When I came out of the army in 1955 I got a driving job (forgot the name) in and out of the London Docks every day and I got to know the driver of chain driven Schammel that never went out of the docks, other lorries belonging to the owners used to come into the docks and tranship onto the Schammel which was called a feeder moter, it used to go from shed to shed. One day the driver let me have a drive of this beast which had a right hand gate change. I am very proud to be able to say I drove a chain driven Schammel. Many years later I delivered a brand new heavy haulage Schammel puller with a 10 ton ballast box down to Matosinos in Portugal for Schammel trucks.
How many can remember when Hauliers used to advertise a vacancy,
“Lorry drivers required must have experience with diesel engines”?
and this was in the early 60’s
Ossie
Does anyone know what happened to Ronnie Muggleton? Would like to contact re. J & H Transport. Doug Cull.
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Hi All
I’m a close family friend of Ronnie Muggleton and have helped him to sign up on this and signed in on his behalf. By chance, we found all these posts asking after him!
Ronnie still loves his lorries (talks about RAM, GL Baker the old days all the time!). Unfortunately he is in hospital at the moment battling cancer, but we are hoping he’ll be recovering and on here in the near future himself. However, in the meantime he will take joy in reading all of these posts which we will show him.
It’s nice to know that people are asking after him after all these years. Will keep you posted on his health.
fonzi:
before moving on to G L BAKER in channelsea road ( think that’s spelt write ) stratford e15. Ronny Muggleton was transport manager then I think.
Now there’s a name I seem to remember. 
(Amongst the others you mentioned.)
Hi there…
Saw this post and just had to reply 
I am a close family friend of Ronnie Muggleton and having done a bit of a google - we found all these posts! So we signed him up! I think the reason you remember that name so well is because I dare say he was a it of a character - he still is!
Unfortunately he’s battling ‘the big C’ at the moment but these stories will make him smile and reminisce lots! Lorries and his firm RAM are all he talks about!
bestbooties:
South Eastern Turkey in the early days,heading for Iraq.Big Rod driving for Pan Express in a Scania 141 in front.
Hi is that Rodney who had the union jack curtains ?
Saw some of the images here and thought, right I’m going up in the loft and dig out some old photo’s. Took all last weekend,but thats nothing compared with the amount of time I’ve spent trying to get them on here.
(The image file you tried to attach is invalid.)
Here’s a photo of Rod Walsh’s Scania doing internals.
Dave Telford Terry Dines and Mick Buckingham in Greece heading for Kavala
John Bull Shipping from Godalming …1979 Ready to ship out…
On of Funston’s finest waiting to tip in Istanbul…
Parked up at Londra …Len Clementi sporting a very smart string vest.
Dave Telford in The Fonz pose…
Following John Hodges through Syria en route to Doha, around 1981…
].jpg[/img]
I found this photo of Tony Soameson’s truck with one of Dayson’s topped coming home at Kavala
Yes, I have to agree. It was hard work but we also had a lot of fun. Now it’s dog eat dog- Someone asked about the late Pat Kennett’s World Trucks books. They stopped at No. 14, Leyland, because the publisher (Patrick Stephens) pulled the plug. At the time, Mercedes Benz, No 15 had been researched but work stopped when the news from the publisher was announced. To answer another question, Pat died in 1998 of a heart attack.
Archie Paice:
john.nicholls:
Any of you lads help me as i remember working for a company over in Loughton Essex near Epping back in the early eighties all i can remember of the Company it the wagons were Yellow and they were all (or mostly Scania 110 s) no bloody sleepers and we were doing mostly Bulgaria and cheq and Romania, also i remember the rumour that the boss did nothing but sit in his office and count the money he was making every bloody day ! they paid good money,you never loaded your trailor over here all done by uk drivers,and old the units were, he had 3 full time Fitters,every time you came back the wagon would have to be parked up outside the workshop ready for a Service (and i mean ! every trip !) but for the love of money i cant think of the name of the company only there for a year and only left cos he wouldnt buy sleepers .Hullo john.nicholls,
The only bloke I can think of with Yellow Scanias out of Loughton was Ray Phillips. He was up in North Farm in Loughton, Expo Freight. His motors were all well kept, but he also ran a lot of Sleeper Scanias, and I think he had a couple of Volvos as well. The only others I can think of in The Farm were Deptford Commercials ( Don Alexander ), Mavertons and Susbideries ( Lew Saintz and Nigel Downey ) Alex Fairlie, I forget what he was called, AF something ? or other. And another bloke who’s name escapes me. The only other firm I can think of was Green Dragon. But they were up the hill, about a mile away. Expo Freight were the only Yellow ones though (Yellow with a Blue Stripe )Hi Archie - Having never ventured into the the ‘Nostalgia’ thread I found it quite interesting, particularly the point you raised about Ray Phillips (Expo) from Loughton. and the photo’s re: Pan Express and Dave Telford etc (Old memories eh ?) I worked for Pan’s (Only when being watched )
and when they packed up I was contacted by Ray Phillips by way of Johnny Ellingham and I did a couple of trips for him to Austria and as you mentioned he was a nice bloke, he offered me full time but I had other plans and for me it was a pig of a place to get to from Woking where I was living at the time, another name you raised was Mavertons and that nudged the old memory box. On reading through this thread I noticed that a lot of the the contributors who had disappeared from the Astran/Mideast are on here, I forgot to mention that when I went to Loughton I was surprised to see three of Pan’s tractors in the yard. regards Fred (Keep taking the pills)
Cheers, Archie.
just finished re reading cola cowboys , its back in print from old pond publishers i got it for about £7 off amazon , read it in the 80’s interesting to read it now that the commie block is now the dark side of the E.U , it seems that those boys are the long distance men now 
YOUNG CHRIS:
never did me but did spend 10 years on international but thats not the point can anyone tell me when now i live and work as a driver in france driving a nice comfortable cf daf 410 with heaters annd air conditioning air sprung seat and a radio you can hear above the engine WHY do i keep thinking of the A series erf 180 gardener engined artic i started my driving career in no sleeper across the bonnet job no heaters only in summer did they seem to work and a seat blocked with a pallet block so i could see over the steering wheel wich wasnt power assisted av i got the start of alziemers or is it the rose tinted illness seting in what was i talking about got to go docters comming with my deisel injection
Same here keep having a hankering for the old leylands , must be an age thing ,
I worked for a guy running scotch delivering ceramics for pylons round the hydro boards could have up to 10-15 drops , I had a ford D -series 24-17 day cab with a V8 polly knocker 7 30 ft trailer quite fast till it saw anything resembling a hill , I recall i had a thick army type sleeping bag ,good job , cos sleeping across the seats in Elgin one night i must have kicked the door handle & the sod opened woke up covered in frost !! good sleeping bag that , recall having to bring the swine back from grangemouth with no clutch cos the tight arsed boss wouldnt entertain a call out , ram it in gear start her up & put your foot down, nowdays "drivers are on the phone grizzling if the nap on the seatcover is brushed the wrong way ha ha but to be fair nowdays theres not much you can do to modern trucks with their sensors & whatnot , cant even repair an airline with an olive nowdays , & i think back in the day there was not the rescue networks there are today & employers don’t encourage thinking for yourself nowdays , your not paid to think , but has thier attitude ever been any other way ?
unclegargameld:
I worked for a guy running scotch delivering ceramics for pylons round the hydro boards could have up to 10-15 drops , I had a ford D -series 24-17 day cab with a V8 polly knocker 7 30 ft trailer quite fast till it saw anything resembling a hill , I recall i had a thick army type sleeping bag ,good job , cos sleeping across the seats in Elgin one night i must have kicked the door handle & the sod opened woke up covered in frost !! good sleeping bag that , recall having to bring the swine back from grangemouth with no clutch cos the tight arsed boss wouldnt entertain a call out , ram it in gear start her up & put your foot down, nowdays "drivers are on the phone grizzling if the nap on the seatcover is brushed the wrong way ha ha
remineds me of oddball kellys heros . man I only ride them I don’t know what makes them work . -otto- tramper .
Hi
This is my first post so please forgive me if I walk on any toes. I came across the forum when searching for something else and then chanced upon mentions of Mavertons and Expo Freight, both out of North Farm Loughton. Mavertons was run by Lou Sains and Expo by Ray Philips. I worked for Mavertons in about 1978/9 and Expo just after. Mavertons was for me a great place to work. I used to put the trailers in and out of Dover and then run them up country for tipping. Lou let me work all the hours I wanted, which is how I earned the deposit for my first house. I remember one of his drivers inviting me down the pub and telling me I was one of the team now. These were powerful words for a very green 22 yr old! One day i ran three times to Dover putting trailers through customs and pulling others back to the Farm. I recall saying to Lou one day how I felt dog tired. Lou just reached into his desk to pull out some pills. I wasn’t quite ready for those! All this fun came to an end when Lou employed a new transport ‘manager’. He was a skinny little weasel face who was jealous of the good money I was earning. He wanted me out so he could give the job to one of his mates. I stood in front of him in the office as he told me I was no longer needed. The only thing I could think of was what what a laughable little ■■■■ he was. So I did just that and laughed at him. He was quite put out by my reaction but better still was to look over his shoulder at Lou who sat behind his desk with a sage grin on his face. He knew that I knew etc etc.
I went straight down the farm track and got a job with Ray. First off I did the same, running trailers down to the docks and bringing incoming ones back to tip and reload. I always found Ray to be a straight chap ( but smiled at someone’s previous post talking about him counting his money…). I then started on the European runs - mainly Italy. Every now and then Ray would suddenly swap a unit and ask me to take out someone else’s. A couple of times I had drivers collar me and tell me how much I had to fiddle so their scams wouldn’t be revealed. That’s when I realised just how incredibly green I really was - How much?? You scam that much every trip!!
I moved on in life and now, 35 years later, still look back at the fun education I had alongside some very hard men. I avoided the drones and think myself privileged to have met some really great characters. All this time later I find myself back driving LGVs
anyone got any stories about t e jones plant hire from knockin heath? he used to run a haulage side with scania 111s and MANs.
Dustydog:
Hi
This is my first post so please forgive me if I walk on any toes. I came across the forum when searching for something else and then chanced upon mentions of Mavertons and Expo Freight, both out of North Farm Loughton. Mavertons was run by Lou Sains and Expo by Ray Philips. I worked for Mavertons in about 1978/9 and Expo just after. Mavertons was for me a great place to work. I used to put the trailers in and out of Dover and then run them up country for tipping. Lou let me work all the hours I wanted, which is how I earned the deposit for my first house. I remember one of his drivers inviting me down the pub and telling me I was one of the team now. These were powerful words for a very green 22 yr old! One day i ran three times to Dover putting trailers through customs and pulling others back to the Farm. I recall saying to Lou one day how I felt dog tired. Lou just reached into his desk to pull out some pills. I wasn’t quite ready for those! All this fun came to an end when Lou employed a new transport ‘manager’. He was a skinny little weasel face who was jealous of the good money I was earning. He wanted me out so he could give the job to one of his mates. I stood in front of him in the office as he told me I was no longer needed. The only thing I could think of was what what a laughable little [zb] he was. So I did just that and laughed at him. He was quite put out by my reaction but better still was to look over his shoulder at Lou who sat behind his desk with a sage grin on his face. He knew that I knew etc etc.I went straight down the farm track and got a job with Ray. First off I did the same, running trailers down to the docks and bringing incoming ones back to tip and reload. I always found Ray to be a straight chap ( but smiled at someone’s previous post talking about him counting his money…). I then started on the European runs - mainly Italy. Every now and then Ray would suddenly swap a unit and ask me to take out someone else’s. A couple of times I had drivers collar me and tell me how much I had to fiddle so their scams wouldn’t be revealed. That’s when I realised just how incredibly green I really was - How much?? You scam that much every trip!!
I moved on in life and now, 35 years later, still look back at the fun education I had alongside some very hard men. I avoided the drones and think myself privileged to have met some really great characters. All this time later I find myself back driving LGVs
Dusty
Great story. Love to hear more. I am Lew’s daughter and nothing shocks me lol
I (Geoff) worked for expo freight as. Fitter around 1979 just wondering if anyone else that worked there are around Barry Dave Phillips Rick Ted Nichols . I also remember Lou at Mavertons and bob from Leadbetter Commercails and Scantrucks in Enfield Phil Garry Tom Bill Colin Tony and Bally Fred Brooks I wonder who is still around and where they are. Also Martins. Joe Martin and Roger Carlson who had those own trucking companies