My memories in particular are from my youth, living next to the A45 (now A14) near Stowmarket. These were the days when Felixstowe had really taken off, but the road (pre 1977 when they built the existing one) wound its way through Angel Hill in Bury St Edmunds, the past Rougham, through the green at Beyton, right through the middle of Woolpit, then thru Stowmarket , Needham, and round Ipswich. You thought it was bad now!!!
Leggetts old yard, which was at Plough Lane (in the middle of Woolpit), has been a housing development for years now and the pub accross the road (Plough) is a private house. They were at the time pretty much dedicated to the British Sugar factory at Bury.
The local companies I remember are the big ones (Russell Davies with their Scania 111’s), Loadwell Transport I’m fairly sure were on container work (now also part of Hanbury Davies I think), I’m sure there was a (Stowmarket?) based container haulier called N. Riley whose trucks were fairly common sightings.
An obscure one was a garage in Rattlesden which had an old Fiat that did tilt work to Europe and possibly further…
You had the ‘You Call We Haul’ trucks operated by Trans UK - which were on Europe/Middle East work.
I distinctly remember Carters of Woodbridge having a completely different livery in those days - white trucks with light green and gold stripes, and gold coloured wheels - mainly mercs I think. They must have gone back to the original green livery during the late 80’s.
There always seemed to be hundreds of Freeymasters tilts on the road in those days, in fact now that it’s almost all containers on the A14 it seems strange that there are relatively so few tilts - but times have changed!
Anybody got any other memories of this time/companies I’ve forgotten?
chorcheela:
My memories in particular are from my youth, living next to the A45 (now A14) near Stowmarket. These were the days when Felixstowe had really taken off, but the road (pre 1977 when they built the existing one) wound its way through Angel Hill in Bury St Edmunds, the past Rougham, through the green at Beyton, right through the middle of Woolpit, then thru Stowmarket , Needham, and round Ipswich. You thought it was bad now!!!
Leggetts old yard, which was at Plough Lane (in the middle of Woolpit), has been a housing development for years now and the pub accross the road (Plough) is a private house. They were at the time pretty much dedicated to the British Sugar factory at Bury.
The local companies I remember are the big ones (Russell Davies with their Scania 111’s), Loadwell Transport I’m fairly sure were on container work (now also part of Hanbury Davies I think), I’m sure there was a (Stowmarket?) based container haulier called N. Riley whose trucks were fairly common sightings.
An obscure one was a garage in Rattlesden which had an old Fiat that did tilt work to Europe and possibly further…
You had the ‘You Call We Haul’ trucks operated by Trans UK - which were on Europe/Middle East work.
I distinctly remember Carters of Woodbridge having a completely different livery in those days - white trucks with light green and gold stripes, and gold coloured wheels - mainly mercs I think. They must have gone back to the original green livery during the late 80’s.
There always seemed to be hundreds of Freeymasters tilts on the road in those days, in fact now that it’s almost all containers on the A14 it seems strange that there are relatively so few tilts - but times have changed!
Anybody got any other memories of this time/companies I’ve forgotten?
chorcheela, i was subbied to lite-haul out of trelawney in the early 80’s, and remember the firms you mention well. i cant remember carters livery. we pulled fridges tilts flats and skellies from the ports there and i was down there for weeks at a time with just a unit.
though the road from the mifdlands was windy till you got to cambridge it was plain sailing then with that 45, till we had to go through ipswitch i used to go round by the football grounsd and out that way. also pulled off harwich and ipswitch in those days, also i remember seeing the scrapers and stuff doing the 45 down near felix where the old road still runs close.
i remember goodways as well, and taylor-balls, remember them?
Mal,
Yes, those names ring a bell, I think Taylor Balls were based somewhere near Mildenhall?
I have found an old pic on Carters website that shows one of the old trucks, if you go to http://www.celgroup.com/Introduction.htm
and scroll doen the the bottom of the page, the right hand pic shows one of the old mercs in the green/gold livery. There are some interesting vintage pics on that site as well. This is a great one though a bit before my time!
At the Hanbury Davies depot at woolpit there’s sometimes an old Loadwell tilt trailer parked up which looks like a bit of a relic from the past.
a few mates of mine worked for loadwell at the willenhall west mids depot a few years back. before they were absorbed. thanks for the old carters pics by the way, and that dodge is very nice, and well before my time too!
yes, remember brain well, yellow and red if i remmebr right, scanias, 110’s 111’s maybe some vee 8’s as well, i saw plenty of them up and down the a12!
Mal:
a few mates of mine worked for loadwell at the willenhall west mids depot a few years back. before they were absorbed. thanks for the old carters pics by the way, and that dodge is very nice, and well before my time too!
i worked for brains at their bham yard on castle vale.
they were sposed to have the biggest scania fleet for a private operator in europe at one time about 250 but will stand corrected on that.
they ran from about 10 depots in the UK, had a set up in rotterdam and also trucks based in the middle east. that was in the 70’s.
There was a picture in our traffic office of John Brain collecting their 100th Scania and the reg was ■■■ 100L whens that - 1973 ish ■■?
theres a post somewhere about a book on Russell Davies, someone should do a Brain Haulage one, they were doing boxes big time long before RD’s even started. One of the ACT contract drivers at Grays depot was the unofficial fleet photographer - had loads of albums stuffed full of nearly every truck they’d run. definitly every make and model
vernonbish777:
i worked for brains at their bham yard on castle vale.
they were sposed to have the biggest scania fleet for a private operator in europe at one time about 250 but will stand corrected on that.
they ran from about 10 depots in the UK, had a set up in rotterdam and also trucks based in the middle east. that was in the 70’s.
There was a picture in our traffic office of John Brain collecting their 100th Scania and the reg was ■■■ 100L whens that - 1973 ish ■■?
theres a post somewhere about a book on Russell Davies, someone should do a Brain Haulage one, they were doing boxes big time long before RD’s even started. One of the ACT contract drivers at Grays depot was the unofficial fleet photographer - had loads of albums stuffed full of nearly every truck they’d run. definitly every make and model
Would that driver have been Pete Sumpter? I’m sure I recall someone saying that he’d been working on a book.
One of the Scanias was restored a few years ago but, sadly, has moved on to a new owner in Ireland and has lost both the livery and the reg no in the process.
…and another name comes back to me…this time prompted by leafing thru an old copy of T&D mag - a retrospective on a European trip involving some 70’s trucks.
Essex International Transport- based in Chelmsford/Colchester I think, who ran Scanias with the word ‘Essex’ in huge letters on the headboard in the UK, Europe and I believe further afield. Theres a pic here: http://top.ch/tc/TL_0604/25f.jpg
which seems to be from the same T&D feature (an old Scania 141 V8). I recall seeing a few of these, again on the A14…any memories stirred?
vernonbish777:
i worked for brains at their bham yard on castle vale.
they were sposed to have the biggest scania fleet for a private operator in europe at one time about 250 but will stand corrected on that.
they ran from about 10 depots in the UK, had a set up in rotterdam and also trucks based in the middle east. that was in the 70’s.
There was a picture in our traffic office of John Brain collecting their 100th Scania and the reg was ■■■ 100L whens that - 1973 ish ■■?
theres a post somewhere about a book on Russell Davies, someone should do a Brain Haulage one, they were doing boxes big time long before RD’s even started. One of the ACT contract drivers at Grays depot was the unofficial fleet photographer - had loads of albums stuffed full of nearly every truck they’d run. definitly every make and model
Would that driver have been Pete Sumpter? I’m sure I recall someone saying that he’d been working on a book.
One of the Scanias was restored a few years ago but, sadly, has moved on to a new owner in Ireland and has lost both the livery and the reg no in the process.
not sure if it was peter, im doing a bit of digging elsewhere so we see what happens - i put a post in the main forum for ex brains lads to get in touch.
shame about that scanny goin away mate, would have liked to see one again in the old firms colours - dont think restoring one of the later load of renault 260’s would have the same appeal !!
Mal:
a few mates of mine worked for loadwell at the willenhall west mids depot a few years back. before they were absorbed. thanks for the old carters pics by the way, and that dodge is very nice, and well before my time too!
vernonbish777:
itheres a post somewhere about a book on Russell Davies, someone should do a Brain Haulage one, they were doing boxes big time long before RD’s even started.
Perhaps you’ll also remember Hako Ferry Services,that were based in Felixstowe in the mid-70’s…
And here’s a pic of one of Fred Archer’s Merc’s near Walton Container Terminal…
Loadwell’s ran a very tidy and smart fleet of Scania 141’s and later 142’s.
Then they took the route that most companies took at that time by buying Volvo FL10’s.
I remember Neville Riley’s trucks.
And of course Ralph Morton’s father A.B.Morton who had quite a sizeable fleet.
very good firm to work cowan bros i worked for them for 8 years
if you was willing to work hard the pay was good jock cowan was
ok if you did something wrong you would have a good telling of then
he would get the beer in on the night
KW,
That’s the one, the green one in the foreground looks like it. As I remember it, It was (for a time anyway) driven by a lady who lived locally, as she used to park it near to where I lived at the time (on the old A45 which was quiet because the new one had been built next to it). The company was based at a garage on Top Road in Rattlesden which was there until about 3 year ago when they knocked it down to build houses there.
Blimey, never thought anybody would remember that!!
In the 70"s my dad drove for Special Freight Services, (SFS)(if i remember they were blue and white?) they ran F86"s. They were based in Gt Blakenham, just behind the lake you can see on the A45, next to where Jack Brand Chickens are now, then he defected to the company next door, Ravenfleet, their motors were light blue, mainly Ford Transcontinentals. This was around 77-78ish.
