Nottingham bus firm( middle east work

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS OLD TIME LORRIES, COMPANIES AND DRIVERS (INTERACT
1921

Hi boys
Norm you were right planning was everything.As an x scout, be prepared. The first trip we did we went down to the supermarket and worked out two of us, three meals a day for four weeks to Iran plus an extra week incase of delays.We needed a van to follow behind to carry all the food.All this in a day cab 110 with no boxs on the trailer. So a roof rack was fitted and dad found an old amunitions box and filled it with cans of food. We strapped it to the unit chassis,not a good idea, at every boarder the customs eyes would light up and then the words “open”.Every tin out then back in again. The other problem was midway through Chec after all the snow and rain the lables came of, so it was pot look what you had to eat. Also Norm will tell you you do not eat regular meals eating mainly one meal plus snacks with loads of tea. Also the further out you got the hotter it got and the less you ate.So therefore we ended up bringing back 3/4 of the food especially the “bandet” chocolet buskets which had melted into big blobs, These came in handy to throw to the kids on the next two trips.Still got some tins of hot dog sausages somewhere that you could have Harry if you decide to go East.

Regards Keith.

1922

hiya,
Norm & Keith any spare rations give to a needier case than me, i won’t be going could’nt be doing with all the hassle i’d most likely finish up in the nick, first stroppy border official i came up against would have found one of my 3x3 steel timbers wrapped round his neck, would’nt have had the patience i hated waiting about, like i’ve said before you guys should have been paid double you certainly earned it, but Keith any bottles of Bells that may be kicking around the old ammunition box will be gratefully accepted, here’s in anticipation.
thanks harry long retired.

1923

Keith, I used to spend over a £100 on food, and I would buy it by the case, I would store so much in my cupboards, then the rest in my side bins, never had any problems at the borders, used to give them a bribe, a magazine, ■■■■, or a bottle, or even a tin of food, my labels never shifted, because they were as they was sent out by the factory, the only time I opened the case, was to put them in my cab, and I would just cut the flaps off, tins of coke, I would put several in my air condition, also in my fridge, I had cheese, butter, eggs, and milk in the fridge, as well as ham sausages bacon, mushrooms tomatoe’s. One time when I was returning from Turkey, I picked up this school teacher& a kiwi, and I was in Yugo, and stopped and cooked a meal, stewed steak, potatoe’s, peas,followed by fruit salad & cream, Tea or coffee, then I said would you like some cheese & biscuits, the chap from New Zealand, made a quip, I bet you do not have the cheese I like, and the school teacher, hit him with her hat, and said do not be so cheeky, I said stilton, chedder red or white,or edam, his face went red, I would like some stilton. I knew I would never starve. Sandman Norman

1924

Norman Ingram:
Well we found out by experience, that we had to secure everything, so people could not tamper with it, one trick was to get at your gas bottle, and feed the pipe back into the cab, after cutting it, and turn it on, so if you were asleep, you would stay that way, while they took everything in the cab, including all your wealth and clothes, if you were lucky, you would wake up alive, totally naked, with nothing to your name. So I fed my rubber pipe through a flexible metal tubeing, caged the gas bottle, and put the padlock where you could only get to it when you tilted the cab. Also drill the handbrake on the trailer, so you could lock it open or on, and fit a collar on the trailer pin, when you dropped it. both doors was fitted with hinged steel mesh, and the doors had bars you could secure to stop intruders opening them, if they could pick the locks. I was only broken into once in my cab in czech, and a and a siide trailer bin in bulgaria, it never happened again, I made sure of that. Sandman Norman

You forgot to mention padlocking the fifth wheel where the dog clip usually goes to stop some “kind driver” pulling the pin & the reulting dropping of the trailer when moving away !!

Incidentaly can anyone recall the company who had strong wire mesh over the truck windows [similar to security vans used] ?

1925

yes we done that first, I was always forgetting, and wondering why I could not release it. also, astran was one.

Big Leggy:

Norman Ingram:
Well we found out by experience, that we had to secure everything, so people could not tamper with it, one trick was to get at your gas bottle, and feed the pipe back into the cab, after cutting it, and turn it on, so if you were asleep, you would stay that way, while they took everything in the cab, including all your wealth and clothes, if you were lucky, you would wake up alive, totally naked, with nothing to your name. So I fed my rubber pipe through a flexible metal tubeing, caged the gas bottle, and put the padlock where you could only get to it when you tilted the cab. Also drill the handbrake on the trailer, so you could lock it open or on, and fit a collar on the trailer pin, when you dropped it. both doors was fitted with hinged steel mesh, and the doors had bars you could secure to stop intruders opening them, if they could pick the locks. I was only broken into once in my cab in czech, and a and a siide trailer bin in bulgaria, it never happened again, I made sure of that. Sandman Norman

You forgot to mention padlocking the fifth wheel where the dog clip usually goes to stop some “kind driver” pulling the pin & the reulting dropping of the trailer when moving away !!

Incidentaly can anyone recall the company who had strong wire mesh over the truck windows [similar to security vans used] ?

1926

hiya,
Norm always checked the coupling after being parked also gave the tyres the 90 psi kick check just something i just got into and did it rain or shine only took a couple of minutes and never ever dropped one off.
thanks harry long retired.

1927

One thing when WE used to padlock the fifth wheel, the bloody graphite grease got on your clothes, but I couldn’t come up with a better idea, I do know those who had a window in the back of the cab, stood a greater chance of getting broke into, if they never secured it. Sandman Norman

1928

hiya,Norm i wonder do present drivers have to go anywhere near the fifth wheel mechanism,with all the fancy uniforms white shirts and ties, i always resembled a coalminer which i was prior to the army and the driving job, yeh that horrible graphite grease got everywhere, yuk.
thanks harry long retired’.

1929

Do the drivers of today, ever pull a fifth wheel handle, I thought that was done by the shunters, who is a 80 year old, who cannot afford to retire, and the y just turn up, and jump in the cab drive to their destination, get unloaded, while they have their break, then do the return trip, park it in the yard, and the shunter will do the rest, I wonder if they know how to reverse, perhaps we better ask D/D, he is a lot younger, he might know. Ha Ha Ha SAndman Norman

1930

Hi boys
Norm yes I do get my hands dirty and being in the plant job theres plenty of it.I work for a plant hire firm with about 160 bits of plant delivering and maintaining them when not driving. Someone once said what is the most common brake down fault and that has got to be a loose wire…in the operators head. The diggers have gone the way of the trucks with computers and processors, we are technicians now not grease monkeys, and the jobs not done till the paper work has been completed in triplicate.You can’t even go for a spreader without having a piece of paper.Driving for a plant hire firm is very diferent from supermarket delivering.As for reversing it would be no good asking a bus to back up around here some of the drivers can’t even go forward Ha Ha Ha

Regards Oilly Keith.

1931

Keith, I did not mean you, but you working, you knew about the state of play, where me & harry, we are not working, and not got our finger on the pulse. Sandman Norman

1932

Hi boys
Norm I see what you mean now I’ve red your post again…All the big firms around here are exactly as you say. they have there trailers tipped and loaded for them. All they are are drivers, robots, with there air con and auto boxs. All dressed up in there uniform just a pair of gloves to drop the trailer with.They would’nt know where to start to change a wheel, in fact they dont even carry a spare.O and must not forget the tracker so that the boss knows where they are. That would not have sooted you lads in your days doing a dodgey.Maybe my greasy jobs not so bad after all.

Regards Keith.

1933

hiya,
DD i take it you’re a lot like i was, boiler suit, safety boots, and now the proverbial hi-viz, even on general freight i could’nt keep clean, and when loading stuff like RBs i got as black as a crow, plant to a site was’nt so bad, quite clean but from a site was a different kettle of fish especially if a tracklayer feeding the securing gear around the machine could be messy and it always seemed to rain on that day, tell you what the old steam loco’s to south wales was one of the better jobs had a special low loader for them length of track permanent on the, well winch and push on, up to the swan neck secure with timber at the back two heavy duty chains and screw tensioners front and back they never moved bit heavy but never any rush and always a second mate for company, happy days.
thanks harry long retired.

1934

Harry, you mean you had a mate , so the boss could keep a eye on you■■?, and you are doing it again, creeping up on me.

1935

hiya,
Norm you must have heard about the guy they all seek hither and thither, well The Scarlet Pimpernel is alive and reasonably well and living in Durham, Norm be afraid be very afraid, may even pop up in Northampton again one day but am incapable of climbing up drainpipes anymore so you could sleep in peace but if i could get a sub from the old age pension i’d treat you to an appletizer or two, ta ta.
thanks harry long retired.

1936

Harry, I am keeping a eye on the bottom of the page, and you are not there,next I look, and it pops up, have you got ruddy radar or something, I think you might be a relation of the pimple nell. Now to get serious, I have got back to writing, I have done two full A4 pages, so my wife is pleased with me, and said you might make some money if you finish it. Sandman Norman

1937

Hi boys
Harry used to do a few steam locos myself in the mid 80s

This was one I cannot remember where we picked it up from but in the photo we are about to unload at Foxfield Railway Blyth Bridge Stoke on Trent

Also you train buffers will have heard of “Lion” she was the oldest steam train still working and to celebrate her 150th birthday they decided to get her out on the preservation scene for that year. Well we got the job of winching her from out of the bacement of the transport museum in Liverpool and taking her around diferent preserved railways throughout the country with her staying at each one for one or two weeks then move on to the next. Then when the year was up we lowerd her back into the bacement.You real anoracs will know she was the star of the film Titfield Thunderbolt.
These were taken while being loaded with a steam crane at a station near Glosop It only weighs about 18 ton For bigger
stuff we used to us a triaxle king tl65 drop well trailer with lines on the deck
Sorry about the quality of the photos, In the middle photo in the back ground if you put your glasses on you will see our Bedford TM, it is loaded with the tender and fourth class carrage.

Hope these bring back memeries Harry. Norm did you ever go off the rails? Its a good job its your thread or I would be told of for going off the rails myself.Ha. Ha.

Regards Keith.

1938

The place near Glossop would be Dinting Railway Centre Keith,I think it’s closed now.
That 142M looks well.

I always wanted to be an engine driver but me eyes weren’t far enough apart. :laughing:

1939

Hi all
Chris thats the one, at the top of a steep hill. your right it closed sometime soon after we were there.The steam crane was good, saved having to lay rails down.

Regards Keith.

1940

hiya,
most of the loco’s was taken to the graveyard mostly to Barry island, they just used to take the driving rods off and then made them up into trains as many as a dozen usually at the end of train of goods wagons i suppose to help with the braking, and the final indignity was being taken to the final resting place by a new diesel, the ones we got were mostly mainliners which had carried on for a bit during the changeover period, and just got pushed into a siding and left to just rust away, i guess they would’nt be considered safe to add to a train so send them by road, most railway sheds had one or two lying about and thats the ones i did getting into position could be a problem sometimes but it was the type of work i enjoyed.
thanks harry long retired.