Interesting tale about the Seddon pics I thought I was near saying they must have been taken around the works, can’t believe they were about to be binned, I wonder if there was one of my Dads or any Steenburg ones for that matter seeing as they were big Seddon users. I haven’t even got a pic of it but made a model a while back, a picture would have been handy then, wouldn’t mind seeing any others the original poster might have. Any luck on the Bartletts from Airdrie guys. Franky.
Halo Jim Remember Auchinlea Wagons well,dont know how big a Fleet they had but there was quite a lot of them about in the 60s an 70s it was the Brickworks,i think they were all Seddons.Benny.
Jim,would Central Motors at Calderbank supply these Seddons.Used to go there in early seventies for Perkins engines and other parts.Also Watson of Airdrie for Bedford parts and Laidlaws Airdrie for Ford parts,Taggarts Motherwell BMC.Would I be right in saying we bought coach paint etc from Stewarts Coachworks Wishaw.
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hi ya couple of old timers here
John
Hi can anyone better this photo.■■? There’s a lot of intrest where it went after Beeches Garage sold her
John
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hi jim, re member a couple of events that happened around the70Ty’s, peter Slater had 3 tankers based at jarrow on contract to wales doves they ran bitumen up to invergordon for pipe coatings,they where expected each to do 5 load a week that was the target, they had been going hammer and tongs at this for a few weeks , one Thursday Ivan was coming south just south of wooler, other 2 north bound, flashed him to stop informed him that the plant had broken down so he said he would have a couple hours kip, then poddle in, next day 2 south bound see his motor in the lay, he was still a sleep 
he had been a kip for 18 hrs, it took him month to live it down, when that job finished they started for shorties/Anderson, reconded job was a piece of cake after Slater’s, other one was cawthorn , they bought 2 erf 8 legg tanker they where on contract to proctor and gamble white haven to purfleet with soap powder, these motors had R& R petrol straight 8 engines fitted and had disc brakes has well, both driver’s got warned by the northampton police to stop winding the midland red bus drivers up, they would pull along side of M & R bus doing about 70 then wave by by , stick the foot down a bit more, Ronny clarkson one of the drivers reconded that he never had that motor flat out, said still some throttle left at 80, in them days you could use third lane with a lorry also no speed limit on motor ways, M & R thought they were king of the m1and m45 till cawthorns lads turned up, cheeky bugger complained to police, 
for awhile cawthorns lads made their life hell, 
as you say jim good but hard days, 
bumper
stravaiger:
Hi John Well they certainly aren’t ERFs
Your third photo reminds me of one the firm I was an apprentice with, Pickerings in Wishaw, had. Ours got an outing to Glasgow docks a few times a year. As Iv’e said on here before on the same subject it was in that cab and a host of other vehicles were I was to be found when I wasn’t skiivingSo were you the Jockey on these Yankees and Scammell?..jim
Hiya stravaigar The Diamond T is my mates I’ye put a picky of the same lorry on scrap book a few mins ago its on a lowloader going to D day. It sounds awesome theres a Detriot 2 stroke under the bonnet. He also ownes the Blue circle Scammell tanker you see in the mags.The dull Orange Scammell was in Cypres but now has come back to the UK.
John
, they bought 2 erf 8 legg tanker they where on contract to proctor and gamble white haven to purfleet with soap powder, these motors had R& R petrol straight 8 engines fitted and had disc brakes has well,
Hi Bumper the ERF petrols was they the ones with a round grill (KV) model■■? I was in Rush Green 8 or so years ago and there was one in the yard but
it did’nt have a tank on.It also had a all Alumium cab no wooden frame. I thought it was a ex petrol tanker off a Airport.
John.
stravaiger:
Another set of cracking photos lads. mushroomman can’t place that French outfit, may have been a o/d or small operation but it would be interesting to find out. So that was your link to the pics.Nice one. jim
Well the story didn’t quite end there Jim, I started a post called Some Old Seddons over a year ago so the thread is probably somewhere in the page thirty or forty region by now but if you want to do a search for it I am sure that Frankydobo and Ianto may find something of interest, There were one or two old Scottish lorries on there and this is another of them that I hope may bring back some memories for somebody.
My old mate John sent them over to Oz to me and said “do what you like with them, they have been in the attic for years and that if anything happens to me then they will one day end up in the skip” 
. O.K. they may of only been old photos of Seddons ( one of them had written on the back of it Seddons 1957 ) but they were part of Britains vehicle history and I felt that they should of stayed in Britain. Through Trucknet I made contact with Big Al who just happens to have a mate who worked for Seddons/ Atkinsons and is very interested in the history of the Lancashire lorry industry 
. So I sent them all back to the U.K. where Al’s mate has found a good home for them .
stravaiger:
davemackie:
Hi Jim, you mentioned wah wah, Jimmy Wilson, in the days when him myself & Lenny Tuffely used to drink together, Jimmy’s wife had him fitted with a tracking device, or maybe it just seemed that way, every pub we went into the phone would ring and it would be Betty " tell my Jimmy to come home Now " we never did figure out how she did it, maybe she called every pub in the area.
happy days.
Dave.
Dave we could go on all day about Jimmy, and be happy to do so. Like I said first met wah wah at CLS as well as others who would be known to you, Davie James, Iain Lockart, Chic Lavelle among others who took me under their wings Years later Chic was topman with Sandy McCracken, Jimmy and Iain were at the 'bridge work. Davie had been found dead in a field near the Bell Bar cafe. Anyway I’m keeping to the light hearted side of things. We had been running pipes to Gt Yarmouth and working the kind of hours we’ve been talking about here and on one trip my mate Alex Canning (Richards brother) wah wah and myself got return loads of straw from a farm somewhere near Dereham, horrible big loads, no sheets required just every rope you could lay your hands on.For Alex and myself, job done, Wah Wahs running late. So we help our two selves to the farmers hospitality in a good wash, a light snack and coffee then away to get parked up a few miles away in a big layby near a type of establishment best descibed as a bistro/pub that in it’s heyday played minehost to the officers of the RAF that would have been all around that area. You know what I mean, anyway it’s already late when we’ve got there so when a short time later “Time” is called we don’t expect to see Jimmy that night. I almost wished we hadn’t. In flys the brother of Worzel Gummidge. Through the doors stopping all conversation dead, just like the western movies,and there he is in all his glory,dirty overalls,dirtier face and straw sticking out of everywhere you could imagine and he’s ordering his Wa Wa Whisky. " Couldn’t dream of a nights sleep without ma medicine" he said and he wasn’t joking Betty never knew about that pub 
.Some Jimmy
Hi Jim, once again a great little story like that has brought back a lot of memories for me of a guy who used to do Middle East in the seventies called Bill Bentley. Bill who was also ex R.A.F. was always immaculately dressed, clean and tidy and was alledgedly, one of those fellows who could strip down an engine in his blazer and flannels and not get dirty. His old mate and my mate Ken Singleton had known each other and worked with each other for many years. Ken once told me that Bill had tightened down a head gasket and still looked immaculate where as Ken who had only passed him a couple of spanners ended up having more grease on him than Bill.
While Bill was on the road his wife took over a quite pub in Manchester and made a great success out of it, the brewery were so impressed by the way that she had turned it around that they offered her a country pub near Lymm in Cheshire. It had great potentiel and Bill reluctantly,decided to call it a day and to come of the road.
Ken and I drove around to see Bill one Satuday night while we were both home and I remember Bill telling us this story of a lorry driver who was parked in a big layby next to the pub. As the pub had just opened and it was quite he walked over to the lorry to have a chat with the driver who didn’t have a sleeper cab and was wearing a dirty pair of overalls. Bill spoke to him for about fifteen minutes and then asked him if he was going over to the pub for a drink later on. The driver said that he wanted to as he had nothing to eat but as he felt scruffy he said that he would give it a miss and that he wanted to do an early start in the morning. Bill said that it was no problem he could come into the pub for a wash but the driver said that he had no washing gear with him and would feel very uncomfortable if he went into the pub. He did ask Bill what kind of food they had and Bill said I can make you a sandwich or chicken and chips in the basket. Bill ended up carrying a tray with chicken and chips and a pint of bitter over to the layby which the driver paid for, he thanked Bill for his hospitality and said that he would bring back the tray, the glass and the the little basket when he had finished.
About an hour later as Bill was looking out of the window he saw the lorry drive off out of the layby along with the pint glass, the tray and the little basket.
You {zb} lorry drivers your all the same Bill shouted jokingly at Ken .
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mushroomman, same story I gave to some of the lads the other night, by the time I put things to-gether for a post and finally press submit I find the threads moved on. I remind myself of that little puppy in the bog roll advert watching the feather flutter down and by the time the little mites got things worked out the ■■■■ things landed
Likewise Steve good tale thanks.What a cheeky sod he was getting the profession a bad name.
Incidently that previous post wasn’t a dig at publicity shots in themselves, they’re great, it was just a personal opinion on how the leisure side of our little game has grown into a huge interest and don’t we just love it. …jim
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Therse two ERFs in Rush Green like the petrol one in the photo but they have had Gardeners fitted they still have disc brakes
One has had the back bogie chopped off and theres not a tank in site
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hi Jim, they would alternate between using the A1 and A697, the thinking was if you went up A1 came back A697 the chance’s of a silent check was slimmer, about that time T-C were often at the hare cragg weighbridge ( it was on A1 south of Alnwick) , there was only about 4 cafes on the A697,pringles at powburn milk bar wooler, milfield cafe and the one before dalkeith on the A68,they had seddon units fitted with 220 ■■■■■■■■ and fuller 10 splitter box’s, as you know you were spoiled for choice on the A1, a697 was shorter route than A1 from newcastle to Edinburgh , think it was 14 mile’s haymarket to haymarket,talk-en about silent checks one of my old work mates Ronny was check at carlisle 8-15pm but had booked off at penrith 7-30pm, said he had booked a bed at the moss cafe, 3 month later T-C came into yard and asked for the log sheet for that day, noted the discrepancies on log sheet, inform the boss he needed to speak to the driver, so an appointment was made for the following Thursday at 1pm, so on the appointed day and time Ronny was in the yard waiting for T-C, 2pm no T-C , as Ronny was loaded for London he wanted to be on his way, 3-30pm T-C arrives, and boss calls Ronny into office, the conversation went some thing like this Ronny to T-C,what do you say,T-C looks at Ronny then gaffer and shrugs his shoulder’s, Ronny again Say’s what do you say. T-C looks at him and Say’s what do you mean, Ronny the appointment was for 1pm its now after half-past 3,so what do you say, T-C looks at ronny and Say’s i am sorry i have been delayed, ronny well i am sorry about the log sheet so that makes us even, he was out of the door in the motor fired it up and away, T-C are they all like him that works here, gaffer smiling i they are, 
ronny never heard anymore about it, they where hard day but there was some characters on the job then. bumper
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