chorcheela:
It’s also smiling happily, as alligators are wont to do…
in case you’re confused, I seem to have posted this in reply to a copmpletely different thread!!! Sorry!!!
but very appropriate in my case!
marky:
I thought you were on holiday■■?
I was!1 And there it was gone…
They sold out to cannot win sorry Wincanton early 90’s as I recall.Inherited some of their Mercs at Maltby,rayt bags of s----.
Anyone remember Humber McVeighs in Immingham and Grimsby?
I had a soft spot for them as they were the only company who would take me on when I first passed my Class !.
Grimsby used to run mainly Scanias, hauling fridge boxes, while Immingham got the old trucks for the optomistically termed “light work”.
It was there that I cut my teeth on a Guy BigJ4T, running mainly domestic fridges to regional depots, which taught me the long lost art of roping and sheeting. I remember a dour old fella who veiwed my first efforts with open derrision, called me several inappropriate names, and then spent two hours teaching me the techniques and all the technical terms. 
He then told the TM that I knew all I was going to learn, and that I was probably better suited to a life on tippers, (Never knew if that was a good thing or a bad thing! 
) and so I graduated to an Atkinson borderer, 180 Gardner with an 6 speed Davy Brown box.
After the claustrophobic confines of the Bigj, I thought I was in heaven. 
Dave Shimeld:
Anyone remember Humber McVeighs in Immingham and Grimsby?I had a soft spot for them as they were the only company who would take me on when I first passed my Class !.
Grimsby used to run mainly Scanias, hauling fridge boxes, while Immingham got the old trucks for the optomistically termed “light work”.
It was there that I cut my teeth on a Guy BigJ4T, running mainly domestic fridges to regional depots, which taught me the long lost art of roping and sheeting. I remember a dour old fella who veiwed my first efforts with open derrision, called me several inappropriate names, and then spent two hours teaching me the techniques and all the technical terms.
He then told the TM that I knew all I was going to learn, and that I was probably better suited to a life on tippers, (Never knew if that was a good thing or a bad thing!
After the claustrophobic confines of the Bigj, I thought I was in heaven.
I think the answer to your tag line is: Why can’t I find a driver who can DRIVE an Atkinson Borderer anymore??
240 Gardner:
I think the answer to your tag line is: Why can’t I find a driver who can DRIVE an Atkinson Borderer anymore??
[/quote]
They were ■■■■■■■ ! You just needed nerves of steel to dare to keep the thing rolling! If you stopped it took forever to get those 180’s up to full speed again!
Dave Shimeld:
240 Gardner:
I think the answer to your tag line is: Why can’t I find a driver who can DRIVE an Atkinson Borderer anymore??
They were ■■■■■■■ ! You just needed nerves of steel to dare to keep the thing rolling! If you stopped it took forever to get those 180’s up to full speed again!
[/quote]
Well, I think so too, in fact I can’t even think of them as old! But I bet there’s not more than 2 out of our fleet of 25 who could actually jump in and make any sense of my own 1969 Atki. Incidentally, this Atki is the actual one I took my test in - LWB 6x2 unit with 180 Gardner and 10-speed Fuller
ccmv.fotopic.net/p26360080.html
Jeez, you young fellas were spoiled 
, what on earth did you want 180 horses for ? , 150 were quite enough .
I was just chuffed to be a ‘King of the Road’ in an Atki, even if I was freezing compared to the Ford and Bedford drivers. What was under the bonnet was of no consequence. 
Spardo:
Jeez, you young fellas were spoiled
I was just chuffed to be a ‘King of the Road’ in an Atki, even if I was freezing compared to the Ford and Bedford drivers. What was under the bonnet was of no consequence.
Absolutely, David! 150 Patricroft shire horses should be enough for anyone!
dafdave:
240 Gardner:
scaniaman:
Does anyone remember Aber Carriers of Welshpool Powys with the red units my father-in-law used to work for them many moons ago before they ceased tradingyes - used to backload them from Lever Brothers at Port Sunlight when I worked for Bowker. I think that the traffic chap was called Mike. They used to do 2 or 3 a day for us. Would it have been about 1985 that they finished?
Dafdave This is a longshot depending on my memory and when and how long you worked for bowkers.I met a driver [a real character] on walton st. lorry park hull must have been late70 early 80s name i think was george.Wore standard uniform for the yr. boiler suit flat cap and big leather belt. Got talking to him he had been with bowker donkeys yrs.and had a 15yrs old atki borderer painted in bowkers old colurs black with a 150 gardner in it.He said he used to take it home with him and do his own oil changes.He had been offered other trucks but wanted to stay with the old girl as he called her.He lived on his own on a canal boat nr.chorley.Can you recall seeing him at all?
Regards Dave
hi Dave…i worked for aber carriers up to went they went bust in 1982…good bunch of lads…i drove the red A series ERF then a B SERIES…Also before that a ■■■■■■ Guy and a gutless Fiat…we all had decent motors when they finished scanias and volvos.
240 Gardner:
I’ve heard that Mr. Sampson had previously worked for Ralph Hilton - no doubt someone could confirm?
yes les sampson did work for ralph hilton in the late 60s/70s as tm on the thermalite block contract at oliver road west thurrock when they where behind the power station.
Hi Spardo & Driver-once-More,
I know this is a long shot but I’ve only just picked up this thread and both of you have mentioned Courtaulds.
I started for them in the Traffic Office at their Greengate, Middleton, Grt; Manchester depot in the summer of 1972 after a baptism of fire with a local General Haulage Co; Thomas Harrison & Sons of Chadderton, Nr; Oldham, maybe somebody from the old days remembers them ■■?
Thomas Harrisons ran Atki’s, Foden’s, ERF’s , blue & white cabs with a red chassis, they also had 2 bonnet type 1418 Mercs; and a Volvo 240 F88, ‘allegedly’ one of the first in the North West■■?
I know this might seem a bit sad but I actually remember the registration nos; and drivers names :- Mercs; KYL 185D Jack Allison, KYL 186D Norman Parker and the Volvo was VTJ 659H and was only ever driven Roy Gilmartin.
Roy was always the highest earner as it was the days of the %of the lorries weekly earnings that the drivers got paid The usual loads South were steel from Bristish Steel at Bredbury in Stockport to Browns of Hounslow or ‘Nitro Chalk’ & Methanol from the ICI plant at Heysham to ICI Avonmouth. The loads North were usually reels of paper from Purfleet in to ‘Cows Wharf’ in Salford or chemicals from ICI Avonmouth back to Heysham or Billingham.
Harrisons had an office on Purfleet Deep Wharf and employed someone called Charley to organise the return loads and load the trailers for the trampers and night trunk motors.
I know I’ve strayed a bit off my original post but just thinking about those long gone days brought back memories that I might not be able to access again!!!
So back to Courtaulds they must have the biggest own account operator in the North West at the time with over a hundred lorries based at their Greengate depot and looking back that was really a state of the art place. There was multi shift working with a large warehouse with overhead cranes and transhipping, facilities, a comprehensive workshop with a rolling road brake testing facility and a Fleet Engineer who came over to the Traffic Office every day at 4pm to inform us lowly ‘Traffic Officers’ which motors would not be available to use the following day 
I started with Courtaulds Northern Spinning Divisions’ Transport Dept; when I was 18 as a Junior Traffic Officer and within 9mths was promoted to a fully fledged ‘Traffic Officer’ with responsibility for 30 drivers and about 10 subbies to make sure all the cotton coming into Liverpool, Manchester & Salford docks got moved to the appropriate destination in Lancashire & Yorkshire to keep the, now defunct, cotton industry going. Needless to say I realised quite early on that if I wanted to earn any respect from the lads I was giving instructions to each day I needed to get out on the road and get my HGV licence, I had some experience of being on the road as my dad had always been a lorry driver, one of the old school, and I had spent many a happy day and week with him But that wasn’t enough I wanted to get my Class 1 and get out there and really do it!! Courtaulds wouldn’t fund my training so I threw my hands in and paid for my own training. I know this might sound daft to the new ‘Wannabes’ but it cost me £140.00 at the time and I paid by the lesson, just like BSM now. I must thank Johnny Stroggles, my instructor, and Robert Walker Transport for allowing me learn how to reverse a single axle Bedford TK artic in their yard for a few Sat/Sun afternoons. I got my Class 1 six weeks after my 21st birthday and within 9mths; was trying to master the art of a Foden gearbox in a M reg S80 with a 220 ‘Hummin ■■■■■■■■ on long distance general haulage. Never went back into Traffic Office work and 4yrs ago I had to surrender my HGV because health problems meant I couldn’t pass the medical required at age 50.
Sorry I’ve digressed and rambled on a bit but just typing this has brought memories back that I didn’t even know I had! 
If that makes sense?
Regards
Dave Penn;
hiya,
240 can you remember a bowkers liverpool shunter who could throw his voice everytime i came across him when loading liverpool or birkenhead he would have me demented by calling bowker driver ring harold at blackburn depot he was good at it got me everytime, thanks harry long retired.
harry_gill:
hiya,
240 can you remember a bowkers liverpool shunter who could throw his voice everytime i came across him when loading liverpool or birkenhead he would have me demented by calling bowker driver ring harold at blackburn depot he was good at it got me everytime, thanks harry long retired.
The only Liverpool shunter’s name I can remember off-hand, Harry, is Joe Cashman
hiya,
can’t remember his name 240 but if you had ever met him you no doubt would have had the treatment he could be on the trailer alongside you and make a voice come from the traffic office a couple of hundred yards away he was very good at it got me every time and loads of others too, thanks harry long retired.
Hi all you professional waiters
While talking about long gone company,s what about the queues. and when we seemed to be standing around for hours talking, and now threr’s no time to stop for a chat.
I must of spent a total of light years at sammy williams Daganham then next day daily mirror Manchester 1974 76ish
johnson and nephew, billits, inwards and wire out (usually hot) remember everyone looking for bricks for spacers.
How about the wait at Hulland ward (Hulland products_Charcon) I was lucky sometimes we had loaded trailers
Bilston steel works, get this one, the canteen closed for dinner
Courtaulds all of them was a big queue,
London brick peterbrough when you was near P/bourough at lunch all the cafes was full of brick lorries and you would go to a brick yard first in the queue next minite 15 L,B,C’s lorries straight in front , priority loading,
Garston dock (John O’farral was the man)
Cory warehousing, Dunning bridge lane another queue.
Tylers seafourth timber birth (look for little Alan) he told you where you was going not where you wanted to go,
Canada dock any products from stoke.
Bikenhead docks (Vittoria) tractors from Mortons Coventry about 7 Fergies on sideways.
Runcorn dock billits going in out.
coils copper alumium ingots or large blocks aluminum for star at Bridgenorth inwards.
Croda Hull palm cernal cake, hand ball ten stone bags.
B S C, Stoke Girders ,mixing it with Bassettes and Mountfords, about 8 feet overhang on a 40ft. I know i,d do it all again if younger and fitter.
In those ERF’s, 180, 240’s sleeper no sleeper. I must have met a lot of you in my 35 years driving, now retired (thank God) John H, Harrisons Milton, Stoke On Trent.
It reminds me of the long waits at Shell Chemicals,Stanlow,especially for Acetone,MEK etc…
On the back of my tank,scrawled in the muck was “mummy,mummy,is daddy dead?”
“No,he’s waiting to load at Stanlow”.
Chris Webb:
It reminds me of the long waits at Shell Chemicals,Stanlow,especially for Acetone,MEK etc…
On the back of my tank,scrawled in the muck was “mummy,mummy,is daddy dead?”
“No,he’s waiting to load at Stanlow”.
Can we include off load waiting times ■■
Worse two I’ve ever encountered were #1 Argos Depot nr Daventry (tacho showed a 24hrs break) #2 Dixons or Comet Stevenage !!
davepenn54:
Hi Spardo & Driver-once-More,So back to Courtaulds they must have the biggest own account operator in the North West at the time with over a hundred lorries based at their Greengate depot and looking back that was really a state of the art place. There was multi shift working with a large warehouse with overhead cranes and transhipping, facilities, a comprehensive workshop with a rolling road brake testing facility and a Fleet Engineer who came over to the Traffic Office every day at 4pm to inform us lowly ‘Traffic Officers’ which motors would not be available to use the following day
Dave Penn;
Hi Dave
my old man was (died 2 years ago) Frank Egan, he had an accident at one of the mills when a 5 1/2 cwt bale of cotton followed him down the pit. Leg broken in 3 places and he “died” several times on the op table of oldham royal
Spardo:
RS005D1136:
Does anyone remember Santa fe express from cheltenham dont know what come of them but i think the owners of atchkinson topeca had something to do with santa fe, they were a wellturned out fleet scania 111 141 and mercsYes, the founder of Santa Fé took its name from the US railroad Atchison Topeka & Santa Fé and then sold the company. Later when he decided he wanted another company he used the other half of the orginal. Must have been a railway fan
Salut, David.
does anybody have any pics of santa fe trucks. im looking for pics of trans cons or 141. many thanks mark