My first job of any description at Promotor was driving one of those to the Poznan Trade fair. Cant remember what I took there but they managed to find me a backload from Poland of wine bottle labels for Mateus rose! I only brought it all back to the yard as I was only temping at the time as a favour for Dave(Tommy) Thomas whose wife was a distant relative of mine. At the time I had been to BOAC to apply for a job on the tarmac at Heathrow and was waiting for confirmation. Temping at Pro’s seemed to be a suitable means of earning while waiting. After about 6-8 weeks of temping and waiting I finally got acceptance from BOAC but when it came to telling Tommy that I would have to give up temping he then told me that Pro’s had been sufficiently impressed with me to offer me a full time job. The rest,as they say, is history! Peter, you were right about them being ok to drive but sleeping in them,well, that was another story!
Morning all.
One thing I’ve tried not to do on this Promotor thread is to repeat myself, difficult now and getting worse, or post photos more than once, unless its to do with a particular story, maybe from another angle. I’m lucky that I’ve a large collection of photos, not all of lorries though, but my collection has been augmented recently by another 20 or so photos given to me by Paul Willis as I reported recently. However, some of them have been seen before but with M20 Photos emblazoned across them, but Paul purchased the negs of these pics and has given them to me to post on here so you will see them again soon but with no advertising to spoil them.
You’ve got a good memory there ‘brakeboy’. Even remembering Simms at Tonbridge. Please keep the anecdotes coming. Perhaps you could enlighten us with your recollections of ‘Herr Stagg’ from the workshop perspective.
Efes. I managed to get another message to ‘Pammy’ and said ‘hello’ to her from you. She replied sending her ‘regards’ to you but mentioning you as Joe90. Now I remember that name was used sometimes but if I remember rightly, long before we were employed at Promotor, there was another driver with the same nickname. I’m sure I’ve seen it mentioned somewhere. Its a bit of a convoluted job getting hold of Pammy as she doesn’t have a FB account. She contacted me through a friends page. I’m not sure if its her brother, partner, boyfriend or whatever but at least we have a way of contacting her.
Nottsnortherner. I’m posting a photo today of one of Promotor lorries NPG 341L, a Scania 111 that I think was taken before you joined the company. Cant make out the driver though. My question is, do you know what lorry the late Bob Heath aka ‘SUPERCUBE’ drove. I’ve attached the photo of him his son gave me recently as you may not have seen it before.
Late addition. Tony. Just found out GYX 761N. The lorry shown a few posts back with the AC was Jim Conlans lorry and that GYX 762N was assigned to Bob Heath.
Been thinking about the vehicles that were at pro when I joined. Beside several 110’s there was a daycab Scania 80. Usually driven by Phil Taylor, an extremely pleasant young guy who I think actually lived in Dunton Green. I think mostly he tipped and turned trailers in the UK altho he was occasionally despatched abroad but not usually in the 80. Beside the five ford A series there was a ford transit with ali luton body and full length rear roller shutter. Even then it was past its best and was looked upon as the yard dog, being used to pick up spares, gas bottles etc locally and for transport to the cafe in dunton green on saturdays when the west kent canteen wasnt open. There was a ford D800 pantechnicon and a long wheelbase ford d8oo with two car transporter body [not the one roger oakley regularly drove, that was a later addition with sleeper cab]. Also I seem to recall another D800 ford with a box body, maybe a tail lift and possibly a tilt type roof. Not sure about the roof. Used in conjunction with all the above Ford were three tandem axle ‘ball-hitch’ trailers all capable of carrying one car. One was a sutton scotney and the other two manufactured by rice.
When I was put on the books permanently that old D800 pantech was driven by a guy called Barry(Chandler,I think) and my arctic work tended to be with rented Daf 2600s from Penfold-Daf rentals but my first real artic job was to Piraeus,Athens in that Scania 80(non sleeper) along with Chic Steadman in Scania SUC 19N and the two FM trailers carrying racing cars to an outdoor show. We got messed about by the agent for several days before getting tipped and then we flew home with a view to flying back later. Peter Calderwood told us that as a result of being messed about out there if we wanted to fly back early and “catch a few rays” then we could and he would cover the extra hotel bills. You dont turn down opportunities like that do you! Incidentally when we eventually returned some of the drivers turned on me because I,d driven a non-sleeper on a long european trip saying I shouldn’t have done it. I didn’t realise at the time that it was a no-no. I also remember that during the outward trip we were caught up by a guy who at that time was doing regular Greece and he tagged on to us for the rest of the trip down. You may remember him, he was to crop up significantly later on, his name was Billy Took. About 2-3 months later Chic semi retired from driving to concentrate more on the exhibition side of things so Peter gave me SUC 19N. At that time SUC was being shared by Chic and a guy called Brian(■■?) both of whom had seen service with PC at Ford M,C, Those 2 FM trailers were modified hanging garment trailers converted to carry cars on 2 decks with an ingenious block and tackle arrangement at the rear of the trailer to raise and lower the top deck. I know Alan Sewell had a hand in their making and I’m pretty sure you would have too Peter! Those two tralers did sterling service for many years before being retired off.
Think the guy could have been Brian Aldgate, who was a rather portly gentleman and i think lived Southend way. I think it was he who was later allocated the Transcon. One of the first production models we were regularly visited by boffins from FMC who wanted lots of info about MPG, brake wear and any other information they could get. I seemed to remember for a while it was hitched to the Carrimore car transporter fetching back the AA stuff from spain. Ah the dreaded two deck step frame car transporting vans. Loading the top deck required nerves of steel and at least 3 people. Ramps from terra firma to the rear of the trailer and then one car length of ramp up to the top deck at what must have been well over 30 degrees. Bags of welly was needed to get the car up on to this section, with the previously parked top deck car looming in front, a crash stop and then the driver had to remain in the car with foot on foot brake as most handbrakes wouldnt hold on that slope. The other two guys then manned the block and tackle attached each side to the top door frame of the trailer and raised it to the horizontal before inserting safety catches. The whole thing more exciting if it was raining. The whole operation would probably never have been tolerated by H & S these days and certainly had a few ‘pants changing’ moments. . Because of the strains imposed on the rear door frame there were cracks to be welded most times on its return and they ended up with huge steel triangular gussets welded in to try and spread the load. I think one of the vans was sign written ’ The Jochen Rindt Show’.
One other step frame, and it may have been a tilt with removeable decking and front doors , the top deck was loaded from the front over the step and the car remained at an angle. the two lower deck cars were loaded from the rear. More about those removeable decks later [I still have the scars]
WJD 543M. First time I have seen this photo of one of our old Scania 110’s with trailer GB 254 that looks like its just been washed . This unit was assigned to Mick Mitchell. The first lorry I had when I joined Promotor in 78 was VGF 899M which was Roger Lancaster’s going by the list.
Hi sandway, could you check your private messages again please
I mentioned a few posts back that Paul Willis had purchased, from M20 Photos, the negatives of some Promotor lorries and that he had passed them on to me. Today I am posting them on here together with a couple of others. They have all been posted before but originally had the logo ‘M20 or M6 Photos’ emblazoned across them.
That Aussie flag sticker was on that truck all the time I drove it, I have Aus relatives!
A little conundrum for you ‘brakeboy’. A couple of posts back you said you remember one of our Scania’s in the workshop with an A/C unit fitted on the roof. A new photo has just been sent to me by Nick Garlick showing Jimmy Conlan’s lorry as he leaves Saudi. It doesn’t seem to have a nameboard on the front above the windscreen! I looked at some of the other photos and the one of Jimmy standing with the group by the green lorry also shows no nameboard but it does have an A/C unit fitted.
Yet the lovely action photo taken in the desert near where they tipped south of Riyadh shows another unit with A/C and what looks decidedly like a temporary nameboard. They are certainly two separate units as you can see by the number of mirrors, unless Jimmy lost a mirror and nameboard somewhere. This action photo was sent to Nick by Christine in the Promotor office, together with some Yugo sales brochures after he contacted the company requesting info. Unfortunately the brochures have been lost. I hope I’ve got that right Nick. Please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.
Nottsnortherner/Efes. I am sure I remember a Christine in the office but its only a vague recollection. Can you enlighten us?
Sorry cant give definite answer on the headboards. I would assume that they were possibly an add-on extra possibly rivetted to the cab top like the old all over cab-caps. They would have had access at the rear to change bulbs etc. Perhaps they impinged on the area needed to mount the ac unit, which i again assume was mounted on or in place of the roof hatch so the header was removed?? Sorry this is all assumption and i could be completely wrong. What is definite is that there was a lovely lady named Christine who worked in the office in Shawfield Park whilst Bob Charlton was there and that she moved down to the office at Dunton Green. She was still there when I left and I think at one time lived around the West Kingsdown area.
You’re right again Peter! Christine worked in the Shawfield Park office when I started, good looker and very nice lady and, yes she lived around West Kingsdown, I gave her a lift home once but unfortunately she was also involved(allegedly) in the infamous “cassette tape in the cab” affair after seeing far too much of Johnny "wellie"Ward. A recorded message was left accidentally in wellie’s cassette player and got accidentally played in the workshop. Lets just say it wasn’t just music!! She left quite soon after that.Don’t know if you were still there then Peter.
The first photo, taken possibly in Shawfield Park Bromley or nearby, was supplied by Nick Garlick. He’s asking if we have any info on this six wheeled Scania 140 unit. I know you have commented on this lorry before Nottsnortherner but perhaps you would like to enlighten us again. Is it the same lorry in the second photo?
Nottsnortherner:
You’re right again Peter! Christine worked in the Shawfield Park office when I started, good looker and very nice lady and, yes she lived around West Kingsdown, I gave her a lift home once but unfortunately she was also involved(allegedly) in the infamous “cassette tape in the cab” affair after seeing far too much of Johnny "wellie"Ward. A recorded message was left accidentally in wellie’s cassette player and got accidentally played in the workshop. Lets just say it wasn’t just music!! She left quite soon after that.Don’t know if you were still there then Peter.
Tony, This was taking place as i left. Johnny Ward was not the driver I would have associated with the incident but I am saying no more. Regarding sandway’s pic at the bottom is that Billy Heath on the left. Also in the pic Mr C [I think], Chris Sly and Staggie.
Yes, you’re right yet again Pete! Billy Heath, who was road foreman at the time, on the left and “Wellie” Ward on the extreme right who was on the tiller of that Transcon behind him. Thats the Transcon that suffered terminal engine damage when it was alleged that in an effort to catch up with his running mate coming down the Blanc on the French side he left it in gear and just let it go. I can’t identify the two between Billy and P.C. though. The Scania in question is the same one in both pics. It was Billy Heaths to start with but he soon found out what ball-ache it was and did his best to try and off-load it to anybody who would take it off his hands, including me! The first picture of it shows exactly what the problem was. It was initially ordered to pull A Broshuis extendable trailer for specialist machinery movements, an idea that didn’t exactly go to plan. I don’t think the fifth wheel was adjustable and so whenever the Broshuis wasn,t in use the 140 got used more and more on tilt work which meant the overall length was illegal. It was also very uncomfortable to drive with double drive and quite a high diff ratio which resulted in a not very relaxed maximum speed of around 55 mph. Don’t forget in those days there was no speed limiters and old fashioned style Tachographs which could be “adapted” shall we say quite easily !! Poor old Billy was always playing catch-up when running with two or three others which was quite often the case on Promotor. A good bloke was Billy, always relied upon to provide a laugh or two! 
Ah the dreaded Broshuis step frame extendable low loader which was capable of causing enough problems on its own before being coupled to anything. The first problem was four fixed axles giving a fixed wheelbase of something over 12’ and on 12", yes 12" twin wheels. It blew out tyres at a prodigious rate and Bill Heaths first trip with it carrying an Iron Fairy resulted in many new tyres being fitted over the other side. Its capability to extend to something like 60’ overall only made the problem worse and at that length there was considerable brake lag. As delivered the braking system was piped right down almost to the brake chambers in thick wall metal pipe [not bundy] that required a pipe bender to shape it. However it proved no match for some of the roads in Yugo in particular and regularly came back with broken metal pipes remade with bits of rubber pipe and jubilee clips. I remember eventually repiping the whole lot conventionally with rubber hose and jubilee clips and that solved that particular problem. The brake lag problem was eventually solved by the addition of extra air tanks and valves along the length of the trailer. Certainly everybody including myself hated the bloody thing!!
Sorry Brian, you’ve got me there !, I know nothing about it, it does,'t look like me driving it. Something is telling me that Promotor probably did a long term roadshow for Pye and that would explain the Pye colours jointly being displayed along with Promotor graphics. Didn’t Pye have a mobile exhibition trailer that we moved around? I seem to remember it being parked up Lavers when not on the road, could be wrong though.
P.S. After another look at the driver it could be Mick Packham…possibly! and yes, that’s my Scania at the rear, looks like we’re queueing to get in the docks and the Pye guy has walked back to have a smoke with me. Still can’t work out who used to drive that truck though