Thanks to Buzzer for the pics 
if I had a bonus scheme going you’d be coining it 
Dashcam from the Highlands.
Oily
Buzzer:
Just amazing how far technology has come, Buzzer.
Too far imo Buzzer, have no problem with using it in medical equipment etc where it can save lives but they seem to make everything more and more complicated nowadays which is usually a fortune to put right when it goes wrong.
Ray Smyth:
Bewick:
Ray Smyth:
Buzzer:
Mondays lot, BuzzerGreat pictures as ever John. I assume that the F reg Volvo of Craig Transport must be one of the earliest of that model in the UK.
Cheers, Ray Smyth.
Hiya Ray,
Hutchinsons of Wark-on-Tyne put the very first F86 into service in the UK which was supplied through Taits of Haydon Bridge it was “E” registered and I recall it running regularly down the A6 loaded with Pulp wood from Kielder to Bowaters Ellesmere Port.
Cheers Dennis
PS I believe it is now owned by Volvo and sits in pride of place at their HQ.,
Thank you for your information Dennis, the first Volvo F86 that I saw was about 1968/69,
It belonged to Entress Transport from South Wales, leaving H.J.Heinz at Kitt Green near
Wigan, coupled to a 32 ft flat trailer, sheeted and loaded with 20 tons of Heinz products.Cheers, Ray Smyth.
Hello ,yes indeed Entress had some very early F86 Bubbles …they would dropped tinplate at Kitt Green …backloading Heinz goods for their Cardiff depot …congrats Oily onreaching 3million views …well deserved for this excellent thread …Geraint
Hi Geraint, Thank you for your info about Entress Transport Volvo F86. Another regular vehicle seen at Heinz, Kitt Green was
an ERF 8 wheel flat of Gwynne Bowen from Gorseinon, driven by an elderly chap. After he had unloaded his 20 tons of tinplate,
he would then load 14 pallets of Heinz beans, soups,and spaghetti for South Wales. Very often, me and a couple of us young
HGV drivers of Robert Baillie & Co Ltd would give the old fellow a lift with his roping and sheeting. Most of his journey from
South Wales and return was no-motorway, via the A465 " Heads Of The Valley " road and then the A49, then a short stretch of the
M56 and M6 to junction 26 near Wigan. Good grief, all that was 50 years ago, I am now an old chap, just like Gwynne Bowens driver. 
Cheers, Ray Smyth.
Ray Smyth:
Good grief, all that was 50 years ago, I am now an old chap, just like Gwynne Bowens driver.Cheers, Ray Smyth.
With you there Ray, I seem to be saying something similar several times every day of my life nowadays.
I found these 2 pictures on an email from an unknown source. First picture is Castle Street in the 1930s
in Liverpool. The second picture is Clares Billiard factory in St Anne Street, Liverpool in the 1950s with
a group of their vehicles, Austin, Ford, and Morris.
Ray Smyth.
robthedog:
Dodgy lot those punchards
A brick net to hold that lot on
Odd that it is 
,certainly not my style
Snapped this earlier today in Clydebank, still plying her trade after approx 28 years. Being used as a costume van for a tv production company.
Dennis Javelin:
Snapped this earlier today in Clydebank, still plying her trade after approx 28 years. Being used as a costume van for a tv production company.
I cycle from beardmore st up to Dunbarton and back some nights
Punchy Dan:
Dennis Javelin:
Snapped this earlier today in Clydebank, still plying her trade after approx 28 years. Being used as a costume van for a tv production company.I cycle from beardmore st up to Dunbarton and back some nights
I take it you go via the canal and old railway track. And it’s Dumbarton not Dunbarton. Very confusing if your not local as the county name is West Dunbartonshire.
Ray Smyth:
Hi Geraint, Thank you for your info about Entress Transport Volvo F86. Another regular vehicle seen at Heinz, Kitt Green was
an ERF 8 wheel flat of Gwynne Bowen from Gorseinon, driven by an elderly chap. After he had unloaded his 20 tons of tinplate,
he would then load 14 pallets of Heinz beans, soups,and spaghetti for South Wales. Very often, me and a couple of us young
HGV drivers of Robert Baillie & Co Ltd would give the old fellow a lift with his roping and sheeting. Most of his journey from
South Wales and return was no-motorway, via the A465 " Heads Of The Valley " road and then the A49, then a short stretch of the
M56 and M6 to junction 26 near Wigan. Good grief, all that was 50 years ago, I am now an old chap, just like Gwynne Bowens driver.Cheers, Ray Smyth.
Hello Ray …yes indeed Gwynn Bowen …was a regular at Kitt Green ,but also Metal Box at both West Houghton and Aintree …most of the tinplate was hauled from the now closed Felindre works near Swansea .
Also a regular drop was Tate and Lyle who back then produced their own cans etc …tin plate in and bagged sugar out …Tate and Lyle had a distribution centre at Ely ,Cardiff …according to my father ,who had a mate drive for GwynnBowen ,their was a Michael McKenna from your area on similar work …?
They also ,hauled cattle cake from Bibbys and salt from Liverpool docks …and Crompton cables Warrington …cheers to you Ray …Geraint.
Buzzer:
Todays selection including first two couple oldies for DIG in Oz, Buzzer
The picture of the Diamond T 6 wheel rigid towing 3 trailers all loaded with drums was in the collection of Denis Buntine, Noel’s late son, who both Dig and I have mentioned before. The truck itself was owned by Kurt Johannsen, one of the real pioneers of the road train concept in the Territory.
The caption under my copy (from Road Trains of the Northern Territory 1934-1988 by the late John Maddock who I quoted, with permission, for my own book) of that picture gives the following information:
Soon after he commenced road train operations Kurt Johannsen won a contract to pickup, clean and transport 63,000 40 gallon drums left behind by the defence forces throughout the Northern Territory. There are 1,150 drums in this photo (Denis Buntine)
Like all his contemporaries, Kurt had some interesting brushes with the law. He at one time had a contract to transport the Overland Mail, an organisation which had some very strict views on the way to proceed. On one occasion he was faced with the crossing of the Newcastle River but the boat supplied was in such a poor state and the river in such flood that he opened the largest bag, stuffed the others inside it and wrapped the whole lot in a canvas cover which he then put on to a raft which he had made and swam the river towing the raft behind him. This was in February 1940 obviously before his road train days. We might think that this dedication to duty would have warranted high praise, but not a bit of it. Instead he was brought before a disciplinary committee for the heinous crime of opening a mail bag. He contested the evidence that the boat was in good order partly because it only had one oar. While ‘convicted’ of the crime (which could have earned him a prison sentence) his initiative was noted and a virtual slap on the wrist was administered.
Now that’s what I call a pioneer.
Mention of Velindre works by Kenfig Bill reminds me of the time I was in there loading once. Alongside me there was a driver from Hull (McVeigh’s I think) who had a brand new Leyland/AEC Ergo. Neither of us had seen one before and we explored it with wonder. He pointed out that when he took it over that morning he had mistaken the air vent under the quarter light for an ashtray, until he wanted to demist the screen and disappeared in a snowstorm of light ash.
We spent a long time in Velindre. I had good digs in Port Talbot, a very nice lady with a suburban detached house and I phoned her and booked both of us in for the night. We hadn’t reckoned on Velindre though. By the time we had both got our half dozen or so lumps of tinplate it was past midnight, so headed straight up the road to park up instead. 
I wonder if she is still waiting for us. 
Head 'em up, head 'em out, and head 'em away! But what country is this, I wonder?
