Saviem's fan club (Part 1)

[robert1952]

pv83:
Well, I’m not too keen on using all these modern day tech stuff, still use me old non-digital camera a lot, makes you appreciate the technical side of things more I reckon…however I must admit that it can be a blessing, having a digital camera, especially in “the heat of the moment” like
Didn’t thought though that the pics I sometimes post where that much appreciated, will do me best then to post some more

My old man’s been to some very distant places, he too wishes that he’d taken some more pics at the time, just took it for granted back then…

Right, back on topic then, I visited this routiers for a brief moment this week, just stepped in for a tea break and to have a shower, nice place, and the showers were clean and tidy, something worth mentioning in France
These two gems were in the far corner of the parking, I always had a soft spot for those little Scanny’s…was coupled to some sort of low loader, marque didn’t ring any bells though…

Cheers, Patrick

Your top picture was taken at Ymonville on the N154. I think that truck stop was called Le Relais De Beauce. It was a very useful stop under certain circumstances if returning to Blighty. I stopped there a few times and enjoyed their hospitality. Somewhere, I have a photo of my wagon in front of it in a thunderstorm with a rainbow behind, but I can’t find it and I can’t remember for the life of me which era of my driving career it comes from so I might have been on European work or North Africa work. C’est la vie! Robert

[saviem]

Evening all,

Blooming rain thundering down, flattening the , (potentially), superb Hay crop…washing away our access roads, (live on a hill…well water cannot run up hill , can it)■■?

Michel, Fergie, Patrick, (pv83), thank you for the superb images, and the memories that they invoke, and surface!

Johnny, several of us wrote quite a bit about Norbert, starting back in 05 2015," Dentressangle, pre, and post demise"…and I think that I have mentioned Norbert several times on this thread…I only know my bits from my friendship with the family, others wrote from personal experience of working for them…all in all, I think that it paints a fairly good picture of the operation. Personally I have a great deal of professional, and personal time for Norbert, and Marie Therése, he created, what I think in future years will be regarded as one of the most significant road transport operations in the World, (for that is just how big the Dentressangle operation became)…and never ever did they forget the man in the cab…a significant differential from most others who grew to such a size. I can write more, but have a look at what is there on these threads, “Nobbies” is quite some operation, and the way that Norbert grew it, was quite unique…without massive financial gearing!

ROF, John West, I can only agree with what you write, I could never be bothered with taking a camera with me back in the 60s…oh, now, how I wished I had!!!..But pictures were so expensive to develop!..and who ever considered stopping to take them?..stop…we did not!..But I always kept a diary, and did that all through my life…often in a funny sort of shorthand, pictures and words, but its often how I recall memories, sort of an aide memoir… journeys,… people…, deals, …disasters…(many of them)…life in general…food…(oh yes)…wine…(oh double yes)…

But that Straumann picture of Fergies…I stared at it…and again…oh heck…Ive a double......(well back in the 60s I had), same hair cut, same build, same pose…even down to the overalls with the zip down…an exposition of confidence, (that only a young man, who is to learn some hard lessons on the way of life, could only strike)!..I even made my lady wife, and daughter look at it…and to compare, also look at a picture of me in front of my first S20 Foden tractor unit…they both expressed surprise that my late father must have had a" bicycle"…

Michel, that Nicolas picture sent me into my archives looking for all the bits and bobs that I have concerning the designs of René Harvey, right back from the Willeme TGs to the Tractomas, (Via the Spanish creations, TMU, Itex, Ibex, and all of the dealing with Stcc…really took me back to the long hours that I spent in my little office on Quai Gallini, Suresnes with my colleagues, evaluating the potential for Saviem, of Harvey`s designs…alas to no fruitful outcome)…we were wed to Berliet…and their “traditional” thinking…and that was that!

nmm, interesting theory, did engineers transfer from road vehicles, to agricultural, (both wheeled and static). I truly do not know. I do remember that in Fiat Groupe, there was a great deal of interchange in engineering terms between the various divisions, road, passenger, agricultural. Also the same in Renault Groupe. But thinking about Italy, Lombardini in particular had over 100 years experience in static power plants, and in France Eduard Bernard made a pretty penny from his agricultural static engines, (some of which I believe are highly prized). Then of course the last John Deere design easily morphed into the , (probably best ever), Detroit Diesel…and to hear a John Deere really working is music so sublime…(I used to deliberately get mine so bogged down just to hear that soooooooo blood curdling creshendo, a calcophony of power over adversity…yipeeeeeeee!!!

Never grew up, (as my good lady says…often)…

Ah well, my tea calls…and the rain thunders down…the Partridges have nested under the Jeep, so that’s not going out tomorrow!

Cheerio for now.

[newmercman]

Speaking of tractors at full bore, not long after my arrival here in the colonies a friend and I were delivering drilling pipe in southern Illinois, we arrived the night before, parked up and had a wander into town for refreshments. We stumbled across some kind of fair, it turned out to be a tractor pull and what a night it was! It was strange being the only two people in the place not wearing dungarees and between my friend and I we could muster more teeth than the rest of the crowd together, but the locals were friendly enough, although we did make a point of staying clear of anybody with a banjo!

Anyway, those tractor pull chaps are extremely serious about their game and there was some very exotic machinery competing, quad engine set ups with superchargers spitting flames 30ft into the air, old two stroke Detroit from 6Vs up to buzzing dozens, big CAT and ■■■■■■■ retro fits, the sound will live with me forever, you could actually feel the noise.

As the plan for the night was to get inebriated, neither of us had a camera and this was before camera phones, so there are no pictures unfortunately, but what a night it was.

Sent from my SM-T805W using Tapatalk

[tiptop495]

Hey, some French ones, in good and bad days.

Knows someone what the legislation was for the first pic, with short coupling 34 Euro pal ■■?

Eric,

[carryfast]

newmercman:
Anyway, those tractor pull chaps are extremely serious about their game old two stroke Detroit up to buzzing dozens the sound will live with me forever, you could actually feel the noise.

Or those hooligan fire truck makers with 4 more cylinders running along Feltham High Street of the 1970’s.

[robert1952]

Carryfast:

newmercman:
Anyway, those tractor pull chaps are extremely serious about their game old two stroke Detroit up to buzzing dozens the sound will live with me forever, you could actually feel the noise.

Or those hooligan fire truck makers with 4 more cylinders running along Feltham High Street of the 1970’s.

I think you may be referring to what we know here as ‘fire engines’, CF.

[carryfast]

robert1952:

Carryfast:

newmercman:
Anyway, those tractor pull chaps are extremely serious about their game old two stroke Detroit up to buzzing dozens the sound will live with me forever, you could actually feel the noise.

Or those hooligan fire truck makers with 4 more cylinders running along Feltham High Street of the 1970’s.

I think you may be referring to what we know here as ‘fire engines’, CF.

That’s a ‘fire engine’.

thetransportjournal.files.wordp … engine.jpg

That’s a ‘fire truck’.

illinoisfiretrucks.com/ILLIN … /i-bDx337s

[robert1952]

Carryfast:

robert1952:

Carryfast:

newmercman:
Anyway, those tractor pull chaps are extremely serious about their game old two stroke Detroit up to buzzing dozens the sound will live with me forever, you could actually feel the noise.

Or those hooligan fire truck makers with 4 more cylinders running along Feltham High Street of the 1970’s.

I think you may be referring to what we know here as ‘fire engines’, CF.

That’s a ‘fire engine’.

thetransportjournal.files.wordp … engine.jpg

That’s a ‘fire truck’.

illinoisfiretrucks.com/ILLIN … /i-bDx337s

My point entirely! Not many fire trucks in 1970s Feltham, then - or I am missing a closet Yank in our midst with 4 cylinders? Robert

[carryfast]

robert1952:
My point entirely! Not many fire trucks in 1970s Feltham, then - or I am missing a closet Yank in our midst with 4 cylinders? Robert

Plenty of them in Feltham because that’s where we made them and they ran down the High street a few times as a chassis to the factory and on the way to/from Chobham and other testing sites and to the shippers when it was finished and 4 + a dozen = roaring 16 not buzzin dozen.

[robert1952]

Carryfast:

robert1952:
My point entirely! Not many fire trucks in 1970s Feltham, then - or I am missing a closet Yank in our midst with 4 cylinders? Robert

Plenty of them in Feltham because that’s where we made them and they ran down the High street a few times as a chassis to the factory and on the way to/from Chobham and other testing sites and to the shippers when it was finished and 4 + a dozen = roaring 16 not buzzin dozen.

I’ve just found a picture of my first encounter with a fire engine in Nottingham in 1957. I’m the little chap on the right. I’ve just googled the reg no. and discovered it has been preserved! I remember that day because we also climbed aboard a very ancient Leyland fire engine with a long bonnet and an escape ladder. Robert

[carryfast]

robert1952:
I’ve just found a picture of my first encounter with a fire engine in Nottingham in 1957. I’m the little chap on the right. I’ve just googled the reg no. and discovered it has been preserved! I remember that day because we also climbed aboard a very ancient Leyland fire engine with a long bonnet and an escape ladder. Robert

10

Brilliant co incidence there Robert.As others have said if only it was as convenient years ago to take photos of our every day activeties in the job.What seemed ordinary then is great history now.

[fergie47]

I’ve got a few pics of French fire engines, shall I post them up ? haven’t done in the past as they’re not lorries, but seeing as the subjects cropped up…

[buzzer]

robert1952:

Carryfast:

robert1952:
My point entirely! Not many fire trucks in 1970s Feltham, then - or I am missing a closet Yank in our midst with 4 cylinders? Robert

Plenty of them in Feltham because that’s where we made them and they ran down the High street a few times as a chassis to the factory and on the way to/from Chobham and other testing sites and to the shippers when it was finished and 4 + a dozen = roaring 16 not buzzin dozen.

I’ve just found a picture of my first encounter with a fire engine in Nottingham in 1957. I’m the little chap on the right. I’ve just googled the reg no. and discovered it has been preserved! I remember that day because we also climbed aboard a very ancient Leyland fire engine with a long bonnet and an escape ladder. Robert

10

Like the number plate 999 always remember when I was a nipper a chap used to come and watch the cricket on the green at Nomansland in Wiltshire with his new Vauxhall Viva sl and the plate on that was TEL 999 and the TEL bit was a Bournemouth plate. They reckon the cricket ground holds the record for the ball crossing the county boundry from Hampshire and Wiltshire as the road was the deviding line between the two counties, Buzzer.

[pv83]

robert1952:

pv83:
Well, I’m not too keen on using all these modern day tech stuff, still use me old non-digital camera a lot, makes you appreciate the technical side of things more I reckon…however I must admit that it can be a blessing, having a digital camera, especially in “the heat of the moment” like
Didn’t thought though that the pics I sometimes post where that much appreciated, will do me best then to post some more

My old man’s been to some very distant places, he too wishes that he’d taken some more pics at the time, just took it for granted back then…

Right, back on topic then, I visited this routiers for a brief moment this week, just stepped in for a tea break and to have a shower, nice place, and the showers were clean and tidy, something worth mentioning in France
These two gems were in the far corner of the parking, I always had a soft spot for those little Scanny’s…was coupled to some sort of low loader, marque didn’t ring any bells though…

Cheers, Patrick

Your top picture was taken at Ymonville on the N154. I think that truck stop was called Le Relais De Beauce.

You’re on to the next round

[pv83]

As we all like to look back at the “good old days”, I very much doubt that there’s someone who’s gets warm feelings about driving on cobblestones…
I had the “pleasure” of doing so today at the Antwerp docks, absolutely a spine breaking experience…mind you, with only 5mph that is…

Been to a windmill farm this week just south of Auxerre, beautiful scenery, apart from those windmills though…
Crane company Dufour got the task to assembly the parts and put them in position.

Cheers, Patrick

[retired_old_fart]

I think you’ll find that those are “setts”, pv83. If they had been cobbles you’d have been at the physio’s by now!

[pv83]

Retired Old ■■■■:
I think you’ll find that those are “setts”, pv83. If they had been cobbles you’d have been at the physio’s by now!

Take an educated guess about my where about’s at this moment
Whatever it was, surely took me back to medieval times like…

[fergie47]

Two companies that were plying their trade from the 60’s onward. Friderici is still going today, not sure about Andre Vilalta but I saw many of them in the '60’s and '70’s…

[fergie47]

From yesteryear, to modern times…

[retired_old_fart]

pv83:

Retired Old ■■■■:
I think you’ll find that those are “setts”, pv83. If they had been cobbles you’d have been at the physio’s by now!

Take an educated guess about my where about’s at this moment
Whatever it was, surely took me back to medieval times like…

Oh dear!
We have quite a few streets in Macclesfield still paved with granite setts, although the locals refer to then as “cobbled streets”. I had originally been sent up here from God’s Own County as a missionary but totally failed in my attempts to instil “Proper English” into the Maxonian populace. I should have listened to my old grand father when he told me, “You can’t educate pork”!