Found the site by accident out of the blue.
My dads name was Frank Magee he work for P&S from about 63 to 66 ( i was born in 65) as a child he used to tell me stories about the Big B Mack’s, there air starters and looping your hand through the steering wheel working both sticks etc.
My dad died in 1998, a close friend and another P&S driver called Syd Monahan showed me a B&W pic of one of the B’s and that was the first and last I saw one until yesterday.
My dad and Syd lived in Liverpool and worked on the night trunk to and from Penrith,( I think they picked the Mack’s up from somewhere between Burscough and Preston) don’t know if it was mixed load or what ?. If it was a particular contract would they have just run them around the clock and swapped drivers. ? I remember dad once telling me he’d sometimes shove in neutral and fly down Shap on the A6 to gather enough go to get up the other side.
I think he left P&S around 66, worked for the Liverpool Warehousing Company for a short while , Then William Harper and Sons were he ended up on the ACL contract out of S3 in Seaforth until his death in 1988.
I would love to see the renovated B in P&S colours sometime.
hi all,
i have heard many welsh drivers from the 60’s talk with “baited breath” when telling stories of the crazy scotsmen in their p&s macks .
regards andrew.
IF ONLY I COULD TALK ! I would be able to truefully say---- " My Sister and I could,and regularly did,■■■■ all over the Midland Red Express coaches on the M1,and oh! we could eat P&S Macks for breakfast!" Eat our dust!!! HEO557 and JEO192,bye bye were gone!!
Bewick: IF ONLY I COULD TALK ! I would be able to truefully say---- " My Sister and I could,and regularly did,■■■■ all over the Midland Red Express coaches on the M1, Eat our dust!!! HEO557 and JEO192,bye bye were gone!!
At least running empty anyway.I thought the only things faster than Midland Red on the M1 were Cobras and E types.
Then DAF got to hear about it and the rest is history.
Lawrence Dunbar:
Dennis is this where SNIFF MY DIFF saying comes from ? Regards Larry.
It sure does Larry,and whats more it’s “gospel” as I’ve sat in the n/s rocking chair and watched them disappear behind!!!When we were loaded with steel you could look backwards in the little window on the rear corner of the LAD cab,as Corpral Jones used to say in “Dads Army” “they don’t like it 'up em” and P&S boys defo didn’t!!! Cheers Dennis.
Bewick: IF ONLY I COULD TALK ! I would be able to truefully say---- " My Sister and I could,and regularly did,■■■■ all over the Midland Red Express coaches on the M1, Eat our dust!!! HEO557 and JEO192,bye bye were gone!!
At least running empty anyway.I thought the only things faster than Midland Red on the M1 were Cobras and E types.
Then DAF got to hear about it and the rest is history.
Bewick: IF ONLY I COULD TALK ! I would be able to truefully say---- " My Sister and I could,and regularly did,■■■■ all over the Midland Red Express coaches on the M1, Eat our dust!!! HEO557 and JEO192,bye bye were gone!!
At least running empty anyway.I thought the only things faster than Midland Red on the M1 were Cobras and E types.
Then DAF got to hear about it and the rest is history.
For your info “CF” the Brady Octopus’s never ran empty in either direction on the M1,so rev up and go forth and multiply!! Cheers Bewick.
I can recall one of Bradeys Leylands overtaking me on the motorway when it was raining ? I thought it was a tidal wave , of course there was no spray flaps in those days, but I was a site to be seen as I was doing 52 MPH Flat out & they just dissapeared into the night going like a train & they were loaded, Regards Larry.
Lawrence Dunbar:
I can recall one of Bradeys Leylands overtaking me on the motorway when it was raining ? I thought it was a tidal wave , of course there was no spray flaps in those days, but I was a site to be seen as I was doing 52 MPH Flat out & they just dissapeared into the night going like a train & they were loaded, Regards Larry.
If I’d kenned it was you Larry I’d have left you a tea in at the 'Derry,but sadly we never got down that part of the A1 ! They didn’t always fly about like that though,it was only in the early years and that wasn’t for long,that one in the black and white shot was driven by a maniac relative of the Bradys and it didn’t pull a trailer after he went on to shunting the night shift in Barrow Steel,the other one that I was a mate on pulled a trailer for 99% of it’s time on the fleet and it was only occaisionally that Eric “flashed” it up,they were both real high geared machines,you had to drop them out of O/D at 45 MPH.Brady’s also had one 680 Power Plus Beaver unit and it had the reduction gearbox HEO678,all the other Beavers and the Badgers had the 600 engine.Cheers Dennis.
Getting back Patterson & Son from Glasgow, King of The Road on their bumpers, I remember them very well, In fact I used to back load out of Beardmores Park Head Cross off P&S.Contracts, I was told by a fellow driver that MCelvies also had King of The Road on their wagons in those days but I cant recall ever seeing them. Any comments lads ■■?, Regards Larry.
Lawrence Dunbar:
Getting back Patterson & Son from Glasgow, King of The Road on their bumpers, I remember them very well, In fact I used to back load out of Beardmores Park Head Cross off P&S.Contracts, I was told by a fellow driver that MCelvies also had King of The Road on their wagons in those days but I cant recall ever seeing them. Any comments lads ■■?, Regards Larry.
Never ever saw a Mckelvies with King of The Road on it, the only one was P&S on his Macks and his Blue Atkies before them.
maybe not as old as some of you guys (58) but my old “da” worked with mc kelvies motherwell as a mechanic and i served my time there when it was strathclyde transport (happy days) remember seeing p&s macks vaguelly but seem to remember they were pretty rough looking
The P&S Macks,bring back memorys from when I was a young lad age about 14,I’m 61 now.We lived in a pub,the Royal Oak,in Little Hulton on the A6,about 8 miles from the Lancs base in Coppell,of P&S Contracts.The Macks always impressed with their yellow/mustard paintwork,which always seemed travel stained,the king of the road bumpers,powerful engines and air horns,also always well loaded and sheeted.In those days the A6 being one of the main trunk routes,heavy trucks were passing day and night,I was always hanging out of my bed room window,watching the trucks pass by.Many of the old trucking firms used the road,but it’s the P&S Macks which are still clear in my mind.Maybe all the years watching the trucks,planted in my mind that i would be a driver,of course when i became old enough (21)took my test,then the following 25 years driving allover britain,and a few runs to Germany,and Italy.No trucking now,but still a keen interest in any thing to do with trucks.It’s a different world now,maybe better to remember the past as it was.J.K.
IF ONLY I COULD TALK ! I would be able to truefully say---- " My Sister and I could,and regularly did,■■■■ all over the Midland Red Express coaches on the M1,and oh! we could eat P&S Macks for breakfast!" Eat our dust!!! HEO557 and JEO192,bye bye were gone!!
Chris works in Manitoba Canada