Past Present and in Between in Pictures (Part 2)

I would imagine it would be a tad nippy in those motors but being cold would have been the last thing on your mind if travelling with those drivers if legend is true and i expect it is

Peter Slaters men , coal from Yorkshire to Lancashire. You didn’t HAVE to be crazy to drive for Slater, but it helped if you were just a bit mad. Brake liners never lasted more than a couple of shifts
It was a crazy time. The legend is VERY true., I was around at the time. You had to keep well out of the way of Slaters men.
Peter Slaters is no more (thank god), it’s a miracle nobody ever got killed.

Hell drivers, Grumpy? :wink:

You had to witness Slaters drivers to believe them, they literally had no fear. Going over the Pennines from Yorkshire to Lancashire is not for the faint hearted.I use my words carefully, I was only a young fella starting in road transport, but to a man the crazy ba stards used to terrify me.

I went over Snake Pass (A57) earlier this year fully loaded and its narrow a very twisty.The auto box didn’t help but going over in an old MM doesn’t bare thinking about.Brakes what brakes?

It was a known fact that some Slater drivers were not adverse to using ‘silent 7th’ going down from the top of the Pennines, Littleborough residents lived in fear of their lives BUT, they were never short of coal, Slaters went through so fast, coal blowing everywhere…easy pickings for the residents (Just stay out of the way of the next Mk 3 MM coming through.
What I’m saying is not an exaggeration, it really was a scary time. God knows what sort of money they were on.
2 loads a day from a Yorkshire pit to a Lancashie power station was normal, Slaters commonly did 3 loads in a day.

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Had a spell driving a DAF 3600 space cab. One of my favorite motors. Unfortunately,the engine expired in France and was left at a garage,never to be seen again :sleepy_face:

The freight aircraft disgorging a truck appears to be a Messerschmitt Me323 Gigant.
A WW2 military freighter with 6 engines and a capacity of about 12tons. Messerschmitt Me 323 Gigant - Wikipedia

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Think you are correct. I picked the photo up from F/B and I thought I had also copied the accompanying text but can’t find it now, another of life’s little mysteries :zany_face:

Roadtrain looks to be a Leyland Hippo. The 0.680 would have grunted at that weight, despite being a good engine.

The mid-’60s transport cafe scene shows Brady LAD-cabbed Leylands about which Bewick will know more than I do.

Wonderful shot of a Maudsley Meritor rigid 8. Presumably the weather is clement, hence the folded sheets roped aloft jic.

I don’t think there were that many wide radiator Atkinsons.

:slightly_smiling_face:

Any idea what Cafe that was?

Mayfield Cafe A6 Garstang.

Brady’s ran two Acid Tanks for BCL Barrow to and from ICI at Cleveleys and they are shot here at The Mayfield cafe at Garstang on their way empty to ICI. They ran the tankers on double shift IIRC and I can just recall that one of the drivers was called Albert Coward .

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The two units were AEO 494C Reg 5/1/65 and BEO 46C Reg 1/4/65 and they looked fairly new when this shot was taken plus there are other motors on the cafe car park which suggests to me it was before the Lancaster by pass was connected to the Preston By Pass. Someone may put me right but that is my opinion.

Geez Carryfast, four trailers being reversed.

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Lingering to rendevous with a pint or two: I know how it feels.

It can’t be. Tell me it can’t be.

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