Great article Dean, thanks for posting. It’s one I clearly recall reading first time round 
The W & J Riding article is very interesting ! I wasn’t aware that the Bewick fleet was of a similar size around the same time period, however I note that Tom didn’t included Scania in his criticism of foreign units and it reminds me of a black tie function in Preston I attended many years ago with my Pal the late Malc Woodhouse and we came across Tom and naturally the “diesel flowed” ! and I clearly remembering Tom informing the two of us ( with tongue in cheek 
) that he couldn’t afford to purchase Scanias which both Malc and myself were buying in number at that time !
The fuel consumptions quoted in the article are again most interesting as we ran, at different times, on 24 hr operation, ■■■■■■■ 205/220’s, 180LXB’s, 240 LXB’s, one lone FL10, and one 111, then Scania 280/305/330. I accept that the ■■■■■■■ and the 111 were the poorest performers mpg wise and the 240LXBs in the Sed/Atks and B Series varied between 7.5 and 8 mpg dependant on the weather. But once we started running the new P and R series Scanias they quickly proved to be head and shoulders above the Gardners I’m sorry to say ! The intercooler 112 in particular would return a steady 8:25 mpg whereas the FL10 299 could only scrape into the high 7 mpg’s but it was 100% reliable all the same. As for the ■■■■■■■ 290 of which we ran ( Sed/Atk and ERF) on extended demos you needed a derv tanker following ! If it wasn’t for the “free gratis” of the demo i.e. tyres and wear and tear etc I wouldn’t have allowed them in the depot ! The equivalent “gas guzzler” was of course the F88 ! But for me the Scanias won on every aspect, reliability, economy, Driver acceptance and, a big and, they held their value in the second hand market. Cheers Bewick.
This was part of an order for 40,000 tons from Castle Cement at Clitheroe which went to the Ascension Islands to build a runway after the Falklands war.
Bewick:
Now that is a very interesting post “mml”, it equals 800 loads so I wonder how many a day were delivered ? 100 maybe ? and did WJR deliver the whole shipment ? That sure is a rapid traffic flow in one direction and do you know what----- I bet Mr Tom reloaded every motor back to Lancashire !
Hi Dennis regarding the cement movement between Clitheroe and Tees dock we made a mistake.
Tom Riding has looked back in his diary’s and tells me that between January and October 1984 they actually moved 32,704 tonnes.
Likewise, from January to July 1985 they were in action again and moved a further 9,387 Tonnes.
They were also moving 200 tonnes a day of packed pallets of cement to Coatbridge.
My kind of a Haulier Tom Riding unfortunately the breed is probably almost extinct 
However returning to the article and the percentages quoted for Wages I believe could be a misprint ! 60% is way out IMHO and I would hazard a guess that Tom would agree. As far as I was concerned at Bewick Transport for many years I managed to hold wages/expenses/NHI at circa 22% or so and fuel at around 20% as a percentage of T/O although in later years the combined numbers climbed to around 48% but I also managed to keep the figure below 50% which I could live with. I can recall these numbers as I was obsessed with our operating costs and these two numbers were the critical ones which we produced on a monthly basis. Sorry to bore some of you lads with detail but that was one of the vagaries that had to be endured by a Haulier. I shudder to think what the percentages are currently as from what I can see to-days haulier is just an un-official tax collector for HMRC ! Cheers Bewick.
Bewick:
The W & J Riding article is very interesting ! I wasn’t aware that the Bewick fleet was of a similar size around the same time period, however I note that Tom didn’t included Scania in his criticism of foreign units and it reminds me of a black tie function in Preston I attended many years ago with my Pal the late Malc Woodhouse and we came across Tom and naturally the “diesel flowed” ! and I clearly remembering Tom informing the two of us ( with tongue in cheek
The fuel consumptions quoted in the article are again most interesting as we ran, at different times, on 24 hr operation, ■■■■■■■ 205/220’s, 180LXB’s, 240 LXB’s, one lone FL10, and one 111, then Scania 280/305/330. I accept that the ■■■■■■■ and the 111 were the poorest performers mpg wise and the 240LXBs in the Sed/Atks and B Series varied between 7.5 and 8 mpg dependant on the weather. But once we started running the new P and R series Scanias they quickly proved to be head and shoulders above the Gardners I’m sorry to say ! The intercooler 112 in particular would return a steady 8:25 mpg whereas the FL10 299 could only scape into the high 7 mpg’s but it was 100% reliable all the same. As for the ■■■■■■■ 290 of which we ran ( Sed/Atk and ERF) on extended demos you needed a derv tanker following ! If it wasn’t for the “free gratis” of the demo i.e. tyres and wear and tear etc I wouldn’t have allowed them in the depot ! The equivalent “gas guzzler” was of course the F88 ! But for me the Scanias won on every aspect, reliability, economy, Driver acceptance and, a big and, they held their value in the second hand market. Cheers Bewick.
I fully accept your post on the subject of vehicle purchase and make of motors used etc , and since its Saturday night and life needs to be taken a little less seriously but if you take all you say about Scania,s is true how the hell did Tom Riding ever ■■? manage to run a very successful haulage business without running any Scania,s , I also recall the well known fleet of Smith of Maddison purchasing a fair number of 110 Scania’s only get get shot of them very rapidly because they were so troublesome and return to buying ERF/Guy/ Seddon all fitted with ■■■■■■■ / Gardner engines again continued to run a very successful operation ■■?,I await your take and comments on the matter .
Now “Shuggs” please do not misinterpret my post ! At no time did I,or would I ever question W & J Ridings operational success and record, nor SOM’s for that matter ! so let’s get that straight! I was referring only to my experiences at Bewick Transport and exactly as it was with regard to the Scanias we operated nor did I ever say that the British motors we ran, and we ran a good number, were bad motors ! I did say that the ■■■■■■■ and the 111’s were not as economical and I never ran any 110’s so I can’t and won’t comment. But I stand by my claim that the later Scanias were superior to the other marques on the fleet and that was a proven fact at Bewick Transport. I could have easily chosen to have stuck with the Gardner powered Chassis from 1976 through to when they fizzled out in the late 80’s early 90’s and then I would have had a real unpalatable problem of where to go then ! But I took the decision to introduce Volvo and Scania onto the fleet in '76, while still purchasing ERF’s, Guys and Sed/Atks all with Gardner engines but to be blunt the Scania and to a lesser extent the Volvos out classed the British marques as far as I and Bewick Transport were concerned so Scania did make steady inroads into the fleet although I did run half a dozen Merc 1844’s and a couple of Magnums on our Euro operation along with Scanias of course.
Hope I have answered your question ! Cheers Bewick.
DEANB:
Found this pic in truck magazine Paul.
Thanks for that Dean, note that it’s a P Reg Atkinson Borderer which is very unusual.
Amongst other things the article referred to Atkinson Borderer 4x2 tractor unit Reg No JTB 888P Fleet No 25 ‘Bright Star’
In his own words and in fine detail Tom Riding recalls the full story behind Reg No JTB 888P …
"Originally our Atkinson Borderer 4x2 tractor unit Reg No GRN 137N Fleet No 86 ‘Splendid’ was registered new by us on the 1st of November 1974 at a cost of £9,415.21p plus vat.
Powered by a Gardner 240 engine it unfortunately caught fire in 1981 while climbing the long assent on the M62 between Junctions 21 and 22 near Rochdale.
The fire was caused by sound insulation material dropping on to the hot exhaust manifold resulting in the vehicle being totally burnt out and warping the chassis.
To all intents and purposes it should have been scrapped except that the engine and running units only suffered superficial damage and were repairable.
I looked around and discovered that D & F Services of Bamber Bridge, who i had used for years, had in fact a rolling chassis, minus the cab, identical to the warped one i needed to replace.
This chassis turned out to be ex Suttons 4x2 tractor unit Reg No JTB 888P which had been registered new to Suttons on the 13th of November 1975 making it virtually one of the last Atkinson Borderer’s before the launch of the ‘400 Series’ hence the late ‘P’ registration plate.
I duly bought it complete with its logbook and using parts we had about us at Longridge, including a spare cab, it was rebuilt for a total of £3,765 and put back into service as Fleet No 25 named ‘Bright Star’.
After three years service with us i then sold it on to John Killingbeck of Blackburn for £3,000 plus vat in February 1984.
My Lords Ladies and Gentlemen this is the true record and the true story regarding Atkinson Borderer Reg No JTB 888P.
We just loved to bugger about with Atkinson’s".
moomooland:
DEANB:
Found this pic in truck magazine Paul.Thanks for that Dean, note that it’s a P Reg Atkinson Borderer which is very unusual.
0
Amongst other things the article referred to Atkinson Borderer 4x2 tractor unit Reg No JTB 888P Fleet No 25 ‘Bright Star’In his own words and in fine detail Tom Riding recalls the full story behind Reg No JTB 888P …
"Originally our Atkinson Borderer 4x2 tractor unit Reg No GRN 137N Fleet No 86 ‘Splendid’ was registered new by us on the 1st of November 1974 at a cost of £9,415.21p plus vat.
Powered by a Gardner 240 engine it unfortunately caught fire in 1981 while climbing the long assent on the M62 between Junctions 21 and 22 near Rochdale.
The fire was caused by sound insulation material dropping on to the hot exhaust manifold resulting in the vehicle being totally burnt out and warping the chassis.
To all intents and purposes it should have been scrapped except that the engine and running units only suffered superficial damage and were repairable.
I looked around and discovered that D & F Services of Bamber Bridge, who i had used for years, had in fact a rolling chassis, minus the cab, identical to the warped one i needed to replace.
This chassis turned out to be ex Suttons 4x2 tractor unit Reg No JTB 888P which had been registered new to Suttons on the 13th of November 1975 making it virtually one of the last Atkinson Borderer’s before the launch of the ‘400 Series’ hence the late ‘P’ registration plate.
I duly bought it complete with its logbook and using parts we had about us at Longridge, including a spare cab, it was rebuilt for a total of £3,765 and put back into service as Fleet No 25 named ‘Bright Star’.
After three years service with us i then sold it on to John Killingbeck of Blackburn for £3,000 plus vat in February 1984.My Lords Ladies and Gentlemen this is the true record and the true story regarding Atkinson Borderer Reg No JTB 888P.
We just loved to bugger about with Atkinson’s".
Intresting read Paul, there were no flies on Tom were there ! He certainly knew how to play the game.
When you consider what it cost to rebuild and then sell it for £3,000 thats a cracking result !!! 
On ebay this morning. Robert
Just come across this one Paul.
DEANB:
Just come across this one Paul
ERF E10 4x2 tractor unit Reg No F260 XRN Fleet No 105 ‘Ingleborough’, powered by a ■■■■■■■ L10 325 engine, was registered new on the 10th of February 1989.
Driven from new by Vinnie Chambers it is seen on the A585 heading for the M5 on 19th of July 1996, Chris Farnah took the picture.
Atkinson Mk II 4X2 tractor unit Reg No WTB 660H Fleet No 41 was a brand new addition to the Riding fleet on the 1st of March 1970 at a cost of £4,708.22p.
Assigned to the bulk haulage fleet WTB 660H was Mark II tractor unit powered by a Gardner 6LXB 180 engine in line with a six speed David Brown gearbox and Kirkstall BDR axle.
It was driven from new by Ron Rich who eventually went on to start his own successful powder tank business.
After eight years service WTB 660H was sold on to a W.R.Taylor of Melling Liverpool on the 8th of March 1978 for £2,500 plus vat.
moomooland:
It was driven from new by Ron Rich who eventually went on to start his own successful powder tank business.
I often see them about, and always looking tidy: richltd.co.uk/
DEANB:
Paul, found this bit about Ridings
Thanks Dean here’s a colour version.
The vehicle in the picture is Seddon Atkinson 401 Series 4x2 tractor unit Reg No D100 XHG Fleet No 69 ‘Hotspur II’ which was powered by a Gardner 6LXDT 290 engine and registered new to Riding’s on the 1st of March 1987.
moomooland:
DEANB:
Paul, found this bit about RidingsThanks Dean here’s a colour version.
0The vehicle in the picture is Seddon Atkinson 401 Series 4x2 tractor unit Reg No D100 XHG Fleet No 69 ‘Hotspur II’ which was powered by a Gardner 6LXDT 290 engine and registered new to Riding’s on the 1st of March 1987.
Looks better in colour !
Probably been posted before.
How Tom Riding turned this…
Seddon Atkinson 400 Series 4X2 tractor unit Reg No NGD 648V Fleet No 18 ‘Apollo’ was originally registered new on the 14th of January 1980 to C.R.S. Transport Ltd.
Powered by a ■■■■■■■ E290 engine in line with a Fuller 9509 gearbox and group axle it looks quite resplendent in the picture above, but all is not what it seems as Tom Riding explains below…
"I had a phone call off Ken Howard from Translitre at Burton on Trent, from whom i had bought several damaged vehicles off in the past, who went on to explain that he had a Seddon Atkinso 400 Series in their yard that had been in his words ‘knocked about a bit’. 
I travelled down to Burton on Trent and on closer inspection decided that, amazingly, there was nothing mechanically wrong with it.
After paying Translitre £4,000 plus vat for the heap on the 1st of December 1982 we loaded it up and brought it home to Longridge for my mechanics to set about the challenge of turning it into a workhorse once again.
Costing a total of £5.354 in parts to sort it out and get it back on the road again to earn it’s keep we ran it in our fleet for six years, until the end of 1988, after which time i sold it on to D.G. McWalters of Balmullo St Andrews for £3,000 plus vat."