A shot here of a fairly “newish” and smart Brady Super Comet coupled to a loaded 4 in-line,the load could possibly be Cellophane from BCL Barrow !
Bewick:
A shot here of a fairly “newish” and smart Brady Super Comet coupled to a loaded 4 in-line,the load could possibly be Cellophane from BCL Barrow !
How the hell did we ever see anything in those poxy little 6"x4" mirrors 
Another T Brady & Sons Ltd.shot this time of one of the many LAD cabbed Beavers they ran in the late 50’s and through the 60’s,except this one was uniqe as it was the only one that had the 680 Power Plus engine the rest were 600’s,and,IIRC it had some sort of splitter or reduction gearbox ? The 4 in-line is probably loaded with Barrow Steel by the looks of it.
PS but on closer inspection by the looks of the tyres it may be just a lightweight load !!! We’ll never know !!
Trev_H:
Bewick:
A shot here of a fairly “newish” and smart Brady Super Comet coupled to a loaded 4 in-line,the load could possibly be Cellophane from BCL Barrow !How the hell did we ever see anything in those poxy little 6"x4" mirrors
“State of the art” at the time Trev !!! Cheers Dennis.
Bewick:
Trev_H:
Bewick:
A shot here of a fairly “newish” and smart Brady Super Comet coupled to a loaded 4 in-line,the load could possibly be Cellophane from BCL Barrow !How the hell did we ever see anything in those poxy little 6"x4" mirrors
“State of the art” at the time Trev !!! Cheers Dennis.
Hiya Dennis… the driver of that Comet must be expecting to tip over at a roundabout, just look how much rope he put on the load
its nealy a pig net.
John
3300John:
Bewick:
Trev_H:
Bewick:
A shot here of a fairly “newish” and smart Brady Super Comet coupled to a loaded 4 in-line,the load could possibly be Cellophane from BCL Barrow !How the hell did we ever see anything in those poxy little 6"x4" mirrors
“State of the art” at the time Trev !!! Cheers Dennis.
Hiya Dennis… the driver of that Comet must be expecting to tip over at a roundabout, just look how much rope he put on the load
its nealy a pig net.
John
Hiya John,If that load was,as I believe,British Cellophane from Barrow (could have been Bridgewater) it was usually in rolls packed in heavy cardboard tubes and they were loaded “stood on end” most of the time so unless they were well roped they could lop over and that was that!!!.Some of the loads we ran down to London docks with on the Octopus and trailer were sometimes all tubes,and we had no headboard on the trailer either!Just imagine it John,some of the “modern day” steering wheel jockeys would have it all off at the first corner,thats if they could sheet and rope a Dodgy load like this,properly, in the first place.Brady’s did have a very good shunter in BCL when I was there,John Cornthwaite,and if was off occaisionally I did the odd bit of shunting in BCL if we happend to be in Barrow with the Octopus ! Happy Days Dennis.
I had some of those mirrors on a Thames trader, they vibrated that much you got blurred vision !
I only once pulled a 4 in line BTC loaded with steel, I vowed never again 
You are right Dennis about some operators ignoring the maintenance of the autolubes and i could never understand why. To just keep it topped up and put the odd pipe back on now and again cost virtually nothing yet the advantages were colossal,you got far bigger mileages out of the running gear,lower running costs and almost no down time in fact about all we did to them was adjust the brakes and check the tyre pressures. It seemed comforting to know that every time you touched the brakes the trailer lubricated itself.
Wheel Nut:
Not strictly Four in Line
Mal they were a one man job taking the back wheels out, fine on tarmac but it was bloody hard graft on uneven sites running round from side to side to take a bit on the jacks.
cheers Johnnie
Bewick:
Another T Brady & Sons Ltd.shot this time of one of the many LAD cabbed Beavers they ran in the late 50’s and through the 60’s,except this one was uniqe as it was the only one that had the 680 Power Plus engine the rest were 600’s,and,IIRC it had some sort of splitter or reduction gearbox ? The 4 in-line is probably loaded with Barrow Steel by the looks of it.
Dennis there is something lurking in the background on that picture
cheers Johnnie 
El Griffo:
You are right Dennis about some operators ignoring the maintenance of the autolubes and i could never understand why. To just keep it topped up and put the odd pipe back on now and again cost virtually nothing yet the advantages were colossal,you got far bigger mileages out of the running gear,lower running costs and almost no down time in fact about all we did to them was adjust the brakes and check the tyre pressures. It seemed comforting to know that every time you touched the brakes the trailer lubricated itself.
Well put Grif,but I suppose maintainence wasn’t exactly “top of the list” for some operators of yesteryear! The 4 in-line was obsolete by the time I got started as I believe the new C & U regs sunk it but I think as a result of the new regs. the short lived “tandem 4” took over from the old 4 in-line.In fact the first trailer I bought was a tandem 4 which Primrose built for me in late '69.It had a single wheel tandem arrangement that allowed for a 12 ton bogie and allowed a GVW of 26 ton,this in turn gave us an 18ton payload,this was IMO right at the extreme end of what was safe,although we never got into any trouble with stability problems it was the only trailer of this type we operated and then only for about 2 years or so!!!
sammyopisite:
Bewick:
Another T Brady & Sons Ltd.shot this time of one of the many LAD cabbed Beavers they ran in the late 50’s and through the 60’s,except this one was uniqe as it was the only one that had the 680 Power Plus engine the rest were 600’s,and,IIRC it had some sort of splitter or reduction gearbox ? The 4 in-line is probably loaded with Barrow Steel by the looks of it.Dennis there is something lurking in the background on that picture
cheers Johnnie
Aye there is Johnnie and it looks like its got lamps round it !! I hope Webbo isn’t on neets to-neet otherwise the lamps will be like tea trays in the morning !! Cheers Dennis.
Bewick:
El Griffo:
You are right Dennis about some operators ignoring the maintenance of the autolubes and i could never understand why. To just keep it topped up and put the odd pipe back on now and again cost virtually nothing yet the advantages were colossal,you got far bigger mileages out of the running gear,lower running costs and almost no down time in fact about all we did to them was adjust the brakes and check the tyre pressures. It seemed comforting to know that every time you touched the brakes the trailer lubricated itself.Well put Grif,but I suppose maintainence wasn’t exactly “top of the list” for some operators of yesteryear! The 4 in-line was obsolete by the time I got started as I believe the new C & U regs sunk it but I think as a result of the new regs. the short lived “tandem 4” took over from the old 4 in-line.In fact the first trailer I bought was a tandem 4 which Primrose built for me in late '69.It had a single wheel tandem arrangement that allowed for a 12 ton bogie and allowed a GVW of 26 ton,this in turn gave us an 18ton payload,this was IMO right at the extreme end of what was safe,although we never got into any trouble with stability problems it was the only trailer of this type we operated and then only for about 2 years or so!!!
Used to pull these type trls when i worked for parkers trp.bolton,they were nicknamed mickey mouse trls,never found out were the name originated,any ideas?
regards dave.
The trailer sure did it’s job for us Dave !! The main reason for me having to resort to this combination was the granting of a heavier “A” licence and the ULW of the Mastiff and Tandem 4 was as much as I could get at the time.As regards the Bolton “hordes” we used to try and get South of the A556 junction on the M6 on a morning before they all came pouring out onto the Motorway with sheets flapping and the loads leaning over all ways,it was them that were “Mickey Mouse” drivers not the motors Dave !!! Cheers Dennis.
HI Folks , We ran acouple of thease single wheeled tandems ,Peak s they were 33 ft the only problems we ran into were the cross members cracking ,and tyres iff u had a flat u were stuck could not get home ,m t ,so we fitted 900 x 20 twins on them they where tight on the width but got away with it ,Yours Barry Waddy
b.waddy:
HI Folks , We ran acouple of thease single wheeled tandems ,Peak s they were 33 ft the only problems we ran into were the cross members cracking ,and tyres iff u had a flat u were stuck could not get home ,m t ,so we fitted 900 x 20 twins on them they where tight on the width but got away with it ,Yours Barry Waddy
Hiya Barry,that trailer of ours in the previous shot had the longer,wider track, axle beams so we used a normal 1100X22.5 wheel and Primrose built the axles using the same hubs and brakes as the front axle of the Mastiff.The other trailer manufactures,for some reason,used their narrower track axles and fitted those centre knave wheels which as you say were a bloody nightmare,they also used the same hubs and brake assemblies as those on a normal tandem bogie so they were well “overbraked” as a tandem 4 !!! Useless info a speciality !! Cheers Mr. Bewick.
Bewick:
Does anyone have any shots or spec sheets of this type of trailer that was popular in the 50/60s and ran at 24 ton GVW prior to Plating and Testing starting.I know that the market leader for these trailers was BTC of Trafford Park (I think) and also York built them but were they built by anyone else? PS I might get more response to this thread than I got for Guy Big Js with an 8LXB engine!!! Bewick.
How about resurecting this interesting site ? Here is a classic shot of one of the workhorses of the Brady fleet during the early 60’s,Super Comet GEO691,joined the fleet new on 9th may '61 and left,prematuerly(I think) on 27th Sept '65.The shot see’s it filling up at an unknown location but it sure is an atmospheric shot which has been taken when the motor looks in fairly new condition.These Comets and 4 in lines were worked extremely hard at Bradys often pulling a tandem axle trailer at,cough,cough,!! more than 24 ton GVW !! 
The first time I experienced the BTC four-in-line was when bringing a load of tinplate back from Ebbw Vale into our depot. I had descended Black Rock with the usual amount of care & in the same gear as when pulling a tandem axle trailer at 24 tons (AEC Mercury- but she went well!) when,on encountering the roundabout, I was made aware of the BTC’s lack of stopping power. After quickly weighing up the options, 1) over the top of the roundabout, probably knocking front axle out or 2) trying for the “normal” route, risking throwing tinplate into the surrounding countryside, I decided on the latter.
This was when I was made aware of the other of the four-in-line’s failings- must have looked peculiar from the back, with two wheels in the air!
Not too much damage done but it entailed a couple of chaps bringing the crane-equipped Matador out to reposition the bulks of tinplate which, although none had escaped altogether, they were all set out in an orderly line down the nearside of the trailer.
Certainly taught me a lesson.
Incidentally, all of our four-in-lines had the upper surfaces of their mudguards flattened by clouting them against the underside of the floor.
On the subject of trailer makers, Praills of Hereford, the Dodge & Perkins agents, went into the trailermaking business under the “Fleet” name. They were built with the steel hauliers in mind, being 40-ft long, low headboard, very light, with a long coil well.
Dennis, you are correct about Brady’s Leyland- a firm near us had a Beaver with a splitter operated by a second gearstick. Incidentally, it also had the “long door” version of the LAD cab.
Hi, R.O.F. & Dennis
Re the Leyland Beaver with two gearsticks. One was indeed for the splitter and I remember driving one for CLS Scunthorpe many moons ago.
Played a few tunes on it until I figured that IIRC the splitter was on the first 5 gears and Overdrive was direct. You had to be in high split to change down from 6 to 5, for some reason if you went to low split it would not change down to 5. Of course in those days driver instruction consisted of " here’s the keys you 're going to ". This was where older , experienced drivers came in handy , you swallowed your pride and asked them for some help, which , if you asked in the right manner , was usually forthcoming.
Cheers Bassman
Consett Iron Company ran a fleet of these during the 50’s carrying billets from Consett to Jarrow. Three sets of four in line axles not good to work on, from memory they were Cranes before the Fruehauf days. By the time I started they were confined to internal work & inter site movements & the trailers converted into various forms, this one converted to carry long loads. One of the trailers was adapted to transport red hot slabs from the main works to the plate mill which was about a mile away, to speed the job up they double headed it on the first part of its journey then uncoupled the leading tractor on the road in Consett town finishing the journey with one unit.
