JIMBO47:
what was the company CALLED from Carlisle airport in the 60s before ECM…my auld fella s mate davie Maxwell (maxi) drove for them for donkeys years. jimmy
Hi JIMBO47, Overland was the original name,the MacDowall family, still going today as ECM, old man MacDowall started his car carrying venture in the 1950s, first units I remember were Mercedes and I think a Commer TS3. fabricated his own trailers, memory is a bit dim on that, long time ago. I posted a pic a while ago on here, just had a look back, looks like a Carter trailer, note the centre track on the deck, this was for 3 wheelers, Reliant and Bond.
Oily
JIMBO47:
what was the company CALLED from Carlisle airport in the 60s before ECM…my auld fella s mate davie Maxwell (maxi) drove for them for donkeys years. jimmy
Hi JIMBO47, Overland was the original name,the MacDowall family, still going today as ECM, old man MacDowall started his car carrying venture in the 1950s, first units I remember were Mercedes and I think a Commer TS3. fabricated his own trailers, memory is a bit dim on that, long time ago. I posted a pic a while ago on here, just had a look back, looks like a Carter trailer, note the centre track on the deck, this was for 3 wheelers, Reliant and Bond.
Oily
Yes it is a Carter Oily Mac & Mrs Mac as they were known to everyone ran the operation from the late 50s still out of Carlisle Airport. Mac was a good engineer & altered these Carters Ito tri-deckers utilising the electric lift. I can remember before the Mercs they were predominantly Traders with a few Commers & a Leyland SC drawbar Carter B reg. One of Macs tricks was to fit SWB Trader tipper chassis onto the Carrimores instead of tractors to gain a bit more length. We had compounds next to each other in Kidlington & helped each other out in the early 60s.
240 Gardner:
Here’s a name that doesn’t seem to have been covered yet:
As it happens, the picture you posted after this post was what happened to Tip Toe. At some point they got roped into the Ontime brand, they had the Aston Martin contract, which Ontime promptly dived onto and rebranded. I think they was out by Fenny Compton nr Gaydon
240 Gardner:
Here’s a name that doesn’t seem to have been covered yet:
As it happens, the picture you posted after this post was what happened to Tip Toe. At some point they got roped into the Ontime brand, they had the Aston Martin contract, which Ontime promptly dived onto and rebranded. I think they was out by Fenny Compton nr Gaydon
Thanks for your reply! Tip Toe was bought by Arcade Motors, when Arcade was owned by Jacobs Shipping, and before the Ontime brand was applied. I think Aston Martin was an Arcade account going back several years, rather than Tip Toe? Tip Toe did a lot for Ford and also for Nissan, amongst others.
Perhaps a bit boring but whilst at work I sold a Ford Transit 17 seater to a school which was late in delivery from the factory so the headmaster was not a happy bunny and you could badger the factory and no help as perhaps other makes had a similer problem.
Car transporter arrives,Thank Christ for that but one of the hooks on the holding chains was hanging down,caught on rain gutter and the bus was modified.
Had to look in my training book to see how to placate the customer but NO WAY even in the small print.What a pity we didn’t have digital cameras in the 70s !!
The only time I ever drove a ‘car transporter’ (and I put it in quotes deliberately) was when I loaded two brand-new Toyota Corolas in the back of a tilt trailer at the Toyota factory in Adipazari in Turkey, on the way back from the Middle East in 2001. They were destined for the UK ministry MIRA test track at Nuneaton to be destruction tested (side-impact and front-impact). Robert
[zb]
anorak:
I spotted this on one of the phot collections threads:
0
There appears to be a clear panel set into the roof of the cab. What was it for? Why was it not on the driver’s side?
Silcocks had these too, it was so you could see the top deck when going round a right hand turn, you didn’t need one on the drivers side because you could stick your head out the window.
[zb]
anorak:
I spotted this on one of the phot collections threads:
0
There appears to be a clear panel set into the roof of the cab. What was it for? Why was it not on the driver’s side?
Silcocks had these too, it was so you could see the top deck when going round a right hand turn, you didn’t need one on the drivers side because you could stick your head out the window.
[zb]
anorak:
I spotted this on one of the phot collections threads:
0
There appears to be a clear panel set into the roof of the cab. What was it for? Why was it not on the driver’s side?
Silcocks had these too, it was so you could see the top deck when going round a right hand turn, you didn’t need one on the drivers side because you could stick your head out the window.
I never would have guessed that. Ta .
Cor, and there was me thinking it was where the Gatling gun was mounted for the driver’s mate to shoot out the window of Mrs Bloggs’s bedroom so that the top deck wouldn’t be seen to break it first Robert
[zb]
anorak:
I spotted this on one of the phot collections threads:
0
There appears to be a clear panel set into the roof of the cab. What was it for? Why was it not on the driver’s side?
Silcocks had these too, it was so you could see the top deck when going round a right hand turn, you didn’t need one on the drivers side because you could stick your head out the window.
I never would have guessed that. Ta .
These panels were fitted in the mercuries and other old cabs that Autocar used back in the late 60’s early 70’s when I worked for them. On uneven ground the peak deck and cab roof sometimes touched and that panel would leak and the workshop just put some sealant around it but it was never a good idea.
.
Robert
