Does anyone remember Howgate depot in Whitehaven?
I have just built a model of a Commer Maxiload in BRS livery, here is a construction photo, but the thing I am building can be seen in the background:
And here is the finished model in 1/24th scale, mainly built from scratch:
It would be great to see some more BRS Maxiload photos!
Cheers
Ian
TIDDERSON:
Does anyone remember Howgate depot in Whitehaven?
Remember it well,it was quite a busy depot over the years as a result of BRS being the dominant haulier in the late 40’s,50’s and 60’s.Their main customers were Marchon,Disington Engineering and the Steel Works,so they provided a lot of sub-contracted traffic to local private hauliers,some of whom did nothing else but sub off BRS.I’m not sure when Howgate depot closed but I would say it was sometime in the 70’s,the founders of H & L were ex BRS managers IIRC and the likes of A.D.Boyes,H & M E Fearon,J W Graham Bass Lake and a few others were regular subby’s of BRS Howgate.Then ,of course,when BRS lost their grip as the dominant haulier in West ■■■■■■■ the private firms I have mentioned filled the gap and started to work for the various manufactures directly.The only time I ever loaded off BRS Howgate was in 1969 when I had tipped in W.■■■■■■■ and was going to be too late back to Milnthorpe on Friday afternoon to load at my ,then,main customer Libby’s.I loaded in Marchon (Albright and Wilson) 2 drops of Soap Powder for London.The rate was less than I could get from Milnthorpe to London ! but I was sure of payment so I suppose that was something ! At least I was tipped in London on the Monday morning whereas I would have just been loading in Libbys and running down on the Monday for tipping Tuesday ! Happy days,cheers Bewick.
Bewick:
TIDDERSON:
Does anyone remember Howgate depot in Whitehaven?Remember it well,it was quite a busy depot over the years as a result of BRS being the dominant haulier in the late 40’s,50’s and 60’s.Their main customers were Marchon,Disington Engineering and the Steel Works,so they provided a lot of sub-contracted traffic to local private hauliers,some of whom did nothing else but sub off BRS.I’m not sure when Howgate depot closed but I would say it was sometime in the 70’s,the founders of H & L were ex BRS managers IIRC and the likes of A.D.Boyes,H & M E Fearon,J W Graham Bass Lake and a few others were regular subby’s of BRS Howgate.Then ,of course,when BRS lost their grip as the dominant haulier in West ■■■■■■■ the private firms I have mentioned filled the gap and started to work for the various manufactures directly.The only time I ever loaded off BRS Howgate was in 1969 when I had tipped in W.■■■■■■■ and was going to be too late back to Milnthorpe on Friday afternoon to load at my ,then,main customer Libby’s.I loaded in Marchon (Albright and Wilson) 2 drops of Soap Powder for London.The rate was less than I could get from Milnthorpe to London ! but I was sure of payment so I suppose that was something ! At least I was tipped in London on the Monday morning whereas I would have just been loading in Libbys and running down on the Monday for tipping Tuesday ! Happy days,cheers Bewick.
hiya,
There you go Dennis us old “Red and Rusters” weren’t all that bad and we did
always pay, I would love to know just how many vehicles and depots they had
at their height, motors would be in the thousands depot’s must have been in
the hundreds, it was the very early 60s when I did my first stint with them as
a wag and drag driver and I couldn’t have hazarded a guess how big they was
in those days, but in the three spells I worked for them two at the Bennington
Street depot Blackburn and finally in Consett depot North East area the speed
of closures was tremendous, a sorry end to what was in the beginning a very
good idea, but as the saying goes, all good things come to an end.
thanks harry, long retired.
Hi scarren , that ts3 was based at Swindon , my picture was based at oxford and as you can see it was a sister to yours , when we rebuilt this wagon in the 80s it was pulling a trailer the same as your with a scammell 5th wheel coupling .
Hi scarren , i could even tell you one of the drivers of our old ts3 .
HI MR ,Bewick ,I loaded out of a BRS ,dept up there dont remember exact ,i tipped aload of alloy ingots ,went out of there yard up the road abit found a layby with a phone box phoned BRS were are you he said told him come round the corner we are on the bank ,at the time they ran a lot of Seddons with Perkins v8 s ,He said he had a lot of night trunks to go but most of the SEDDONS were down ,and could i do 2 drops London to help him ,ok sent me up to the Albright & Wilsons ,a bad move after many hours watinng to load finley left only good thing had cab full of powder and washing up liquid ,alot of usles but wiser infomation ,cheers Barry
harry_gill:
Bewick:
TIDDERSON:
Does anyone remember Howgate depot in Whitehaven?Remember it well,it was quite a busy depot over the years as a result of BRS being the dominant haulier in the late 40’s,50’s and 60’s.Their main customers were Marchon,Disington Engineering and the Steel Works,so they provided a lot of sub-contracted traffic to local private hauliers,some of whom did nothing else but sub off BRS.I’m not sure when Howgate depot closed but I would say it was sometime in the 70’s,the founders of H & L were ex BRS managers IIRC and the likes of A.D.Boyes,H & M E Fearon,J W Graham Bass Lake and a few others were regular subby’s of BRS Howgate.Then ,of course,when BRS lost their grip as the dominant haulier in West ■■■■■■■ the private firms I have mentioned filled the gap and started to work for the various manufactures directly.The only time I ever loaded off BRS Howgate was in 1969 when I had tipped in W.■■■■■■■ and was going to be too late back to Milnthorpe on Friday afternoon to load at my ,then,main customer Libby’s.I loaded in Marchon (Albright and Wilson) 2 drops of Soap Powder for London.The rate was less than I could get from Milnthorpe to London ! but I was sure of payment so I suppose that was something ! At least I was tipped in London on the Monday morning whereas I would have just been loading in Libbys and running down on the Monday for tipping Tuesday ! Happy days,cheers Bewick.
hiya,
There you go Dennis us old “Red and Rusters” weren’t all that bad and we did
always pay, I would love to know just how many vehicles and depots they had
at their height, motors would be in the thousands depot’s must have been in
the hundreds, it was the very early 60s when I did my first stint with them as
a wag and drag driver and I couldn’t have hazarded a guess how big they was
in those days, but in the three spells I worked for them two at the Bennington
Street depot Blackburn and finally in Consett depot North East area the speed
of closures was tremendous, a sorry end to what was in the beginning a very
good idea, but as the saying goes, all good things come to an end.
thanks harry, long retired.
Hi Harry–i remember reading that the number of depots were around 1000 in its heyday and vehicle numbers were around the 35,000 mark what surprises me is how they managed without computers !!! -------toshboy
Harry Gill ----Found an oldie for you —sorry i did not have time to clean it !! ---------------------toshboy
We used to have an AEC Mercury four wheeler and a Leyland Super Comet four wheeler on a regular straight through night trunk, one each night from Whitehaven BRS at Hampstead BRS Depot with Fresh Fruit for early morning delivery to (the old) Covent Garden in the 60’s…Tony.
toshboy:
harry_gill:
Bewick:
TIDDERSON:
Does anyone remember Howgate depot in Whitehaven?Remember it well,it was quite a busy depot over the years as a result of BRS being the dominant haulier in the late 40’s,50’s and 60’s.Their main customers were Marchon,Disington Engineering and the Steel Works,so they provided a lot of sub-contracted traffic to local private hauliers,some of whom did nothing else but sub off BRS.I’m not sure when Howgate depot closed but I would say it was sometime in the 70’s,the founders of H & L were ex BRS managers IIRC and the likes of A.D.Boyes,H & M E Fearon,J W Graham Bass Lake and a few others were regular subby’s of BRS Howgate.Then ,of course,when BRS lost their grip as the dominant haulier in West ■■■■■■■ the private firms I have mentioned filled the gap and started to work for the various manufactures directly.The only time I ever loaded off BRS Howgate was in 1969 when I had tipped in W.■■■■■■■ and was going to be too late back to Milnthorpe on Friday afternoon to load at my ,then,main customer Libby’s.I loaded in Marchon (Albright and Wilson) 2 drops of Soap Powder for London.The rate was less than I could get from Milnthorpe to London ! but I was sure of payment so I suppose that was something ! At least I was tipped in London on the Monday morning whereas I would have just been loading in Libbys and running down on the Monday for tipping Tuesday ! Happy days,cheers Bewick.
hiya,
There you go Dennis us old “Red and Rusters” weren’t all that bad and we did
always pay, I would love to know just how many vehicles and depots they had
at their height, motors would be in the thousands depot’s must have been in
the hundreds, it was the very early 60s when I did my first stint with them as
a wag and drag driver and I couldn’t have hazarded a guess how big they was
in those days, but in the three spells I worked for them two at the Bennington
Street depot Blackburn and finally in Consett depot North East area the speed
of closures was tremendous, a sorry end to what was in the beginning a very
good idea, but as the saying goes, all good things come to an end.
thanks harry, long retired.Hi Harry–i remember reading that the number of depots were around 1000 in its heyday and vehicle numbers were around the 35,000 mark what surprises me is how they managed without computers !!! -------toshboy
hiya,
Yes Toshboy and the office staff was minimal with only a map on the wall and
a few telephones, but the drivers knew what they was doing and how to get to
where they was going, without in cab phones and the aid of sat-navs, the only
map I ever had was an old AA handbook and the obligatory A to Z of London I
must admit that did get a bit of stick and a new one was purchased on the odd
occasion, the old AA book was relegated to the re-cycling bin a couple of months
ago along with my BRS folder and list of current (1972) depot locations which was
quite a bit skinnier than the first one I was issued with when I did my first spell
with them, very happy days eh’.
thanks harry, long retired.
Thanks Jakey, good to see your photo
This has a oxford reg number but I cannot see the fleet number , when I started in the middle 80s there was one sleeper with a middle east cab with a ■■■■■■■ 250 engine and one normal sleeper with a tl12 in , and a few day cabbed tl12s still running , the one which i think this vehicle ended its life as a shunter in Wales .
JAKEY:
This has a oxford reg number but I cannot see the fleet number , when I started in the middle 80s there was one sleeper with a middle east cab with a ■■■■■■■ 250 engine and one normal sleeper with a tl12 in , and a few day cabbed tl12s still running , the one which i think this vehicle ended its life as a shunter in Wales .
Hi Steve,
Trying to recall a fading memory here, there was a Marathon ran out of BRS Oxford in the early/mid 80s with the name JOCK on a reg plate on the front.I have a niggling memory of seeing him once on a friday night queuing up next to me in Le Havre to catch the Portsmouth ferry, I was on Luker Bros at the time, could it have been him?
Regards Chris
TIDDERSON:
curnock:
Chris Webb:
TIDDERSON:
Does anyone remember Ross-on-Wye depot?I remember that Ross depot,Glass Glover Distribution took it over in the 70s for the Littlewoods contract. You could just turn a wagon and drag round in it at night to split and tip it. There was another haulier in there called Prosser.
where was this depot exactly ?
Station Road
Hi All -I remember that depot also - it was on Station Street , the main building later becoming home to a furniture showroom called ALCO - Mike Prosser had the workshops, Littlewoods (Multiple Fruit Supplies) had another shed / warehouse / office, and later on, Ross Tyres (colins tyres) had the back half of the littlewoods shed
Prossers/ MFS shared the parking - it was shadowed on one side by HS Williams Haulage, and Kemps builders merchants on the other. The whole site now has become a morrisons supermarket
Hi Chris that was the late “jock fulton” , he did have a marathan just before i started on yts , he use to have a michelin man and a viking on his mirror arms , when I started he had just got his roadtrain avihile you drove later Reg A638SOU and fleet number TAG171 .his trucks were always mint except the susies which were a nightmare to untangle when servicing .
nianiamh:
Wrexham depot Sed Atki`s photo shoot at Tetra Pak
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y88/nianiamh/812f6a44.jpg[/img]
Hi…nianiamh
Who are the drivers in this picture?..
Also can’t see the pictures you have posted of your “your dads old motors” in the photobucket?..
Regards
BRAD4
![http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y88/nianiamh/812f6a44.jpg[/img]](http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y88/nianiamh/812f6a44.jpg%5B/img%5D){kind=link}
TIDDERSON:
Any memories of Sandbach depot?
hiya,
Although Sandbach was in the same group as I was in it was a depot that I
never called in, ddn’t even know where it was, wonder what their traffic
was, can’t help with any memories, sorry.
thanks harry, long retired.
TIDDERSON:
Does anyone remember Ross-on-Wye depot?
Once again Tiddersson what a wonderfull shot . I can remember this depot those BMCs worked between Pressed Steel Fisher Llanelli and similar plants at Cowley and castle Bromwich as well as Nuffield .
Leyland octopus and Bristols steel to the midlands from Ebbw Vale.
Some of those BMCs had Glos regs so i assume Ross was a sub depot of Gloucester . Operhaps some one can tellme otherwise . Ross closed in the early 1970s as it was rendered loss making thanks Tidderson regards keith