hiya,
nice to have you back Chris pleased you enjoyed it, now you’ll have to get an agency guy in to cover for old Norm he’s in London for a few days and when he’s tramping back on the Monday i’ll be heading for London myself for a few days, maybe we could do a day trunk changeover i would’nt mind having brekkie with the old retrobate at Kate’s Cabin.
thanks harry long retired.
harry_gill:
hiya,
nice to have you back Chris pleased you enjoyed it, now you’ll have to get an agency guy in to cover for old Norm he’s in London for a few days and when he’s tramping back on the Monday i’ll be heading for London myself for a few days, maybe we could do a day trunk changeover i would’nt mind having brekkie with the old retrobate at Kate’s Cabin.
thanks harry long retired.
Hi Harry,OK I’ll get an agency driver in to cover - as long as he can sheet and rope and cope without power steering 
Kate’s Kabin is still open I think so you could change over with Norm.
Don’t forget your trailer number plates I don’t want you getting stopped if you are running dodgy.
I might put Norm on this next week,what do you reckon? 
hiya,
just let me take the agency chap under my wing for a couple of days and i’ll have him roping and sheeting like a good un even the red and rust taskmasters would give him a full time job and he’d be a credit to you, but would’nt have time to train him in the ways of how to tame unruly trailer boys so wagon and drag work will be a no no for the time being and i don’t want him cleaning my motor the muck’s holding it together, also into digs i don’t want any cab hotel,there’s loads of chalk so he can write his own number plates.PS like the north west ERF.
thanks harry long retired.
Hi everybody,
I worked at a timber company for over 10 years. Carried many a load that high, sometimes higher. But never loaded like that. Mainly because we just had a normal headboard, not reinforced or strengthened in any way. If your load moved forward the headboard would break. At one time we had artics with 20 foot trailers and scammell couplings, talk about bounce. If, as Harry mentioned, you were carrying planed timber, it was nearly impossible to keep the load straight, had to put a sheet round the back end to try and stop pieces falling out the back, nailed boards up the sides underneath the chains, and still had to stop every so often to tighten every thing down again. What made it worse where I worked was the way the slings came out of the machine shop. For instance, 4 more or less identical slings went in to be machined and 4 came out all different heights and widths. Rough sawn timber with metal bands round them were not really a problem.
One driver was going from Trafford Park to Blackpool one afternoon with a load of 40 foot lengths on a 20 foot trailer, so he had to load them on trestles to take them over the front of the cab. When the sideloader came with the first sling, it went on the nearside of the trailer, however, when the next one came it was only about 30 foot long, so the driver said, no point in putting that on a trestle, just put it flat on the trailer. Like he said later he should have changed them round to put the extra weight on the offside of the wagon. But because he was going to stay in Blackpool to watch Man United play and didn’t want to hang about he thought it’ll be Ok. So there he is going up the A6 towards Chorley, when he heard a click and half his cab disappeared. He had about 4 tons of timber as a passenger ( his words) and he could’nt move. Needless to say he never carried any load like that again, neither did most of the rest of us. But the firm still kept expecting drivers to do it. He wasn’t injured but he was upset that he missed the match.
Ray
hiya,
Ray timber hauling was a bit specialist and if like me you only did the occasional load it was a nightmare, not knowing the tricks of the trade was no excuse if you was a tramper you had to load whatever was on offer and if the gaffer told you to load timber so be it, but if you was finding your own load i tried to steer clear of the stuff because they certainly was’nt flying loads.
thanks harry long retired.
This load looks ok Harry,I just hope he’s going to put some more rope on it. 
I’ve done one or two loads out of Canada dock but they were always strapped standards and a nice load,usually for Sheffield or Nottingham,when I was a cab happy Reiver driver.
Dave could take it out,it’s a North Wales BRS motor.I’ll take that MK5 Mandator. 
hiya,
Chris, that Bristol is loaded a treat if i loaded a hundred trailers of timber none would look that good but i agree a bit more “string” is definitely needed then i’ll be off while Dave’s still at the tea bar, i don’t want to spoil him.
thanks harry long retired.
Hi Chris
That’s another cracking pic of BRS. Certainly a nice load, would hope he’s not going to far with only one chain on. We used to do the same from Manchester docks to Trafford Park only about 2/3 miles. Any further and it would have been two chains. Only really used ropes to hold the sheet down, or maybe on a part load.
Hi Harry,
It often crossed my mind how much gear a Tramper had to carry with him, how many ropes, chains, sheets etc. and where did you stow them all.
Ray
hiya,
Ray i’ll try to answer as well as the memory will allow, two large sheets cover any load and fly sheet usually transferred trailer to trailer,enough ropes to rope every hook plus spares, enough chains to go over a load four times with S hooks to join chains together, ropes and chains always kept in cab, jack with handle and wheelbrace in my case kept in the bunk space, “never slept in cab” box containing spare lenses and bulbs stowed in bunk space, spare wheel in carrier on unit, timbers for steel lashed to landing gear and myself not being a bad mechanic always carried a toolbox got me out of trouble on quite a few occasions,oh not forgetting the handle for jacking the cab over on tilt cab jobs oh nearly forgot corner boards enough to go down each side of a 40 footer bet i’ve forgot something but in my case it won’t be the kitchen sink.PS always a gallon of engine oil tied to the back of the unit nearly forgot the large sack of wedges for loading reels of paper etc, usually thrown on the bunk space.
thanks harry long retired.
Chris Webb:
This load looks ok Harry,I just hope he’s going to put some more rope on it.
Dave could take it out,it’s a North Wales BRS motor.I’ll take that MK5 Mandator.
I will leave that load to you blokes Chris. I was a tipper driver,did a bit of roping and and sheeting,probably did more of it as a kid with my old man helping him( or hindering ),as he was on flatbeds.
Cheers Dave.
Hi boys
Harry you seemed to carry most of what we had, we also had a wedge that went all the way accross the back with a rope tied to each end for reels.Tied accross the legs when not needed. Hay what about a shovel when the snow got too much 
or were you one of those that parked up when the white stuff cometh Any one remember when straps first appeared they dident have rachets they had those handles to tighten, were they called Spanset 
Regards Keith
hiya,
Keith I knew i’d forget something yes i had the full width tethering wedge and stowed it in the landing gear a must when carrying reels and conveyor belts, I did’nt come across the Spanset gadgets or the ratcheted straps for that matter spent the last year or two of my working life spent on tipper/grab work, and as for the shovel packed in coalmining at age 21 so not qualified in the snow clearing department.
thanks harry long retired.
Hi boys
Harry I hade’nt got you down as one of those “Hell Drivers” thought you were a steady bloke. Chris won’t want you driving for him if he finds out. Anyway you shouldn’t grab it’s rood
Regards Keith.
hiya,
Keith, don’t know about “Hell Driver” i think the furthest i drove without having to stop to grab something would’ve been about half a mile, so not much chance of doing anything hellish but it was a nice way of slowing down ready for calling it a day, and to be honest i don’t miss the driving one bit, but had the BRS still been going i’d have stayed there until boxing-up time if they would have let me.
thanks harry long retired
Well I’m showing my age now but I never had the luxury of straps or chains,only ropes.I always carried a shovel,timbers for steel,bags of rope,sheets I nicked off BRS trailers and a wedge for chocking reels of paper out of Kent that I nicked off Reed Paper Group.Oh,plenty of log SHEETS in case I needed to errrrrrrrrrrrr - well whatever,AND I’ve never driven a tipper or used a curtainsider - not invented when I was a lad ,curtainsiders I mean
After 2 years on (mostly) steel I went on tankers,and ropes were bloody useless I found,and then I went onto box ambients and fridges so never had curtains to pull back.
Never taken a wagon over the watter except Anglesey,Severn Bridge etc. but plenty of times under - Rotherhithe,Blackwall,Dartford,Tyne,Mersey/Wallasey and all them.Does Kincardine Bridge count as going abroad,they certainly spoke a different language on the top side.
So,I’ve led a sheltered life as a driver,but shunting was a different kettle of fish and I still liked it after about 20 years----------------------------------taking t’p*** out of drivers,especially our own
Once trapped me fingers in a trailer shutter door though,thanks Ratcliffe 
hiya,
Chris I had a brand new sheet nicked off a trailer on the dock rd Liverpool was going home empty so it did’nt matter but often wondered how many BRS sheets got nicked over the years all the small firms and O/Ds seemed to run about with their load covered with them some even cheekily painted out to try and avoid them being noticed.
thanks harry long retired.
harry_gill:
hiya,
Chris I had a brand new sheet nicked off a trailer on the dock rd Liverpool was going home empty so it did’nt matter but often wondered how many BRS sheets got nicked over the years all the small firms and O/Ds seemed to run about with their load covered with them some even cheekily painted out to try and avoid them being noticed.
thanks harry long retired.
Hi Harry.
I have to admit
I had a sheet that was from Eastern Europe :- “DLEIFFEHS SRB” was printed on it and also some timbers “DTL (EN) SRB FO YTREPORP”.Don’t know where they came from,maybe Rotherham which was the centre of the universe they reckoned. 
Now we know where the black economy started,with BRS,always looked up to BRS as a young bloke,its almost as bad as finding out there is no father christmas.
Cheers Dave.
Hi boys
What Dave no father Christmas
Regards shocked Keith.
hiya,
Don’t know how you slept knowing you was dipping into the BRS pot so to speak and taking the food out of our dedicated mouth’s, off to London in the morning for three days taking my old lady to see a show will most likely pass old Norm he’ll be returning tomorrow to keep the red and rust emblem flying hope his sheets are intact, see you Wednesday, Ta Ta.
thanks harry long retired.