Hi Ray. Interesting to see the Liverpool Cleansing Dept vehicles. When I was on nights for MFS at Maltby,part of the Glass Glover Distribution Group I delivered to Littlewoods store with a wagon and drag.I would turn down School Lane and the gates for the loading bay were on your right,just past a boozer called the Old Post Office and opposite Mermaid Theatre entrance. I would drop the drag off further down and then back up to tip the four wheeler,either a Transconti or after 1983 a Scania.One night I was not happy to find a Lancia car parked in front of the gates,all locked up,but just at that moment a Corporation dustcart - the ones with the sliding covers - came up School Lane with a crew of three. When the driver saw the car he pulled out the biggest bunch of keys I’ve ever seen in my life and was in that car in no time. We pushed it back round the corner and locked it up,blocking a little short cut that the police used to get to their HQ further down.The driver told me that they could get in any vehicle no problem and they would shift owt in their way.They always used to give me a wave when I saw them int city centre at night.
So I backed in the yard,locked the gates and was busy tipping off tail lift when I heard the sound of annoyed voices which turned out to be the police.They shouted to me if I’d seen the driver of the Lancia and I answered truthfully - no.They were not happy but nowt to do with me… I was on that run alternate fortnights for over 5 years,via a trailer swap off the dolly at our Altrincham depot,the other two weeks I’d be on Ellesmere Port.Happy days.
PS.I’m sure that boozer was a knocking shop…always summat going on after midnight.
Two photos of the wagons I had on that job…
For many years, Atlas Express were associated with local parcels carrier J.B.Caulfield at Window Lane, Garston, Liverpool.
Caulfields operation eventually became part of Atlas Express in the 1960s. This excellent picture of a Leyland Comet van
is courtesy of moomooland, many thanks, Ray Smyth.
Hi Dean, Thank you for the Thorburn Scania picture. I believe Thorburn International were based at Huyton
in Liverpool, about 1 Mile before the Western end of the M62 Motorway. Regards, Ray.
Hi Dean, Thank you for the Thorburn Scania picture. I believe Thorburn International were based at Huyton
in Liverpool, about 1 Mile before the Western end of the M62 Motorway. Regards, Ray.
Wallace Thorburn was a regular subby for Turners for several years. He would load them from Newmarket to the North West after they had tipped an inbound European load, quite often delivering to our cold store. Thorburn’s went into liquidation eventually. Wallace told me during one of our conversations that his father was a director of Ritson’s.
Ritsons fridge lorries were seen regularly at the abattoir and cold store on Prescot Road (A57) in Liverpool.
Another firm of fridge lorries seen frequently there was W.G.Suckling, green and white lorries, from memory.
The Liverpool Corporation Dennis dustbin lorry is parked at the bottom of Skelhorne Street in Liverpool City Centre.
The Ribble Leyland PD3 bus has turned from Lime Street into Skelhorne Street, and is about to turn right into the
Ribble bus station. The bus conductor has already changed the destination blind to “Ormskirk”, its next journey.
The yellow Commer van looks like it belongs to British Telecom, the picture is about 1974.
That is an interesting shot of the Mastiff of which we ran two , one a 26 ton gvw and the second one a 28 ton gvw. The Mastiff didn’t enjoy much of a reputation but it was a cheap economy motor which was expected to work like a Premium motor which was impossible. But in defence of the Mastiff I have got to say we treated our two with the utmost care and respect which entailed giving them fortnightly oil changes, filters every other time, we drove them sensibly and steady. I can recall that just prior to selling the 26 tonner we were just getting a faint sniff of burning oil so probably the Perkins was starting to wear a bit. The trailer in the shot is also interesting, looks as if could be a forty footer ? However the biggest drawback to the Pitt, York, Fruehauf tandem Fours etc. was the use of normal narrow track axles and large brake drums for use on a 8wheel tandem bogie which in turn necessitated the use of the centre knave wheel assemblies. To overcome this problem I had Primrose Trailers build me a 32 ft trailer using wide track axles fitted with Mastiff front hub assemblies which enabled the use of standard, and interchangeable, tubeless 1100 x 22:5 wheels. By using smaller brakes savage braking was avoided ! Cheers Bewick.
That is an interesting shot of the Mastiff of which we ran two , one a 26 ton gvw and the second one a 28 ton gvw. The Mastiff didn’t enjoy much of a reputation but it was a cheap economy motor which was expected to work like a Premium motor which was impossible. But in defence of the Mastiff I have got to say we treated our two with the utmost care and respect which entailed giving them fortnightly oil changes, filters every other time, we drove them sensibly and steady. I can recall that just prior to selling the 26 tonner we were just getting a faint sniff of burning oil so probably the Perkins was starting to wear a bit. The trailer in the shot is also interesting, looks as if could be a forty footer ? However the biggest drawback to the Pitt, York, Fruehauf tandem Fours etc. was the use of normal narrow track axles and large brake drums for use on a 8wheel tandem bogie which in turn necessitated the use of the centre knave wheel assemblies. To overcome this problem I had Primrose Trailers build me a 32 ft trailer using wide track axles fitted with Mastiff front hub assemblies which enabled the use of standard, and interchangeable, tubeless 1100 x 22:5 wheels. By using smaller brakes savage braking was avoided ! Cheers Bewick.
Dennis, You are a man who looked after his gear with perfection, We did the same & ran a small fleet compared to yours , But nevertheless, Prevention was allways better than cure, Regards Larry
That is an interesting shot of the Mastiff of which we ran two , one a 26 ton gvw and the second one a 28 ton gvw. The Mastiff didn’t enjoy much of a reputation but it was a cheap economy motor which was expected to work like a Premium motor which was impossible. But in defence of the Mastiff I have got to say we treated our two with the utmost care and respect which entailed giving them fortnightly oil changes, filters every other time, we drove them sensibly and steady. I can recall that just prior to selling the 26 tonner we were just getting a faint sniff of burning oil so probably the Perkins was starting to wear a bit. The trailer in the shot is also interesting, looks as if could be a forty footer ? However the biggest drawback to the Pitt, York, Fruehauf tandem Fours etc. was the use of normal narrow track axles and large brake drums for use on a 8wheel tandem bogie which in turn necessitated the use of the centre knave wheel assemblies. To overcome this problem I had Primrose Trailers build me a 32 ft trailer using wide track axles fitted with Mastiff front hub assemblies which enabled the use of standard, and interchangeable, tubeless 1100 x 22:5 wheels. By using smaller brakes savage braking was avoided ! Cheers Bewick.
Dennis, You are a man who looked after his gear with perfection, We did the same & ran a small fleet compared to yours , But nevertheless, Prevention was allways better than cure, Regards Larry
Aye Larry we had to look after the gear like “a cake and an egg” in the early years eh!, couldn’t afford to do owt else !
There were plenty of these left along that stretch of the Dock Road back in the eighties. I was riding along there one night in the car trying to tune the radio into a football commentary on Radio City (back in the days of manually-tuned car radios). I briefly glanced down at the dashboard and in that instance, hit a pothole with the nearside front wheel where the railway went across the road. I looked up, and to my horror I was heading for the back offside twistlock of one of these trailers - hidden in the gloom. I’ve never swerved to avoid something as fast before - or since. I got as far as Parkfield Silos, which is less than 100yds further up the road (where Nortons scrap conveyor is now) and had to stop to calm down and ‘have a stern word with myself’…
We pushed it back round the corner and locked it up,blocking a little short cut that the police used to get to their HQ further down.The driver told me that they could get in any vehicle no problem and they would shift owt in their way.They always used to give me a wave when I saw them int city centre at night.
I was on that run alternate fortnights for over 5 years,via a trailer swap off the dolly at our Altrincham depot,the other two weeks I’d be on Ellesmere Port.Happy days.
