Old recovery jobs

Thinking back a few years (well maybe 20 25 years) has anyone any stories of jobs you done way back. but wouldn’t dare do nowadays. I’m sure VOSA didn’t exist back then , but stand to be corrected .

Used to be just the old bill would be quite happy to give you a hand to load…Then off you went , springs going the wrong way. next to zero steering and try and time the traffic lights from about a mile away.

This was when specs were the thing to have , not quite in the harvey frost era…

Best I managed was a old caddilac on a mk2 transit spec . This was a Zero steering job with a dab on the brakes for any corner…

Lets here your stories …

Hi Grumbo
I used to work at Twyford Commercial in Evelyn Street, Deptford, SE 8. It was about 1980/81 and me and the boss Doug Twyford, in an A Series ERF with David Brown box and Two speed axle and Holmes 600 (iirc) twin boom gear, had a flatbed on the hook from Kings Cross and came through Rotherhithe Tunnel to get back to the yard. It was tight but we got it round the bends ok. You had to stand up to get it on full lock to shunt in the yard !
Try as I may, I cant find any pictures anywhere !
GS

Shortly after I left the army,early in 1969 I went to work for what was then Blue Star Garages at Keele service area.
We had a couple of Land Rovers,and the big piece of tackle was a Diamond T,the original Hercules engine replaced with a ■■■■■■■■
It was equipped with a Holmes 750 twin boom setup that’s the best I have ever come across,(Although being away from the recovery game for a long time,I can’t comment on the more modern stuff).
The biggest wreck I attended was right outside the Keele service area.
I had just finished a 12 hour nightshift and was walking across the car park towards the workshop to clock off at about 06.00 in the morning,when I heard such a crash fro the direction of the motorway.I ran across the park to the fence looking out at the motorway and was a scene of complete destruction,cars,but mostly trucks strewn all across the n.b lanes.
Cars and trucks were just cresting the drag of the Keele bank and getting back up to cruising as they passed the service area,and were piling into the rear of the devastation.
I immediately ran across to the workshop area,jumped in the Diamond T and drove the wrong way down the motorway exit onto the n/b lanes and parked it across all three lanes with the beacons flashing,hoping oncoming traffic would take note and divert through the service area,which luckily they did.
The motorway police in those days were based at Stafford,and of course,at 06.00 in the morning they were changing shift,just as I was supposed to be doing!It was 06.30 before any police turned up.
It turned out that some truck had dropped a spare wheel,a super single,in lane 1 under the service area bridge,and a Scania loaded with concrete beams for the second Mersey tunnel,hit it and the chains on his load snapped and several concrete beams fell onto the motorway.
A Guy Big J travelling behind the Scania hit the end of one of the beams with his front axle,which pushed the axle back to make it look like what we would today call a “Pusher”.
The driver of the Big J went straight through the windscreen and landed on the road,got up and walked away without a scratch!
Trucks and cars continued to pile into the wreckage until I stopped the flow of traffic with the wrecker,no one was getting past that!
When the police turned up they organised the traffic to bypass by going through the service area,which lasted all morning while us from the nightshift,along with the dayshift cleared the wreckage.
This took all morning and I got home after an 18 hour shift,to be back on at 18.00!
Despite the carnage,no fatalities and few serious injuries.
Definitely a day to remember.
Unfortunately,I did not take a camera to work with me in those days,and this was long before camera phones.

Great stuff , but when did vosa appear ? not knocking just dont remember them back in the day… allways was traffic cops .

grumbo:
Great stuff , but when did vosa appear ? not knocking just dont remember them back in the day… allways was traffic cops .

Ministry of Transport Inspectors were about doing spot checks and issuing GV9s in the 1940s-onward Just as bitter and nasty. However there was no annual test. However operators still had responsibility of maintaining their vehicles also long before Tachographs MOT inspectors did spot checks at the road side to see Time Sheets were up to date as well as regular checks at operators premises to compare time sheets against ‘silent checks’ being taken from hidden cars at the side of roads. The Regional Transport Authorities had the power to withdraw, curtail or reduce licences (A, B,C) long before the Operator Licence system had been thought up. Apparently, like in most things they were much more strict in those days.