.
Jim,that Daf you`ve posted is certainly ugly and got to be about 1970 or earlier.I worked on them from about the 1973 models and only the 2600 had split screens then,and the grills were different and they had marker lights at waist level and the top corners.
You could always spot a new driver pulling out the yard as all the lights would be on as they would turn on what looked like the ignition key but was in fact the light switch.As you know one had to push the key down for ignition.
The marker lights on with a new driver also told you that there would be a 5th gear selector to do that night when he came back in as none of them would admit to not being familiar with the ZF back to front box and splitter.
Mark.
.
Nice pics Jim.especially the AEC MK5 Mandator.
Here’s one of Sams,taken in London - you can see the Vauxhall sign above the keep left sign - unless there’s a Vauxhall in Glasgae 
He’ll be home in Newhouse tomorrow… 
The Thompson of Alloa thing - yes they were on general.The headboards had the name plastered on it,just trying to recall what motors they ran 
A Peter Davies picture.
.
I remember Sam Anderson running boxes out of Gushetfaulds with a weird home-made looking skeleton trailer, can’t remember what the traffic was, but they were in every day, usually the same driver, a noisy wee guy and a great laugh. Can’t remember his name now, but he had a big noisy Atki, then turned up one day with a brand new Scanny 110 when they were something to talk about.
Can’t help with Walker’s though I vaguely remember the John W. Alexander DAFs. Didn’t they used to have mainly Atkis, dark blue, red trim and some nice gold coach painting? Sure I remember thinking the paint job on the DAFs wasn’t anything like as distinctive.
PS My first car was an ex Post Office Anglia van. My pride and joy too
Gridley51:
Sorry Jim.Have never heard of Kronospan.
Kronospan operate,or used to at any rate,out of Chirk.
David
.
stravaiger:
5thwheel:
Gridley51:
Sorry Jim.Have never heard of Kronospan.Kronospan operate,or used to at any rate,out of Chirk.
David
They certainly did David and it must have been pure co-incidence I got the worst of the weather and in the good old roping & sheeting days as well…
Chris I may be getting a couple more of Sammy’s. Possibly another Mk5. By heavens you must have loved those beasts
.Was it that model that had a flag or an eyeball to indicate low air pressure?..Anybody ever remember Sam on their foreign travels
…jim
Hi Jim.The AEC MK3s had the “stop” flag and also some of the early MK5s.Yes,I liked the AECs and the last MK5s to be built around 1962/3 were flyers.I was upgraded to a “D” reg tilt cab Mandator and wanted my old MK5 8-legger back .I was one of the few to have a class one so I had to do as I was told and take the Mandator tractor.
I too was amazed to hear Sam went abroad.I’ve heard that visitors to his yard are not welcome,is it true?
Hi Jim,this is another sent to me by the sheriff.The driver is the late Hugh Steel who stayed next door to us in Crawford.
Some more from the sherif he’se worked for Andersons for 20 years.
Great pictures Robert,always nice to see Sam Anderson on here. 
.
Hi Jim.The motor parked next to Sam’s Atki is one of Holt Lane’s,they were from Prescot not Preston and you can just see the Holt Lane bit on the door.
I presume it was the TV crew that followed (and lost) one of Sams around Brum somewhere,the same crew that followed McKelvie and BRS,comparing the two?
I’ve never seen an eyeball either,and the thing that amused me was the flag said “stop” but you couldn’t always do it Talking about eyeballs and Shap that Sam Big J has a good load of steelwork aboard and the top lift is lined up with the top of the cab,the headboard well underneath,so you wouldn’t want to be braking too hard,although I suppose you could duck down out of the road
Hy, I think the eyeball refers to keeping an eye on the air or vacuum guage, the flag on the Mk 3 AEC’s would stick very often and the buzzer came from a little plastic box and could often be drowned out by a noisy engine. Keeping an eye on the guage wasn’t to hard as there was normaly only three clocks or dials to see, speedo,oil pressure and air or vacuum…Tony.
Suttons Tony:
Hy, I think the eyeball refers to keeping an eye on the air or vacuum guage, the flag on the Mk 3 AEC’s would stick very often and the buzzer came from a little plastic box and could often be drowned out by a noisy engine. Keeping an eye on the guage wasn’t to hard as there was normaly only three clocks or dials to see, speedo,oil pressure and air or vacuum…Tony.
I can see all that like it was yesterday Tony
Batteries under the driver’s seat,switch box back of cab near door plus master switch for tankers,ratchet handbrake (still got scars where it nipped me),great big flasher switch that was self-cancelling,usually one wiper,ten blankets/sacks over engine cover and set of injector pipes swinging on coat hook.Sliding doors and push-out windscreen were another option and maybe a heater box somewhere.All our MK3 MMs had a dead man lever on steering column as well.Valve keys,pipe keys,reducers,gloves rattling about passenger side plus jack and wheel brace which eventually went on top of the tank wrapped in a sack with piece of wood to put jack on in case it was soft tarmac,and a can of engine oil.
Going for lie down now.
Yes the deadman on Artics and Waggon and Trailers (if air braked), I hated it when the new C&U,s in 1967 mean’t the deadman had to work on the front brakes of the unit as well, the first time I used the deadman in anger on a 32t Mk5 AEC Mandator I had 22t of Heinz on a triaxle Boden and when I applied the deadman the front of the unit litterly leapt up in the air and to the nearside which was a shock and I never really trusted the deadman again. The AEC was always my favorite waggons as a driver but if I had been the Boss I would have run Atkinsons/Gardners/David Browns/Kirkstalls. The switch box down to the right of your seat would appear to be a crazy place to put it especially when you remember how we used the lights in overtaking manouvers, no ignition key, just a switch that nobody ever turned off, there were two types and you would find either type on the same make of motors, one had only up and down switchs and the other type where the lights were on turn switch, all had to be used down behind your back and once you were used to them you never gave it another thought. Of course on the AEC’s you stopped the engine by pulling back the accelerater or in gear if that didn’t work…Tony.
stravaiger:
The Silver Knight must have been one of Sams first and although unregistered at the time of showing it might even have been a G reggy considering it’s sporting the old Mk1 mirror arrangement. At first I thought the 8 wheeler sitting alongside was Holt Lane but can’t be with that Preston address.So what was the occasion?
The occasion is the 1969 Royal Lancashire Show, and this is part of the Atkinson stand. Anderson’s Mk.2 ‘Silver Knight’ is standing next to a ‘Black Knight’ 8-legger of Holt Lane Transport (UTE 321H, I believe) and you can just see in the background the rave of a Lancashire flat belonging to Northern Ireland Trailers: it was mountd on a tri-axle 30’ skelly, and coupled to another ‘Silver Knight’, JRN 29H.
This mirror arrangement was standard on the Mk.2 ‘Knight’ range, until superseded by the forwrad mounted brackets on the whole new Atkinson range at the 1970 Show (Borderer, Leader, etc.)
Since the Royal Lancs is an Autumn event, I’d suggest that Anderson’s Atki had an H-plate on it. The Northern Ireland Trailers JRN xxH batch of lorries were registered in September 1969.
Chris Webb:
Suttons Tony:
Hy, I think the eyeball refers to keeping an eye on the air or vacuum guage, the flag on the Mk 3 AEC’s would stick very often and the buzzer came from a little plastic box and could often be drowned out by a noisy engine. Keeping an eye on the guage wasn’t to hard as there was normaly only three clocks or dials to see, speedo,oil pressure and air or vacuum…Tony.I can see all that like it was yesterday Tony
Batteries under the driver’s seat,switch box back of cab near door plus master switch for tankers,ratchet handbrake (still got scars where it nipped me),great big flasher switch that was self-cancelling,usually one wiper,ten blankets/sacks over engine cover and set of injector pipes swinging on coat hook.Sliding doors and push-out windscreen were another option and maybe a heater box somewhere.All our MK3 MMs had a dead man lever on steering column as well.Valve keys,pipe keys,reducers,gloves rattling about passenger side plus jack and wheel brace which eventually went on top of the tank wrapped in a sack with piece of wood to put jack on in case it was soft tarmac,and a can of engine oil.
Going for lie down now.
Hiya Chris, used to drive an Albion LAD and I had sacks, blankets and coats over the engine bonnet. Every morning had to take them all off and remove the engine cover, just so I could check the oil. Mind you did have to put nearly 2 gallons in every day 
By the time I had done all that on a winters morning my fingers felt like they were dropping off. Can you imagine anyone doing that now to check the oil.
Complained to the boss, he said, let it develop, so I did Then he put a new engine in. So the Leyland 375 was replaced with a 401. What a wagon now, fast, powerful and even more blankets over the engine.
A few weeks later another driver took it out for some reason, can’t remember why, and it got wrote off in a M’way pile up 
Ray
.