Hi Mick,
Cliff Boulton, ex Quaker, Milupa and Hitachi for Dodds, then with “Worldfleet” out of Stone, Staffs, with Hitachi. (1970 - 200?)
I’ve been told about this Forum by my son Paul. (P.C.B. on here) Not got a lot of time at the moment, but will get back later. Paul has put some photos on here of some of my old lorries, and hopefully, I’ll put a few memories on here later.
Back asap, Cliff.
Hi PCB.Thanks for your response…fantastic pictures…more please.
Yes i remember your dad,cliffy,we worked a lot together,i used to bring the loaded boxes to taunton truck stop for the change over,your dad was outbased and did the west countryThe last time i saw Cliffy he was with Lenham storage,I had a load for Lenhams that i had bought over from Spain.I have been living in Spain for the last 7 years.I have now packed up the driving game and now work on a campsite.
As you say when dad was at Hitachi he had D820PVX,i had D821PVX,prior to that i had the original drawbar truck C460NPU.This was Chalky Whites old motor.
I have not seen Mark since leaving Dodds,whats he upto??I certainly remember C666SLL.
Re Quakers…I started on that job and had a frieghter like the one in you pic,cant quite remember the No***247Y.I worked there with Alan Taylor RIP.Both his sons worked for Dodds too,Mark the older was at Hitachi and the other youger brother Glynn worked in various places within Dodds,I believe he died in a truck related accident.RIP.
You have stirred up a lot of memories for me and i,ll be back when i remember more.his is a pic of me in Gt Yarmouth with C460.
Hi again Mick,
I THINK the last time we met was in the “Red Lodge” Cafe near Newmarket. Yeah! I was on Lenham Storage full time then, but I’ve been retired a couple of years now, and I just do Saturdays and Bank Holidays for them now. It helps the pension along somewhat, but I’m gonna call it a day when this CPC bit comes in. I’ll be nearly 73 and I don’t think I need somebody telling me how I should do what I’ve been doing for 50+ years.
The Clydesdale with the Black Wings (XLF 754S) that my Paul has posted the picture of was the first Turbo-Charged lorry Dodds had. Roy Dodd (The BEST Boss anyone ever had!!) told me the story that he went to a RHA (?) Dinner somewhere and was chatting to one of his cronies over a glass or several. The bloke offered Roy a cancelled order Clydesdale and Roy bought it at the dinner without seeing it. He didn’t know it had a Turbo. They took one of the P reg motors out to there and basically wrote down all the measurements of the Tidd Body, built a copy, and put it XLF, and I had it from new. A year later, when she went for her first test, I had one of the 3 T reg clydesdales for a week which Roy had told Jimmy I had to keep, but I didn’t want it, and kept XLF. The following year was “De Ja Vue” and I was given an X reg with the newer brown cab interior. What a CRAP motor that was. When I took it back, Jimmy again told me that Roy had said I’d GOT to have the new one this time. I waited over an hour to see Roy, and told him I didn’t want it, and if he insisted he could “lick 'em and stick 'em” and I’d be on my way. He then told me to “F–k Off with XLF and don’t ever ask for a new motor again”. A few weeks later he quietly told me I’d done the right thing keeping it. That was the only time I EVER fell out with Roy, a bloody lovely bloke.
Gonna leave it there, having problems typing on the site. Back later, Cliff
Wotcha Pop!
And hello Mick.
Oh, and hello Bruv. I know you’ll be reading this too 
I’m glad I stumbled across this site and re-united you all 
I’m sure there could be plenty of stories to be exchanged here. I’ll leave that to you blokes who were there, but I’ll put up some more photo’s for you.
I know this taken was almost 30 years ago, but you don’t 'alf look young here Pop!
And here’s the Milupa Freighter. One of 2 wasn’t it? And was there a Roadtrain too?
tipping reels of paper at leeds
also Volvo at mr Kipling barnsley
Mick… that’s good to see a photo of one of the Cruisers again. I know I have a good fe photo’s of them myself, but don’t have access to them right now. Mark might be able to help me out with that though In the mean time, I’ll put up some more Dodd’s ones…
Anyone fancy a Marathon?
Pop… you ended up with a Foden on Worldfleet, but do you remember Dodd’s had them earlier on too…?
But they had a good lot of T45’s though…
(Pop, is that your motor? And is that you sitting in it?)
Thanks for putting the pic with me in front of the Quaker motor Paul!!! Note the haircut!!!
foden in the Sheffield yard–Scania loading lorry tyres at leeds
I expect those who knew the yard in McFarlane Road are recognising the place in these photo’s. Here’s another…
And I think this was when they moved to the new yard. Resprayed in the ‘new’ colours, this was Haynes’s Roadrunner!
And that’s about all I have right now. Will get more up soon though I hope! 
The 3 Foden units pictured were, I think, meant to be for a company pulling out of the Oil Storage Terminal on the Isle of Grain in Kent, hence the Kent (BKO) registration plates. I’m not sure how or why Dodd’s got them.
Revman… Thanks for your photo’s too. It’s nice to see pictures I have never seen before
Mick… Mark reminded me of your Hitachi Cruiser. He referred to it as the one one with the big tail lift! 
I think that that was the later paint job. Still black but with Hitachi written in red whereas it was in white before. Also they were different on the sides of the bodies with plainer signwriting. First off they had “Better Buy Hitachi” in script text kinda diagonally across the box. I have photo’s of both versions somewhere
Mind you, do you remember the days before the Cruisers? Dodd’s used to have some motors on contract to Hitachi way before then. They had some Clydesdales (probably about T or V-reg or something) with pod sleepers. They were white and orange colours back then. In fact, I saw an old episode of Minder a few weeks ago and there, right in shot, stuck in traffic, was on of those Clydesdales. Great!
Cliff Boulton:
The 3 Foden units pictured were, I think, meant to be for a company pulling out of the Oil Storage Terminal on the Isle of Grain in Kent, hence the Kent (BKO) registration plates. I’m not sure how or why Dodd’s got them.
New Fodens in Dodd’s colours parked up with a petrol tanker… coincidence?
Do you think these are the same ones just before they came to Dodd’s?
Hi,Paul,Cliff and Mark…great to be in contact with you all again…Fab pics…i have some more of the Hitachi motors but cant find them,have to look further but try these…D821 parked in Perfects yard in Gt Yarmouth,I parked here as I was outbased and lived in the town…thanks to haddy for the picture.
heres a few names that i remember…Mark Taylor…Hitachi,Chalky White…Hitachi,Reg Crisp…Hitachi roadtrain,Tony Clarke…Loader at Hitachi,last contact,Toni moved to the Spalding area when his mum and dad retired there,met up with him a couple of times…John Creech…the fitter at Macfarlane rd,George Clapp the Quaker shunter…There are more but i have trouble remembering,so i need a jog of the memory!!!
Yes there were 2 Milupa rigids,used to see the other driver regularly but again i cant remember his name.
I recall the Leyland Roadrunners,we had one at Hitachi also I recall a Sherpa van.
I remember the move to the old AEC site in Southhall.I actually come from Southall and lived there till i was 12.Moved to Gt Yarmouth Norfolk in 1963.I often wonder if the big expansion that Dodds underwent possibly lead to there eventual downfall.Heres a few outfits that I remember Dodds getting involved with…
Parker Haulage…Maywood Haulage…Syms of Calne…Hunts Transport…Hammonds Transport…then there was Worldfleet…21st Century Logistics.Possibly more■■?
I am pretty sure when I started at Dodds we had around 40/50 wagons all brit motors with Union Jacks on the roof deflectors excepting the contract motors of course…I remember reading an article in some mag after i left that the fleet strenghth was over 400…thats some leap…They were running Volvo,s and later Mercedes.
Heres a little tale for you…Cliff as you probably know Roy Dodd was very pro british when it came to trucks.I was in Macfarlane road yard collecting my truck after a service when this Mercedes 6x2 tractor unit pulled up at the pumps to get diesel,it was painted Heineken green and was written 21st Century…Well Roy was in the yard and wanted to know why this GERMAN vechicle was on his pumps!!Jimmy came out a told Roy it was a Dodd motor…God i thought Roy was going to have a heart attack…he went mad to say the least.What are you doing,he says to Jim,buying foriegn!!Jim trys to explain the the truck is on contract to Brewliners(something like that) and painted in there colours and this is the truck specified…I wonder what he thought when all these Swedish and German motors arrived big time…
Stay Lucky Mick.more later
Hi PCB. The cruiser with the big tail lift and with the red signwork was C460,as shown in the pic with me beside it.C460 was the first cruiser and the one all the D reg motors were based on.Interesting point…The drawbar trailers were a rare breed because the had a ram in the A frame,very unusual,the reason!!!when they were coupled up convencionally the combination exceeded the legal lenght,at the time 18M(59ft 2 1/2in).So the ram was used to pull the combo together,bringing it within the lenght rules,in addition to stop the bodies foulling when we turned corners the ram would extend thereby expanding the gap between the bodies…Magic in the forwards direction…Not so bloody wonderful when trying to reverse the combo.We all know the different techniques required for reversing artics or A frames but with that ram in there,a whole different ball game…any slight error in reversing ad all you did was keep shoving this B<<<<<<< ram out.it could extend 12ft…I had driven drawbars before but i had a job mastering the Hitachi ones but i did get there in the end with thanks to Mark Taylor who patiently showed me how to do it.
Be lucky regards Mick
Mick, I can remember my dad going on about the drawbars I think he’ll admit to you that he’s a rigid driver and never got to grips with the ‘wagon & drag’. I think Mark faired a bit better and I know he had it out a couple of times. Mark did actually tell me the other day that you were about the only one who could manouvre it properly, and that it stood you in good stead when you went to drive for Anglian Windows up the road
I know Mark and Pop both knew the Taylor’s pretty well but I only met them on a few occasions. I do remember Mark Taylor though from before he passed his test I think, when he just had a little puddle jumper (a Terrier) I think then he got his HGV around the time Pop took on the white Quaker Freighter and MT inherited XLF 754S.
I also remember us all meeting up one year at one of the Lorry Driver of the Year competitions
The one thing I think of about Glynn is a story by Jeff May ( I KNOW my dad has loads of tales involving Jeff! ) Jeff said one day… “When they said I was taking out a wagon and drag for the day, I didn’t realise they meant a rigid motor and Glynn Taylor!” Sorry, shouldn’t speak ill of the departed. Funny though.
Those B&W pictures you put up… I can remember seeing those before. I’m sure I have the old edition of Commercial Motor (I think) squirreled away.
Keep meaning to say, my brother Mark is still driving. I’m sure he’ll be in touch as soon as technology allows.
Here’s a pic of his motor…
hi there Cliff, it’s jimmy from the storage here. remember I was on the shunting for several years while you were on journey work? About George Clapp, was that George who worked at lenham about 5-6 years ago, who tipped the trailers up in 18 doing the cross docking. he was a lovely old boy and lived on sheppy. he retired a few years back…I remember him telling me he was ex-driver years ago…jim