Chris Webb:
Two of us loaded Sheffield and ran to BSC Workington New Years Eve 1968 and tipped electrodes New Years Day 1969. Cabbed it in the works where it was nice and warm after going with some contractors for fish and chips and a few pints in town.
What were the electrodes for Chris,were they srap or summat for the furnaces at W/ton Steel ? Cheers Dennis.
I’m not a bloody physicist or chemist Dennis,didn’t they use 'em for charging furnaces or summat? They were like torpedos,Anglo Great Lakes on Scotswood Road in wey eye country made 'em and British Acheson in Sheffield as well. Six in a lift banded onto a pallet,great load.
The scrap ones were ground down into carbon dust I think and then recycled into ■■■■■■■■■■ beer.
Chris Webb:
Two of us loaded Sheffield and ran to BSC Workington New Years Eve 1968 and tipped electrodes New Years Day 1969. Cabbed it in the works where it was nice and warm after going with some contractors for fish and chips and a few pints in town.
What were the electrodes for Chris,were they srap or summat for the furnaces at W/ton Steel ? Cheers Dennis.
I’m not a bloody physicist or chemist Dennis,didn’t they use 'em for charging furnaces or summat? They were like torpedos,Anglo Great Lakes on Scotswood Road in wey eye country made 'em and British Acheson in Sheffield as well. Six in a lift banded onto a pallet,great load.
The scrap ones were ground down into carbon dust I think and then recycled into ■■■■■■■■■■ beer.
Well,so I heard.
Anon iom ■■■■■■■■■■
Well you’ve got to ask these technical questions Chris !! Aye it’s getting heavier on this side of’t Irish Sea to-night as well ! Cheers Dennis.
Chris Webb:
Two of us loaded Sheffield and ran to BSC Workington New Years Eve 1968 and tipped electrodes New Years Day 1969. Cabbed it in the works where it was nice and warm after going with some contractors for fish and chips and a few pints in town.
What were the electrodes for Chris,were they srap or summat for the furnaces at W/ton Steel ? Cheers Dennis.
I’m not a bloody physicist or chemist Dennis,didn’t they use 'em for charging furnaces or summat? They were like torpedos,Anglo Great Lakes on Scotswood Road in wey eye country made 'em and British Acheson in Sheffield as well. Six in a lift banded onto a pallet,great load.
The scrap ones were ground down into carbon dust I think and then recycled into ■■■■■■■■■■ beer.
Well,so I heard.
Anon iom ■■■■■■■■■■
Well you’ve got to ask these technical questions Chris !! Aye it’s getting heavier on this side of’t Irish Sea to-night as well ! Cheers Dennis.
I saw t’ Ben-My-Chree going out this morning and laughed my nuptuals off as there was some bugger on there I don’t like and gets seasick watching his fish tank. Can’t be that bad as she’s away to Heysham on time tonight.
Speaking for myself I always looked forward to a bit of time off at Christmas and the summer hols. It might not have suited gaffers to have to pay you to stay at home but I can’t ever remember any drivers complaining about it.
When I worked on the farm Christmas & New Year weren’t all that much different to any other day except that we had an extra couple of hours off in the middle of the day. The cows still had to be milked, the other animals had to be fed & tended to and there was always the possibility of a veterinary emergency to contend with.
As an aside, the boss told me that I could have the rest of the day off “after milking” to attend my own wedding!
used to load them elctrodes in orgreve sheffield for steelworks at pontypool they were a nice load worst time all the miners picketing (miners strike) that place with scargill used to scare the crap out of me…
I took a load of Shell canned oil up to Maddiston on night trunk Xmas Eve one year from Manchester,night man would’nt let me change trailers as it wasnt on his sheet,fed up waiting for higher authority to approve,so I dropped the trailer outside the Maddiston Depot,hitched up to a load of stillaged synthetic rubber,back into Manchester,wash unit off,got home at 7.00ish,woke wife and kids up getting into bed,so got up again had a great Xmas,it was just something that you accepted as part of your duties,if it fell unlucky,so be it,just get on and do it,but not today!..oh,never heard anything about the unauthorised dropping of the trailer on the road!
When we ran our lorrys New Years eve every year all the drivers sudenly phoned in ill ,we never used to take much on for it ,but allways one firm wanted a delivery so allways joe soap ended up going ,Iremember one year at midnight lying under a 4 in line changing an inside wheel ,you guess no one avaleble to come out ,New Years eve pluss a 4 in line ,Cheers Barry
b.waddy:
When we ran our lorrys New Years eve every year all the drivers sudenly phoned in ill ,we never used to take much on for it ,but allways one firm wanted a delivery so allways joe soap ended up going ,Iremember one year at midnight lying under a 4 in line changing an inside wheel ,you guess no one avaleble to come out ,New Years eve pluss a 4 in line ,Cheers Barry
Barry,it could have been worse,but I was in the pub!!!
Lawrence Dunbar:
It sure was Dennis, I remember unloading fruit in The Newcastle Fruit Market on New Years Day, Also loading Pedigree Chum at Melton Mowbray on a New Years Day, Ran up MT from the smoke to get the load, All the best for the New Year Dennis, Regards Larry.
Pedigree chum is made in Melton Mowbray ? That has put me off pork pies for life now…
There was usually a big difference between the time that factory workers had compared to service industries like haulage,shops and others like council workers.
I certainly got a shock when I went from at least the 1 week,sometimes more,shut down of the factory where I worked and finished by pub opening time Christmas Eve (none of which was taken into account for holiday entitlement ) .To working up to full time on Christmas Eve and having to return to work after Boxing Day and working all day + overtime on New Years Eve on the council which was the worst job I ever knew for time off over the Christmas period.
Yes you’ve got it right, early finish Christmas Eve if you were lucky, off Christmas Day and Boxing Day, then back to work including New Years Day. Even now on Supermarket RDC work it is only Christmas Day off. At Turners in the 1990s when the Yanks had a lot of bases here I had drivers running in on Christmas morning after delivering to the Scottish bases. This year my flour tankers are only standing on Christmas Day yet the general fleet will be parked up for the best part of two weeks.
A bit like R.O.F-- when I worked for the Milk Marketing Board early 70s the drivers used to work Christmas Day + Boxing Day for milk collections from the farms and of course the mechanics had to be in as well (one on xmas day and the other boxing day) then we would toss a coin for who did New Year,but we were paid treble time plus day in lieu so it wasn’t to bad and the drivers were out and back in before the stove in the garage had even got going properly (loved it, especially payday)
We got Christmas afternoon off one year! Seriously though, due to the nature of the majority of our work,( serving the offshore/onshore drilling rigs ) there was always a few of us on call for anything urgent to go to a land rig or a ship somewhere. Most of the call-outs were for locally based ships. Our bloke charged top rates for these jobs, therefore we were paid very well and money was no object for the drilling and exploration companies. For a rig to shut down due to the lack of a piece of equipment the cost would be astronomical.
I remember one of ours going to Dorset one Christmas Day several years ago and all the way there he only met three other lorries, one was a milk tanker and the other two were ours coming home to Yarmouth.
The trouble is when you are away from home the first week after Christmas there are very few cafes open so you have to rely on those damned MSAs. Anyway happy Christmas and new year to everyone. Cheers Haddy.
I am a night driver for a feed company in Stoke Ferry Norfolk, Christmas starts late Christmas eve evening or the early hours of Christmas morning when you get back to the mill. We all return to work the day after Boxing Day. Night drivers get New Years Eve off, day drivers get New Years Day off. Back to work New Years Eve and normal working until next Christmas, shift work so you work public holidays as a normal day. Not much has changed over the years, animals have to be feed.
Lawrence Dunbar:
It sure was Dennis, I remember unloading fruit in The Newcastle Fruit Market on New Years Day, Also loading Pedigree Chum at Melton Mowbray on a New Years Day, Ran up MT from the smoke to get the load, All the best for the New Year Dennis, Regards Larry.
Pedigree chum is made in Melton Mowbray ? That has put me off pork pies for life now…
Haha.
That reminds me of Mars in Slough
You could guarantee that they would need a delivery of fat on Christmas day or very late on Christmas eve.
Tenuous link. Mars own Pedigree petfoods so the next time you open the Cesar or the Whiskas and it smells good enough to eat, go ahead… treat yourself!
Hiya…around 1973…4…5…i was doing the sugar beet job at Newark. my boss said do you
want Christmas day off…WOW YES.go Christmas night.3 runs from Newark to Peterbourough.
i think there was 6 on the day shift and 5 on the night shift.it was easy. loaded tippers no paperwork
in out no problems…looking back it was only 40mph on dual carridgways then and with a 60mph lorry
it would have been nice to get the foot down.but with no traffic their was only us for the coppers to
watch,so 40mph it was.
cheers John
14 TOO:
Wasn’t Rungis open on Christmas Day night?
To arrive at Rungis before the Channel Tunnel was in operation it was necessary to ship out before Christmas as the ferries never operated on Christmas Day…
Always a few Brits or Irish celebrating Christmas Day in Rungis in the “good old days” !!
When i was a agnecy driver for b o c [now gist] i used to start work 7 pm boxing day to tip in holland when M&S opend next day,
best trip ever P & o empty and roads empty.
