Norman Ingram:
Just thinking I might be able to help Keith out with the driving on the open roads, for he will have criuse control and the pedals are big, but in traffic he will have to take over, and Harry you don’t have to worry about driving on the righthand side of the road, for someone informed me, when in UK you drove up the centre! I cannot remember who told me, it might have been Mark!
hiya,
You’re right as usual Norm for a long time i was known as “Fast Lane Charlie” i had a Seddon which was a bit of a freak it had a big Roller in it and nothing could touch it including the Midland Red buses there’s someone had the “magic spanner” on that one, a bloke took it on a change over trunk one night and reported it for using excessive fuel so the fitters had a look at it and slowed it down some people can’t mind their own business the “old girl” was never the same after that.
thanks harry long retired.
Harry I had a old Seddon when I started on Bulwark, when I was delivering Carlsberg, it used to fly, I left Carlisle Hospital after visiting a mate, was in Brewery in Northampton in my driving time which was at that time four & half hours, I do believe it could do 80 if I pushed it.
Norman Ingram:
Harry I had a old Seddon when I started on Bulwark, when I was delivering Carlsberg, it used to fly, I left Carlisle Hospital after visiting a mate, was in Brewery in Northampton in my driving time which was at that time four & half hours, I do believe it could do 80 if I pushed it.
hiya,
Norm I’d get the DCM “don’t come Monday” if i had to return to the haulage game nowadays yes i’ve driven slow motors but back in the late 50s to mid 60s i would’nt be able to trundle about with one of todays magnificent machines at is it 58 MPH i’m afraid it would be getting the “fuse pulled” at the first tea break i’d have her romping on a bit before the first shift ended, hence the DCM, plodding about at today’s speeds would’nt do for me at all i guess i’m a bit too impatient and when you know what speeds the new stuff could motor on at i’d want the sack just to get away from it.
thanks harry long retired.
Harry the old Marathons were no slouches,when on good roads early in the morning, I have averaged over 200miles in three hours, then when traffic started moving it dropped to nearly half, so I would start early do three hours, then stop and get myself breakfast, and I found the peak traffic slowly dis-appeared, and my speed average was not so great of a drop!
Norman Ingram:
Harry the old Marathons were no slouches,when on good roads early in the morning, I have averaged over 200miles in three hours, then when traffic started moving it dropped to nearly half, so I would start early do three hours, then stop and get myself breakfast, and I found the peak traffic slowly dis-appeared, and my speed average was not so great of a drop!
hiya,
Norm if i could get away from Consett by six in the morning i could be running into Birmingham while the kids was still making their way to school,now that was good going in the 1970s and i bet they can’t do that nowadays and if you got a quick tip and load you could make it back in good time to manufacture a “dodgy” managed that a few times too.
thanks harry long retired.
Norman Ingram:
Harry the old Marathons were no slouches,when on good roads early in the morning, I have averaged over 200miles in three hours, then when traffic started moving it dropped to nearly half, so I would start early do three hours, then stop and get myself breakfast, and I found the peak traffic slowly dis-appeared, and my speed average was not so great of a drop!
hiya,
Norm if i could get away from Consett by six in the morning i could be running into Birmingham while the kids was still making their way to school,now that was good going in the 1970s and i bet they can’t do that nowadays and if you got a quick tip and load you could make it back in good time to manufacture a “dodgy” managed that a few times too.
thanks harry long retired.
I could leave Sheffield with the Marathon at 0400 and be on the weighbridge at BSC Llanwern at 0730,that was M1,A38,A5 to the A461, then through Walsall onto the M5 at Great Barr,M50 and A449.No M42 in those days.Like you say Harry it would be a struggle today with limiters.Somebody will prove me wrong.
Norman Ingram:
Harry the old Marathons were no slouches,when on good roads early in the morning, I have averaged over 200miles in three hours, then when traffic started moving it dropped to nearly half, so I would start early do three hours, then stop and get myself breakfast, and I found the peak traffic slowly dis-appeared, and my speed average was not so great of a drop!
hiya,
Norm if i could get away from Consett by six in the morning i could be running into Birmingham while the kids was still making their way to school,now that was good going in the 1970s and i bet they can’t do that nowadays and if you got a quick tip and load you could make it back in good time to manufacture a “dodgy” managed that a few times too.
thanks harry long retired.
I could leave Sheffield with the Marathon at 0400 and be on the weighbridge at BSC Llanwern at 0730,that was M1,A38,A5 to the A461, then through Walsall onto the M5 at Great Barr,M50 and A449.No M42 in those days.Like you say Harry it would be a struggle today with limiters.Somebody will prove me wrong.
hiya,
Not shot down yet Chris i don’t think i could toddle about at today’s speeds i’d be pulling into every other layby for a snooze i was a bit partial to making them go to their to the limit, i’d get a b"“”“”“”"g every trip for excessive fuel use and speeding, just glad i’m out of it.
thanks harry long retired.
Norman Ingram:
Harry the old Marathons were no slouches,when on good roads early in the morning, I have averaged over 200miles in three hours, then when traffic started moving it dropped to nearly half, so I would start early do three hours, then stop and get myself breakfast, and I found the peak traffic slowly dis-appeared, and my speed average was not so great of a drop!
hiya,
Norm if i could get away from Consett by six in the morning i could be running into Birmingham while the kids was still making their way to school,now that was good going in the 1970s and i bet they can’t do that nowadays and if you got a quick tip and load you could make it back in good time to manufacture a “dodgy” managed that a few times too.
thanks harry long retired.
I could leave Sheffield with the Marathon at 0400 and be on the weighbridge at BSC Llanwern at 0730,that was M1,A38,A5 to the A461, then through Walsall onto the M5 at Great Barr,M50 and A449.No M42 in those days.Like you say Harry it would be a struggle today with limiters.Somebody will prove me wrong.
hiya,
Not shot down yet Chris i don’t think i could toddle about at today’s speeds i’d be pulling into every other layby for a snooze i was a bit partial to making them go to their limit, i’d get a b"“”“”“”"g every trip for excessive fuel use and speeding, just glad i’m out of it, maybe i’d get lucky and get the push after just one trip…
thanks harry long retired.
I may have said before,the old transcontinentals of Fords could go, and just beat us on the flat, due to having a low speed axle our Marathons, but we would wave goodbye to them going up the mountains, and it would take a few miles of flat straight road before they caught us up, almost a hour, then they got to another mountain and we would overtake them after a few minutes, I would look at the drive and put my feet up, I am sure they had steam comming out of their ears!
Norman Ingram:
I may have said before,the old transcontinentals of Fords could go, and just beat us on the flat, due to having a low speed axle our Marathons, but we would wave goodbye to them going up the mountains, and it would take a few miles of flat straight road before they caught us up, almost a hour, then they got to another mountain and we would overtake them after a few minutes, I would look at the drive and put my feet up, I am sure they had steam comming out of their ears!
hiya,
Never drove a Marathon or a Transco Norm but i could trim the wings of most stuff with the old Seddon, no room to put my feet up in that, “fat git”, so i used to offer them the ciggie lighter on the way past had the flame turned up so the ones i was leaving in my wake got the message, they must’nt have been offended because i always got the lights to come back in, or was the lights to tell me to “go away” in lorry drivers speak.
thanks harry long retired.
Harry &fellow hgv drivers, I must say I had many happy times on the roads, a few not so good, but I do not think I would change my time for now, for we were really the kings of the road and enjoyed every minutes incuding the bad periods for we was free and we done what we thought best and got the load delivered. I would be the first to say I did it for the money and not the glory, it gave my family a good living, all my three children own their own homes. Anyone calling the lorrydrivers, I respond, if you eat it, wear it, or drink it, a ruddy lorry got it to you, and you would not survive without them.
Norman Ingram:
Harry &fellow hgv drivers, I must say I had many happy times on the roads, a few not so good, but I do not think I would change my time for now, for we were really the kings of the road and enjoyed every minutes incuding the bad periods for we was free and we done what we thought best and got the load delivered. I would be the first to say I did it for the money and not the glory, it gave my family a good living, all my three children own their own homes. Anyone calling the lorrydrivers, I respond, if you eat it, wear it, or drink it, a ruddy lorry got it to you, and you would not survive without them.
hiya,
Can’t say i ever loved the job Norm, to me it was just a job i think i was capable of doing it, did a bit of tanker work some abnormal indivisable a bit of tipper work hated that and if i did have any affection for the job at all it was the tramping and the ropes and sheets it did pay the mortgage though, i had a few short breaks away from driving at different times even did a spot of deep sea fishing off Iceland as a crewmember best wages ever should have done it full time when i had the chance loved that job but that was out of Donegal and i was only a lad so i guess i got stuck with driving, time to do again i’d have been a ships engineer in the merchant navy running out to The Far East and Australia was always pretty handy with the spanners, there would have been plenty of nights out on that job but no good to our freind Mr Webb no dodgey’s but i would think he’d find a way of getting home.
thanks harry long retired.
Harry I used to love going to work, but my last couple of years I was giad to finish, change was on the way, and as it has turned out, the job could be done by robots, the way they are treated now.
Norman Ingram:
Harry I used to love going to work, but my last couple of years I was giad to finish, change was on the way, and as it has turned out, the job could be done by robots, the way they are treated now.
hiya,
Knowing the job as we do Norm and still being interested enough in the job to be able to compare “our days” and “nowadays” would you still want to start again i know i would’nt my old class one in in the best place the recycling plant, but if i could go back to my starting time1957 i’d give it a good coat of thinking about but i’d have got out of it in about 1980 having had what i consider the good times , like a rat i’d have left the sinking ship and done a proper job.
thanks harry long retired.
Yes lads I am afraid in years gone bye we be treated as fossile just like the dinosaurs, the transport system the vehicles will not touch the ground, and driven automaticly by computors, no new frontiers, no adventures,no nights out,
Just to keep up with the news, none of those Arab countries seem safe to visit, they was ok when I visited them. I would like to point out Harry was the last person from our group to go to Tunisia, is there any reason it might be him that start all this trouble?
Norman Ingram:
Just to keep up with the news, none of those Arab countries seem safe to visit, they was ok when I visited them. I would like to point out Harry was the last person from our group to go to Tunisia, is there any reason it might be him that start all this trouble?
Your right there Norm,I’d never thought of that explanation for the riots in Tunisia!!! That miserable bugger “H” must have been a bit “careful” with the tipping and that was the final straw that broke the camels back!(excuse the pun!) I bet his picture is up in every airport across the middle east!! He’ll be lucky if he can book a B&B in Scarborough for his next hols!! Cheers Dennis.
Norman Ingram:
Just to keep up with the news, none of those Arab countries seem safe to visit, they was ok when I visited them. I would like to point out Harry was the last person from our group to go to Tunisia, is there any reason it might be him that start all this trouble?
Your right there Norm,I’d never thought of that explanation for the riots in Tunisia!!! That miserable bugger “H” must have been a bit “careful” with the tipping and that was the final straw that broke the camels back!(excuse the pun!) I bet his picture is up in every airport across the middle east!! He’ll be lucky if he can book a B&B in Scarborough for his next hols!! Cheers Dennis.
hiya,
Must be have a go at “H” week well gan on if you’re talking about me at least you’ll be talking sense for a change, that’s definitely my application form for a start a Bewick’s in the waste paper bin.
thanks harry long retired.
harry_gill:
hiya,
Norm if i could get away from Consett by six in the morning i could be running into Birmingham while the kids was still making their way to school,now that was good going in the 1970s and i bet they can’t do that nowadays and if you got a quick tip and load you could make it back in good time to manufacture a “dodgy” managed that a few times too.
thanks harry long retired.
Hi Harry, I could manage Brum to Chester le street, all motorway in my FH 440 in 4hrs 20mins @52mph
I had it on the computer last week in the garage and got it put up to 56mph which knocks nearly 20mins off, remember this is all motorway with no stops at all, Its laughable, 30 yrs ago I could have knocked an hour off that,on the old roads, in a big j and stopped for breakfast on the way.
This is true,in those days we refused to drive the j’s with 180’s as they would only do 58mph! I’d be glad of that now
The cruise control is easier in the Volvo, remember the wooden stick underneath the grab handle in the big j
I’ve got a microwave, fridge, telly etc in the Volvo, it goes that slow i’ve no time to use them.
Yeh some things are better but its a long way from the good times we had.
Howdy Big trev, are you on skype yet, poor old Harry been got at he is almost crying but he stopped himself because he cannot stand water in his whisky!
