Past Present and in Between in Pictures (Part 1)

[suedehead]

[dig]

Dyers still operating out of Sale but I think the operating weight should be 39 tonnes in that configuration.
Dig

[lurpak]

Speach House

Ade

[oiltreader]

Thanks to Buzzer, Suedehead and lurpak for the photos also ParkRoyal2100 for the link.
Oily

Take a wee while to tie that load down, credit to Richard Says for the photo.

[oiltreader]

Froggy55:

oiltreader:
Thanks to corji, lurpak, Buzzer, ERF-NGC-European for the photos also Spardo and essexpete for the links
Oily
A Barreiros but not as we knew them.

Fitted with a Berliet “Relaxe” cab.

Thanks
Oily

[oiltreader]

Port Hedland to Broome highway, credit to Timo Luege for the photo.
Oily

[oiltreader]

Queensland 1952.
Oily

[essexpete]

oiltreader:
Queensland 1952.
Oily

You can see the distant relative of a 50s Bedford.

[ray_smyth]

I have enlarged the picture and seen the C H E V R O L E T name on
the front of the bonnet on this Bedford.

Ray.

[dig]

oiltreader:
Port Hedland to Broome highway, credit to Timo Luege for the photo.
Oily

Sandfire Roadhouse.

Dig

[mushroomman]

DIG:

oiltreader:
Port Hedland to Broome highway, credit to Timo Luege for the photo.
Oily

Sandfire Roadhouse.

Dig

You beat me to it Dig.

You might recognise this photo of The Nullabor Roadhouse taken from the air.
The dirt road leading up to the farmhouse was also used as the landing strip.

If you are going to your school graduation party, then you have to go in style.

[dig]

mushroomman:

DIG:

oiltreader:
Port Hedland to Broome highway, credit to Timo Luege for the photo.
Oily

Sandfire Roadhouse.

Dig

You beat me to it Dig.

You might recognise this photo of The Nullabor Roadhouse taken from the air.
The dirt road leading up to the farmhouse was also used as the landing strip.

Thanks MRM I hadn’t seen that photo before but have seen the R/H for real a few times on one occasion on the way home in the Oka we turned off the sealed hwy and had a look at the old dirt road not the wisest of decisions as it was pretty rough I reckon the road transport industry would have had a big smile the day the new hwy was opened.

Dig

[

[buzzer]

Buzzer

[essexpete]

mushroomman:

DIG:

oiltreader:
Port Hedland to Broome highway, credit to Timo Luege for the photo.
Oily

Sandfire Roadhouse.

Dig

You beat me to it Dig.

You might recognise this photo of The Nullabor Roadhouse taken from the air.
The dirt road leading up to the farmhouse was also used as the landing strip.

5

4

3

If you are going to your school graduation party, then you have to go in style.
2

0

1

I thought the MK 1X Jag was seriously old hat as a school boy. In that light blue it is an object of regal beauty.

[kempston]

essexpete:

mushroomman:

DIG:

oiltreader:
Port Hedland to Broome highway, credit to Timo Luege for the photo.
Oily

Sandfire Roadhouse.

Dig

You beat me to it Dig.

You might recognise this photo of The Nullabor Roadhouse taken from the air.
The dirt road leading up to the farmhouse was also used as the landing strip.

5

4

3

If you are going to your school graduation party, then you have to go in style.
2

0

1

I thought the MK 1X Jag was seriously old hat as a school boy. In that light blue it is an object of regal beauty.

Totally agree Pete.

[eddie_heaton]

I remember David Pickup from when we used to run the insulated Geest banana containers out of the port of Preston back in about 1970 .
I recall he’d acquired a new trailer from Booths at about that time and he presented me with a couple of Booth trailer lapel badges , one of which I still have among my modest collection 50 odd years later .

The last time that I saw David was at a Leyland gathering several years ago , when he was in his 4x2
S21 Foden tipper in the livery of Sam Longston .

I hope he’s still around to see the lapel badge that he gave to me all those years ago .

[lance_biscomb]

Any pics of David Pickups F88s or is 142s

[mushroomman]

DIG:

mushroomman:

DIG:

oiltreader:
Port Hedland to Broome highway, credit to Timo Luege for the photo.
Oily

Sandfire Roadhouse.

Dig

You beat me to it Dig.

You might recognise this photo of The Nullabor Roadhouse taken from the air.
The dirt road leading up to the farmhouse was also used as the landing strip.

Thanks MRM I hadn’t seen that photo before but have seen the R/H for real a few times on one occasion on the way home in the Oka we turned off the sealed hwy and had a look at the old dirt road not the wisest of decisions as it was pretty rough I reckon the road transport industry would have had a big smile the day the new hwy was opened.
Dig
[

Hi Dig, the first time that we stopped at the Nullarbor Roadhouse was just over twenty years ago on our way to Perth. As we pulled on to the camping area, I noticed a young fellow with a hand pump refueling a Cessna 172 out of some 45-gallon drums of Avgas.
We got set up for the night and we were having an ‘extended Sundowner’ when I noticed way in the distance a white light. As it had just started to get dark, I wondered what it could have been way out in the bush.

My first thoughts were that it was The Indian Pacific but when I looked at the map, the railway line was over 100 kilometers to the north so it couldn’t have been that. The light seemed to be coming towards us from the east and now and again it seemed to disappear and then reappear several minutes later.
About 45 minutes later it became clearer that it was actually two vehicles coming towards us and about ten minutes later two four-wheel drives pulled onto the roadhouse. They were each towing one of those off-road pop-up camping trailers, and they decided to camp close to where we were.

The guy who we saw refueling the Cessna earlier on, went over to talk to them and about ten minutes later he came over to us with a woman from the group called Marion.
It turned out that this lad had come out of the army and had just got his commercial pilot’s license. So that he could accumulate his flying hours, he had borrowed his mates Cessna to start doing whale watching tours from the roadhouse. He was charging I.I.R.C. about $55 per person for a half an hour flight but he could only take three passengers at a time. So, Marion was asking us if we would like to join her and to share the price of the flight. My wife and I agreed and arranged to meet the pilot and Marion at 8 a.m. the following day.

The next morning, we got into the small aircraft and taxied across the truck park towards a dirt track at the back of the roadhouse. We could see a farmhouse at the end of the track, and I think that we were all surprised when the pilot opened up the throttle and within a couple of minutes, we were airborne.
As soon as we crossed over the coast we spotted a pod of whales, in fact we must have seen about twenty of them in different areas that morning. It was a great experience, although I must admit that the landing back on the same dirt track was a bit scary.
It turned out that Marion and her friends lived less than thirty kilometers away from us and that they were also following bits of the old road across The Nullarbor.

I have just looked on Google Earth and it seems that they have now built a longer airstrip about a kilometer northeast of the roadhouse.

As we had got off to a late start that day, we decided to stop the night at Balladonia Station, which is about 690 kilometers away. While we were in the bar, I noticed a small room next to it with a sign over the door which read, Balladonia Space Museum. I wondered what that was all about, so I ventured in to find out.

Does anybody still remember Sky Lab ?
I had vaguely heard the name back somewhere in the 1970’s and seemed to remember something about the citizens of Balladonia Station (population 14) trying to fine N.A.S.A. for fly tipping.

And after looking at Google for most of the afternoon, I came across this.

traveller.com.au/balladonia … ack-h1q49r

medium.com/knowledge-stew/when- … atmosphere.

While we were at Balladonia Station, we came across this M.A.N. off roader. I don’t suppose that you ever saw this on your travels did you Dig.

[buzzer]

Buzzer

[spardo]

The sight of the Bowman’s driver making the most of his greedy boards brings back yet more memories of the dangerous ways we used to operate. At Bulkliner we had open top 20 foot containers and loaded at Coalite, Bolsover. The coke lumps were large and very light so it was necessary to pile it as high as possible, never getting near max weight. The ideal was to get it high in the middle and sloped down to the top of the box, by that time there was just enough room on the box side to stand while shifting and patting down with a shovel.

BTW, we had to bring our own shovels and they were jealously guarded, a bit like the chains and sylvesters when tramping with a flat 40 footer.