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Hi guys, Coopers changed over in Crawford from the late fifties.Lots of local people worked for them and I remember travelling into Glasgow on the bonnet of a Guy invincible in the 1960’s with a school friend who’s father worked for them and stayed next door to us.I also remember they ran commer two strokes.We used to do their repairs and maintenance at Millars in the seventies.Don’t no when they finished but I will find out as my cousin who stays in the village worked with them.
Hi,
It would have been late 70’s when Coopers packed up, you’re right about them running 2 stroke Commers as well as the Guy’s, Reg Cooper was well known for firing drivers in a rage, then going knocking on their doors to ask them back when the heat had died. I seem to remember he was chairman of the West Midlands RHA for a while. The depot was on Holyhead rd Wednesbury and for a haulage yard of that period it was very impressive.
I found this old photo in the loft when I was looking for the Gardner book thought I would put it onto Jims thread.The Albion is ex WD it was a chassis cab when Millar bought it in the late sixties.Itwas converted inhouse with a Garwood twin boom crane and a massive winch which came from a railway yard in Carlisle via Baulds at Gretna.The original engine may have been a petrol but it was fitted with an albion HD diesel.This was later replaced with a AV760 AEC engine.It had a 5 speed box and transfer box which was reversed,this gave a top speed of about 45 MPH.No power steering 1400x 20 tyres and two gear levers made it fun to drive.The hydracon mobile crane was based on an Albion chassis and Leyland engine.The BigJhad a ■■■■■■■ 220 engine and 6 speed thornycroft gear box as used by AEC.The cab and the engine at that time came from a Smith of Maddiston tractor unit that Ibought from them for £1200 It had a Holmes W45 twin boom crane and a winch from a Scammell Pioneer.Top speed was 60MPH and it frightened a few drivers being towed at that speed on a ridged bar.
Doh forgot to post the photo,must be years of inhaling diesel fumes.
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Hydracon cranes were built by Lamberton in Coatbridge.They were an engineering company producing steelworks plant in addition to the cranes.I remember being in their place nearly forty years ago.They were still in business a few years back.There again time goes that fast that what seems like a few years is often ten or twenty.
I once got towed at a fair old speed too and was terrified.I was in a TK and the towing wagon had a large flat back end on it which I couldnt see over or around.It was difficult trying not to swing out on corners or into the verge.Got towed from Peebles to Broxburn before the bypass was there and Im sure the guy forgot I was there at times.Not much you can do on the end of an iron bar though.
Heres a link to another crane(I dont know how to post pics).Note the extremely good looking driver.
ems-fife.co.uk/ironfairy.htm
Mark.
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Jim,thanks for posting the pics.I really need to learn how.
Where to start?
I notice no pic of yourself in the “also ran” thread.First time no pic has been worth a thousand words.
The Iron Fairy which is a JIF10 has been one of my best ever buys.Had it about eight years now and its saved a lot of hard work.That was us loading a couple of machines for Spain on to a very,very bad tempered Spaniards tilt.He wouldnt open my side of the trailer so I was working blind.
That was the Iveco loaded for a little run down to Swadlingcote to unload the lathe on the Sunday evening,on to Bridgend and load a machine that night and back to Monmouth to take another machine out on the Monday morning.That was a good job as it was at The Haberdashers School for Girls.Thats the machine being unloaded in the second pic.I had just put the little Hiab on and it still needed a bit of paint.Its not kept on all the time,twenty minutes is all it takes to take the four u bolts out and lift it off.
The next weekend was drop a machine at Kings Lyn on the Saturday night,on to Kingston on Thames and take one out on the Sunday morning and back home for supper.
All the things you guys could do before tachos and limiters.
I also once got towed from Manchester to Broxburn on the end of a pole.One of our infamous Seddon Atkis with a forty foot fridge on the back.No engine,no brakes,no power steering but it was a 2300 Daf on the front and I could at least see where we were going.I even saw the Granada that came up my inside as we were doing a wide left off Broxburn Main St into Greendykes Rd,but the guy in the Daf didn`t…
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Jim,interesting film that.Unfortunately car drivers and both kinds of cyclists are still doing the same things today,Id also be a bit worried about Vosa getting one of these Bentleys.:slight_smile: Noticing the date at 1952 and the picture of a mothers pride and joy there would place you in the 63-65 age category which is a bit older than me.:slight_smile:Off course how do I know its not a pic of your younger brother?
Bet youre glad I dont know how to post pics.
Re the working hours.Like you I was brought up knowing that if you want anything out of this life you have to work for it.I like doing my trips on a Friday night and Saturday.Dont like driving on Sundays,too many cars on the road pretending theyre a Beemer with no mirrors or indicators.
Meant to add earlier I did Workington in a little 106 van.It cost me 2K over ten years ago and never needs more than £70 of work for an mot.I keep thinking about getting rid but why,it`s still quite tidy and does the job and is worth nothing.
Mark.
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stravaiger:
His school of philosophy was simply you didn’t get to be prosperous by what you earned but by what you kept hold of
Jim,I used to look after a small fleet for a guy who wouldnt attract a second glance.This guy could easily produce £10K cash out of his pockets any day of the week.His favourite saying was "money saved is money earned".I didnt quite understand the meaning of that but as I got older it sunk in and now it is one of my favourite sayings and through hard work and careful spending I can sometimes produce £10 from my pockets give or take the odd shilling.
Mark.
hi lads, Jim your on about work load, in 1961 i worked for be-ro flour,at first drove an aec monarch otn 929 reg, 37mph flat out, then drove a mandator 414 cbb, 32 mph some times when thing got busy we had to pull the drag trailer, 20mph was the limit then, inverness was a 5day job on paper, 16 mph was the average speed the company set, 
so if you did it in 3 days we would hide the lorry and drag at otterburn on the Wednesday night ,get a lift home then go back Friday afternoon, back to the garage for 5 o’clock to late to wash off, so you got 4 hrs on the saturday to wash off, money for old rope on that job, 
but as they say all good things come to an end RANKS flour took it over then things changed over the next few years 
left in 1965and joined the hurry up lot, 
tried to post photo of aec 395 ebb, bumber
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Hi,
there’s been a few posts about scarey towing, how about, for want of a better word, comical towing.
Broke down one day, about 1973, in a Leyland Clydesdale, just south of J15 on M6. Gearbox knackered. Wagon is only a few months old. Wait about 4 hours for Kays of Stoke to send a breakdown truck. Breakdown truck arrived and I was trying to decide which one of them was the oldest, the truck or the driver.(they both looked about 70) You’re alright son, he said I’ve been doing this since 19 naught plonk. So out comes the bar which he and his mate duly connect to the back of the breakdown truck and then try to connect the other end to the front offside towing eye on my lorry. Which I might add is a 2 axle 16 tonner fully loaded with timber. Unfortunately the end of the tow bar is too big to fit. Not to worry says driver, we’ll put a shackle on it, oops, still too big, let’s put a smaller one on as well and another and another and so on until it fitted. So now we had a solid bar and about a foot or so of shackles. Will that be alright? Says I. no problems he said, I’ve done it this way hundreds of times. So off we go down to J14 on to A34 and headed back towards Stoke. I managed to get him to stop in a lay-by opposite the café that was on the other side of the road. What’s the matter? He said. I want a cup of tea and something to eat, I’ve not had anything for about 6 Hours, I replied. OK he said. How’s it riding, bloody awful, says I, it’s snatching, lurching and the bar keeps banging. No problems he said I’ve done it this way hundreds of times, if there was anything wrong I would feel it in my cab. So eventually we reach the Stoke area about evening rush hour. Now Stoke has a fair few hump back bridges, second or third one we came to the towing wagon goes over the hump and I stay where I am. So I’m sat there watching him vanish into the distance dragging half my bumper behind him. Eventually he noticed I wasn’t behind. So he reversed about ¾ of a mile. He said, that’s strange, I’ve done this hundreds of times, never had this happen before, never mind he said we’re nearly there now we’ll use the other towing eye. So he connects it all up again and off we go. We then come to a set of traffic lights at the top of a hill, but for some unknown reason he stopped at the bottom of the hill and engaged first gear. So off we went, his wagon did that much lurching it must have been filled up with Kangaroo juice. First gear all the way up the hill, just before we got to the lights, they changed to red, so he now changes up a gear and fly’s off, dragging the other half of my bumper behind him and once again leaving me behind. Now in the middle of the rush hour he reverses across a main traffic light junction. So I say to him, what you going to do now? Err we’ll use the axle clamp…what you laughing at? axle clamp, I said, why didn’t you use that in the first place? Didn’t need it, he said, I’ve done this hundreds of times. 
Ray
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stravaiger:
y
Mark, It’s good to be prudent and thrifty with cash but a one man band down our way took it to extremes. Turning used envelopes inside out for correspondence to his customers, for example, really projected a good corporate image.Not. If, If, he was to have produced a tenner from his pocket it would have been 2 white fivers
Eh? Is there a problem with white fivers?
Mark.
bumper:
hi lads, grindley51, mentioned names on vehicle’s, at one time hull dock would not load you unless the name was painted onto the doors of your lorry, would not accept transfer sticker name’s, i believe tilbury was the same,
The book is actually called “The man who brought a Navy”,you can purchase of copy of the book if you are feeling rich,used copy selling for £70■■?!!!off of the Amazon site on the net.
Best of luck!!
Rgds,
David
Gridley51:
stravaiger:
Chris Webb:
stravaiger:
These ones Chris
Still looking for interesting snaps Chris, a picture paints a thousand words as they say. Dave and Mark, any pics of the Sloans/Broxburn tanks? Broxburn seems to stir the grey matter but not so sure about the Sloans livery.
One of my first jobs, 1972, had me going anywhere and everywhere into transport yards buying up casings for re-molding :No pics I
m afraid.Im struggling to remember the colours,blue with the name in white.Units mainly had nice paint jobs.Blue and white but went to red and white near the end.They were Crane freuhauf tanks and Im sure they used pics of some of them for advertising.Units were 2300 and 2800 Dafs. On that Broxburn to Broxburn round trip I remember some doing three in a row non stop.They werent too bad on motors but when they got back to Broxburn empty they dropped the tank and picked up a full one before heading back down the road.The tank then went to Invergordon to load then back to Broxburn for the next guy.Two tanks every day,one dayshift one nightshift.Off course they were racing.I remeber getting into a unit that was waiting on the nightshift driver and there was a note on the dash saying “four and three quarter hours,beat that”.That was up the old A9 in the wintertime.
Never seen any of the old drivers for years.
Johnny and Sandy McClauchlin,Davy and Tommy Lumley,Jim Bell,Rab Pryde,Tommy Alston,Tam Kelly,Old Arthur,the McGonigle brothers and dozens more I cant remember. Some of them went on to drive for Derek Bertram from West Calder,he ran F88s and tipping boxes,nice red paint scheme.I seem to remeber he did clay and coal for Hargreaves and the Man dealer out of Penrith.Was it Graham and Barnett or Graham and Morton or something?
I can remember the Bandag guy coming in for casings but I can`t remember his name.One of the joys of age.
Mark.
Among all these old tanker men, does anyone recall where Gerry (GMB Pumpherston) fitted in? By the time I started, Gerry was well established with the tank wash next to the BP plant, but had previously been in Newbridge. I know he was a driver and settled up there, before he retired and GMB moved to Grangemouth. Lovely Bloke!
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Among all these old tanker men, does anyone recall where Gerry (GMB Pumpherston) fitted in? By the time I started, Gerry was well established with the tank wash next to the BP plant, but had previously been in Newbridge. I know he was a driver and settled up there, before he retired and GMB moved to Grangemouth. Lovely Bloke!
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Funnily enough someone was talking about that company the other day and mentioned it had moved to Grangemouth when the soap works at Pumpherston closed.I can`t actually remember the names he spoke about and as I had never known them anyway they meant nothing to me.
I remember the tank wash opening up there and it always seemed quite busy as I went along that road most days.
Was it Bolton Roadways who used to run a lot of product out of there?
Nothing to show there was ever any industrial activity there now.
Mark.