sammyopisite:
The BRS group did not have sleeper cabs then as the union would not have them, the first one they had was an ex Siddle C. Cook FB88 based at Birtley depot.
cheers Johnnie
Stand by your beds Sandman Norman and Pikeman Harry Gill, although after Normans lucky escape in Istanbul you could only describe his cab as a half sleeper .
It’s ok Steve,Sammy’s on our side,he’s a dee-dah like me,but he is a lot uglier than me and has no decorum at all - just the sort of bloke you can have a pint with
Unions and bloody sleeper cabs - so what,can’t reckon it up.Shades of Liverpool/London reps - what did the drivers want?
sammyopisite:
The BRS group did not have sleeper cabs then as the union would not have them, the first one they had was an ex Siddle C. Cook FB88 based at Birtley depot.
cheers Johnnie
Stand by your beds Sandman Norman and Pikeman Harry Gill, although after Normans lucky escape in Istanbul you could only describe his cab as a half sleeper .
It’s ok Steve,Sammy’s on our side,he’s a dee-dah like me,but he is a lot uglier than me and has no decorum at all - just the sort of bloke you can have a pint with
Unions and bloody sleeper cabs - so what,can’t reckon it up.Shades of Liverpool/London reps - what did the drivers want?
Hi Chris, I am well aware that Sammy is a bloke that I am sure I would of had a good night out with along with The A1 ( LEEDS ) men in years gone by. Don’t forget that I did a few years missionary work in Huddersfield for Hansons and they were very happy years working with some cracking drivers who only ever beat us once at cricket ( but then again we only played the one game ). Even the lads from BRATFORD sometimes bought a round of drinks .
Johnnie was dead right about the trouble with the unions and the sleepercabs and I remember that we had the same problem at Blue Dart after they had bought about a dozen Volvo F88’s and a few Volvo F86’s in the early seventies. The unions forced the management to take the bunks out of the F88’s so that the drivers couldn’t sleep in them, so in the end they were used as night trunk motors. Then after the annual pay negotiations they put some on roaming and gave the drivers with the daycabs a pay rise in there night out allowance but they put the bunks back in the sleeper cabs who’s drivers didn’t get the increase.
Then the following year the union disputed the fact that there were two night out allowance rates for roamers and in the end we all got an increase, we were all on the same rate and if you had a sleeper cab then you were lucky. The following year the union put the pressure on the managment to get all the roamers sleeper cabs .
My first trip across the water for Blue Dart in 79 was in a day cabbed Seddon Atkinson 401 in Vitafoam livery which ended up through no fault of mine taking over a week to do a Germany. I think it was then that I started to admire the guys that had done the earlier continental trips in the late sixties and the early seventies and put them on a par with the drivers who had done the trunking in the U.K. in the forties and the fifties.
So I hope that Johnnie didn’t think that I was having a go at him but I was hoping that Harry and Norman might of had a few comments to make about sleeper cabs as I know that they have both got some very interesting storys to share on this subject.
Regards Steve.
P.S. has anybody got any photos of Blue Dart European.
sammyopisite:
Hi revman he was Ian Fawdrey and will have retired now or should have
hi sammy i remember ian fawdry he was a steelos driver lived on valley rd rotherham he moved to aldwarke site around 1987 and worked in the boilerhouse must be about 67 now so ye retired -alan
Been looking for the pics but dont know if i can post them on this site, but we used to use the leyland buffalo ( no sleeper just a drop down strecher ) this was for w t laceys of barking they also run some marathons and scammels,
sammyopisite:
The BRS group did not have sleeper cabs then as the union would not have them, the first one they had was an ex Siddle C. Cook FB88 based at Birtley depot.
cheers Johnnie
Stand by your beds Sandman Norman and Pikeman Harry Gill, although after Normans lucky escape in Istanbul you could only describe his cab as a half sleeper .
It’s ok Steve,Sammy’s on our side,he’s a dee-dah like me,but he is a lot uglier than me and has no decorum at all - just the sort of bloke you can have a pint with
Unions and bloody sleeper cabs - so what,can’t reckon it up.Shades of Liverpool/London reps - what did the drivers want?
Hi Chris, I am well aware that Sammy is a bloke that I am sure I would of had a good night out with along with The A1 ( LEEDS ) men in years gone by. Don’t forget that I did a few years missionary work in Huddersfield for Hansons and they were very happy years working with some cracking drivers who only ever beat us once at cricket ( but then again we only played the one game ). Even the lads from BRATFORD sometimes bought a round of drinks .
Johnnie was dead right about the trouble with the unions and the sleepercabs and I remember that we had the same problem at Blue Dart after they had bought about a dozen Volvo F88’s and a few Volvo F86’s in the early seventies. The unions forced the management to take the bunks out of the F88’s so that the drivers couldn’t sleep in them, so in the end they were used as night trunk motors. Then after the annual pay negotiations they put some on roaming and gave the drivers with the daycabs a pay rise in there night out allowance but they put the bunks back in the sleeper cabs who’s drivers didn’t get the increase.
Then the following year the union disputed the fact that there were two night out allowance rates for roamers and in the end we all got an increase, we were all on the same rate and if you had a sleeper cab then you were lucky. The following year the union put the pressure on the managment to get all the roamers sleeper cabs .
My first trip across the water for Blue Dart in 79 was in a day cabbed Seddon Atkinson 401 in Vitafoam livery which ended up through no fault of mine taking over a week to do a Germany. I think it was then that I started to admire the guys that had done the earlier continental trips in the late sixties and the early seventies and put them on a par with the drivers who had done the trunking in the U.K. in the forties and the fifties.
So I hope that Johnnie didn’t think that I was having a go at him but I was hoping that Harry and Norman might of had a few comments to make about sleeper cabs as I know that they have both got some very interesting storys to share on this subject.
Regards Steve.
P.S. has anybody got any photos of Blue Dart European.
Chris I’ll have you know that I have decorated the house I was instructed to, the FB88 was a “G” or"H" reg so in the late 60s when BRS had a British only policy and North West BRS were one of the first to have day cabbed continental wagons Scania 110s on the Procter and Gamble contract Trafford Park to Staniforth Road I think there drivers got fed up of picking us up as we knew what times they left so we knew what time to park up LOL dint we Chris. There was a heavy haulage company “Muntons or Monktons” who ran down to Italy in day cab Fodens regular in the 60s and early 70s and when BRS group did start to get sleeper cabs they were on UK work and we going over in day cabs around 74 time. The Crusader I posted was not mine it was my mates as I had a day cab but by removing the passenger seat you were left with a flat space as the locker beneath the seat was the same height as the engine cover so I made a box which came to the same height as the drivers seat with foam topping and I had more in cab room than some sleeper cabs I took the lining down an insulated it and added curtains and jobs a goodun. Steve it will take more than that to get under my skin when you are eldest of 11 you tend to get the hide of a rhino very early in life and you have to be able to look after your self and siblings from young LOL
Cheers Johnnie
Eyup Johnnie.
Aye,Smith and Robinsons from Trafford Park depot had the Proctor and Gamble contract for a start,running Scania 110s or 111s can’t remember.They were still doing two trips a night to Staniforth Road BRS in 1978 with two x 20ft boxes on a skelly.Maybe BRS took the work off them after that.I’ve had stacks of lifts with them over Woodhead and I was once early enough to get a lift back to Hyde from Middlewood Road.
You know what they say in Sheffield about decorating:–
“The man who invented decorating wants f****** , and the man who invented f****** wants decorating”
I was on top of Mt Cenis in the late 70s winding up the brakes on my trailer for the downward bends to Susa when a very old Akki stopped behind me, the only reason I remember is because he had either a false leg or foot, memory fades with the years, he had an Alison automatic gearbox from a bus, his bed was a few bulk packs of loo rolls, After a brew off we went, being the gentalman I am, I let him go first ( something to do with him not bothering to tighten his brakes on his trailer if I recall ) Now if you have not seen brake shoes burn you will not belive how much comes out, I stopped half way down to let it clear before I went around the hairpins, He was off to Saudi or somewhere like that.
We stopped at Susa did the paperwork and away he went into the sunset, sorry cannot recall his name, but did see him again sometime later in Basle so he made it to S.A. Ackkies could not have been that bad.
240 Gardner, on Jan 11 you posted a series of pics, one of the pics shows a LOWE Seddon ATKINSON YKE 445J, do you have the original pic, i would love to get my hands on a good copy, as this is one of the trucks my father used to drive during his long driving history with Lowes Paddock Wood… he may even be one of the guys stood down the side having a chat.
stevie wonder:
240 Gardner, on Jan 11 you posted a series of pics, one of the pics shows a LOWE Seddon ATKINSON YKE 445J, do you have the original pic, i would love to get my hands on a good copy, as this is one of the trucks my father used to drive during his long driving history with Lowes Paddock Wood… he may even be one of the guys stood down the side having a chat.
The originals would have come from Atkinson Vehicles (London) I think, and were featured in an article about a trip to Rome with YKE 445J, driven by Les Stubberfield. The focus of the article was that this lorry had the first ‘official’ Atkinson sleeper cab. I also knew the lorry several years later, when it was being run an owner driver form Cippenham, Slough, called Bill Donnelly.
Send me a PM with your e-mail and I’ll send you a scan of the article and any other Lowe’s bits I can find.
stevie wonder:
240 Gardner, on Jan 11 you posted a series of pics, one of the pics shows a LOWE Seddon ATKINSON YKE 445J, do you have the original pic, i would love to get my hands on a good copy, as this is one of the trucks my father used to drive during his long driving history with Lowes Paddock Wood… he may even be one of the guys stood down the side having a chat.
The originals would have come from Atkinson Vehicles (London) I think, and were featured in an article about a trip to Rome with YKE 445J, driven by Les Stubberfield. The focus of the article was that this lorry had the first ‘official’ Atkinson sleeper cab. I also knew the lorry several years later, when it was being run an owner driver form Cippenham, Slough, called Bill Donnelly.
Send me a PM with your e-mail and I’ll send you a scan of the article and any other Lowe’s bits I can find.
240 Gardner, Thanks for replying, my e mail is leest@blueyonder.co.uk i remember the Atki, i beleive my father had it after Les, i always remember my dad giving the bunk the nickname ‘the coffin’ as i believe the first sleepers were in similarity to having a box bolted to the back of the cab. I also remember my dad telling me that before the ‘sleepers’ arrived, a night out was spent on a board wedged between the door handles… how the modern day boys are spoilt LOL
Oh, and the night heater was either an extra blanket or whatever you had under the cab
Here are some of my Dads motors, he started international in about 1970 with the Foden for Beresfords and then moved to Comarts in 71 were he had the Big J and moved on to Scania and Volvo
The following 2 photos are of an ERF he had to go and fetch after it had caught fir e on the French side of Mont Blanc, he wnet with his Big j (seen in the background of the 1st photo) with a lowlaoder, he left late Thursday night and got back in the yard Monday dinner time, you’d have to go some to do that run now, let alone in 72 when there were hardly any motorways !!!
There are more photos on my thread dedicated to my Dad & Comarts link below
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