Spardo.
Been busy lately with other things and only now seen your wee bit, maybe we did meet at Stainmore, sorry I dont remember the guy you mentioned, I dont pass that way often but when I do I think of the cold winter nights up there, I notice that the 66 is closed more often nowadays in the winter than it was many years ago.
Hope you will read the articles I have written on the driver bashing scheme, WELL DRIVEN? that are now on this site in the ‘Insider’ magazine,.
You take care out there.
Alex
egg on legs:
rexyu:
Anybody remember Rooksdale Haulage (or Transport)? Out of a little yard underneath the Canning Town flyover.About a dozen 110s and F88s pulling fridges. Rowntrees chocs out to Bologna and fruit back. Quite a nice little number really with some great lads on there.
Only trouble was that the boss, Terry (littlelegs) Regan was obsessed with fuel costs and would give you just enough money to do the trip if you didn’t exceed 55mph. Taught me how to drive economically, I can tell you.
Littlelegs’ wife was one of the Merzarios. Very big Italian freight agent. They had a ghastly son about nine years old. He was always asking us drivers how much our motors would do to the gallon. We always imagined that mpg was the only topic of conversation in the Regan household.
How about Pierrepoint and Halpin from Sarf London somewhere? They did the Prato run. Rag out and cloth back. Very quickly too. Transcontis and 140s. God, they could go. Rumour had it that the Pierrepoint of P&H was related to Albert Pierrepoint, the hangman.
Steve
my dad joe lingwood worked for rooksdale mainly went to Italy,if I remember terrys wife was Italian,i was a apprentice plumber at that time and remember terry paying me to put a water main in his yard at canning town
yes p/h wereout of bermonsdy then moved to erith all best egg
montydog:
Yeah Dodds were out of Acton/ Shepherds Bush McFarlane road I think? Runcorn Tspt. were in Willesden Junction. head office Runcorn doing ICI contract, went up there to do ADR. Also worked for Hanson Haulage Near the Angel, Islington, in about 1974/5 are they still about? Went out to Australia in1980 and worked for Ansett Freight Express in Sydney, anyone heard of them? Long shot. Still keep the Aussie Class 5 licence going, never know when you might need it! Fell out of love with hgv driving in UK but still facinated,weird eh?
Also worked for Hanson Haulage, at the Huddersfield depot, from 1974-1980. They then moved to the Pudsey depot & eventually became Lynx.
Hanson Haulage was an independant company from Hanson Transport (logistics), although at one time were all part of the Robert Hanson family ownership. The Grandfather of the now multi millionaire Sir James Hanson.
Hi All. I am an English man driving Truck’s in the USA (owner operator 40 yrs) I drove “lorry’s” in the uk for about 12 years before I moved to the USA. I was wondering if some of the old company’s are still opperating, to name a few. "Yiddel Davies, (tankers) Tower Hill (general flatbed),J&H, (London)Cawthorn Sinclare( Newcastle), Mcelvy (Motherwell) Hansons (Huddersfield), and lets not forget , “BRS” (British road service) if any of you Drivers need any info about Trucking in the US E-Mail me and I will do my best to answer any questions. I own and drive a Kenworth W-900, its powered by a 550 hp Caterpiller, 18 speed and 333 rear ends, it tops out at around 103 mph, although the most I have run is 90 and that was accross the Arizona dessert. take care. John Townrow. (69 yrs old and still Trucking.)
Hiya John
I dont remember all those names but certainly Hanson is still in business but not just as a tipper operator which I believe is how it started. The Hanson Group now run warehousing, distribution, building supplies, chemicals and many other types of transport.
Mcelvie is still there in a different business. I think it was Jim Mcelvie who brought the first Volvos to Britain as Ailsa Trucks.
Cawthorne Sinclair rings a bell but there are a lot more knowledgable blokes & ladies on this site who will know more. Keep looking in and you will find a few more ex-pat brits out in the states who keep us informed.
That old KW seems the business, keep it shiny side up in Arizona.
Malc
Hi John welcome to Trucknet. I am only 15 but have heard of tower hill transport of Boston many a time. Although they packed up donkey’s years ago. My grandad knows a few of the blokes who used to drive for them. One of them being Scotty. There was also an article in Truck & Driver about them not long ago. I’ll have a go at finding it.
welcome John,
I think these guys have learned enough about trucking over here from myself, bully and cliff etc to put them off for life 
BRS eventualy became National Freight Company and BRS was one of their divisions (covering Truck rentals and mainly small-contract work), they also have Exel Logistics, which covers large contract/warehousing/distribution etc. NFC sold BRS as a name, and the truck rental business to Volvo trucks UK.
I worked for BRS Taskforce (their in house agency) for 4 and a half years. I think that NFC still own that division.
Have you had a look through the Ex-Pats forum? You will find several Brits working as truckers in the good ole USofA in there, and Bully of the Truckstop Bar forum on here is one of them. . Obviously they take an active part in the rest of the forums as you can see.
Wecome to TruckNet UK, by the way.
alexsaville:
The Sam Anderson programme was in 1973 .
I used to work for Smith of Maddiston at the London Rd depot Glasgow in the mid 70’s, the official company motto was ‘Smith for Service’, the un-official one was ‘The only thing that will pass a Smiths lorry was another one’ , they were all flying machines, on night trunk it was job and finish so believe me when I say the un-official motto was the right one!
I used to change at Stainmore with Stirlands, we used to run solo (bobtail for the yanks!) to Boots the chemists factory at Airdrie for our trailers, run to S/more c/o and return to A/ie and run solo back to London Rd.
McKelvie was part of the TDG group and has vanished into the mists of time, last time I passed the Paisley depot it was up for sale.
I also worked for the old BRS back roundabout '69 , I was at the Douglas Group, Glasgow, not to be confused with the Glasgow depot although that was where we ended up, sadly.
Alex
Eyup,Alex.
Just been trawling through some old posts and noticed you worked for Smith of Maddiston. In 1980 I worked for Glass Glover Distribution based in Maltby near Rotherham.They had the Littlewoods contract and we trunked all over the UK.When our Penrith - based drivers were on Holiday Maltby drivers would lodge in Penrith and run down to Maltby on afternoons and back up to Penrith for about 2300 then a few pints and then bed.Friday was the last shift and I remember me and my mate waiting at the A66 island about midnight with logbooks in hand trying to get back to Rotherham.Along came a Smiths motor and we were off like ■■■■ off a shovel to Stainmore and straight into a Stirlands motor after changing trailers and dropped off at J1 on the M18.
I think the Smith ERF had the ■■■■■■■ and the Stirland the Gardner and the Smith driver was by far the quickest 
- job and knock. Both great drivers to talk to and have the crack with.You’d get run down if you waved a log book at some of these steerers on the road now. 
I’d go back on the road if I could turn the clock back 30-40 years but wouldn’t have it now - not even in t’ Isle of Man.
“The only thing that would pass a Smith’s motor was another one” 
Still makes me laugh now.
Chris Webb:
[.Along came a Smiths motor and we were off like [zb] off a shovel to Stainmore and straight into a Stirlands motor after changing trailers and dropped off at J1 on the M18.
I think the Smith ERF had the ■■■■■■■ and the Stirland the Gardner and the Smith driver was by far the quickest
I’d go back on the road if I could turn the clock back 30-40 years but wouldn’t have it now
Me too Chris, the first couple of years I did miss it, but now am well out of it. If you saw Alex’s post you may have noticed mine in reply, I too worked for Stirland’s on night trunk, but to Bristol not Stainmore though I did have good mates on that changeover.
The habit of those non-sleeper cab days of hitching home from miles away was commonplace and it was rare for a driver to be left standing by the first truck to come along. Even now I keep an old tacho disc in the car, just in case I get stuck somewhere, but I doubt if it would be of any use. 
Even more so now even they are going out of fashion.
Still, we can stay warm and dry (with hands uncut by wet ropes 
) and do more miles than ever here now, so not all bad news.
An old mate of mine (who sadly passed away recently) used to work for Yiddel Davies,don’t think they are still in business now.He said it was a good earner.
Guys, in days of ‘Auld Land Syne’, we might not have good money, at least we had the support of our peers.
Nowadays, so-called drivers dont give each other a thought or a glance.
Parking up and getting a lift home used to be called, in this neck of the woods, ‘A Dodgy!’.
When six day working came in many years ago, If I was running late on a Friday, I used to try and time it to get to the Millburn Cafe at Kingstown, Carlisle.
That allowed me to claim 2 nights out, a days pay on Saturday for the layover, and a half shift at double time for going home on the Sunday.
Of course, I would get a lift home on Friday, If no-one from my firm was going down on the Sunday, I would stand at the junction of Tollcross Rd and London Rd at Mount Vernon, wave my logbook, and some fellow driver would give me a lift the Millburn.
Nowadays, if you try to get a lift with a tacho disc, most just pass you by. Another point, if you see ‘The Commisioners’ or a checkpoint, flashing your lights & showing a tacho disc to on-coming vehicles results in lots of blank looks.
Not to worry, 4 yrs & 3 months and I retire, God willing. I will miss the money, sadly, I wont miss the job.
You all take care out there.
May the wind be always be at your back.
Alex
Aye I’ve fiddled home from some places in my time and been booked off miles off route.When I was on for A.E.Evans in the late 60’s/early 70’s we had to park in Lichfield and get the train back to Sheffield if we were loaded from Sth .Wales for the North West over a weekend.The lorry park was in the town centre.If you could get to Lichfield by dinner on a Saturday you had a chance of a lift home but any later than that you were goosed. It was make yer mind up time and you would sneak home and hide the bloody thing somewhere near Sheffield and phone a mate to pick you up. 
It was cross your fingers that the wagon would fire up early monday morning so you could get back on route. I did it once and the Wodhead was shut by snow.There was no M62 then and Stanage could be dodgy so it had to be Huddersfield - Halifax - Todmorden to get back into Lancs. 
You could hide the excess mileage if you had a AEC MK5 by throwing ignition switch up and thereby knocking the speedo off but the MK3 was a different kettle of fish.You got round it though,but I have spent many a head-scratching time sat at kitchen table at a weekend writing out log sheets and trying to remember where I had been.
Our London office were forever asking where Saltersbrook and Board Hill were(Woodhead) and also Findern and Little Eaton (Derby).Also Barton-under-Needwood and Alrewas(A38) and when they found them you could always find another nondescript place to book off.
I once broke down at Swansea on a friday night and our local “agent” gave me the train fare and asked “how many lifts back to Sheffield tonight?” Well I remember it was eight and it took me seven hours on the log book.I had lifts with Entress Transport,Griff Fender,Lucozade , somebody with an F86 from Cambridgeshire,Trevor G Phillips from Cadoxton ( I think),Burton the Tailors night Trunker to Trowell and his Leeds-based changeover to Tinsley.The last lift was a Sheffield Corporation night service bus home. Not bad for a friday,eh? 
The parking up at Lichfield fiasco was aborted after one of our 8-leggers was discovered leaking Styrene over the lorry park.
Best one I remember was one Friday night when I had a hot date booked.
One drop left at Warrington for Saturday morning, so I parked it at Knutsford MSA and was soon back home in Nottingham. My brother and I were looking after Dad’s car while he was abroad working and I suggested a run up there in the morning. Did the drop, found a garage with a lift and an entrance wide enough for the back end of the trailer, popped the Vitesse on the back, a good roping job and back to base to run it off on the ramp. Got a mild rollicking for technically running with an uninsured load, but that was all.
Oh. And the date turned out to be very hot, so all in all well worth the few bob for petrol and a drink for the garage man.
Spardo:
Best one I remember was one Friday night when I had a hot date booked.
One drop left at Warrington for Saturday morning, so I parked it at Knutsford MSA and was soon back home in Nottingham. My brother and I were looking after Dad’s car while he was abroad working and I suggested a run up there in the morning. Did the drop, found a garage with a lift and an entrance wide enough for the back end of the trailer, popped the Vitesse on the back, a good roping job and back to base to run it off on the ramp. Got a mild rollicking for technically running with an uninsured load, but that was all.Oh. And the date turned out to be very hot, so all in all well worth the few bob for petrol and a drink for the garage man.
Did a simular stunt for a owner driver a couple of years back when I was drivng a slide bed recovery truck. His truck had been stolen and then found sometime later in Lincoln. We got called out by him to try and start it it was dead flat. We got it running and he had permission by police to take it home. Trouble was he was in his mrs corsa and nobdy else with him. So put the corsa on the slide bed then back it up to the trailer and take corsa from one truck to the other as easy as one two three.
I remember the Maggie-Deutz ad’s in Truck mag,always had a pic of a Cawthorn & Sinclair motor.
Yiddle Davies was a good earner, a mate of mine used to do 3 London To Glasgow a week, once a month he would take a bath and he used to have to cut of his Sock’s, because he run so hard. Davies had a fleet of very old AEC Mammoth Majors, 4-5 speed gate change, no power steering, and before you got to a round about you would have to stand, to steer the thing around the corner. after working for him for 3 months I looked like Charles Atlas, with arms bigger than Popeye’s. back then the Government did not pay to much attention to log books so we run how we wanted to.I mostly "Tramped " all over England, Scotland and Wales.then I got a PSC lincence and went to work for Wallace Arnold in Leeds.on tour Bus’s. thanks for the info Tartanraider.
trucking482002:
Remember Sam Anderson,mid scotland somewhere ran red and tartan stripe scanias. Firms running strictly legal(such as BRS?) were complaining about scotch firms running Glasgow area to south coast ports in one shift,said it couldn’t be done legally.
Bit of a long shot, but does anyone have any pictures of Sam Anderson vehicles of this period (particularly Scania 110s / 111s)?
I am looking for reference shots for a model, but can’t find any anywhere!
All help much appreciated.
Cheers
Ryan
hiya john
i remember yiddel,davis bros haulage ltd,my old dad drove tankers for them based at wareley essex,the depot was called the ranch this would be around 1963 they had a massive
fleet of tankers from 4 wheel thames traders to leyland beaver artics all brand new, my old man had a beaver hauling black oil,i went out on the wagon as much as i could and when we got back to the ranch i would derv up and park it i did not know at the time but one of the bosses would watch me and one day he offered me a job i told him i was only 15 but he still wanted to take me on,then in the summer when the black oil went dead he would hook up to a flat and do general long distance, then during night runs he would let me drive the wagon he used to slap his cloth cap on my head so looked older just in case the law clocked me good memories, the place is still there but now a modern storage distribution depot, before the ranch days it was a country mansion,how things change.
keep rollin, joe
ps do you remember dowells transport ltd new road rainham.
Cawthorn Sinclair were based in Birtley and are no longer.
My old man used to work for Limmer and Trinidad, anyone remember them?