bring back carryfast he s the one for you bewick boy .
sammy dog:
bring back carryfast he s the one for you bewick boy .
Don’t get withdrawl symtoms about Carryfast sammy dog !!! he will soon get involved if the threads start wandering a bit !!!Cheers Bewick.
Hi Bewick/Dennis,
To answer your question there definitely were 8LXB big Js, I saw one at the white house lights in Barrow, late 70s/early 80s It had a plain red cab, no livery so I don’t know more sorry. Always seemed a daft spec, a premium engine with that cab. Used to ride out as a kid on blue dart lorries out of Barrow, they had some 180 big Js, with a dog leg 6th gear (AEC box I think), difficult to shift into as it had to be where your left leg was. There was one with a fuller 9 speed that would only do 50mph fwds, but (felt like) 30 in reverse. I preferred their Sedd Atk 400s - felt like a proper big truck.
Visited your yard once to see ONL 482M , you kndly gave me some photos of Atkis including this one in McGuffie livery and also MEC 98k - I still have them. Often wonder what became of ONL, Glenn Harley once told me it was still around (in Southhampton I think).
Looking back I think the 70s were the peak time for UK Haulage. Got my HGV 1 since and did some agency driving as a bit of learning/hobby, mainly with Bibbys from Crooklands @ 44tonne, Bargh’s, one nightfreight trip (from next door to your old yard) and a few others. I have enjoyed seeing the old Bewick photos on the ■■■■■■■ companies pages, like many people I wish I had taken a lot more.
Hiya …I know the BigJ cab was a bit grim BUT i use to ride in a 1968 model and the cab was fully lined with leatheret and a strange cloth
headlining.I later had a 1970/1 S39 Foden this was all unfinished glass fibre with only a bonnet cover and ambler seats.SO to me the Guy
was quite a classy interior compaired to the Foden S20/30s range.Volvos F88 did’nt have a padded dash not as they needed one.
John
gardner180:
Hi Bewick/Dennis,To answer your question there definitely were 8LXB big Js, I saw one at the white house lights in Barrow, late 70s/early 80s It had a plain red cab, no livery so I don’t know more sorry. Always seemed a daft spec, a premium engine with that cab. Used to ride out as a kid on blue dart lorries out of Barrow, they had some 180 big Js, with a dog leg 6th gear (AEC box I think), difficult to shift into as it had to be where your left leg was. There was one with a fuller 9 speed that would only do 50mph fwds, but (felt like) 30 in reverse. I preferred their Sedd Atk 400s - felt like a proper big truck.
Visited your yard once to see ONL 482M , you kndly gave me some photos of Atkis including this one in McGuffie livery and also MEC 98k - I still have them. Often wonder what became of ONL, Glenn Harley once told me it was still around (in Southhampton I think).
Looking back I think the 70s were the peak time for UK Haulage. Got my HGV 1 since and did some agency driving as a bit of learning/hobby, mainly with Bibbys from Crooklands @ 44tonne, Bargh’s, one nightfreight trip (from next door to your old yard) and a few others. I have enjoyed seeing the old Bewick photos on the ■■■■■■■ companies pages, like many people I wish I had taken a lot more.
Hiya “180” nice to see you on the thread ( I wondered where all my photos had gone !! ) I can’t remember who you might be ( Barrovian obviously ,but I won’t hold that against you !! ) Doesn’t sound you had a very good introduction to road transport riding " shot gun " with those idlebacks on Blue Dart !! It took the lazy B******s 2 days to get a trunk to London !! Bewicks loaded in Barrow up to 4 P.M . and the shunters in London were on the door step next morning !! I’ve just set about our photo archive and have got 750 shots taken over 25/26 years of the Bewick / Fell & McGuffie fleets as well as customer liveried tractors/trailers.There is also quite a few Bowater loads all immaculatly sheeted and roped !! Now that was something else you coulnt’t learn on Blue Dart !! I am now going to have to try to put a selection onto the site.With regard to the Guy Big J it was not a case of doubting there were no 8LXBs it was just that no one came up with a photo !! We ran half a dozen Guy’s all with 180s and they were a good no frills tractor ! but there certainly won’t have been very many 8 LXBs !! Anyway I look forward to hearing more from you no doubt! Regards Dennis.
Hay up Berwick …well all the snow has melted down here in North Wales and me and me mates have had a good look for one of these 8lxb BIG Js
can we find one can we hell.I’ve got as far as a Seddon sleeper cab (motor panels)with a 240 but thats about it.I’am getting a bit desperate myself.
com’on lets have a pikky times going by.
John
gardner180:
Visited your yard once to see ONL 482M , you kndly gave me some photos of Atkis including this one in McGuffie livery and also MEC 98k - I still have them. Often wonder what became of ONL, Glenn Harley once told me it was still around (in Southhampton I think).
Here’s ONL parked near to my motor at Leyland in 1988 - the last time I saw it, though, it was parked down near the railway line and looking very sorry for itself. I’d always assumed that it had succumbed to the hot spanner.
3300John:
Hay up Berwick …well all the snow has melted down here in North Wales and me and me mates have had a good look for one of these 8lxb BIG Js
can we find one can we hell.I’ve got as far as a Seddon sleeper cab (motor panels)with a 240 but thats about it.I’am getting a bit desperate myself.
com’on lets have a pikky times going by.
John
Hiya John no I think its a lost cause finding a Big J 8LXB Tractor but I bet if that bloke who won the 56 mil on the lottery put a substantial reward up for one he would have a dozen stood on his door step next morning !! no danger . Cheers Bewick .
240 Gardner:
gardner180:
Visited your yard once to see ONL 482M , you kndly gave me some photos of Atkis including this one in McGuffie livery and also MEC 98k - I still have them. Often wonder what became of ONL, Glenn Harley once told me it was still around (in Southhampton I think).Here’s ONL parked near to my motor at Leyland in 1988 - the last time I saw it, though, it was parked down near the railway line and looking very sorry for itself. I’d always assumed that it had succumbed to the hot spanner.
Hiya 240 Yea I can remember that time in 88 some of the lads asked to take ONL to Leyland. We just kept it as a “pet” then and used it to pull the low-loader . The tractor had an intersting start in life ! We got it at the end of 74 direct from Walton-le-Dale and put it into service on double shift in Jan 75.It had been put into the Waugh fleet up in Newcastle as a long term demo by Atky’s hence N/east reg but as it didn’t have power steering the shop-steward at Waughs blacked it so it ended up back at Atky’s !! We put it to work as a McGuffie motor and it ran to Daventry and back during the night and then during the day it mainly went to west ■■■■■■■ and back or sometimes down into Lancs. Its spec was ■■■■■■■ 220/big Fuller 9509/Kirkstall D85 HR/ and it was a good reliable workhorse for us.Cheers Bewick.
a 220 with a big Fuller? That’s unusual isn’t it? I’d expect a big Fuller behind a 250 aor a little Fuller behind a 220. Surprised to hear about sending a manual-steered demo motor out as lates '74 - power steering was supposed to be standard with the 220 ■■■■■■■ by then, as well 
Mind you, when I was at Pandoro, power-steered L-reg Borderers were sold in 1982, whilst some manually-steered examples of the same age were expensively converted into yard shunters with hydraulic lift plates!!
240 Gardner:
a 220 with a big Fuller? That’s unusual isn’t it? I’d expect a big Fuller behind a 250 aor a little Fuller behind a 220. Surprised to hear about sending a manual-steered demo motor out as lates '74 - power steering was supposed to be standard with the 220 ■■■■■■■ by then, as wellMind you, when I was at Pandoro, power-steered L-reg Borderers were sold in 1982, whilst some manually-steered examples of the same age were expensively converted into yard shunters with hydraulic lift plates!!
Hiya 240 yea it was an odd spec but it defo was the big Fuller ! Our first new Borderer in 1971 had a slightly higher diff ratio in the BDR axle it was a ■■■■■■■ 205/fuller610 and would manage about 63MPH as opposed to 57 MPH for the std. ratio ! Power steering was another sore point with me our first two tractors came as ordered with ZF then the 3rd came with manual and the excuse was there had been a fire at the factory in Germany !! So we fitted Airo-Matic steering and while it worked fairly well it wasn’t ZF !! We also fitted the same system to a customers Seddon32/4 and it was absolutley spot on ! The last two Borderers we took delivery of in late75’ were ex stockers and from memory ( getting bad ) neither had P/steering but they both had completely different size steering wheels ( shape and diameter) .Cheers Bewick.
Bewick:
We also fitted the same system to a customers Seddon32/4 and it was absolutley spot on
Cropper’s, perhaps?
240 Gardner:
Bewick:
We also fitted the same system to a customers Seddon32/4 and it was absolutley spot onCropper’s, perhaps?
100% wrong 240 !! close but no cigar !! George Sandham was croppers fleet engineer and they did run Seddon 's all the 32/4s had 220RR/6spd.DB ( pass the bucket ) I used to tell him Croppers were the only ones round our way that could afford to run them !! Our customer was Henry Cooke at Beetham nr. Milnthorpe and for a few years before we bought their last two motors/7 tralers off them we supplied them with a couple of new Seddon32/4s 72 & 74 but they were 180LXBs !!! Cheers Bewick.
Bewick:
240 Gardner:
Bewick:
We also fitted the same system to a customers Seddon32/4 and it was absolutley spot onCropper’s, perhaps?
100% wrong 240 !! close but no cigar !! George Sandham was croppers fleet engineer and they did run Seddon 's all the 32/4s had 220RR/6spd.DB ( pass the bucket ) I used to tell him Croppers were the only ones round our way that could afford to run them !! Our customer was Henry Cooke at Beetham nr. Milnthorpe and for a few years before we bought their last two motors/7 tralers off them we supplied them with a couple of new Seddon32/4s 72 & 74 but they were 180LXBs !!! Cheers Bewick.
Ah, 'twas only a guess - I knew Cooke’s as your customer, of course, but I don’t remember their fleet. I’d wondered if you’d done Cropper’s work as well, since you seemed to work for every other paper mill!
240 Gardner:
Bewick:
240 Gardner:
Bewick:
We also fitted the same system to a customers Seddon32/4 and it was absolutley spot onCropper’s, perhaps?
100% wrong 240 !! close but no cigar !! George Sandham was croppers fleet engineer and they did run Seddon 's all the 32/4s had 220RR/6spd.DB ( pass the bucket ) I used to tell him Croppers were the only ones round our way that could afford to run them !! Our customer was Henry Cooke at Beetham nr. Milnthorpe and for a few years before we bought their last two motors/7 tralers off them we supplied them with a couple of new Seddon32/4s 72 & 74 but they were 180LXBs !!! Cheers Bewick.
Ah, 'twas only a guess - I knew Cooke’s as your customer, of course, but I don’t remember their fleet. I’d wondered if you’d done Cropper’s work as well, since you seemed to work for every other paper mill!
Used to do the odd 100 ton of pulp into Croppers and in later years did quite a bit of storage for them . I did come to within a whisker of getting their transport in 1978 one of their 4 MDs (not Cropper family ) would have given Bewick Transport their work at the drop of a hat but for some reason they liked to see their own motors and at the time there was a lot of hostility from their transport dept.I offered them a better service and also they could have had as many motors as they needed with their livery on!! When they got their first Vlvo in 78/79 I new the deal was dead but the MD who wanted us did apologise to me in later years !! Why I tried so hard was the MD at Henry Cookes was always at me when I saw him as to why we wern’t carrying all Croppers tonnage as he couldn’t understand them wanting their own motors and in the 70s Henry Cooke was a lot more successful than Croppers. But we didn’t take any harm over the years as we operated nationwide for many Papermakers and Converters ! I’ve just remembered I did in fact do some of my first loads for Croppers when I started with my first A licence in 68/9. Cheers Bewick
Why I am loading these on a thread called Guy big J 8LXB at 9:40pm on a Friday night I dont know, but here ya go Dennis, here’s another you gave me, ONL in M<cGuffie livery, plus a shot I took from the cab. Back to the beer…
Plus one I took in your yard
Cheers
Byron
gardner180:
Why I am loading these on a thread called Guy big J 8LXB at 9:40pm on a Friday night I dont know, but here ya go Dennis, here’s another you gave me, ONL in M<cGuffie livery, plus a shot I took from the cab. Back to the beer…
Plus one I took in your yard
Cheers
Byron
Hiya 180 Back to the beer !! If we are unlucky enough I can see you putting one of Ken Surphliss’s up next !! That shot of ONL was taken at Heysham harbour in about 75 and the trailer is missing a mud-flap dear oh dear !! Then the shot in the yard in-side the cab looks like it was after it finnished its working life before we re-built it. The line up is also an older shot from early mid 80s . Are you trying to show us up or what ? Pity that shot of the Brad’y 8LXB and loaded trailer was blurred otherwise it would have been a classic shot. Cheers Dennis.
Hi Bewick,
How come there was that many motors parked up? was it Sunday morning,were all the drivers at the church 
Did I see grass under one of the wheels
Trev_H:
Hi Bewick,How come there was that many motors parked up? was it Sunday morning,were all the drivers at the church
Did I see grass under one of the wheels
Yea very religeous our lads !! Church in the morning down the road in the afternoon ! And during nesting season any that had eggs in them remained parked up until they hatched out and flew the nest ! Bewick.
hi folks been trying to register on here for months now i can bring you all the good news , my dad Tommy Doyle worked for smith of maddiston in the 60s and 70s and he drove a big j with a 8LXB fleet number ND888 and reg number NWS 657 M the radiator grill dtuck out and was made from mesh and not slatts like the other big js he tells me it stuck out the back as well the cab sat a good 6 inches higher than a standard big j he recons this waggon done 74mph on the flat and nowt could catch it on his nightly runs down to st albans and back to london rd the next night if anyone wants any more info please let me know im not sure if he has any pictures of ND888 but will ask next time im over for a visit