Lawrence Dunbar:
Sorry Dennis, I get carried away sometimes when names are mentioned about old firms from the 50/60s Era, Plus Im on the Glens at the moment, Enjoying them & the crack on here, Regards Larry.
There’s nowt wrang with a bit 'crack Larry,Anne and I have just had a grand meal and a couple of “large” Grouse and Ice ( Me) and Anne the same but Two “Corvissiorrs” ( well that fancy Brandy !) don’t like it me-self so I can’t spell it eh! Cheers Dennis.
I myself was only about 4year old i think if memory correct were green40 gallon drums.
Aye you could be right on the colour of the oil drums, Im sorry I took you for an older lad than you are , The Smith I mentioned that Artie Richardson worked for was G Smith Haulage, Regards Larry.
My first encounter was at Richards & Wallington, Birmingham. A Atkinson tractor with a 4 in line trailer. carring mainly 22rb’s/38rb’s with jib out rear. !! 20’ of it… I had racket jacks, with a 6’ steel bar to hoist the traiter up & down, with arms like Popye’s I got the hang of it. But Ronnie Damms, (star driver) had his Mack, and hydraulic jacks and a mate, Richie , who stayed with the company for years. My mate was like a school boy!!! a trailer boy we called them.
Onto St Marys Plant Hire, Holloway, London, The boss was a great guy Spencer Flack, (google his name) Here I had at first a brilliant ERF with a 4 in line. Hydraulic jacks no less !! mainly 22rb/38rb jib over the cab, great for lamposts etc !!!
then he bought a new 6x4 100t GVW tractor, with double reduction axles, manual each hub. Now I get a super hydraulic swan neck trailer, God I missed my 4 in line. This carried Atlas/Andees/ D9/D8’s.
The 4 in line was a brilliant design, so easy.
Easy for you to say, Hopey, at least you could get to the ■■■■ things with a low loader. And they tell me that only wimps knocked the wheels out to load a 22RB. Most had two spare sleepers under the side rails and went “up & over” the easy way! 
O, indeed, I recall at St Mary’s, I spent 2 days in Esher on the A3 in a layby, awaiting a Atlas. It arrived all shinney and I had polished the 100t Foden as dorected by our project manager. I was given boots & overalls !!! wow, whats this. Trailer loaded on site, Police arrived 3 motorcycles, and off we went during the night. I had no idea where we were going and wqas not told, only to follow the project manager, eventually turned left into Nine Elms Lane. Bang Lights, TV cameras, so I off loaded the Altas off the side, into gates of a site and home to bed. 7am Spencer Flack on phone to my home, move the bloody crane, its at wrong location !!!Well you cant just make that happen in London with a 100t low loader, so they imported another crane onto the site, for the Blue Peter TV show, as the Duke of Edingburgh was there that morning to cut the sod of the New Covent garden Market !!!
Nice one! 
Thought I’d post this picture of a savable four in line (one of many waiting to be saved) at Heygates flour mills Bugbrooke Northamptonshire
I suppose there’s no chance that the ■■■■ thing would burn?
Retired Old ■■■■:
I suppose there’s no chance that the ■■■■ thing would burn?
You ROF are a un-reconstructed Vandal,how dare you suggest that a fine piece of road transport heritage should be “torched” 
I believe it should be rescued and returned to pristine condition and then lets say it should be coupled to a Dodge 308 unit (Perkins 354 engine),loaded with 15 ton of something “high” and you are made to drive it for 250 miles on “A” Class roads. 
Cheers Dennis.
Bewick:
Retired Old ■■■■:
I suppose there’s no chance that the ■■■■ thing would burn?You ROF are a un-reconstructed Vandal,how dare you suggest that a fine piece of road transport heritage should be “torched”
Hiya,
Wooaa Dennis, no return the four in line to pristine condition couple it up empty
to a Scania 80 and I’ll drive it to the nearest layby and fire it making sure all the
emergency services guys are having their breakfast and are in no rush to turn out.
thanks harry, long retired.
harry_gill:
Bewick:
Retired Old ■■■■:
I suppose there’s no chance that the ■■■■ thing would burn?You ROF are a un-reconstructed Vandal,how dare you suggest that a fine piece of road transport heritage should be “torched”
Hiya,
Wooaa Dennis, no return the four in line to pristine condition couple it up empty
to a Scania 80 and I’ll drive it to the nearest layby and fire it making sure all the
emergency services guys are having their breakfast and are in no rush to turn out.
thanks harry, long retired.
First make sure that you get your case,donkey jacket and log book out “H” Cheers Dennis.
Bewick:
harry_gill:
Bewick:
Retired Old ■■■■:
I suppose there’s no chance that the ■■■■ thing would burn?You ROF are a un-reconstructed Vandal,how dare you suggest that a fine piece of road transport heritage should be “torched”
Hiya,
Wooaa Dennis, no return the four in line to pristine condition couple it up empty
to a Scania 80 and I’ll drive it to the nearest layby and fire it making sure all the
emergency services guys are having their breakfast and are in no rush to turn out.
thanks harry, long retired.First make sure that you get your case,donkey jacket and log book out “H”
Hiya,
Dennis the aforementioned case, donkey jacket etc, would be still in the yard
I would have no intention of going very far and would be all ready to tranship
my gear into a proper road going motor one of those 240 powered Big “Js” from
the back shed that I would be the only driver ever to take a rear of shed photo
of and post on here, so none of yer sleeper coffin thingy’s nailed on the back a
good clear shot of the sticky out two pots or nowt.
thanks harry, long retired.
Bewick:
Retired Old ■■■■:
I suppose there’s no chance that the ■■■■ thing would burn?You ROF are a un-reconstructed Vandal,how dare you suggest that a fine piece of road transport heritage should be “torched”
…yes, at 75 mph
That’s what I was doing down Symonds Yat when it decided to start its wobble. Scared the bejasus out of me 
I wouldn’t mind the Dodge with a nice half load but it wouldn’t be on a 4 in line. You would have to go the way of several of my employers, Dennis, if you gave me one of those evil things. They were light, I must admit, but that’s about all you could say in their favour.
I’d rather drive Harry’s Scania 80 for a week!
Retired Old ■■■■:
I wouldn’t mind the Dodge with a nice half load but it wouldn’t be on a 4 in line. You would have to go the way of several of my employers, Dennis, if you gave me one of those evil things. They were light, I must admit, but that’s about all you could say in their favour.
I’d rather drive Harry’s Scania 80 for a week!
I never took you for a “bottler” ROF Obviously I am in no position to contradict those lads that have pulled 4-in-lines but when I was at Bradys on the Octopus they ran a large fleet of 4-in-lines and I can’t really recall them being “slagged” off,only time there was any wineing from the Comet drivers was when they were hooked up to one with 16 or 17 ton on board and a Beaver would fly past with 10 ton or so on a tandem axle Boden ! I reckon I could have handled a 4-in-line with 15 ton up !! You just “Gan Canny” !! One thing I did like the sound of was you could get 100,000 miles plus out of a set of tyres because there was no scrub however the new C&U regs put paid to 4-in-lines so I wonder when the last ones were actually built or went into service,would be interesting to find out ! Cheers Dennis.
Not much use getting 100,000 miles out of the tyres if the cost was an unstable vehicle. One slight discrepancy in pressures between the tyres and they were all over the place. I never had a puncture with one but the thought of one tyre going flat and its twin leaning over towards it gives me the shivers.
There were still plenty of them about when I started in 1969. Haven’t read the whole thread, so sure this may have been mentioned may times. I remember following them and being fascinated when they went around a corner and an inside wheel would ‘take off’ and not touch down again for what seemed like forever.
Somehow they were not aesthetically pleasing. I’m sure that was of minimal concern to anyone getting 100,000 out of the tyres!
One incident sticks solidly in my mind and I may be slagging the 4 in line off when it was innocent and the culprit may have been a normal single axle trailer.
I was heading back empty to Scotland in the Comet and was on the A6 South of the ‘Jungle’, following a Ford van. It was early December and had snowed. The snow was still thick on the fields and the walls and hedges. The road was clear, but still with water from the melting snow running across.
I came around a left hand bend and there was an AEC or similar with an ergo cab coming the other way. He had just come around what was for him a left hand bend too.
Suddenly, his trailer slid out from behind him and faced the van and myself sideways across our side of the road. We both pulled off hard to the left. The back corner of the trailer slammed hard into the side of the van and I was waiting for the impact when it suddenly slewed back behind the Ergo, missing my cab by inches.
We both stopped. His van had a nine inch tear, from just behind the driver’s door to the back end. However his ill fortune was my good luck. He had obviously bounced the trailer back across the road.
Predictably, the Ergo driver didn’t stop! The poor van driver was left asking ‘what am I going to tell the boss?’
So, back off up to Scotland to load again for me!
John.
When I worked at Cawthorns on the Thorn contract out of Brimsdown we had a fleet of BTC 4 in line trailers coupled to Leyland engined TK Bedford’s, always loaded sky high with TV tubes, never had a problems except with the brakes which were never to good on them, the loads used sway a like mad on some of them bends on the old roads which would get your bum twitching some times, but for all the time I was on there we only had a couple go over and they were down to punctures on the trailers, but luckily no one hurt.
OssieD:
When I worked at Cawthorns on the Thorn contract out of Brimsdown we had a fleet of BTC 4 in line trailers coupled to Leyland engined TK Bedford’s, always loaded sky high with TV tubes, never had a problems except with the brakes which were never to good on them, the loads used sway a like mad on some of them bends on the old roads which would get your bum twitching some times, but for all the time I was on there we only had a couple go over and they were down to punctures on the trailers, but luckily no one hurt.
My suspicions and fears confirmed then. 
