Yep, free air on sugar.
Otherwise you ended up with a plug of very thick syrup trying to go up the pipe! I had quite a few valves around the trailer which meant I could distribute the air around the barrel depending on the nature of the load.
And don’t forget to turn the “foodstuffs” labels inwards before loading the next load of cement or fly ash!
Interesting that, the difference between cane and beet sugar.
Those sugar bins were made from marine ply, fibreglass lined and with coved corners. The angle of repose was carefully worked out so in normal circumstances they tipped cleanly.
But as production increased, we’d carry a “night load”. Every night after the unload facility had closed at 6pm, we’d load up with one more so first thing in the morning we were all waiting at the gate ready to tip.
Often those loads would hang in the bin when tipped and the bloke standing on the grid mesh would bravely poke away with his clean out stick.
Then whoosh the load would rush out and he’d have to do a big leap clear.
We kept him on his toes by tossing in the odd dead snake when loading the sugar, until the authorities frowned on that game.
Cane sugar was reckoned to be sweeter than beet sugar. I don’t know if that has changed I the last 40 years. Coca Cola always insisted on cane sugar and when BSC got an order, they had to send a tanker into Silvertown otherwise there stuff would be rejected. Another fussy customer was Wrigley at Plymouth. But some years if BSC had a poor campaign a lot of their bulk tankers worked out of Tate and Lyle all the time. Much to the annoyance of the T & L drivers.
Cane sugar was reckoned to be sweeter than beet sugar. I don’t know if that has changed I the last 40 years. Coca Cola always insisted on cane sugar and when BSC got an order, they had to send a tanker into Silvertown otherwise there stuff would be rejected. Another fussy customer was Wrigley at Plymouth. But some years if BSC had a poor campaign a lot of their bulk tankers worked out of Tate and Lyle all the time. Much to the annoyance of the T & L drivers.
Cane sugar was reckoned to be sweeter than beet sugar. I don’t know if that has changed I the last 40 years. Coca Cola always insisted on cane sugar and when BSC got an order, they had to send a tanker into Silvertown otherwise there stuff would be rejected. Another fussy customer was Wrigley at Plymouth. But some years if BSC had a poor campaign a lot of their bulk tankers worked out of Tate and Lyle all the time. Much to the annoyance of the T & L drivers.
Everyone from a sugar town always had plenty of free raw sugar, it was on combing rails or if one was keen on Sundays, local kids would climb into the bins and do a clean out of anything stuck, reduce the tare ………
At the end of season the mills would run batches of “mill white” which was raw sugar put back through the fugels again.
Came out not pure white but also not raw coloured and was very popular.
From my experience every mill’s sugar was slightly different. May not be the case these days as the cane varieties have been whittled down to only a few disease resistant types.
It’s all mixed together in the storage facilities anyway.
ChrisArbon:
Cane sugar was reckoned to be sweeter than beet sugar. I don’t know if that has changed I the last 40 years. Coca Cola always insisted on cane sugar and when BSC got an order, they had to send a tanker into Silvertown otherwise there stuff would be rejected. Another fussy customer was Wrigley at Plymouth. But some years if BSC had a poor campaign a lot of their bulk tankers worked out of Tate and Lyle all the time. Much to the annoyance of the T & L drivers.
Quite right. My mother was a jam and marmalade maker at home and it was always T&L cane sugar she used. She knew that it was sweeter and superior for preserving than Silver Spoon from BSC
Now a Commer of the Tate & Lyle fleet. In France, that kind of front exhaust is compulsory on flammable-content trucks. As I can’t see it on any of my other sugar tanker pictures, was it specific to the Commer trucks?
A few years ago I did quite a few runs from Tate & Lyle in Silvertown, using the Woolwich Ferry for the first of my two ferry crossings, to deliver 25 tonnes of sugar to Andorra, in the Pyrenees. Even with a relatively modern artic, those mountains didn’t arf make the old girl puff and pant on the steeper climbs. Then I’d run empty down into Spain and reload with wine or Brut bubbly. Robert
Froggy55:
0
Now a Commer of the Tate & Lyle fleet. In France, that kind of front exhaust is compulsory on flammable-content trucks. As I can’t see it on any of my other sugar tanker pictures, was it specific to the Commer trucks?
standard fitting on the ts3 two strokes with only one silencer they would have burst your eardrums . the second silencer also acted as a kind of spark arrestor , they produced plenty of sparks when they decked themselves .dave
Thanks Rigsby!
Concerning the TS3, I found this explaination (sorry, it’s in Dutch) which may be useful for those (most of the French) who don’t know that very particular engine.
In France, we had the MAP engine, which worked using the same process; fitted on farming tractors.
That manbre Foden reminds me of those of Sankey sugar Newton le Willows , thank you Trevor .
Looking at that photo of the old split screen Commer, the spare wheel is taking up almost of the space so I guess it was a SWB tractor unit.
The conventional 141" WB layout swung the two mufflers in line and the overall dimension was large.
Ours went from the abomination of flex exhaust hose right to the diff with nothing to spare.
The other rear mounted muffler option on SWB tractors was to run into one muffler, fit a 180 and then run forward into the 2nd muffler and finally a 90 out to the side.
Fuel trucks all had the mufflers mounted across the front in those days, never saw a vertical stack on an ordinary truck.
Now, this one was given by Martin as a 1950 Mammoth Major 8. I’d say it’s registered in Liverpool, but single or twin axle drive? Powered by the same engine as the RT buses?
9.6 litre engine @125 bhp. The larger 11.3 litre (150 bhp) wasn’t introduced until 1953, mainly for export orders, but available in the home market to special order. Home market option from 1955.
ROBERT
That is interesting, the times I just ignored the signs for Andorra, never having any clue what industry they had ,or never heard anyone mention that they had been there , SUGAR was it just for general consumption?
i would have bet anyone that I had done all the1980s EROPEAN COUNTRIES. but I would have lost [ANDORRA]… Lichtenstein is one many have not transited .
deckboypeggy:
ROBERT
That is interesting, the times I just ignored the signs for Andorra, never having any clue what industry they had ,or never heard anyone mention that they had been there , SUGAR was it just for general consumption?
i would have bet anyone that I had done all the1980s EROPEAN COUNTRIES. but I would have lost [ANDORRA]… Lichtenstein is one many have not transited .
I was in Andorra on January 1st 1979, by car (a Renault 4). Lashing rain until half-way up; then snow. I remember the streets in Pas de la Casa weren’t event tarred, making the whole place terribly muddy. To my opinion, the only theing they can do with 25 tons of sugar is dispatching it between the skiing resorts!
deckboypeggy:
ROBERT
That is interesting, the times I just ignored the signs for Andorra, never having any clue what industry they had ,or never heard anyone mention that they had been there , SUGAR was it just for general consumption?
i would have bet anyone that I had done all the1980s EROPEAN COUNTRIES. but I would have lost [ANDORRA]… Lichtenstein is one many have not transited .
Aye, and driving an artic to Vatican City (technically another country!) or Monaco would also be a rare, but possible, experience! As for Andorra’s sugar: I used to deliver it to a little backstreet warehouse that appeared to take in general grocery items, so I would imagine that it was for onward distribution to supermarkets in the ski resorts as Froggie55 suggests. Robert
cargo:
Everyone from a sugar town always had plenty of free raw sugar, it was on combing rails or if one was keen on Sundays, local kids would climb into the bins and do a clean out of anything stuck, reduce the tare ………
At the end of season the mills would run batches of “mill white” which was raw sugar put back through the fugels again.
Came out not pure white but also not raw coloured and was very popular.
From my experience every mill’s sugar was slightly different. May not be the case these days as the cane varieties have been whittled down to only a few disease resistant types.
It’s all mixed together in the storage facilities anyway.
I never had any sugar, raw or refined, from either BSC or T & L; but did get given plenty of product from the customers. Sweets, chocolate, jam, biscuits and cakes. I’m glad I left that job when I did or my teeth would have rotted away to nothing.
I can remember tipping next to Johnny Moss at a big bakery at Rogerstone in South Wales. They gave us each a carton of full-sized Swiss-rolls. I ate two while driving along; peeling back the wrapper and eating them like a banana. We stopped at Membury for a cuppa; by which time Johnny had eaten all twelve of his rolls!
He was a huge ol’ boy from Marbam in Norfolk, never washed or changed his clothes during a week-away; but helped me a lot when I first started. I gave 6 of my Swiss-rolls and by the time we got back to Silvertown, he had scoffed them too.
Two BSC Fodens. Very similar, though n°135 must be at least 6 years older than n°149, looking to their registrations. What’s the single lamp just above the bumper? Fog? Most old trucks had them.
Something tells me that very tall drivers mustn’t have felt comfortable in such cabs! No idea about their exact models.