Stravaiger returns.Notice him posting again so I thought I would resurrect this old thread of his.
First of all,where have you been Jim,been a bit long to have been sitting on the hard shoulder?
Secondly,passed Popeyes old place the other day and its gone.Flattened,soon there will be nothing but RDCs and industrial estates.
Thirdly,as I`m getting no response on the other forum,I passed aJim Hay of Turriff wagon the other day.Proudly sporting The Hay Team headboard.I thought he had gone,hopefully for good.
Mark.
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stravaiger:
We’ll just have to get more secure employment like in local goverment…jim
I think a lot of these lads and lassies wont be feeling too secure just now either.
Ive got a daughter and son in law with Standard Life and theyve missed the last round of cuts again.
The haulage guys are getting badly hit as you say,less goods to move,costs rising all the time.
The vat rise in January.although reclaimable is still going to add a fair bit to the cash flow requirements of any business,but particularly the smaller owner operator where diesel costs are a large proportion of turnover.
BTW,I don`t use BT for anything here,even the incoming lines are rented from another company.
Mark.
Hi Jim,nice to hear from you again. 
I heard about MRS last week but didn’t know Wishart had pulled t’pin,they were a long established company - there will only be DHL,ESL,Wincanton and Nobrot Dressingtable left soon - oh,and Willi Betz.
Hi Chris.Wisharts were going down for the last few years I think.There was not much of a fleet left at the end.I had a row with them years ago and didnt use them anyway.Im sure they would have gone a while back if they hadnt taken on Palletline for that area when Barbour European hived it off. Sweeney Kincaid were auctioning the vehicles.They seem to get most of Scotlands failures.Next one is skip loaders and hooklifts but its down south for a change.
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Morning Jim.Do you know I never thought about putting Lizzie on here,there were several posts about her on the Sheffield forum.I wondered if she was used for night trunk - sorry. Tommy Wards were all over the place,Cairnryan and Briton Ferry are two that spring to mind when they were cutting ships up and old railway lines thanks to Doctor Beeching.The saddles are called fishplates IIRC.Wards owned several quarries,Eldon Hill in North Derbyshire was one and they owned Ketton Cement as well;there will be several lads on here that remember T W Ward,Albion Works,Sheffield.
Here’s a photo from a book about the Woodhead electric line between Sheffield and Manchester which is closed now.It shows a TWW ERF moving a loco,0-4-0 “Ajax” at Dunford Bridge that was used for local work when building the new tunnels on the line.
I always wanted to be an engine driver Jim,but me eyes weren’t far enough apart. 
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stravaiger:
Looking for pics of this firm for a friend. Especially a Leyland artic from the 50s which his dad had and he himself has happy memories of.Ta…jimDead picture link removed
She’s a nice old Leyland Jim.I don’t remember the company though,maybe someone has some photos - you never know.
In the meantime,here’s a couple of photos that a friend sent me.Taken in Liverpool,the driver apparantly shoved the red line on forgetting the tractor unit handbrake was not applied…so in the ERF artic went.
I have to admit that I’ve done it myself when shunting but fortunately no damage was done.
Food for thought though…
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The photo Chris put up of Wards ERF loading the Engine ‘AJAX’ caught my eye, I’m no steamy buff or rail anorak but I recently tried to find out the make and type of engine my Grandad drove when he worked for the Washington Chemical Co or later known as Newalls and Cape Insulation. I found out after a long search it was a Robert Stephenson Hawthorn Newcastle or RSHN as it goes and there were two built around 1940 in Scotswood, Newcastle. Ajax is a similar build from the same company and still around in preservation. I came across a picture of it to see how the engines looked as Grandad’s old engines (as I discovered) were scrapped in 1968 when Diesel’s took over ( he wasn’t convinced), which was a shame it would have been nice to find at least one still ‘alive’ like Ajax. I wonder though if the old ERF survived, probably not, I think the engines were made of stronger stuff, good pic though. Franky.
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Heres one for you Jim.You mentioned one on another thread but I thought this was a better one to post it on.Its on ebat for £2500 starting.Nothing to do with me,so Im not bothered if anyone bids it or not.If youre interested in things other than lorries,:D,the sellers website has a lot of info on seemingly ignored evidence on the missing McCrae woman from the seventies.You may remember her missing car being found on the A9.
If this is too OT I don`t mind deleting it.
Edit:The pic posting is still to technical for me so here`s the link to the picture.
cgi.ebay.co.uk/Hydrocon-Mobile-C … 4152f0b500
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Jim,I mentioned that old machine to a customer of mine in Inverness and he said "the guy thats selling it bought it from my old boss".He said his boss asked for a hand to carry batteries over to it,they put them on and it started right away.They reckoned it hadnt turned a wheel in eight years.That was up in Muir of Ord.I thought it must be a Gardner but have since read somewhere that they used Thorneycrofts as well.Do you know what was in them?
Ive only just discovered that the Summerlee museum is in their old factory too. Youve not had a lot of luck with computers and broadband this year Jim.
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stravaiger:
You wouldn’t have any info or pics on the firm Arnott Mcleod as in the piccy above?..Oh, aye the broadband
No pics but I do remember them.Did they run coal back in the fifties?I can remember as a child gathering coal off the roadside at the Sun hotel at Craigesk.(Ill let you try to remember where that is) :grimacing: .When the lorries flew round the corner half a guider fu came over the top of the greedy boards.It may have been Bruce Lindsay Im thinking off.
Mark.
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So,was that the public works contractors? Did they morph into R & J McCleod or is that a different mob again? This old memory isn`t what it used to be you know.
Mark.