hiya,
Jim thats a cracking site, i like the old Albions, did a bit with them in the 50s and 60s, now that i know when they have things going on i’ll try to pop up for a look it all depends how the health is on the day thanks for the info Jim.
thanks harry long retired.
Hello all. First post here. 
I worked for BRS from 1986 until 1996.
I started off on the Mothercare contract in Wellingborough, driving Leyland Roadtrain drawbars with demountable boxes. They had Rolls Royce (Eagle?) engines and Spicer 10 speed constant mesh gearboxes. It was shop deliveries and suplier collections during the day and trunking loaded boxes to the out bases at night with the drawbars. It was still a closed shop then and the company was called BRS Eastern. I’ve got a promotional video somewhere (which I’m in) with the Mothercare fleet in it.
I got put on to the Habitat contract for about 6 months driving a Daf 2800. It had all sorts of extras on it and a full body kit. the Managers hated them (there were 2 of them) because they were way over specd by BRS standards.
I went to Corby depot for a few years on the DRG plastics contract and then worked in the office for a bit. Then they sent me to Coventry (litterally) where I ran the ToysRUs contract and later Con Can. The Union rep there, Ralph Jackson, had a huge collection of old British Tansport films, I wonder if he’s on here?
I have happy memories of going to Birmingham every so often for a driving course and staying in a friendly B and B, I did a CPC there too.
I remember I once filled up with fuel at some services on the M6 up in the Lake District, with nothing more than my ops 6. Unbeleivable nowadays. Shame it’s all gone now!
just joined this site love all these old stories I did not drive lorries for that long but spent many hours in my dads in the 50s and 60s I worked for my cousin during school hols and days I bunked off he had a big breakers yard in hendon oposite hendon dog track (now long gone) on the nth circular he was well known in the trade and he was always called morgy any way we had an uncle who drove for brs and he would normally come into the yard twice a week and sell us diesel from his lorry normally ergo cabbed aec s and as the kid it was my job to syphon out 10 or 20 gallons and carry a 5 gallon can full in each hand no mean feat when you are 12 or 13 i loved it though not the taste of derv though haha , sadly for preservation people we broke a lot of old lorries there I remember an old aec 8 legger from the 40s I would think it had a cracked block and as we sold most commercial engines g/boxes and back axles for export I had the job of covering the crack with a mixture of oil grease and mud, we sold all our export stuff to a guy called “jock edwards” he had a yard in walthamstow nth london this stuff was sent to 3rd world countries a lot went africa gods knows what they made of it most of this stuff was well passed the old sell by date,cheers one more thing I drove a bedford TM with ■■■■■■■ engine in 1989 for most of that year are there any left with a ■■■■■■■ as opposed to detroit engine as that old truck was a real flyer but I only ever seem to see pics on these sites of TMs with detroits, keep this site going
hiya,
Welcome Ninja nice story a lot more up to date than my stuff, i got finished from the old red and rust in the late 70s our depot being dependent on one customer and when it went so did we, i remember well the op’s 6 i never tried it at just any filling station but have filled up at railway goods yards and Pickfords depots on numerous occasions but during my time early 60s to the late 70s there was plenty of BRS depots to choose from, anyway friend welcome aboard and just happy for you that you managed to get some time in with a proper outfit.
thanks harry long retired.
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hiya,
Jim the ops 6 was a sheet of paper that told the “firm” where you’d been what you’d carried and the weight of goods carried, depots used to stamp it when you called in for fuel or a sub or you might have to use that particular depot for a load to anywhere it had to be kept correct because it was the vehicle’s costing record for the week, you was issued with a new one every week and i suppose it made life easier for the office staff and they knowing exactly when when the motor was due a service, sort of told them how much to stuff in the old pay packet on a friday, happy days.
thanks harry long retired.
Don Todds musings should be made part of the sticky headlines on here. It is a brilliant read 
hiya,
Where from Wheel Nut??, it’s nearly Crimbo and you never know just for once i might get something i really want.
thanks harry long retired.
Hi Harry,
Interesting to read about ops 6,something that most of us not involved with BRS wouldn’t know about. I like to see how the big outfits like BRS and the rest organised their routes and all the Depot’s,keep that info coming Harry,its an education for the rest of us.Hope you are keeping ok,haven’t been on quite as much myself lately, had the lergy,but give it to someone else now 
.
Cheers Dave.
hiya,
Thanks for that Dave pleased you are well again, i have been a bit off colour myself for a day or two this week but a bit better today, at the old BRS depot in Blackburn where i did a couple of spells in the 60s (got made redundant) mid service we had a policy of using an elderly driver with the oldest slowest motor to do any new jobs/routes to set the time for all drivers to aim at and this had to be adhered to, this i believe was the practice with all depots, it did work the job was never carved up, and wo betide anybody who did’nt stick to it, it did fall off in my latter years as a red and ruster or in my case orange and rust having gone from North West to North East but was lucky to have worked for a great outfit.
thanks harry long retired.
.
Hi, I’m another ex BRS all be it only for about 3 or 4 years, approx. 1965 to 1968 and it was in fact my last driving job, I was at Cressy Road, Hampstead Depot, London, Fleet code CJ which, as any old BRS hands will realise is a North West code ( C ) this was because we were the London Depot for the North West Trunks on change over. My first nights work on BRS , I started on nights, was on a Hampstead 8 wheel Bristol which before I reached Bromford Lane Depot, Birmingham which was where I was to do a change over with Blackburn Depot, the dip switch which I had not touched all night and was situated on an arm on the steering column suddenly flared up in a flash and melted slightly burning my right hand in the process, otherwise I found the Bristol a decent drive, after this I only had side lights left, anyway I did my change over with Blackburn who was left to seek aid from the workshops and set of for London in an AEC Mercury artic, christ what a Beast, the engine was flat as can be with the revs being strangled, and when a AEC 7.7 on the governer, it sounds awful. I was to learn that most of the North West Leylands, AEC mercurys, the odd ERF and Foden including 2 strokes appeared to have been strangled at birth, to put it bluntly they were in general rubbish with the exception of Bolton Depot that had a Leyland 8 wheeler that could fly ( OK it was a bit smokey ). I had come to the BRS from Suttons whose waggons while not being the fastest motors were certainly better than some of the North West BRS motors and the standard of maintanance on Suttons was far better.
I never saw an OPs 6 while I was on the BRS because I only Trunked or Shunted as we only normally had two trampers at Hampstead one of which was on contract to MAT at Barking with a Bristol Unit, leaving only one on AEC 8 wheeler to do tramping and they stopped this one eventually.
A minor point, my foreman at Suttons and my foreman at BRS were Brothers and a couple of more sourpussed, miserable Barstewards you could meet.
Hi Tony,
Interesting tale,lets have some more of that,did they put governers on the engines,or just screw the pump down. I know they had a thing about sticking to speed limits,suppose being a state owned company they had to appear squeaky clean.
Cheers Dave.
Hi Dave, I never found them worried about how much speed we did, some of the waggons in our depot would do well over 65 mph ( AEC MkV mandators ) its just that a lot of the North West motors did’nt seem to give of their best, all Diesels are governed of course, if you have seen a Leyland 600 throw the governor and run away as you try to break the fuel line from the tank then you know why, but it is the pump settings which can effect performance, thats why a good pump man was worth buying a few drinks for.
Hampstead Depot when I started there was mainly Bristols which of course was new to me as they were only built for the BRS, on the 8 wheelers the chassis was based on the ERF chassis and the engine was the Leyland 600 9.8 litre engine which would have been better if it had been an AEC 9.6. The Artic Units had the same engine and my comment also applies, later Units had the Leyland 680 11 litre engine and then the Gardner 150 engine, the gearbox which I believe was made by Bristols was a good box and the steering, and here I must disagree with harry_long, on both the 8 wheelers and units were probably the best of any of the motors of that time, ( no powered steering in those days ), but I have to say that there did seem to be a lot of creaking from the chassis but there again this was’nt so unusual in those days. By the way I once done a half shaft on a Bristol 8 wheeler, they were single drive, on Dartmouth Park Hill which is even steeper the Highgate Hill, this wa’nt on a gear change, I was in second and I only had crawler left but it just twisted and broke as I was toiling up the climb, I found out later that there was nearly 23 tons of coffee beans on the back, that certainly was not squeeky clean and in fact we were no better or worse than companies like Suttons etc.
Tony.
hiya,
Dave nothing added to slow the old girls down as far as i’m aware they was as they left the manufacturer the Mandators and Mercury’s when introduced would bob on a bit, but really it would’nt matter because you could’nt finish the job any faster than the guy driving the old Bristol or Octopus the only plus with the quicker stuff was when running alone you stood a better chance of getting a dodgy night out occasionally.
thanks harry long retired.
Hi Tony and Harry,
Thanks for the info,all interesting stuff. I never drove a Leyland with a 600,although Brisbanes of Knighton had a couple of retrievers with that engine, I never drove them.The Leyland that I drove had a 400 engine in a super comet with the ergnomatic cab,but that was later for another firm,on Brisbanes I drove a BMC with the 5.7 underslung engine,then a K series Dodge with a Perkins 6354,which was useless. I drove a few Bedford TK’s,also Bedford KM which had bags of power.
One of the best lorries I drove was a Commer Maxiload 16 tonner four wheeler for C W Griffiths & Sons,it had the TS3 two stroke engine, I really liked that vehicle,some of the other blokes didn’t like it,saying it was rough to ride in,they had Leylands or Albions with ergnomatic cabs. I also drove a D800 Ford six wheeler with a 360 turbo,that was a good vehicle,although they were a cheap moter and hadn’t a long life. You fella’s were a bit before me,I started in 1968.
Hope I haven’t bored you,but we didn’t have the better moters like the red and rust.
Cheers Dave.
Hello Dave, hope you and Chris are still in fighting form, as I have mentioned before, no news from old Frenchy who started this thread, I fear the worst, at least me and old Harry will be able to find out if anything happens to either of us, not knowing is hard to take.
.
hiya,
Proud chap indeed, why would’nt he be he does work for a proper “firm” and better dressed than me on a Sunday.
thanks harry long retired.
Hi Harry,
Glad to see your old sparring partner Norm is back on the patch,not been the same with him missing,you and him are a bit of a double act.
Cheers Dave.