When a young married man, I was between lorry jobs, and I got a crane job , because it was good pay, and I had been on a Coles crane course at Sunderland, this was in the early 60’s. Plenty of work about because they was completing the motorway from Northampton up to Leeds, I was working up at Shepshed. Being a union member, I got sent to many site who would not let anyone without a card on the site,Fison Fertillizer company at Immingham, Birds custard, maxwellhouse coffee at Banbury,Bachalors process peas at Rotherham, a Scottish power station at Dunoon, and my last crown in my book, was the weather vane on the Coventry cathedral ( the new one) the old one was bombed, and some of it was left next to it. Now is there anyone out there that remembers this firm. They sacked me because I was sueing,for I had my right hand chopped in half, due to negligence of another operator, but it never done them any good, for one of the directors ran away with £100,000 cash,and it folded, and was sold off, Sparrows down in the south had some cranes and a depot from them, Dartford was a Mechquip depot, the other was not too far away from■■? That depot, I think they had 6 to8 of them. Them days I never had a Camera around with me, if any person has some photo’s, or remembers this firm, log on Sandman Norman
I cannot believe that no one can remember a firm as big as Mechquip, when it helped with most of the bridges on the M1
the only dealings i had with cranes were when they loaded or unloaded my truck, to be honest, i never took any notice of the crane operator, the only thing i was bothered about was how quick i could get tipped. 
Norman Ingram:
When a young married man, I was between lorry jobs, and I got a crane job , because it was good pay, and I had been on a Coles crane course at Sunderland, this was in the early 60’s. Plenty of work about because they was completing the motorway from Northampton up to Leeds, I was working up at Shepshed. Being a union member, I got sent to many site who would not let anyone without a card on the site,Fison Fertillizer company at Immingham, Birds custard, maxwellhouse coffee at Banbury,Bachalors process peas at Rotherham, a Scottish power station at Dunoon, and my last crown in my book, was the weather vane on the Coventry cathedral ( the new one) the old one was bombed, and some of it was left next to it. Now is there anyone out there that remembers this firm. They sacked me because I was sueing,for I had my right hand chopped in half, due to negligence of another operator, but it never done them any good, for one of the directors ran away with £100,000 cash,and it folded, and was sold off, Sparrows down in the south had some cranes and a depot from them, Dartford was a Mechquip depot, the other was not too far away from■■? That depot, I think they had 6 to8 of them. Them days I never had a Camera around with me, if any person has some photo’s, or remembers this firm, log on Sandman Norman
Hi, norman, i remember the m.i being built, when i first used it, it was from down near watford to the m45 split off, 90miles without a cafe or filling hole,
used to take me just over three hours with my old sentinel, (30 top speed)
no hard shoulder,just a wide piece of dirt track, then the nearside lane started to break up, they had’nt learned from the first test motorway stretch
near preston, all bloody pot holes in a few months, i don’t recall your firm
at all, there was lots of different contractors on the m.i,
i take it you must be around my age (72), lots of us have had heart attacks,
are you surprised?? 7 days a week, 20 hour shifts, evil gaffers,
paid on trip money, did’nt matter what hours you did, gaffer made sure he was the winner !!! 
take care, stan the man (stokie)
Hi Stan yes I am 71, with 40 plus years on the road, the min I worked was 60 hrs, but my sons & daughter had a better childhood, than we had, and had holidays we could never dream of , was able to get a good pension, and a private ones for me and the wife. We have travelled and been to places my parents could only dream of, apart from my father in the army. Mechquips wasin bright yellow with the name all over it, mine was 232foot with a fly jib on top, it used to take 4 hrs to set up, most of the workers were Irish who worked for Laings on the M1. YesI had my fair share of crap jobs, but also I worked for some top class firms, my last was for Carlesberg on contract with Bulwalks, Copenhagen Transport, then Wincanton, withI took volentry retirement at 62, because I did not like the way they treated drivers, glad to say they lost the contract after4 years, sadly i had left after 22years approx in the job, not many lorry drivers survive too long, glad you areone of them. Sandman Norman