If he was running from Shotton to South Wales via Gobowen then I doubt that he would have got it into top gear. A483 then the A470, especially in those days, would have been a slow, tortuous journey.
Given that ERF was once a presence in Australia (whether exported whole or locally-built I couldnât say), why did ERFgain a big foothold in both ZA and NZ and all-but disappear in Oz? Idle curiosity on my part, take it for what itâs worth etc.
Seeing as our Leatherhead member has implicated me in his âHans Christian Andersenâ fairy tale I am duty bound to set the record straight. Now I will not dispute the fact that CF was in the cab of a Foden gritter but he defo was nowhere near the steering wheel though ! During winter time when the roads need salting the spreaders have to have a second man on board and his job is to shovel and sweep up any heaps from the back end of the spreader when its standing anywhere. So what happens is the second man is drawn from the street sweeper gangs for the duration of the salt spreading campaign and this is how CF has spun us bollox about the Foden gritter. The driver probably allowed CF to stick one of those childs plastic steering wheels on the passenger side dash which is as near as CF has been to the drivers seat !
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ERF set up ERF South Africa, which also covered much of southern Africa in 1964 and built up a big loyalty base there. They even made their buses. ERF Australia was set up in 1969. They withdrew I understand, with good will still intact and handed over much of the work to Atkinson. New Zealand came a bit later, and more or less grew out of the South Africa franchise, which probably explains some of the similarities in vehicles. Oz is vast, and ERF was never a big company like some of the American ones who eventually swept the board with their economies of scale.
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Funny, I visualized Carryfast as taller than that.
Funny, I visualized Carryfast as taller than that.
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Iâve always tried not to visualise Carryfast!
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Think about Trigger in âOnly Fools and Horsesâ he did the same job in Peckham as CF did in Leatherhead !
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Looks a bit like CF ! But then again this little Lad is a handsome little fellow ! I will make an appointment at Spec Savers tomorrow Doh !
Thats when that style of air intake first appeared.
I used to sit upstairs at the front in double-decker buses and âsteerâ with one of the buttons on my gaberdine. I would have been about 48 then.
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Ironically for your story I was employed by the council as a driver which was a very rare job title.
Gritiing was predominantly the job of road gang workers who were trained for class 2 in house and paid at extortionate rates in overtime and call out bonus.
My job was only to move the things between depots as required and workshops for maintenance and inspections.
Very rarely might be asked to carry out a gritting job at great protest from the road workers on demarcation ( cash ) grounds.Similar applied in the case of doing refuse bulker work with the Multi lift but not so much because no overtime and call out bonuses to defend.
I gave up arguing that drivers should get first choice and be paid and earn to drive regardless.Unions whoâd âave em. I refused to join the council union and told em to stuff their pension plan in protest.
No one would want to make up spending the best 5 years of their working life working for the local council for council wages.Obviously you just might be that stupid.
I wasnât the one so incompetent and stupid enough to spend five years working for the council.
Who said you made it up? I can easily believe it. Council jobs are like sheltered workshops for those who canât get real jobs.
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And donât forget Zimbabwe Ro. ERF set up an assembly plant for buses from knocked down kits. The man who went out for six months to set it up, heâd been a production manager at Sandbach, is a good friend and ex colleague of mine.
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Iâm thinking of starting a fan club for our Leatherhead correspondent, (CF). Hands up if you want to join.
We could ask Mr Bewick to be President, maybe SDU as Vice President.
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Would that have been Bill Fitzsimmons, acd1202?