carryfast-yeti:
coomsey:
robinswh:
My dad worked for emmersons one week in 1958 while on annual holiday from the whitiwck granite company. He drove an eight wheel leyland octopus out of bardon trips down to slough each day.I went one one of these with him all A5 m1 still on the drawing board stopped at the blue boar on the A 5 each morning for a cup of tea . This was one of two 8 wheelers the rest of the fleet seemed to be 4 wheel leyland comets . I dont think they kept the octopuses long I never saw them again
Ay up Wayne. Yes my cuz started on an Octopus for them, there was no Comets just Foden MMs at that time, . He was promoted (?) to an old Aec mkv then onto a Foden . They did buy a new Aec MMajor E/F reg but it must have put them off,all Gardner’s after that until they tried a F88. Cheers Coomsey
after trying out an F88…did all the drivers demand to have their old Gardner motors back? 
Son of got the 88, the rest of us never got their rrsss in to turn owt down 
CFY when you look at the work we did then,70s, the 88 didn’t matter. Coal from Leics down to London scrap back to Sheffield or Brum. You couldn’t imagine Emmerson buying something that was less mpg so the driver got home earlier. We only did around a10hr day , not bad n around£110 top line for a 55 hr week in 76/77 weren’t bad money. The only thing that really really wazed me off with the Gardner’s was the joy of mostly freezing to death!!! Cheers Coomsey
On a roll !? Now when I went onto bricks for Bankroft n Powers I was doing 2 Scotch a week with a couple of locals in between. That’s was on an Akky 220 ■■■■■■■ got a new Octopus doing the same n could pull in another couple of loads a week. Another 10/15 pounds a week,a lot of money in 78. She must have been better on the MPGs definitely not on reliability
coomsey:
CFY when you look at the work we did then,70s, the 88 didn’t matter. Coal from Leics down to London scrap back to Sheffield or Brum. You couldn’t imagine Emmerson buying something that was less mpg so the driver got home earlier. We only did around a10hr day , not bad n around£110 top line for a 55 hr week in 76/77 weren’t bad money. The only thing that really really wazed me off with the Gardner’s was the joy of mostly freezing to death!!! Cheers Coomsey
i well remember the Gardner ‘heaters’ 
on a freezing night in 1981 or '82,i took a ‘B’ series ERF 180 up to our Dewsbury depot,with another driver,Rich Ward,who was to bring back yet another B series back to our yard in North Kilworth.ffs even as a tough young lad i was half froze to death! so as soon as we parked up in Dews,i jumped out and said you take this heap back Rich,i’ll take the ‘new’ one back to Kilworth
of course,the other one was just as bad!
Now I know why gardners never took on in western canada !!! By the way Paul bancroft and powers back in the late 1950 s hauled most of the bricks for coalville precinct about three loads a day from whitwick brick yards on several ancient leyland octopuses before cranes .My dads aec in the early 1950 s didnt have a heater. The pay you made there seemed quite good I was on the coaches there a few years before and I was getting about 50 P an hour.
robinswh:
Now I know why gardners never took on in western canada !!! By the way Paul bancroft and powers back in the late 1950 s hauled most of the bricks for coalville precinct about three loads a day from whitwick brick yards on several ancient leyland octopuses before cranes .My dads aec in the early 1950 s didnt have a heater. The pay you made there seemed quite good I was on the coaches there a few years before and I was getting about 50 P an hour.
Yes I knew they’d run out of Whitwick brick. I never understood why they sold the lorry side to Fowkes? We only ran out of Desford brick but only on the rare occasion did we come back empty, must have been a payer . Cheers Paul
Forgot these n used to run similar routes.
First day? I don’t recall this firm, anyone know when they finished?
The foden belonged to H V day of glenfield. They used to have only Austin /bmc 4 and 6 wheel tippers on granite and coal. I ve never seen a foden before looks like an old emmersons or t.w Glover. No idea why they had BMC trucks they didn’t have the best reputation . Don’t know exactly when they finished 1970 s I guess wayne
about a 1958 morris/bmc /austin
Not a bygone but worth posting I think, obviously nmp
Is there anyone old enough on here to remember this crowd? Definitely a new one on me
DEANB:
Clipping from 1974.
0
A real flyer when released, that 6.354 engine. I had one in a Kew Dodge artic and once wound up in the outside lane it was 75 mph down the M1 to London. 
Hadfield’s of Ashton under Lyne were the only others that challenged it. 
I hadn’t even realised that the 6.354 engine was turbocharged in 1974? Our Boxers were definately non turbo!
Pete.
I had its predessessor, the P6, in a 1939 Packard 8, of course it was no longer an 8 by then. Great motor, great car, didn’t need a fan it was cool enough without. Until I was transferred for several weeks to work for Charlie Dormer in Leytonstone and drove it down there. In the traffic jams on the N.Circular, no ram air, it started to boil up. I did the last few miles in 2 mile hops.
The only other drawback was that the Packard had a 3 speed box plus overdrive, but you couldn’t drop it out of that until the revs dropped, so meeting a hill halfway up, still in overdrive, then, when it dropped the speed was too slow for 3rd etc…
