I don’t remember this one Andrew!
Viking:
I don’t remember this one Andrew!
The trailer looks exactly like the ones that Ratcliffe’s built for Pritchett Bros at Ashton in makerfield. What do you think Eddie and Barry?
John.
Evening all,
Just hunted through my old pictures, the first Saviem SM280 TU for Douglas Freight Services was registered as MAN 280, the second MAN 281, (old black and silver plates. Both were painted Saviem factory blue, with white bumpers, red chassis, and when new red plastic rear wings Doors were sign written in white. Just found an old picture taken on the premises of Cheltenham Commercial Vehicles, on the Golden Valley roundabout. Both were supplied via Jean L`Haridon, Cap du Finistere, to Don Griffiths at CCV.
Any others that ran with them must have been owned by Allwood Transport, another Griffiths company, and would have been 36.280s.
Chris, I think that Graylaw are the biggest on the Island now, but do Merzeron own those Scania`s, or are they contracted to them?
Bit of useless information really!
Cheerio for now.
Hi All,
I did a load of farming equipment from France to the Isle of Man back in 1985,here’s a pic of Merzeron’s old crane unloading me at Jurby airfield,had to have a police ■■■■■■,( and it was a Ford ■■■■■■ ),from Douglas he stopped just outside Douglas and said “away you go you’ll be ok” and roared off !
Regards
Richard
Viking:
I don’t remember this one Andrew!
That’s a new one on me Tom.
The only Ergo that I was aware of NWF running was a Buffalo, and like many Buffalo’s it was a disaster and ■■■■ sold it within weeks of the factory warranty expiring.
The trailer C7 on the other hand was a Crane Fruehauf bought for the Valor Newhome contract. I would guess that it was coming back from having the second deck put in, you can see the bright metal baton running down the body which the shelving brackets were fastened to inside, On it’s way to the paints shop possibly.
Of course since it’s a 40’, it can’t have been going to the island, since the limit at that time was still 33’ over there. So the it was pulling the trailer illegally, now there’s a surprise.
Cheers A. Hope you are keeping well bud. All the best for Christmas & New Year.
You may not believe this John, but when I saw this trailer, my first thought was B.L.T., Blue Line Trailers. Fabricated at Edge Green, Golborne. They did the job, but that’s it. I won’t say they were cheap and nasty, … on second thoughts, I will, they were cheap and nasty.
MaggieD:
Hi All,I did a load of farming equipment from France to the Isle of Man back in 1985,here’s a pic of Merzeron’s old crane unloading me at Jurby airfield,had to have a police ■■■■■■,( and it was a Ford ■■■■■■ ),from Douglas he stopped just outside Douglas and said “away you go you’ll be ok” and roared off !
Regards
Richard
Hello Richard,
Merzeron took a 360 degree machine over for me on a flat to Ramsey, 45% of the cost of the Steam Packet, and lovely to deal with! The Steam Packet are throttling the Island, always claim the cost of the 365 day sevice, but they are “Orrible” to deal with…Mr Tesco gave them a fright…bought his own charter craft in!
Cheerio for now.
Hello Richard,
Merzeron took a 360 degree machine over for me on a flat to Ramsey, 45% of the cost of the Steam Packet, and lovely to deal with! The Steam Packet are throttling the Island, always claim the cost of the 365 day sevice, but they are “Orrible” to deal with…Mr Tesco gave them a fright…bought his own charter craft in!
Cheerio for now.
It didn’t last long though Saviem,the vessels they used were unable to access Douglas Sea Terminal as the weather was so bad. The Ben My Chree ro-ro from Heysham sailed past them and got tipped as usual. 
Tesco and M and S were using those two chartered ships and weren’t happy,was about 5 years ago IIRC.This is one of the containers that were used out of Widnes RDC I think…
Hi, EDDIE and JOHN , Blue line done one for us our running gear ,the built a new one looked the part a bit on the heavy side , but done the job iirc it cost around 13oo quid , Cheers Barry
I don’t know whether it ever went over to the Island, but C7 doesn’t look anything like a Crane Fruehauf to me, here’s what they did look like at the time - Eddie having a swift break at his mum’s!
I don’t think Saviems MAN 280 & MAN 281, detailed by ‘Saviem’, ever visited the island. From new, they loaded for Al Khobar from Westyield homes in Kent, driven by Fred and Gerry from Liverpool and finished their days on Saudi plates at Caravan Trading in Al Khobar.
John.
Evening all,
Well John, you have really got me thinking now! That lorry with the Pritchetts trailer is a 32.240, with the Attelier Saint Catherine headboard, (orible plastic thing it was), and a day cab to boot! Blooming unsaleable, and not a long distance lorry with its brown vinyl, (but comfortable), seats! And not a lot of power…about the same as a Scania P80…on a bad day!
That must have been the demonstrator from Nickersons Leeds branch. Now Nickersons from Scunthorpe were “our” importer from 74/75. Wonderful people, honourable, honest, and totally at sea in the market place! Sprang from the Nickerson Oils business in Leeds, well britched financially, their top man was Colin Tickner and his wife. Really good people, and fantastic employers.
The Leeds branch was run by a guy called Graham Mounsey, ex Hargreaves I think…had a “Donald Trump” coffiure, hated getting in a strong wind…(Iloved to get him on a windy quay side, and watch his coiffure imitate a Tea Clipper rounding Cape Horn)… But a good man, and I think that he had the late Paul Clark as his service manger…proper people…with totally the wrong product for the UK market!!!
John, I do not doubt what you say about the `280s, Don Griffiths was a sharp operator, and as mentioned previously, the IOM plates gave ultra cheap road tax in the UK, plus Griffiths had investments in the IOM from his quarry interests, so I wonder did he have money in Douglas Freight, and how did that morfe into Caravan? Who were the directors?
Was your Saviem either 280, or 281?..because if it was I spent hours trawling around Britagne trying to prove that I had not,“massaged” the supply of two SMs to a UK operator…really it was all about two business men trading Permits…remember them?
Oh happy days indeed!
Cheerio for now.
This is the best picture I can find of 40 foot BLT dry van. I have to say, it looks remarkably similar to the one in the previous shot.
Eddie Heaton:
0This is the best picture I can find of 40 foot BLT dry van. I have to say, it looks remarkably similar to the one in the previous shot.
Thanks Eddie, I agree that C7 looks like that BLT rather than a CF (that’s Crane Fruehauf, not CarryFast!)
Why did they go for that appalling sign writing? The ‘on time freight line’ was so much classier!
Back to MAN 280 and 281. I drove for Douglas Freight, but only visited the office once and have little knowledge of the company history. My memory is that they were a furniture remover before starting on Middle East. I understood the boss was Tim Coulter, who I met, with his transport manager Roy (second name escapes me) when I flew to the island in December 1976, or Jan '77. My wife and I met Fred and Gerry at Liverpool Airport and we spent the day over there (possibly the night too, but it’s a long time ago). I have no knowledge of other partners or investors.
I’d previously met Fred and Gerry at a border - maybe Yugo, when Fred was driving the F88 that I inherited and Gerry was driving a 6x4 F89 for them. This would be maybe May '76.
Douglas bought the 2 Saviems and the first driver (I think) to take one abroad was ‘Geordie’. I’d forgotten this until I thought about it, I assumed that Fred and Gerry took them out first. Geordie got stuck at Kapic. I can’t remember where he was actually going.
Roy absolutely hated to fly ( not good when you live on the IOM). My first job with Douglas - I got the job through Mike Conlong, who knew Tim - was to fly to Istanbul with money and hitch hike up to Kapic to fix Geordie’s problem. By coincidence, Geordie managed to clear just as I arrived, so I drove the Saviem (sorry, Saviem, can’t remember which one it was) back to the Mocamp at Istanbul before flying home again.
This was my introduction to the music to be played on a ZF splitter column change! I can see why Geordie immediately elected me to drive! As previously said, Eric Collins who finished up with one of these, could always match the revs exactly. I was less than perfect!
I had driven a Daf with the same gearbox, with the change on the floor, to Baghdad, but somehow that always seemed easier to slide into gear.
Douglas took on subcontractors to deliver the Westyield homes contract for Saudia to Al Khobar. I found a Douglas Tilt in Jeddah and Roy asked me to ship it home. As I was backing under it, a Brit approached me and said 'that’s my guarantee of getting paid - you can either pull away now or I will kick the cr** out of you. As he had several chums, I telexed Roy to let him know…
So, to move forward about a year and to Dammam. Douglas and Caravan had no connection. It was only coincidence that owner drivers for Caravan bought the Douglas freight Saviems. I have no idea what happened to my F88 or the f89 that they owned. I also don’t know what happened to the company from then on.
John
Just saw a car with an Isle of Man reg today and it jogged my memory.
Sometime in the '70’s? I was in some hotel in Saudi and there were two or three trucks from the Isle of Man there.Can’t remember the colours or the name of the firm,just that they were MAN’s,naturally,and all with an IoM reg,a prefix or sufix of MAN.
ANY IDEA’S? ASH??
bestbooties:
Just saw a car with an Isle of Man reg today and it jogged my memory.
Sometime in the '70’s? I was in some hotel in Saudi and there were two or three trucks from the Isle of Man there.Can’t remember the colours or the name of the firm,just that they were MAN’s,naturally,and all with an IoM reg,a prefix or sufix of MAN.
ANY IDEA’S? ASH??
I live in the Isle of Man Bestbooties,I’ll try and find out.
John Mcnamara ran 2 globetrotters in europe in the 80’s and 90’s
It was a tax dodge. The road tax for a truck on the IoM was not much more than a car, and as long as you didn’t run loaded in the UK not a problem. If the Lancashire traffic police caught you with a load other than for the island you would be prosecuted both for being untaxed and cabotage. But once you left these shores, or even went south of Brum, nobody seemed to realise you weren’t strictly legal. Northwest Freighters of Haydock also owned Manx Hauliers and had a Manx registered ERF based in Ramsgate shunting trailers to and from Kraft Namur for years; B27MAN I think.
acd1202:
Northwest Freighters of Haydock also owned Manx Hauliers and had a Manx registered ERF based in Ramsgate shunting trailers to and from Kraft Namur for years; B27MAN I think.
Spot on with that mate. ■■■■ Stafford (the owner of Freighters) was thinking of registering all of his motors to the IOM that were going over the water. I have a pic of B27 I shall have to dig it out and post it.
Viking:
acd1202:
Northwest Freighters of Haydock also owned Manx Hauliers and had a Manx registered ERF based in Ramsgate shunting trailers to and from Kraft Namur for years; B27MAN I think.Spot on with that mate. ■■■■ Stafford (the owner of Freighters) was thinking of registering all of his motors to the IOM that were going over the water. I have a pic of B27 I shall have to dig it out and post it.
Yes,Viking I’d like to see the photo too.An old Manx mate of mine over here would be interested to see it as well.
I didn’t know N.W. Freighters owned Manx Hauliers.The biggest over here is Graylaw from Skelmersdale and I.C.D. who might be a UK firm as well - not sure about that.Ronagency who had a depot at Preston are still over here as well.