mushroomman:
Would that be billy hamm from Bolton who drove a mack?
Billy Hamm, bionic Bill or peg leg, were the kind names some people used, he was regarded by other C & B drivers as a pain.
I had to fly out to Belgrade in late December to collect the Mack when Bill finished up in hospital in mysterious circumstances after telling other drivers that he was going to dump the motor!
He was loaded for Dahran air base, on C & B’s best contract, (British Aerospace),and I delivered the load and got home in the New Year.
John Jones and I visited him at his home in Bolton, where he said he was crippled for life while working for C & B and he was waiting for his insurance payout, this never happened as C & B shut the gates shortly after.
As a matter of interest Ian did the Halcyon Haulage that you just mentioned do Italian work about 1987ish.
I remember spending a few hours in the customs at Bologna with a young lad who had a brand new motor and a flat trailer. I can’t remember if the motor was a Scania or an Iveco.
mushroomman:
As a matter of interest Ian did the Halcyon Haulage that you just mentioned do Italian work about 1987ish.
I remember spending a few hours in the customs at Bologna with a young lad who had a brand new motor and a flat trailer. I can’t remember if the motor was a Scania or an Iveco.
Regards Steve.
Steve,
Not to the best of my knowledge, Halcyon started up with Jack Corrie and one Leyland Beaver tractor unit and tipper belonging to Dave Jones who was C & B’s painter.
They started operating from behind a garage in Biddulph, but after a short while moved into a yard across the road from FedEx where I work now.
I don’t know how many motors he had on the tipper fleet but they were always busy. He did tend to use Iveco motors.
I can’t say if they ever ran abroad.
I don’t know when he changed over from tippers to curtain siders, may be about 15 years ago. They have since moved to another yard on our industrial zone, and only have a few artics, plus several 7.5.and class 2 motors. They are regularly advertising for drivers, but when my son went down there a couple of years ago he was turned down because of lack of experience! Thank ■■■■ for that, he’s got a much better job than that now.
Hi Ian, thanks for the reply, I am sure that the lad who I met was from The Potteries area but I am not so sure if the company was called Halcyon Haulage or Halcyon Transport but hopefully somebody will remember them as they had a blue and white livery.
As you mentioned Chapman and Ball here is a photo of another guy who we both worked with many years ago. The guy in the middle you might recognise as a slightly older John Roberts at a Christmas reunion some sixteen years ago. Another ex Chapman and Ball man who we worked with Billy (Jock) Macdonald had passed away a couple of years before this reunion.
The guy on John’s right is Ken Corrigan from Moston and the guy on John’s left is Bullits uncle, Stan Wormbald who were all great friends for many years until Stanley passed away. The guy who was sat next to Stan (you can just see a bit of his arm) was another ex O.H.S, driver called Jimmy Beagent. If only they would of put their experiences down on paper that night I am sure there would of been stories that haven’t been told on here before.
mushroomman:
Hi Ian, thanks for the reply, I am sure that the lad who I met was from The Potteries area but I am not so sure if the company was called Halcyon Haulage or Halcyon Transport but hopefully somebody will remember them as they had a blue and white livery.
As you mentioned Chapman and Ball here is a photo of another guy who we both worked with many years ago. The guy in the middle you might recognise as a slightly older John Roberts at a Christmas reunion some sixteen years ago. Another ex Chapman and Ball man who we worked with Billy (Jock) Macdonald had passed away a couple of years before this reunion.
The guy on John’s right is Ken Corrigan from Moston and the guy on John’s left is Bullits uncle, Stan Wormbald who were all great friends for many years until Stanley passed away. The guy who was sat next to Stan (you can just see a bit of his arm) was another ex O.H.S, driver called Jimmy Beagent. If only they would of put their experiences down on paper that night I am sure there would of been stories that haven’t been told on here before.
Regards Steve.
Steve,
I first met John Roberts on C & B and we got to be firm friends, he was a great guy to run with. He is registered on this BB as “Spare wheel” but he doesn’t post, I have corresponded with him via PM’s but not for a couple of years. We had suggested meeting up along with that other mutual mate Alan Jones but as usual we never get the time.
I knew Stan Wormbold very well, especially when he was on for DOW.
I met up with him one time at the “National” in winter, when we were both on the way home and I had loading instructions for a furniture factory at Sighetu Marmeti in northern Romania. Stan said he had been there once and there was no way he would go again.
I finished up going there quite often, in fact the firm I was working for got a contract to collect from there to the extent that I sometimes loaded out of Germany or ran out empty to do a collection.
MushroomMan, thanks for posting the pic, looks like Stanley is in his element there, reminiscing about the old days!! I would love to have met him as my wife still maintains that he was quite a character and could have a room in stitches after a short time! She met up with one of Stans daughters a few months ago and told her about this site. She also mentioned about any photos that the family may still have of Stan and his truck when he was running with you chaps. She asked that if they found any would the family mind me scanning and posting them on here and they said no problem so we shall wait and see.
BB, I would imagine that after Steve`s (MM) tale of the vomiting vicar in Istanbul, a night in the National in Belgrade would have been fun!!
Seeing Ian refer to Billy Hamm as peg leg answers something I heard about in the early 80s. I went to a talk at college given by a man who’d driven for Anglo Iranian Trading iirc and as he drove back to Europe he met ‘Bolton Bill’. He told this tale of running a Turks legs over as the sledge/cart moved under the truck wheels as it went the other way round a bend. He stopped as did Billy behind him. The Turk was alive, just, so Billy took charge getting in the mans truck and running the man over with the trailer. They both drove like hell for the border. He mentioned seeing Billy falling out of the trailer and his peg leg hanging off held by a rope. I think these experiences made him go onto sell trucks in the North east. he didn’t seem to be making it up but maybe someone knows different.
alc:
…He told this tale of running a Turks legs over as the sledge/cart moved under the truck wheels as it went the other way round a bend. He stopped as did Billy behind him. The Turk was alive, just, so Billy took charge getting in the mans truck and running the man over with the trailer. .
yes, cos it sounded so terrible but possible and drivers would be aware of the consequences of the first incident. it stuck in my mind but it was the mention of the false leg that jolted the memory. I hope its not true but who knows - long time ago and different rules.
Fred wrote :-
With respect pal, if that was fact then I am sure that we would of heard of it especially in the 80’s 'cos I often came across Billy Hamm (RIP) although not by choice and also he would never of made the border and I have never come across Anglo Iranian Trading -
Jazzandy:
Me neither! There were some pretty rum characters around but that scenario is frankly ridiculous!
Story doesn’t add up: only a psychopath would run over a man with injured legs to finish him off, and then brag about it upon his return to UK. No, he wouldn’t have made it to the next village, let alone the border, knowing the Turks. No, there were not different humanitarian rules for UK drivers in the '70s. And no-one recognises Anglo Iranian Trading. Just a thought… Robert
EDIT: i am not seeking to shoot the messenger here; nor to judge the actions of the man in the story without knowing all the facts; nor to cause offence. However, if ‘Alc’ is an old campaigner from the TIR-trail he will surely understand that there has always been a disappointing amount of fiction stirred into the tales of less scrupulous cowboys . This is routinely and mercilessly challenged by the rest, of necessity : if you don’t challenge it, you end up believing that the entire TIR workforce was in the SAS for a start! That is precisely why the likes of Jazzandy and Deckboypeggy have to give meticulous details in the retelling of their stories, just to put their words beyond doubt . Alas, tall stories will always be the bane of the travelling classes! Robert
mushroomman:
As a matter of interest Ian did the Halcyon Haulage that you just mentioned do Italian work about 1987ish.
I remember spending a few hours in the customs at Bologna with a young lad who had a brand new motor and a flat trailer. I can’t remember if the motor was a Scania or an Iveco.
Regards Steve.
Steve,
Not to the best of my knowledge, Halcyon started up with Jack Corrie and one Leyland Beaver tractor unit and tipper belonging to Dave Jones who was C & B’s painter.
They started operating from behind a garage in Biddulph, but after a short while moved into a yard across the road from FedEx where I work now.
I don’t know how many motors he had on the tipper fleet but they were always busy. He did tend to use Iveco motors.
I can’t say if they ever ran abroad.
I don’t know when he changed over from tippers to curtain siders, may be about 15 years ago. They have since moved to another yard on our industrial zone, and only have a few artics, plus several 7.5.and class 2 motors. They are regularly advertising for drivers, but when my son went down there a couple of years ago he was turned down because of lack of experience! Thank [zb] for that, he’s got a much better job than that now.
Hi Ian
when we started subbing for C&B we had to be painted in their colours and took our unit to someone who did there painting would that have been Dave Jones and where would that paint shop have been? The agreement was we would pay half and C&B would pay the other half. It was to be £300 in total and it would be deducted from our first trip. When we collected the painted unit I got talking to the guy and he said the total price charged was £150 so infact we were paying for the lot That should have been a warning but it took us three trips before we saw the light and another repaint.
Regards Keith
Alas, tall stories will always be the bane of the travelling classes!
Ah Robert!, the stories! Really there were people who, in another sphere of activity, could have won an Oscar.
The best I remember was on the way back with Alan Warner when we were on Oryx. We got to Oostende, dropped the trailers in the yard and made our way to the ferry terminal with the units. Upstairs in the canteen we found a youth who had a spellbound audience of European drivers telling them tales of the road the the Middle East. naturally we sat down in the group in the hope of learning a thing or two. Now Alan Warner was a master of appearing both gullible and interested and could extract the very best stories from these Herberts and he surely did with this one. It seemed that he had been to ‘Afgan’ and was on the way home. The stories got taller and taller until he was telling us about stopping in the desert (?) to make tea. Whilst he was doing so, it seems, a ‘Policeman’ on ‘an orse’ rode up and stopped, looking at him. “So I said to 'im ‘Ere Copper, wot you lookin at’? but he never said nuffink” Blimy, said Alan, What did you do then? “I f+++in shot him, didn’t I? 'Im and is 'orse” Really said Alan, what did you do next? “Dug a 'ole and f+++in buried him, didn’t I? An 'is 'orse” It seemed that every Middle East driver carried a gun - they had to in case they ‘had to do the business’. He then turned to me and asked if I had been to the ‘Middle’ or in the ‘sas’. ‘The what?’ I said. “Well there you go” he said “If you don’t know then you wasn’t in it and you wouldn’t even get an interview for a job on the Middle. No chance”. It emerged that you had to have been in the ‘sas’ to drive to the ‘Middle’ in case you had to ‘do the business’. At that point the ferry was called so we all went down to the parking and it became clear that the youth was driving a day-cab F86 rental unit with a flat trailer. Of course he spotted the Oryx tractors and realised they were ours and suddenly remembered that he wasn’t on this ferry but was waiting for the next one! I wonder why?
I think we should have a competition for the best tall story that anyone heard on their travels.
Alas, tall stories will always be the bane of the travelling classes!
Ah Robert!, the stories! Really there were people who, in another sphere of activity, could have won an Oscar.
The best I remember was on the way back with Alan Warner when we were on Oryx. We got to Oostende, dropped the trailers in the yard and made our way to the ferry terminal with the units. Upstairs in the canteen we found a youth who had a spellbound audience of European drivers telling them tales of the road the the Middle East. naturally we sat down in the group in the hope of learning a thing or two. Now Alan Warner was a master of appearing both gullible and interested and could extract the very best stories from these Herberts and he surely did with this one. It seemed that he had been to ‘Afgan’ and was on the way home. The stories got taller and taller until he was telling us about stopping in the desert (?) to make tea. Whilst he was doing so, it seems, a ‘Policeman’ on ‘an orse’ rode up and stopped, looking at him. “So I said to 'im ‘Ere Copper, wot you lookin at’? but he never said nuffink” Blimy, said Alan, What did you do then? “I f+++in shot him, didn’t I? 'Im and is 'orse” Really said Alan, what did you do next? “Dug a 'ole and f+++in buried him, didn’t I? An 'is 'orse” It seemed that every Middle East driver carried a gun - they had to in case they ‘had to do the business’. He then turned to me and asked if I had been to the ‘Middle’ or in the ‘sas’. ‘The what?’ I said. “Well there you go” he said “If you don’t know then you wasn’t in it and you wouldn’t even get an interview for a job on the Middle. No chance”. It emerged that you had to have been in the ‘sas’ to drive to the ‘Middle’ in case you had to ‘do the business’. At that point the ferry was called so we all went down to the parking and it became clear that the youth was driving a day-cab F86 rental unit with a flat trailer. Of course he spotted the Oryx tractors and realised they were ours and suddenly remembered that he wasn’t on this ferry but was waiting for the next one! I wonder why?
I think we should have a competition for the best tall story that anyone heard on their travels.
Alas, tall stories will always be the bane of the travelling classes!
Ah Robert!, the stories! Really there were people who, in another sphere of activity, could have won an Oscar.
The best I remember was on the way back with Alan Warner when we were on Oryx. We got to Oostende, dropped the trailers in the yard and made our way to the ferry terminal with the units. Upstairs in the canteen we found a youth who had a spellbound audience of European drivers telling them tales of the road the the Middle East. naturally we sat down in the group in the hope of learning a thing or two. Now Alan Warner was a master of appearing both gullible and interested and could extract the very best stories from these Herberts and he surely did with this one. It seemed that he had been to ‘Afgan’ and was on the way home. The stories got taller and taller until he was telling us about stopping in the desert (?) to make tea. Whilst he was doing so, it seems, a ‘Policeman’ on ‘an orse’ rode up and stopped, looking at him. “So I said to 'im ‘Ere Copper, wot you lookin at’? but he never said nuffink” Blimy, said Alan, What did you do then? “I f+++in shot him, didn’t I? 'Im and is 'orse” Really said Alan, what did you do next? “Dug a 'ole and f+++in buried him, didn’t I? An 'is 'orse” It seemed that every Middle East driver carried a gun - they had to in case they ‘had to do the business’. He then turned to me and asked if I had been to the ‘Middle’ or in the ‘sas’. ‘The what?’ I said. “Well there you go” he said “If you don’t know then you wasn’t in it and you wouldn’t even get an interview for a job on the Middle. No chance”. It emerged that you had to have been in the ‘sas’ to drive to the ‘Middle’ in case you had to ‘do the business’. At that point the ferry was called so we all went down to the parking and it became clear that the youth was driving a day-cab F86 rental unit with a flat trailer. Of course he spotted the Oryx tractors and realised they were ours and suddenly remembered that he wasn’t on this ferry but was waiting for the next one! I wonder why?
I think we should have a competition for the best tall story that anyone heard on their travels.
David
Excellent! Robert
Fred wrote :- Nice one David “It’s the way you tell’em” that will want some beating .this should open up a wealth of laughable experiences not previously mentioned such as my years as a sniper in the Sally army unfortunately due to my signing of the official secrets act I cannot air my undercover operations and the time that I mugged a “Brownie” on bob a job week nevertheless she did show me her “WOGGLE”
keep them coming . regards Fred
Alas, tall stories will always be the bane of the travelling classes!
Ah Robert!, the stories! Really there were people who, in another sphere of activity, could have won an Oscar.
The best I remember was on the way back with Alan Warner when we were on Oryx. We got to Oostende, dropped the trailers in the yard and made our way to the ferry terminal with the units. Upstairs in the canteen we found a youth who had a spellbound audience of European drivers telling them tales of the road the the Middle East. naturally we sat down in the group in the hope of learning a thing or two. Now Alan Warner was a master of appearing both gullible and interested and could extract the very best stories from these Herberts and he surely did with this one. It seemed that he had been to ‘Afgan’ and was on the way home. The stories got taller and taller until he was telling us about stopping in the desert (?) to make tea. Whilst he was doing so, it seems, a ‘Policeman’ on ‘an orse’ rode up and stopped, looking at him. “So I said to 'im ‘Ere Copper, wot you lookin at’? but he never said nuffink” Blimy, said Alan, What did you do then? “I f+++in shot him, didn’t I? 'Im and is 'orse” Really said Alan, what did you do next? “Dug a 'ole and f+++in buried him, didn’t I? An 'is 'orse” It seemed that every Middle East driver carried a gun - they had to in case they ‘had to do the business’. He then turned to me and asked if I had been to the ‘Middle’ or in the ‘sas’. ‘The what?’ I said. “Well there you go” he said “If you don’t know then you wasn’t in it and you wouldn’t even get an interview for a job on the Middle. No chance”. It emerged that you had to have been in the ‘sas’ to drive to the ‘Middle’ in case you had to ‘do the business’. At that point the ferry was called so we all went down to the parking and it became clear that the youth was driving a day-cab F86 rental unit with a flat trailer. Of course he spotted the Oryx tractors and realised they were ours and suddenly remembered that he wasn’t on this ferry but was waiting for the next one! I wonder why?
I think we should have a competition for the best tall story that anyone heard on their travels.
David
Excellent! Robert
Fred wrote :- Nice one David “It’s the way you tell’em” that will want some beating .this should open up a wealth of laughable experiences not previously mentioned such as my years as a sniper in the Sally army unfortunately due to my signing of the official secrets act I cannot air my undercover operations and the time that I mugged a “Brownie” on bob a job week nevertheless she did show me her “WOGGLE”
keep them coming . regards Fred
Brownies are part of a para-military group started by Baden-Powell. When I was a primary teacher, one of my side-lines was passing Brownie badges (I don’t mean after swallowing them), and those dastardly girls always passed their hold-your-head-under-water-for-ten-minutes badge and their reverse a Dinky artic between a jam-jar of newts and the blackboard rubber on Sir’s desk test. Never mess with Brownies! Robert
Billy (Jock) Macdonald had passed away a couple of years before this reunion.
I would love to have met him as my wife still maintains that he was quite a character and could have a room in stitches after a short time! She met up with one of Stans daughters a few months ago and told her about this site. She also mentioned about any photos that the family may still have of Stan and his truck when he was running with you chaps. She asked that if they found any would the family mind me scanning and posting them on here and they said no problem so we shall wait and see.
: if you don’t challenge it, you end up believing that the entire TIR workforce was in the SAS for a start! 
Robert 