oiltreader:
Other side of the country(not all the way) from you Dig at Adelaide, credit to Jack Chambers for the photos.
Oily
Thanks Oily rail delivered by road nothing wrong with that.
Dig
And it didn’t stop there, rail on road, the Ghan train which now runs from Adelaide(?) to Darwin packed full of tourists can only do so because back in the 60s the final link in the north south railway was laid with track taken up from the Nullabor Plain and laid the last couple of hundred miles. All brought north by Mack trains of Buntine-related Co-Ord Transport of Alice Springs. I saw on several occasions these triples driving in and around our depot at Katherine with sections of rail overhanging front and back of the flat trailers. OK in a straight line but weaving round the sheds to the diesel pump they clanked loudly as the ends fouled each other. They obviously didn’t worry about snapping any chains because the easy way would have been to drop the trailers on the highway and just bring the tractor in.
oiltreader:
Other side of the country(not all the way) from you Dig at Adelaide, credit to Jack Chambers for the photos.
Oily
Thanks Oily rail delivered by road nothing wrong with that.
Dig
And it didn’t stop there, rail on road, the Ghan train which now runs from Adelaide(?) to Darwin packed full of tourists can only do so because back in the 60s the final link in the north south railway was laid with track taken up from the Nullabor Plain and laid the last couple of hundred miles. All brought north by Mack trains of Buntine-related Co-Ord Transport of Alice Springs. I saw on several occasions these triples driving in and around our depot at Katherine with sections of rail overhanging front and back of the flat trailers. OK in a straight line but weaving round the sheds to the diesel pump they clanked loudly as the ends fouled each other. They obviously didn’t worry about snapping any chains because the easy way would have been to drop the trailers on the highway and just bring the tractor in.
Thanks again DeanO excellent article. woof woof
[/quote
These photos not so good, this was the result of a collision between a road train of bulk distillate and a Quad side tipper travelling in the opposite direction.
Dig
Bloody hell Dig, that must have been some impact, I suppose the damage to the quad was similarly only to the trailer(s) too was it? Thus both drivers ok?
But at least the MRD got a section of road re-surfaced for free.
Slightly before my time there Buntine had one dedicated triple to Shell Bitumen. It ran between Darwin and The Alice I think with no stopovers, to keep it warm. Thus 2 drivers, no sleeper, but the ‘idle’ driver could stretch out on a cross catwalk behind the cab which had low guard rails.
One night he had to do an emergency stop for some reason and, because the front loading hatch had not been securely dogged, a great gloop of molten bitumen slopped over the back of the cab and onto the catwalk.
Fortunately both drivers were in the cab at the time, otherwise one of them would have been preserved in solid bitumen. I have no idea how they would have got that motor cleaned up and back into service. And I do believe the practice stopped afterwards.
DIG:
These photos not so good, this was the result of a collision between a road train of bulk distillate and a Quad side tipper travelling in the opposite direction.
Dig
Thats a big insurance claim Dig.
I was watching a DVD a while back which featured a Kenworth with four tanker trailers. The operator was saying to put
that on the road was nearly 1 million Australian dollars and the DVD must be over 5 years old.
Spardo:
Bloody hell Dig, that must have been some impact, I suppose the damage to the quad was similarly only to the trailer(s) too was it? Thus both drivers ok?
But at least the MRD got a section of road re-surfaced for free.
Slightly before my time there Buntine had one dedicated triple to Shell Bitumen. It ran between Darwin and The Alice I think with no stopovers, to keep it warm. Thus 2 drivers, no sleeper, but the ‘idle’ driver could stretch out on a cross catwalk behind the cab which had low guard rails.
One night he had to do an emergency stop for some reason and, because the front loading hatch had not been securely dogged, a great gloop of molten bitumen slopped over the back of the cab and onto the catwalk.
Fortunately both drivers were in the cab at the time, otherwise one of them would have been preserved in solid bitumen. I have no idea how they would have got that motor cleaned up and back into service. And I do believe the practice stopped afterwards.
The load was Diesel good job not petrol and those tankers would be 40000litres each so I think the road may be a bit soggy and I believe both drivers were uninjured but probably going to have a few nightmares for a while. The quad side tippers would have been of steel manufacture so probly came out of it a bit better not sure if it was loaded.
I had heard of sleeping on the hungry boards not something i would have done though I reckon it would have been noisy draughty and rough so probly better off in the passenger seat.
Dig
DIG:
These photos not so good, this was the result of a collision between a road train of bulk distillate and a Quad side tipper travelling in the opposite direction.
Dig
Thats a big insurance claim Dig.
I was watching a DVD a while back which featured a Kenworth with four tanker trailers. The operator was saying to put
that on the road was nearly 1 million Australian dollars and the DVD must be over 5 years old.
A new triple rated KW would be half a million Ausie dollars now not sure what those tanks cost but i.m thinking 250thou each plus dollys so in todays world probably 1.5 millionish on the road.
The insurance premiums would be a bit eye watering.
Dig:
I had heard of sleeping on the hungry boards not something i would have done though I reckon it would have been noisy draughty and rough so probly better off in the passenger seat.
Nor me. The ‘passenger seat’ of the B model was actually a 2 seat bench, so, while nowhere near long enough to stretch out on, it would have been possible to lie on the side with knees drawn up. If, in addition, something softish could be built up between it and the dash, it may not have been too uncomfortable. When I think of sleeping across an Atki bonnet, what’s not to like?
Of course you might have to put up with being hit in the head from time to time by the second stick.
Interesting article Dean, never knew that Econofreight was formed in 1938, always assumed it was much later, as in the 70’s more like. Never too old to learn eh
DIG:
Good day all
Some of you may know on the first of feb we had a large bush fire start here in West Aus it really was doozy travelled 20 kms the first day and destroyed 86 homes by the time it was brought under control, we evacuated from home 10pm the first night to our daughters home 10km away then got an order to evacuate from there at 2am ,we decided to stay that night but as you can probly imagine not much sleep.
The next day we just kept monitoring its progress via a very good appt on our computers meanwhile 2 jet powered arial water bombers flew in from NSW and those with a Hercules aircraft and 6 helicopters and some smaller aircraft attacked the fire from the air and later that day started laying a fire break with chemical retardant, at this time the fire had a perimeter of 110kms.
That night the winds picked up to 70km/h at times and i really thought we were in real trouble but the retardant held the fire enough for ground crews to keep on top of hot spots caused be burning embers and 2 more days of this saw the fire controlled and contained after burning some 11000hectares in 5 days .
Our thanks goes out to the aircraft and their ground support people plus the fire fighters on the ground many of who are belong to volunteer brigades without them the magnificent job they did we would have been in real trouble.
I know most of you that read this will have been shovelling snow having worked for BRS on the M1 in the bitterly cold nights of its early days when the cold was freezing the fuel all I can say is I think that I preferred that to what we have endured here of late.
We were lucky our home escaped any damage but our hearts go out to those that lost the lot.
Cheers Dig
Heres a few photos
How’s the situation now in your neck of the woods DIG? As most of the snow and ice have disappeared here now, so hopefully everything is under control down there too… Isn’t it odd though that it wasn’t mentioned in the news over here? Not in the UK, France nor Holland… but a bit of snow and ice, a whole week of gloom and doom and the end of the world (according to the news that is… )
[zb]
anorak:
The Scammell is the first 6x4 Highwayman I’ve seen- they are usually 4x2. In addition, it looks to have its cab mounted a bit higher than usual:
0
It looks like it’s a Constructor with a Highwayman bonnet…?
pv83:
Interesting article Dean, never knew that Econofreight was formed in 1938, always assumed it was much later, as in the 70’s more like. Never too old to learn eh
That was a surprise to me too Patrick, I had first seen lorries in the Tarmac khaki colours and the group of Ts logo, and assumed that was the origin.
pv83:
Interesting article Dean, never knew that Econofreight was formed in 1938, always assumed it was much later, as in the 70’s more like. Never too old to learn eh
That was a surprise to me too Patrick, I had first seen lorries in the Tarmac khaki colours and the group of Ts logo, and assumed that was the origin.
We’ve learned something new both then David When did you start working for them, late 70’s early 80s?
DIG:
These photos not so good, this was the result of a collision between a road train of bulk distillate and a Quad side tipper travelling in the opposite direction.
Dig
pv83:
Interesting article Dean, never knew that Econofreight was formed in 1938, always assumed it was much later, as in the 70’s more like. Never too old to learn eh
That was a surprise to me too Patrick, I had first seen lorries in the Tarmac khaki colours and the group of Ts logo, and assumed that was the origin.
We’ve learned something new both then David When did you start working for them, late 70’s early 80s?
Late 70s, a mate was working there and I fancied a challenge, so I went down to Markfield and spoke to the young chap who later took over from Tom Llewellyn as MD up in Thornaby, Geoff somebody, can’t remember his surname. He said ‘you do know that we have some very long kit here don’t you, do you think you would be up to it?’ to which I replied ‘well if you consider that 3 40’ trailers is long kit, then yes’. So I was in.
Nearly 20 years later, after I had demoted (or promoted, depends how you look at it ) myself at Toray to get back on the road I found myself near Econofreight’s Thornaby depot with a broken airline on my Foden wagon and drag, so I called in to ask for assistance on the old boys’ network only to find it was him in charge. We had a pleasant chat over a cup of tea while his mechanics sorted my motor out, he was interested in what I was doing and had been doing, but seemed eager to find work away from purely heavy and into contract distribution. I was unable to help in that regard and we parted friends.
A slight sadness though was that I had spotted my old Daf in the yard in rather a delapidated state and obviously used as a yard shunter. I had had it from new when I came back from injury and we all came back from the haulage strike in '79/'80. A really nice motor.
I have no idea how they would have got that motor cleaned up and back into service. And I do believe the practice stopped afterwards. 
