crewed by two extremely young and very pretty girls. The workshop suddenly seemed very deserted but fortunately the girls saw the funny side of it, there were laughs all round and one of them even asked if it was modelled on somebody we could put her in contact with!!
As you may know Paul Willis has been responsible for many photos I have posted here on TNUK and once again he’s found three more photos of a Promotor lorry in his collection. Paul lived in Biddenden and knew Graham Bertram, a longtime Promotor driver very well. Paul supplied me with a batch of photos of Grahams lorries last year which I posted but I think these last three were missed.
Graham always parked in one particular spot in the village so Paul knew where to find him. Unfortunately Graham died before he saw his young family grow up and was laid to rest not to far away from where he parked his lorry. You can’t hide now Blue, we know where you are.
Finally I have posted a photo of Paul. Thought it only fitting that he should come out from behind the lens and show himself. He works for Derek Linch down on the flatlands in eastern Kent.
Theres been a lot of helpful information around recently. Of course its because people are getting bored at home due to the lockdown but theres always an upside to everything. As you know I’m always on the lookout for new material or photos concerning Promotor or people who worked for the company especially those in the early years. Pete, aka brakeboy, is a welcome newcomer and Paul Willis has come up trumps again. Last night he sent me some photos of Promotor lorries as well as an article about the company from some magazine or other. I shall post them shortly.
I am very pleased to have been contacted by Pam or Pammy as she called herself. Pam travelled all over europe with Micky Twemlow RIP, and saw my photo on a Facebook site. I’m so glad she’s made contact. Last time I saw her was almost 40 years ago. She sends ‘Love and Hugs’ but I’m not sharing those with you lot.
I had a reply to my request for information concerning the two drivers I met in southern Turkey. Steve Swain sent me some information and a photo which was taken at the top of Bolu. Steve thinks the driver on the right may have been Graham. He had worked for Knight of Old driving a sleeper Marathon then a Volvo 89. The old guy in the photo was Cliff who drove a Volvo 88 and came from Yorkshire. Steve’s future wife was Janet who worked for RF Interport Movements from Leigh. I couldn’t make out from your letter Steve if it was you who was the Jenkinson driver. Perhaps anyone who reads this can help with identification.
Re early days info i remember there seemed to be a lot of self contained stone crushing equipment going mostly to Yugo about 1975/6. The beds of these machines, they were only 8’ wide and about 40’ long were welded to a subframe with ordinary tandem axle trailer gear attached so in effect became a normal trailer. On arrival in some remote quarry in yugo the subframe was cut off and running gear discarded, the machine grounded and they were away. I wonder if any body remembers the Scania that was in ‘Afro-Camion’ livery, if memory serves a sort of brown and cream job very much on the normal Promotor green and cream. I think Stevie Smith may have driven it for a while.
This old photo of a Show-haul lorry has just appeared. I’m sure its dated before Promotor took them over. Any idea who Gear Jammer is? (sign on top of the dash).
brakeboy:
Re early days info i remember there seemed to be a lot of self contained stone crushing equipment going mostly to Yugo about 1975/6. The beds of these machines, they were only 8’ wide and about 40’ long were welded to a subframe with ordinary tandem axle trailer gear attached so in effect became a normal trailer. On arrival in some remote quarry in yugo the subframe was cut off and running gear discarded, the machine grounded and they were away. I wonder if any body remembers the Scania that was in ‘Afro-Camion’ livery, if memory serves a sort of brown and cream job very much on the normal Promotor green and cream. I think Stevie Smith may have driven it for a while.
Morning ‘brakeboy’. I’m sure Tony Grainger will remember the stone crushing equipment going down to Yugo. We did a fair bit to the quarries and Micky Twemlow mentioned in one of his posts the difficulty of getting into one of them. I’ve attached his photo of the overhanging rock that was waiting to take the side out of your tilt. I did one load near Tuzla with a 14 ton Lancer Boss forklift. Cant find the photo though at present though.
You mention Afro Camion and Stevie Smith. I am attaching one of the new photos given to me a couple of days ago by Paul Willis. Paul admits they weren’t necessarily taken by him, just some he acquired. The quality’s not great but it was taken just as the infamous sectional buildings to Riyadh job in 76 started. I posted an article on this job last year. It almost finished Promotor. Still looking for more info on that job if anyone has any.
Correction: the lorry passing by the over-hanging rock - with a ravine on the right side - was coming back from the Yugo gold mines where we took out a minting machine to make the gold medals for the Sarajevo winter Olympics. I know because I went there too and getting past this rock gave just one chance to get it right. I was warned before going as were all drivers. There’s a another photo on this forum somewhere… It really was very tight indeed.
Vodka Cola Cowboy:
Efes:
Vodka Cola Cowboy:
0This is a picture of negotiating the overhang, on the road back from the copper mine to Belgrade. As I said in “Trucking Magic”, I had gone there to deliver a consignment of cleaning equipment and cleaning fluid, for the medals that they made for the 84 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. Why they were making the medals there I do not know. Unless of course they made them out of copper and then painted them to look like gold, silver and bronze.
As far as I remember, I took the last load of five to the mine. I cannot remember who took the other four.
I had cleared the goods in Belgrade Central Customs, dropped off groupage and then run to the mine.
Having messed around with the overhang I wished that the medal equipment had come off in Belgrade as well.It was actually a gold mine (as well as a copper mine) at Majdanpek. I took the coin minting machine there which was to create gold medals for the Sarajevo Olympics. What your photo’ does not show is the sheer drop on what would be on the right and the wheel had to be right on the edge to get around the corner otherwise the trailer would hit the overhang. Vodka: Did you manage to hit the overhang?
On the way to Majdanpek - and driving a right hand drive vehicle - you could look out the driver’s side window to ensure the front wheel was literally on the edge. It had to be otherwise you wouldn’t make it round the corner.
Driving home (in a right hand drive vehicle) was a very, very different matter and you had to go round the corner with the overhang very, very carefully (and anxiously) indeed. A very unpleasant senstion of having the left wheel as close to the edge as one could guess without actually being able to see it - a tiny bit too far to the left would mean disappearing over the edge of the gorge.
All in all a memorable obstacle.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majdanpek_mine
I only did one of the loads to Majdanpek but had been forewarned in advance.
Hi Efes. No, I just missed it. I remember that drop on the other side of the road though. You would not want to go over that. And yes, it was tight. Very tight. Not helped by the Yugo car drivers flying into the bend.
The photo has, alas, gone…
My love to Pam. Glad she’s still around and well. Sheppey still? Do PM me…
Regarding the Afro-Camion thing I think the original plan was to go via Marseille to Oran and then down to Nigeria. We had three guys come down to Dunton Green complete with a 6x6 ex US Army rigid, two South Africans and a Kiwi i think. They were to be the guides/equipment truck. They showed a film in the warehouse of the actual trip through Africa, starting on blacktop and then hundreds of miles of sand corrugations and finally into bush/jungle. They then had a look at the trucks and trailers and decreed that silencers had to be removed, along with rear mudguards and sparewheels and carriers on the units and on the trailers landing legs, rear underruns and brackets and spare wheels and carriers to be removed. All vehicles had to carry five days supply of drinking water in case of breakdown. [ “Dont bother with any more cause if your stuck more than five days you will either be dead or mad”]. I cant remember ever preparing any trailers to go but in the back of my mind something is telling me there was a small convoy involving self contained stone crushers again and several very old trailers [Not Pro,s] to be left down in Nigeria that did go and all the units were afterwards bought back to the uk by sea.
brakeboy:
Regarding the Afro-Camion thing I think the original plan was to go via Marseille to Oran and then down to Nigeria. We had three guys come down to Dunton Green complete with a 6x6 ex US Army rigid, two South Africans and a Kiwi i think. They were to be the guides/equipment truck. They showed a film in the warehouse of the actual trip through Africa, starting on blacktop and then hundreds of miles of sand corrugations and finally into bush/jungle. They then had a look at the trucks and trailers and decreed that silencers had to be removed, along with rear mudguards and sparewheels and carriers on the units and on the trailers landing legs, rear underruns and brackets and spare wheels and carriers to be removed. All vehicles had to carry five days supply of drinking water in case of breakdown. [ “Dont bother with any more cause if your stuck more than five days you will either be dead or mad”]. I cant remember ever preparing any trailers to go but in the back of my mind something is telling me there was a small convoy involving self contained stone crushers again and several very old trailers [Not Pro,s] to be left down in Nigeria that did go and all the units were afterwards bought back to the uk by sea.
Thats a fantastic post there ‘brakeboy’. Its sheer coincidence that Paul Willis has just supplied me with the attached cutting regarding the Afro Camion venture. I was always of the opinion that it didn’t get off the ground but I remember somebody, on here I think, mentioning a convoy of three going down to Nigeria.
Please click on picture to enlarge.
Morning ‘brakeboy’. Do you remember anything about the sectional building job Peter took on in 76. In involved ten or so stripped down supercube trailers transporting semi wide loads to a site south of Riyadh in Saudi. As this would have entailed a lot of work to be carried out on the trailers I’m hoping it didn’t happen before you arrived. Also do you remember one of our lorries with an AC unit on the roof as seen in the first photo.
Yes I do remember the sectional building caper. Some strange things happened right from the off. One thing was Mr C proposed widening the trailers because there was something about the whole of the building section had to be supported by the trailer bed. He was proposing welding side rave upon side rave until the required width was reached but was finally convinced that doing so would mean the trailers were then totally illegal width wise. Anyway it never happened. I remember the warehouse being full of stripped down tilt bodies. Another strange little incident was one of the scanias being serviced standing in the workshop with both cab doors open and viewed head on it was noticed on one door was Promotor and on the other Promoter. Strange how little things stick in the mind. I remember also one of the units having AC on top of the cab. We heard various odd stories sifting back to Dunton Green including the purchasing and driving of the car back to a channel port. Think it was a Mustang. Also heard about most of the convoy arriving at destination but that all the specialised lifting tackle for the buildings was on the trailer that had been held up and would be the last to arrive so nobody could tip before it got there. Cant remember if it was this job or another ME job where Charlie Phipps flew out to I think Damascus with some Scania diff parts in his hand luggage, rebuilt the diff the side of the road in the desert and then returned overland with the truck and driver.
Another very informative post ‘brakeboy’. If you haven’t already found it look back to page 48 where you will see the story I posted of this sectional building job which, because it didn’t go to plan, had the company on its knees for a while. I had various sources of information but there is much more to this story. Hopefully you can help fill in the gaps. I have attached another photo. I had it confirmed a couple of days ago that the photo was taken in Syria in 76 and that the person in the blue shirt was the Promotor driver. Do you recognise him? Can you also name other drivers involved. Do you remember them coming back?
sandway:
Another very informative post ‘brakeboy’. If you haven’t already found it look back to page 48 where you will see the story I posted of this sectional building job which, because it didn’t go to plan, had the company on its knees for a while. I had various sources of information but there is much more to this story. Hopefully you can help fill in the gaps. I have attached another photo. I had it confirmed a couple of days ago that the photo was taken in Syria in 76 and that the person in the blue shirt was the Promotor driver. Do you recognise him? Can you also name other drivers involved. Do you remember them coming back?
The drivers face does seem familiar but cant put name to it at moment but will think on. I do remember the trailers returning as there was a panic to rebuild the hired ones and return them. I think I took a couple back myself to Eurofleet Rentals at dagenham.
At the time we had a cack-handed D1000 unit as a shunter for local trips and workshop moves. Coincidentally prior to being at Pro i worked for a trailer outfit at Surrey Docks and our unit there was a D800 which had come from Promotor where it was originally coupled to a single axle, beaver tailed step frame flat, only about 26’ long. Apparently this outfit was originally driven by Allan Sewell and the trailer was still in existence at Pro when I was there. This trailer did feature in the Chislehurst Carnival a couple of times carrying a jazz band!!!
I recall a definite change in the atmosphere as the vehicles returned, I think some people were feeling vulnerable and it must have been soon after this that i decided to move on and left the area.
I remember a TV crew turning up at some time [probably at Mr C’s instigation and not necessarily connected with the above job] and doing a piece about Sue Ashdown, which involved her driving a unit around the yard with a cameraman and interviwer in the cab with her and some shots of her dipping the oil and checking water etc, in conversation with Charlie Phipps. It was shown in the local news programme following the national news at 1800 one evening. Maybe still lurking in a TV company archive somewhere.
Hello brakeboy ! or should I say Peter"its far too political for me" Bullimore! Remember that, it was just one of the comical things you used to come out with! Good to hear you’re still up and running. I think I was one of the last to take the Afro on a trip when I took it to Israel to attend a racing car show in 81. I think it got traded in pretty soon after that and it was back in fern green metallic by then. Peter Balfour is alive and kicking up in County Durham and we speak by phone around twice a year. He’s supposed to be retired(like me !) but he’s still mending and painting motors ! Not too many of us oldies left now sadly. Also spoke with little John Barclay last week too, he’s on the left in that last photo in front of the Fiesta and the guy on the right is Geof Gardner who now lives in the US of A.We write to each other from time to time as well. Reference the driver in the blue T shirt I cant be sure but I would say its Jimmy Conlon. He was actively engaged in Middle East work on Pro’s so it was around 15 months into my service before we met. and it wasn’t long after that that he left. Allegedly Peter had him in the office after one particular trip and accused him of fiddling to which Jimmy allegedly replied “I,ve forgotten more than you will ever know about fiddling” to which Peters response was to show him the door, allegedly !! characters, eh. Me ? well, currently living in retirement in Northampton but hoping to move to Nottinghamshire this year if Coronavirus lets us, bloody nuisance ! 
Hi Tony good to know you are still about as well!! Perhaps those early days at Pro’s gave us some sort of survival instinct. Who knows, anyway it all became far too political for me. I left soon after that portable building event, partly because there did seem to be possibly some redundacies looming and by that time a portacabin had been installed at the back of the warehouse with Mr Stagg installed in it. I think there was another portacabin installed on the West Kent loading bank outside the back door slightly later which had the rest of the office staff in it. I became increasingly unhappy with mr Staggs approach to man-management and had the chance of another job offered so decided to upsticks and take it. I did make contact with Pete Balfour quite a few years back when he said he had moved up north but was then working as a steward on the ferries out of Dover. He was quite happy motor biking backwards and forwards half the length of the UK. If i remember his brother was a captain on one of the ferries. I stayed in the trailer game and spent a good few years as a self employed mobile fitter and then several years in turn with Rentco, as you know Trailerent and then when they were taken over with Tiphook aka Central Trailers. Tiphook eventually packed up and then I worked for Montracon and then finished off with several years at a motor and trailer parts supplier in Sittingbourne. I must say those early years I spent at Pros were quite good fun. Alan Sewell was in charge of the workshop and warehouse and provided the work got done there was never any problems. Everybody mucked in if there were trailers to be loaded or transhipped. I think he left before me to drive an aircraft refueller at Gatwick. I think you could be right about Jimmy Conlan, although he was one of those drivers we rarely seemed to see, either arriving or departing during the nights rather than days. Anyway Mate, take care of yourself in these troubled times and hope all goes well for you in the future.
sandway:
Squeezed in bottom left. Is that a Promotor Ford A Series and does anyone remember driving one?
Looks very much like it. Pro had five of them when i was there. Four with tilt body and the floor had a drop down rear section to act as sort of beavertail to carry one car. They were all diesels and not bad to drive IF you could get them to start in the winter. Always needed easistart and all went to Simms at Tonbridge eventually to have Scandinavian spec cold start systems fitted. The fifth one had an ali van body and was a six cylinder petrol. Pleasure to drive , always started, quiet, and a racing machine!!
They were all fitted with a ball hitch to tow a tandem car trailer of which there were three.
