yes Andrew hes cracking on a bit , " sorry chris"
Good evening Steve & Andrew (& everyone else of course), you are only as old as you feel, & I try not to feel myself too often nowadays cos my eyesight is bad enough! Good pics there Andrew mate, you back in the UK at mo’ then having a well deserved break! Nice bit of rope & sheet there mate, knew you’d get the hang of it eventually ha ha! Here’s one of the new/old, I know which 1 I’d rather have (& it ain’t the FL!). Andrew, isn’t that Buffalo’'s F7?
Here I am with my old girl (not much of a picture, but with a boat like mine you don’t want it too clear!). Andrew, all us General blokes had F7s, do you remember when we all had to come in on a Saturday morn’ for a meeting with Larry Bath? It was at the time when a load of the new FLs were coming & going on tanks, don’t think many of us General blokes wanted an FL, but the thing was the PFA tanker blokes hardly had any nights out but the new FLs had night-heaters fitted, but our old F7s didn’t, & we could be out all week! Larry told us we weren’t having new wagons on general, but all our F7s woulde be taken off the road 1 at a time, the cabs would all be done up (typical Volvo’s, rust eating them away), they would have complete re-spray’s (Cannons had there own spray-shop in the yard) & the cabs would be valeted. When the meeting was over Larry asked me to stay behind (I thought s**t, someones told him about the bird in Stanlow that I was giving the good news to, lets just say there was a fair bit of extra mileage going on the F7 with no Tacho in to carry out these nocturnal activities!) , but no, he said that he wanted to do a deal, I’d always had flags etc in the windscreen,which he didn’t really like, so he said if Iwould take the flags down & leave them down he would take my horse off 1st so it would be the 1st one to be done up. This picture shows me just got her back, you can see that the cab curtains are missing round the sleeper, this is cos the cab had been valeted but the curtains hadn’t come back from being washed!
Help me here Andrew, Barry ?, this was his F88, took her out a few times, when I 1st applied for a job on Cannons Barry took me out for my driving assesment in this old girl!
Sorry but never liked the FL7/10! I’ve driven a few & could never take to them, crap cab for nights out, & I could never get comfortable driving them! Not knocking them performance wise, they would do the job & great on fuel, but no thanks, thought the old F7 was a much better wagon!
Took this pic in South Mimms M25, I’d left Cannons by now, thats my Air Products Sed-Atki Strato parked next to.
For those of you quiering my age, here I am aged about 18 months, Dad was having to hold me up cos I’d just finished sheeting this up for him & was a bit knackered! Pic was took outside our house on Wood Farm Estate, Oxford.
Just found another from my British Leyland days, taken outside my house in Gipsy Lane, Headington, Oxford, I had just driven her in yhe Lord Mayors Parade, which always ended up in South Park, so took her home for a cup of tea.
When we first took over the Air Products small bulk, we had problems getting new tankers on the road fast enough, & had trouble with the old A.P. motors we’d taken on cos they were just old & warn out, so I had this pony for a while. Artics aren’t a lot of good on our work cos of tight access at a lot of drops, hence the rear-steer on our 6 wheelers, so we borrowed this short single-axle trailer from Air Products in Rotterdam, I ended up dragging it around for 18 months!
H i Chris , love the new pictures , whos was the nurdins volvo , I knew most of the drivers there , Baggy , beefy , Bill kennedy , also love the daf arctic you had on cryo .
Hi Steve, not sure who’s the Nurdins Volvo was mate, can’t even remember where I took it! We used to pull their loads when I was on RT Express, Milton, it was good easy work, you dropped your trailer in their yard the night before & they loaded it so you went in the morning it was all ready to go. Their own wagons had prioriry at their own stores & went straight to the front of the queue no matter how many wagons were waiting, & if you were pulling for them you got the same preferential treatment, whichwas great for us cos we knew we weren’t gona be delayed, but made you about as popular as Rabies in a Guide dogs home with the other drivers/hauliers waiting possibly hours to tip. Yes the Cryo DAF Space Cab was a beauty!
