I bet this brings back some old memories

[eddie_heaton]

ramone:
0
NMP
How many of you older drivers remember this , i’m glad i missed it

I actually enjoyed cabbing it…I really did,…O.k., sleeping across the bonnet wasn’t as good as having a proper sleeper cab I’ll admit, but once you’d got yourself equipped with the proper gear, it was just as comfortable. It was just putting the thing together after a day’s work that was the ball ache.

It may be possible that my relatively early initiation into staying in digs , such as Jack Bray’s in Islington, with a dozen or more to a room, and having scotch meat men coming in and clanging and banging about the place at 3 a.m., that may well have been a deciding influence for my preference to the cab hotel, who knows ?, but either way, I sacked staying in digs long before all the digs disappeared.

When I worked on the brick job in the 80s, during the summer months, I would often sling a sheet over the Hiab and kip under there. It was great. It was just like being paid for going on a camping holiday.

When they built that terminal at Sellindge, the one that receives the electricity under the channel from France, we were running brown engineering bricks down from Skelmersdale to there on a regular basis.

One or two of the subbies, who had sleeper cabs incidentally, insisted on running back home empty the same day… Stupid tarts…I’d like to see someone try to explain to me how it’s possible to drive from Skem, practically to Dover then back to Skem, whilst still observing the statutory speed limits and driving hours requirements , in one shift.

I realise that cabbing it was frowned upon by the unions. The same union primarily that didn’t bother to take issue with the fact that drivers were prohibited from making use of the facilities that the dockers enjoyed. Those same dockers that were members of the same union in most instances.

I keep hearing smart arsed remarks about pulling fuses, doctoring tachos, working two log books, and all the other macho ■■■■■■■■ that I grew achingly weary of listening to over a period of forty odd years, yet I still find myself at a loss to understand what drivers in general had against an eight hour driving day.

How many effin’ hours driving does it take to keep some people happy?

In contrast to a 37 hour working week for most British industries, a 12 hour working day for drivers has been pretty much the norm in the U.K. for as long as I can remember, but 15 hours would appear to be the new norm these days… Hmmmm!..now I wonder who could possibly be to blame for that situation ?

I’m sorry,…my post regarding kipping in the cab appears to have subconsciously morphed into a rant about nobhead drivers…Oh well,…click…Submit.

[grumpy_old_man]

Eddie Heaton:

ramone:
0
NMP
How many of you older drivers remember this , i’m glad i missed it

I actually enjoyed cabbing it…I really did,…O.k., sleeping across the bonnet wasn’t as good as having a proper sleeper cab I’ll admit, but once you’d got yourself equipped with the proper gear, it was just as comfortable. It was just putting the thing together after a day’s work that was the ball ache.

It may be possible that my relatively early initiation into staying in digs , such as Jack Bray’s in Islington, with a dozen or more to a room, and having scotch meat men coming in and clanging and banging about the place at 3 a.m., that may well have been a deciding influence for my preference to the cab hotel, who knows ?, but either way, I sacked staying in digs long before all the digs disappeared.

When I worked on the brick job in the 80s, during the summer months, I would often sling a sheet over the Hiab and kip under there. It was great. It was just like being paid for going on a camping holiday.

When they built that terminal at Sellindge, the one that receives the electricity under the channel from France, we were running brown engineering bricks down from Skelmersdale to there on a regular basis.

One or two of the subbies, who had sleeper cabs incidentally, insisted on running back home empty the same day… Stupid tarts…I’d like to see someone try to explain to me how it’s possible to drive from Skem, practically to Dover then back to Skem, whilst still observing the statutory speed limits and driving hours requirements , in one shift.

I realise that cabbing it was frowned upon by the unions. The same union primarily that didn’t bother to take issue with the fact that drivers were prohibited from making use of the facilities that the dockers enjoyed. Those same dockers that were members of the same union in most instances.

I keep hearing smart arsed remarks about pulling fuses, doctoring tachos, working two log books, and all the other macho [zb] that I grew achingly weary of listening to over a period of forty odd years, yet I still find myself at a loss to understand what drivers in general had against an eight hour driving day.

How many effin’ hours driving does it take to keep some people happy?

In contrast to a 37 hour working week for most British industries, a 12 hour working day for drivers has been pretty much the norm in the U.K. for as long as I can remember, but 15 hours would appear to be the new norm these days… Hmmmm!..now I wonder who could possibly be to blame for that situation ?

I’m sorry,…my post regarding kipping in the cab appears to have subconsciously morphed into a rant about nobhead drivers…Oh well,…click…Submit.

Bloody hell, I’m still traumatised from Brays (Liverpool Rd. Islington). Only stayed there once (60 ish years ago)…never again. IIRC the place burned down.

[buzzer]

5thwheel:
It certainly does,I’ve always enjoyed a banana!

David

Wot no custard Buzzer

[whisperingsmith]

> Eddie Heaton:
> One or two of the subbies, who had sleeper cabs incidentally, insisted on running back home empty the same day… Stupid tarts…I’d like to see someone try to explain to me how it’s possible to drive from Skem, practically to Dover then back to Skem, whilst still observing the statutory speed limits and driving hours requirements , in one shift.

Owner Drivers could/did sign off once tipped, then use their own vehicle as private transport to drive home

[eddie_heaton]

whisperingsmith:
> Eddie Heaton:
> One or two of the subbies, who had sleeper cabs incidentally, insisted on running back home empty the same day… Stupid tarts…I’d like to see someone try to explain to me how it’s possible to drive from Skem, practically to Dover then back to Skem, whilst still observing the statutory speed limits and driving hours requirements , in one shift.

Owner Drivers could/did sign off once tipped, then use their own vehicle as private transport to drive home

That’s something that I was never aware of W/S, but I obviously wasn’t specific enough in my original post, as the drivers that I had in mind weren’t actually O/Ds, but employees of a company that subcontracted work from the company that I was employed to drive for.

I recall occasions when these self same drivers complained about me doing what they percieved as being more than my fair share of the local work. My answer being that whereas they were prepared to do Southampton and back in the day from Skem on a regular basis, if I was sent as far as Taunton, then they shouldn’t expect to see me until the following day.

It isn’t that I’m idle, I’ve always put in a fair days work for a fair days pay, but there has to be a limit. Thus far and no further being my mantra. The government of the day sets the limits, but too many drivers over the years have chosen to ignore them for their own personal reasons…I’ll admit, I’ve done it myself on occasions.

But running bent on a regular basis has done little, if anything at all to improve the general lot of your average driver.

The operator’s licensing that was introduced in the late 60s did little to help further the ends of the common driver either in my view…( That comment alone should ruffle quite a few private enterprise feathers as well, I would imagine )…The combination of these two factors may possibly be the reason why it’s often necessary to put in a 60 hour week driving a wagon in order to earn the same wage as a bloke that does a 40 hour week working for United Utilities investigating water leaks, in between brewing up every ten minutes that is,…and has never slept in anything other than his own bed since he went on that camping trip to Grasmere with the school in the 60s.

Wot…me ? …sleep in a stinky lorry?..you must be ‘avin’ a bleedin’ larf aintcha ?

These are my views anyway, based on 45 years behind the wheel. Take them or leave them alone.

I’ve just remembered, I’ve got a photo of my wagon, taken somewhere near where they have that bloody daft pop festival every year. Can’t just recall the name of the place…the one where all those unemployed layabouts pay 300 quid each of their hard earned dole money just to ■■■■ in a bucket for a few days and be seen by their peers on national t.v. wallowing about in a foot of slurry whilst listening to obscure bands blasting out complete toss from a good half mile away.

I’ll put it on this thread if I can find it.

Oh!, Glastonbury…that’s the place I was trying to remember… It’s all coming back to me now…Michael Beaver…or summat.

Anyway.

Hope all’s well in Kernow W/S…my mate Keith lives down there… you’ve probably met him…He’s got a beard ?..or at least he did have the last time I saw him.

[eddie_heaton]

Here’s the photo that I mentioned previously. Taken on a car park in Glastonbury in August 1984 …That’s if the scrawl on the back can be trusted of course.

It will be noted that I hadn’t actually got around to making the bed at this early stage, although the component parts of the chambre de lit are clearly visible behind the headboard.

From memory, I’d backloaded from some brickworks or other near Exeter, through Frank Tucker.

Although it isn’t immediately apparent in this shot, the young lady in the frame, ( completely unknown to me by the way ), was evidently unfamiliar with the concept of under-roping, as her load appeared to be hanging in the sheets to an alarming degree.

I realise that no one except myself would ever have known this, based purely on the evidence of this particular daguerreotype, but unfortunately, you’ll just have to trust me on this occasion.

The lad in the shot by the way is my young nephew. He was doing what all sensible lads of his age used to do back then. Having a few days touring the country with his mad uncle.

p.s. The dog’s mine as well…there’s another one somewhere, but she’s out of shot.

[robroy]

Jeez I’d hate to go back to that, but in those days we knew nothing else, it’s just what you did.
Worst memories waking up in a 400 SedAtk in Aberdeen in winter,.warm as toast in my Royal Marines winter issue outdoor hooded sleeping bag with sleeves, , but psyching myself up to brave getting out of it, and scrape the ice off the INSIDE of the windows.
Then having to stow all your kit up tidily to set off.
Would I do it today?..would I ■■■■, more sense nowadays.

Best set up I saw was a guy who made brackets for what looked like a stretcher between the door pillars, and another guy who had a hammock set up.
Good days I suppose but would hate to go back to em, we’re all just spoiled now, and quite rightly so.

[mizzo]

Certainly brings back memories, my first night out was I think in April 1978, I was in an Atki Borderer and I was parked in London Bricks trailer park in Peterborough. I remained fully clothed, (but had a shower in LBC’s facilities) I sat in the passenger seat and leaned against the bonnet using my bag as a pillow, youthful bliss. After a few months I had two bread boards with brackets on the ends to slot into the door shut handles, pukka sleeping bag, my mattress was a long seat cushion from a Transit mini-bus and curtains made by mother. Every night out I had bar one at that company was in an Atki Borderer, happy days but I don’t think I would want to go back to it. As Robroy says, it was the norm.

[john_west]

Eddie Heaton:
Here’s the photo that I mentioned previously. Taken on a car park in Glastonbury in August 1984 …That’s if the scrawl on the back can be trusted of course.

It will be noted that I hadn’t actually got around to making the bed at this early stage, although the component parts of the chambre de lit are clearly visible behind the headboard.

From memory, I’d backloaded from some brickworks or other near Exeter, through Frank Tucker.

Although it isn’t immediately apparent in this shot, the young lady in the frame, ( completely unknown to me by the way ), was evidently unfamiliar with the concept of under-roping, as her load appeared to be hanging in the sheets to an alarming degree.

I realise that no one except myself would ever have known this, based purely on the evidence of this particular daguerreotype, but unfortunately, you’ll just have to trust me on this occasion.

The lad in the shot by the way is my young nephew. He was doing what all sensible lads of his age used to do back then. Having a few days touring the country with his mad uncle.

p.s. The dog’s mine as well…there’s another one somewhere, but she’s out of shot.

That cab was a step down from the MAN or Mercedes on Pritchett’s Eddie! I always preferred to cab it. In fact the only digs I remember going in fairly regularly was somewhere around Billingham when we loaded crisps from Cowpen Lane. I went out with one of the girls who worked there a few times. The digs were in a cul de sac and we must have been popular with the neighbours when six or seven units started up in the morning! You couldn’t see your hand in front of your face, never mind the noise.

[eddie_heaton]

You’re dead right there John, the cab was definitely a step down from the Merc cab, without a doubt, although the engine in it was a step up from the elastic band that powered the 1418.

It had in it the T11 engine. I’m not sure exactly how much power that produced, as this wasn’t the kind of information that turned me on, but I’ve little doubt that there’ll be a number of people on here that will know, as well as the torque settings for the head bolts no doubt. What I do know is that it had the capability to pull down a row of houses…when it wasn’t sat over the pit in the workshop that is.

It also possessed some species of Spicer gearbox, which provided the slickest gear change in any motor that I can remember ever having driven.

It also came equipped with a typical, state of the art Leyland style fuel gauge fitted to the side of the fuel tank, so that if you were a little concerned about whether or not you had enough diesel left in the tank to get you back home, then all you had to do was to pull into the next lay-by, jump out of the cab and check the gauge on the side of the tank…this was in the 80s by the way,…and then they scratch their heads, wondering why hauliers switched their allegience to European truck manufacturers.

Following the retirement of the Octopus however proceedings continued to spiral even farther downhill, with the acquisition of some form of Foden S80 derivative which proved to be the final nail in the coffin with regards to my already shaky relationship with Fodens.

The attached photo shown above is a shot of the beast…ten tons of Sandbach’s finest scrap metal…taken at Birchenwood near Kidsgrove in 1985.

[lawrence_dunbar]

Speaking of fuel gauges I drove an Albion Chiefton 1957 and there was a black callibrated wooden dipstick to check the level, I fitted a piece of rubber pipe to store it in under the body, Some drivers just wiped them & put them behind the seat, Regards Larry.

[lawrence_dunbar]

Speaking of fuel gauges I drove an Albion Chiefton 1957 and there was a black callibrated wooden dipstick to check the level, I fitted a piece of rubber pipe to store it in under the body, Some drivers just wiped them & put them behind the seat, Regards Larry.