Cattlewagonman, your photo of Parry’s jogged the memory banks as the registration number reminds me of the FFK that I used to drive. It was an “AD” reg but I can’t for the life of me remember the numbers.
transporter man:
transporter man:
Bewick:
transporter man:
windrush:
Bewick:
Just to stimulate further debate,which was the better motor for it’s time,the BMC (Austin & Morris) or the Thames Trader,they were both in the same market place 50 odd years ago and sold in large numbers.I always think of the Trader as the better of the two but there will be,quite rightly,equal and opposite opinions !! Cheers Bewick.Couldn’t really say Dennis, only drove the BMC’s though I have worked on Trader’s. The BMC’s were a nice truck to drive though with a better (I thought) driving position as the trader seat was a bit low! I guess that the Ford was stronger in tipper form, though Derbyshire Stone ran plenty of BMC tipper’s as well, I guess that there wasn’t much between the engines but the Ford had a synchro gearbox as opposed to BMC’s constant mesh one. As has been said it was the FJ that caused their downfall against the D series Ford but before that I would think it was just a case of whatever took your fancy and what dealership’s were local?
Pete.
We ran 2 Traders MJR 66 & MTY 123 & a normal control Ford JTY 401 they were tippers running along side the BMC’s working mainly on long distant work at the time. They were not as good as the BMC, the thing I can remember as a cab happy 9/10 year old was the driving position in the Trader was the driving position with your legs straight out in front like a sports car.
Howay noo! Bonny lad, could you reach the pedals on a Trader when you were 9 or 10 ? Cheers Bewick.
Was a stretch can remember getting a bolocking when I reversed into a 45 gall drum knocking the tail lights off.
Could reach the pedals in a Leyland
We all used to exit the cab “front-first” as in this photo, didn’t we?
As cabs got progressively higher we still did it until the day when the knees gave out and we had to resort to climbing down backwards.
Retired Old ■■■■:
Cattlewagonman, your photo of Parry’s jogged the memory banks as the registration number reminds me of the FFK that I used to drive. It was an “AD” reg but I can’t for the life of me remember the numbers.
Hi ROF,
Im sorry I can not help with the " AD " reg. no. for you. Robin Harris , (Jacks son ) , kindly gave me the photograph.
Who was the owner of the FFK which you drove, because Robin might remember ?
Cheers, cattle wagon man.
heres my little austin morris
It is thanks to phill.d who took this photo at Hillhouse Railway yard, the BMC unit belongs to and is part of the Johnny Murphy collection, he was given a ride in it by Johnny and was hugely impressed with the V8 Perkins power unit.
Oily
The “Eastern Sack Co.” of Gorleston ran a few BMCs, they later became “Eastsacks” and ran a mixed fleet. They finished in the mid '60s. I seen to remember a serious fire (or two). Cheers Haddy.
south quay looks a bit diffrent in that picture Haddy !!! thats 6 years before i was born !!
asc45:
south quay looks a bit diffrent in that picture Haddy !!! thats 6 years before i was born !!
Certainly does mate, that little steel merchant across the road was getting a delivery by one of Pointer’s KV ERFs. It looks as if they are transhipping it onto their motor, another BMC.
I see there is a new thread on here about ports so I will be putting some pics. of GY when I get time.
haddy:
asc45:
south quay looks a bit diffrent in that picture Haddy !!! thats 6 years before i was born !!Certainly does mate, that little steel merchant across the road was getting a delivery by one of Pointer’s KV ERFs. It looks as if they are transhipping it onto their motor, another BMC.
I see there is a new thread on here about ports so I will be putting some pics. of GY when I get time.
Yeah, doesn’t look as busy as that when I drive down there every day.
Seen at Welland,courtesy of Roy Morgan.
A FE seen at Welland,courtesy of Roy Morgan.
We had two of these from 61-66 and 66-69 and by coincidence I have recently discovered the accounts for 1966 and WTD 585D stood at £1854-6-6 on the road,complete with a 21’ cattle box though that would include 3’ being welded onto the chassis,autolube was also fitted by a Kennings mechanic before it went on the road.It actually more or less expired after two and a half years and was parked up and outside haulage was used for a few months though in the reliability stakes it was a lot better than the AEC that replaced it,the boys at Southall were clearly having a bad day when they put that one together.
Seen near Barmouth a few months back.
Seen on the Heart of Wales run near Barmouth.
Two more seen on the same run.
Father had this little 2/3 ton series 3 Austin new at W N Froy, builders merchants in Hammersmith, one of the first made, replaced an O type 5 tonner and did the same work, only a 4 cylinder 3.4 with straight hydraulic brakes, so hard work on hills and took some stopping, but he was the old school and managed it! When fairly new, he had the engine run backwards and blow itself up. It was replaced with a 5 ton Morris FFK, (no pictures). He didn’t like that, as it was a dropside, he said he wasn’t about to go back to roping and sheeting, so got a job driving the coachbuilt Morris for Stowells, petrol and a real flyer. My big brother also drove for Froys, and was given a new FFK at the same time as dad to replace his Loadstar. A bit later he knocked the front wing on a bollard trying to get through an archway meant for horses and carts, the manager wasn’t happy and he was given dad’s old series 3 as a punishment motor. He told them where to put it, followed dad to Stowells where he drove an identical petrol Morris. Brother had a laugh when he found out that just after he left Froys, they were still a driver short, the same manager took one of the FFKs out, was hanging out of the door reversing through a gateway, when the motor gathered speed on a slope and he folded the door inside out on the gate post.
Bernard
Nice pics Bernard. Southern Gas in Reading had a few with similar coachbuilt bodies, they were only four potters as well but as they only did stop/start work it wasn’t a problem. I replaced a few engines in them, the Gas Board didn’t bother repairing the old engines as it was as cheap to put a Gold Seal replacement in rather than spend a couple of days stripping and rebuilding the old unit. The same with the four speed ‘crash’ gearbox, I cant recall ever rebuilding one as they were only around £40 for an exchange box and they could be swapped in an hour, just four propshaft bolts, two gearlever bolts and six gearbox retaining bolts plus the speedometer cable!
Pete.
Cattlewagonman, you have a PM.
Retired Old ■■■■:
Cattlewagonman, you have a PM.
Hi ROF,
" Message received. Many thanks. Over and out ". 
Cheers, cattle wagon man.