Wow, this thread & the Harry Phillips one bring back some memories of my often mis-spent youth! I remember pretty much all the wagons shown here other than the white Volvos, I guess they were from the Nichols era. I worked for Square Grip up on Woodside Avenue between 1987 & 1990, mostly unloading the steel trucks. Kev, Allan, Stuart, Mark & Martin were daily visitors and occasionally H would pull a trailer up too, usually when the MoD side of things got busy. The two ERFs in the other thread were bought from Square Grip (TPX never did get its wheels sprayed hence the odd shade of blue against the Speedlink Distribution grey colour scheme.) As for the Davies style colours, I do believe H bought another F10 from JD’s which got written off in 1989 or so, and Kev always preferred the colours over the ‘■■■■■■ three shades of grey’… We also had Julian Javes working for us back then too. Does he still bear the scars of the mesh hanging incident? All I remember was seeing him dangling from a bundle of mesh in mid air from the other side of the yard, cut his arms up quite nastily as I recall…
TomJaves:
Thanks for the extra pics Les, the Volvo in Railfrieght colours is the same truck as the Volvo I first posted in Harry Phillips thread before it was sprayed into Harry’s colours.Tom
used to do two trips a day sometimes when i worked for les happy days tip barking ,stop at cafe on river road for a nice liver brekkie ,always used to have a cuppa with allan and the lads when loading good ole days
DeadTroll:
Wow, this thread & the Harry Phillips one bring back some memories of my often mis-spent youth! I remember pretty much all the wagons shown here other than the white Volvos, I guess they were from the Nichols era. I worked for Square Grip up on Woodside Avenue between 1987 & 1990, mostly unloading the steel trucks. Kev, Allan, Stuart, Mark & Martin were daily visitors and occasionally H would pull a trailer up too, usually when the MoD side of things got busy. The two ERFs in the other thread were bought from Square Grip (TPX never did get its wheels sprayed hence the odd shade of blue against the Speedlink Distribution grey colour scheme.) As for the Davies style colours, I do believe H bought another F10 from JD’s which got written off in 1989 or so, and Kev always preferred the colours over the ‘[zb] three shades of grey’… We also had Julian Javes working for us back then too. Does he still bear the scars of the mesh hanging incident? All I remember was seeing him dangling from a bundle of mesh in mid air from the other side of the yard, cut his arms up quite nastily as I recall…
DeadTroll, What is your name? Julian is my dad, he still has the stitches on his inner arm and remembers the incident very well!
Tom
Hi Tom, I’ll bet he does… he certainly got our attention 40 odd metres away. My name is Chris Currie although most called me ‘Split pin’ for some weird reason 
and I was the gobby kid who used to do most of the yard shunting and occasional bit of loading / unloading. I was also supposedly in charge of the weighbridge, but by the time your dad got there I’d long gotten bored with that and the thing mostly ran itself! Sadly I wasn’t much into photography back then so I have no pics to add which is a shame because there would have been some classic shots! The ‘how not to tie down shiny steel mesh’ and ‘How to make a trailer warp 45 degrees at the front whilst merely exiting the loading bay’ would have been some of the more educational 
Hello. The F10 from Buzzer was WCG ■■?X - can’t remember the rest of the number as we did not have it for long. Pretty sure we got it from Pall Europe in Pompy but Buzzer would know for sure. Terry Sparrow drove it on Robert Armstrong work for a short while. 1989 / 90 saw the transition of two tone blue over to blue and white which is probably why Harry kept and adopted the colour scheme. I do know and can remember though when we moved into Andersons Road Sept '93 after LTS went to Eastleigh, we replaced the fence round the yard and the last thing to come was the gate so for a few nights, Harry lent us one of his old box trailers to park across the entrance.
DeadTroll:
Hi Tom, I’ll bet he does… he certainly got our attention 40 odd metres away. My name is Chris Currie although most called me ‘Split pin’ for some weird reason
Chris,
Mentioned you to dad this evening. First thing he said was “Ohhh the young nipper on the weighbridge?” That must be you! Ironically I used to also work in the old Square Grip yard from 2010-2012! Now owned by Lambert Bros Haulage. Small world? I’ve got all of Alan & Harry’s pics that my dad took on my Flickr account. Just click the link bellow.
flickr.com/photos/tomjaves/sets/
Tom
Alan Nichols Transport (A Nichols Transport) Southampton was another small firm my dad used to work for through out the mid 90s until they went bust around the 2000 area. They were based in the British Rail Railfreight yard on Radcliffe Road in St Mary’s, Southampton which is now a Siemens train repair depot. The yard was first ran by Harry Phillips (HA & VJ Phillips Transport Ltd) see: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=64157&p=951060#p951060 who also ran a yard across the road. Alan (one of Harry’s employees) took over the business when Harry Gave it up, running only the Railfreight yard on Radcliffe Road. . Another company that was just a few drivers and a few trucks. Mainly Volvo tractor units. Here is a satelite image from 1999 of the yard shortly before they finished.
I did a few loads of steel rods for Alan Nichols when i was doing a spell for Les Slater in an F10.
Alan was a nice fella…always had a cuppa with him either before or after loading.
mappo:
I did a few loads of steel rods for Alan Nichols when i was doing a spell for Les Slater in an F10.
Alan was a nice fella…always had a cuppa with him either before or after loading.
It’s good to hear somebody on here that knows about the company! My dad was one of the few drivers there, I went on a few trips with him infact. Don’t spose you have any pictures at all?! 
No photos i,m afraid. I probably would have known or met your dad, but to be honest i dont remember any of the drivers names.
I was only in there as a subby and only for a short time.
mappo:
No photos i,m afraid. I probably would have known or met your dad, but to be honest i dont remember any of the drivers names.
I was only in there as a subby and only for a short time.
He was the one with little hair, glasses and drove a black Laguna at the time… or sometimes rode a motorbike? The truck he drove was a white Volvo FL10 6x2 with a red vistor - he says he remembers Les Slater very well as well, they used to MOT all of their trucks?
tom spoke to kev on friday is your dads name julian
slatey:
tom spoke to kev on friday is your dads name julian
Yes, Julian Javes 
Thanks for the pictures Les, wonder why they didn’t remove the previous company’s name on the visor? I know Kev sprayed most of Harry’s motors on site, the pictures I uploaded on Harry’s thread were taken the day it was sprayed. Thanks again
