Ray Smyth:
Hi Ivan, You mentioned in your post, the time you spent with Robert Baillie Transport at Sheerness,
and the 1962 Atkinson that you had as a shunter. It would have had one of the following Registration
numbers…5498 ET, 5505 ET, or 5510 ET, with 150 Gardner engine, and David Brown 6 speed gearbox,
they were bought second hand during the 1960s, ex BOC, British Oxygen Company, at Rotherham.
Do you remember any of the names of Baillies drivers that you came in contact with during your time
with the company ?
Regards, Ray Smyth.
hi ray,
im sorry i havent any photos of my time at r.b. but you are right about the gardner shunter unit i used at sheerness steel, 5498et seems to register in my head as the one.it had a job to pull those twenty to loads of steel.
and parking the trailers with no power steering was fun!.
as i said before,mick mackender was my governor there.a very nice man.i knew him before i went to baillies.he used to be a driver and knew some of the drivers who worked for hammond transport at sittingbourne, i was a drivers mate, circa 1970 for them.
one of 2 on the firm the other being jimmy ford, a good friend.who passed his class1 with them,if anybody reading this knows jimmy, i would be grateful for some info on him as i last saw him around the mid eighties.he became an owner driver working through hammonds in the eighties.
anyhow i digress,i was on the building site in sheerness dock.constructing the coastguard station.near the weighbridge and offices,one of which was baillies. mac saw me there and offered me the baillie job.as he knew i had transport experience from hammond.
as i remember it, baillies had not been at sheerness dock long.,
im sorry i do not remember the other drivers name.but i remember the foreman came from gillingham.his age was early forties.
one other thing,their truck workshop was at garrison fort in the dockyard.you could just about get an atkinson unit through the entrance.
kind regards, ivan.
Nice find lawrence2765. The picture brings back good memories for me. However, the new extension to the buildings weren’t there when I left in 76. In the old buildings there was a little office for Malcolm, John and the office secretary behind the little window which is situated behind the front of the sheeted trailer. The little window to the left of the main sliding door was where John Norley, the yard manager resided. Thats rather a grand title for the job he did though. The fuel tank was on the left as you came in the entrance. There was only one entrance/exit in those days.
Inside the old buildings were two cold stores for bramley apples to be stored for the winter. Johns brother still ran Brandon Farm as a going concern but I think he only just eaked out an existence from it. He had nothing to do with the transport operations. You can just see the roofs of the farm buildings bottom side of the road. Beyond these farm buildings John had a modern house built where he lived. The red brick house on the left of the picture was where old Mr Mitchell and his wife lived.
The tautliner trailer could possibly have been my old trailer. Beside the rigid lorries we only had two Scammel Crusaders artics in the early 70’s, Norman Horsford had one tautliner trailer and I had the other one never swapping them around.
The following article about Mumfords appeared in the Commercial vehicle and road transport club newsletter several years ago. I only have a photocopy of the particular article so am unable to attribute it to the correct author so will copyright it to the Editor at the time of publication who was Steve Wimbush.
cav551:
The following article about Mumfords appeared in the Commercial vehicle and road transport club newsletter several years ago. I only have a photocopy of the particular article so am unable to attribute it to the correct author so will copyright it to the Editor at the time of publication who was Steve Wimbush.
The driver whose first trip to Oban in a new Aec was Transport Artist Alan Spillett of Roadscapes when Mumfords packed up Alan went onto Tomkinson of Marden.
cav551:
The following article about Mumfords appeared in the Commercial vehicle and road transport club newsletter several years ago. I only have a photocopy of the particular article so am unable to attribute it to the correct author so will copyright it to the Editor at the time of publication who was Steve Wimbush.
The driver whose first trip to Oban in a new Aec was Transport Artist Alan Spillett of Roadscapes when Mumfords packed up Alan went onto Tomkinson of Marden.
Would Mumfords have run an ERF “A” Series in the early 70’s and were their fleet colours a Beige cab with maroon edges and chassis ? Or am I thinking of another Kent based firm ? Cheers Bewick.
cav551:
The following article about Mumfords appeared in the Commercial vehicle and road transport club newsletter several years ago. I only have a photocopy of the particular article so am unable to attribute it to the correct author so will copyright it to the Editor at the time of publication who was Steve Wimbush.
The driver whose first trip to Oban in a new Aec was Transport Artist Alan Spillett of Roadscapes when Mumfords packed up Alan went onto Tomkinson of Marden.
Would Mumfords have run an ERF “A” Series in the early 70’s and were their fleet colours a Beige cab with maroon edges and chassis ? Or am I thinking of another Kent based firm ? Cheers Bewick.
Yes Dennis you are correct.
This would have been operated by Chris mumford he had 4 A series and his last motor was an S reg 77-78 Mercedes 1626 unit.
When his father Fred passed away the old company ceased trading due to death duties.
My memories of '60s Kent was delivering on trade plates to Dartford(Beadles), Tonbridge(Caffyns) then transporter cars to Lydd airfield for transport to France on Bristol Freighters, (I think that is what they were called) other time drops in Eastbourne and along the A259 to Dover for Fiats going north, the wee 500s were a bugger to start, later years it was VWs from a pound at Manston airfield back to Cowley, the Combis going via Bridgewater Depot to Axminster for conversion to Devon campervans which are still being made but now at Ferryhill, Co Durham, lotta useless twaddle so a few pics of Kent based wagons.
Oily
tyreman:
Here’s a few more photos currently on e-bay
First is a Mitchell & Robertson AEC Marshal OKJ668F.
Second is Wakeley Brothers AEC Marshal (?) LKJ104F
Third is Alan Firmins AEC Mercury PKM705G
This is the first time I have seen, albeit a picture, of the Mitchell & Robertson six wheeler AEC Marshall OKJ 668F since I left the company in 76 and what a great pic it is. We had two of them on the company. Norman had one and Trevor had the other, when he left it was handed to me in about 71/72. I had it for two years. I am 100% sure that this is my old lorry, certainly it was OKJ. I thoroughly enjoyed driving it. Almost all our work was fruit orientated and I visited most fruit markets in the country in her before I moved onto artics. Neither my wife nor I are sure if thats me driving but there is a small chance.
Many thanks for posting the picture ‘tyreman’.
^^
The MKV AEC on which one can just read Linton is pictured at Wares Farm and is Alan Firmin’s AF 80.
Hopefully Karl Weiss will pick up on this and give us chapter and verse. From what I recall AF 80 was originally a Mammoth Major 8 wheeler which was cut down into an artic unit. For some reason it was not a success, becoming somewhat troublesome. IIRC it was driven by Frank Sands until he got the first of the new ERF A series units, with a 180 Gardner, to come home. The next one was Gardner 240 powered and went to Ron Latter?
Around about this time I think the 180 ERF went onto a night trunk, changing over trailers of reels from Reeds, with Shell fertilizer from Ince or Shell oil from Barton which had been picked up by Firmin Coates. It soon met with complaints that it took longer than the Mandators to do the job.
First photo: Grove Road Yard, Northfleet. Loaded for Newcastle Hexham with driver Bert Glover and George Belsham.
Second Photo: Swanscombe Yard, my second lorry.
Third Photo: Friday night in Birmingham again loaded with gun metal, bronze, brass and copper. We had to leave the lorry in a locked yard overnight where ever we was due to highjacking.
Fourth Photo: Fox & Hounds Carpark, Meopham. My first lorry on Baldocks.
NMP Early Firmin Erf B series
so a few pics of Kent based wagons.
