f troop:
Lawrence Dunbar:
Aye it was C/Ps, Never had much to do with them, Thorntons pals I was once told.? I remember Alan Fellows driving one of the Guys, sometimes loaded with precast gear, Hell thats a long long time ago isnt it, the good old days, none of the crap regulations drivers are faced with these days, I fear now that no-body will want to drive HGVs in the future. Regards Larry.Your right Larry,Twice Vital was another pal of Alan Thornton with two units.Alan Fellows did drive a Guy Invinceable DTY95C for a few years,May have a photo of Alan with a load of concrete beams on from Concrete Utilitys.
Not many young fellows are coming through the ranks to be HGV drivers,Too expensive now as you have to take two test to drive an artic.
Long hours and low pay puts them off,They dont want nights out and want to know before they go away what time they will be back,Roping and sheeting is now a big problem for some companys now.A lot of companys now are not willing to give young unexperienced drivers a chance,but some where down the line it has got to happen or there will be no drivers for the future.
hi f troop i remember taiking too old paddy mckenna years ago when i was dropping a trailer in his depot he told me years too come there will be a shortage off drivers in years too come it will only be ex drivers sons/daughters that will be doing this type ov work and it will be only the big firms doin g all the work ,i only see one jb mckenna,s now on the road barney ,i think jerry drives for jenkinsons of penrith i think ,cheers gary smith
CHOPPINGTON PRE 1970 BEFORE PPE REARED ITS HEAD.
f troop:
Lawrence Dunbar:
0Loading sea sand at Blakemoor Creswell, Old John Fallon [RIP] on the Volvo loading shovel. Regards Larry.Hi Larry,
Who was the sand bought off at Blakemoor and along the dunes towards Duridge,As a lad i can remember seing a lot of Edward Fails lorries of Morpeth and Woods of Blyth leading the sand.
hi larry thats the man f troops on about ma dad worked for pulling the sand off Creswell edward fails thanks for the name f troop regards davey .
4 loads of Hatch covers at Wallsend.
All the trailers were arrow [Target]with the chassis on the out side.
1 AEC and 3x 1418 Mercs.
harry_gill:
DJ2353:
DJ2353:
kevmac47:
I was loading at Komatsu this morning and saw Coltons big Volvo, so not being a shy child I went and made myself known to Wingnut.
Good to meet you Alan. regards Kev.hiya,
Have seen this motor âin the fleshâ so to say, very impressive.
thanks harry long retired.
thanks harry 
DJ2353:
any of Fred Smiths David â â
Lawrence Dunbar:
0More Blakemoor loads. Regards Larry.
Hi Larry,
Did the Dodge have a Perkins 354 in.
Very smart, the one I had was an M Reg, I took it down to Towcester to Robin Rew the Scimitar Sharpener, He did a fantastic job on it, I kept it for 10 years, I wish I still had it, I do have an MGB GT. K. Reg, but of course theres no comparison . Regards Larry.
f troop:
4 loads of Hatch covers at Wallsend.
All the trailers were arrow [Target]with the chassis on the out side.
1 AEC and 3x 1418 Mercs.
hi f troop we used to have three target trailers at murray hoggs 1 thirtynine foot tandem 1 thirtyninefoot single axle and 1twentyeightfoot single axle regards jimmy
Aye Jimmy rememeber the one Shorty had 30 Ft single axle, what a nightmare that was I remember Dennis Hicks at the Hull depot droping it in the depot loaded front heavey & it tipped up & the front end was touching the ground, they goe SEG, To come along with their big forklift & lift it up so as to get a tractor unit back under it. They never caught on Van Hee Transport had some & got shot of them very quickly, they were no good for hauling steel coils, they caused all sorts of problems⌠Regards Larry.
jimmy logan:
f troop:
4 loads of Hatch covers at Wallsend.
All the trailers were arrow [Target]with the chassis on the out side.
1 AEC and 3x 1418 Mercs.hi f troop we used to have three target trailers at murray hoggs 1 thirtynine foot tandem 1 thirtyninefoot single axle and 1twentyeightfoot single axle regards jimmy
Hello Jimmy,We had 30ft single axles-33ft tandem axles-40ft tandem axles with the chassis on the outside,They were good for the hatch covers and loads of that nature,But absolute terrible for the likes of reels of paper as the floors were forever needing repair,But the good thing was the dockers could bang the forklifts in to the side as much as they wanted when loading,they could not damage the trailer.Roping and sheeting them needed more attention.It was surprising how many hauliers operated this type of trailer,
Well the hooks on them were a bloody joke , In fact the ropes used to chaffe on the edges of the chassis, & the king pin in my opinion was wrongley positioned , when in a tight spot they used to get hooked up onto the skids, I was at Bradford Press one night when this happened to me, It pulled the skid off, but it was easiley put back on, but they were a big problem with certain loads, thats why they are no longer in production, Regards Larry.
I suppose that if these âcobbedâ inventions were never tried we wouldnât have seen a lot of some of the things we take,and accept,as normal nowadays.Some innovations make it through âgestationâ and others such as the âTargetâ were actually way off âtargetâ and failed,but IMO the designers canât really be knocked for trying surely ! However on second thoughts if the Tautliner hadnât been invented the industry would probably have been spared the âinflictionâ upon it of âfast eddieâ as they would never have achieved the standards of sheeting and roping required !!! Couldnât resist the ârubâ so no doubt the thread will now be overrun with abuse,directed at me,by the motely âeslâ fan club and numerous Elves telling me that if they received 5 years instruction from one of their " If you can you do,if you canât you teach" in house instructors,they could manage to,very badly no doubt,sheet and rope a platform trailer,now that really would be a sight for sore eyes !! Cheers Bewick.PS No doubt a sign would be hung on the front of said trailer âdo not take out onto roadâ !!!
Bewick:
I suppose that if these âcobbedâ inventions were never tried we wouldnât have seen a lot of some of the things we take,and accept,as normal nowadays.Some innovations make it through âgestationâ and others such as the âTargetâ were actually way off âtargetâ and failed,but IMO the designers canât really be knocked for trying surely ! However on second thoughts if the Tautliner hadnât been invented the industry would probably have been spared the âinflictionâ upon it of âfast eddieâ as they would never have achieved the standards of sheeting and roping required !!! Couldnât resist the ârubâ so no doubt the thread will now be overrun with abuse,directed at me,by the motely âeslâ fan club and numerous Elves telling me that if they received 5 years instruction from one of their " If you can you do,if you canât you teach" in house instructors,they could manage to,very badly no doubt,sheet and rope a platform trailer,now that really would be a sight for sore eyes !! Cheers Bewick.PS No doubt a sign would be hung on the front of said trailer âdo not take out onto roadâ !!!
Well said.