Past Present and in Between in Pictures (Part 2)

I always imagined that they bought a mishmash of whatever was available, post WW II.
Of course I could be totally wrong, it wouldn’t be the first time.

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Yes, I think you are right. A bit like BRS then. Only a mish-mash post WW11 outfit would entertain Diamond-T tractors on the fleet!

It looks like one of Harold Woods


One for Dennis to lament about :rofl: :+1:

More than likely dirt cheap to get rid of, so would be a reason, rather than as a first choice motor.

Are you stalking Dennis, Ramone? :wink:

That’s how they got hold of the Pacifics, cheap to buy and they had a lot of knowledge how to get the best out of them.

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I still think those old Scammels look the business even now at 50+ year old.….never drove a one.

They look a bit ‘‘American Cabover’’ style I always thought.

He just try’s to keep me in “the loop” SDU but I don’t know how he manages to dig up all the shots of my old firm and it intrigues me no end as who actually took many of the shots from back in the day . BTS definitely had many many fans and spotters throughout the UK many of which did turn up in the yard regularly mainly on Saturday mornings when the place was a hive of activity !

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Well “ramone” you have a knack of finding some interesting shots of BTS motors from yesteryear ! The first one was a 6x2 unit I bought off Keltruck IIRC and it went onto our Euro fleet driven by a Lad from Morecambe called Mickey ??? He was a dyed in the wool Euro driver . The trailer it is coupled to was one of seven Lawrence Davids I bought off Trans America leasing and they had been stood down in Southampton gathering dust as the were 13:7 mtrs long just a midgeon under the 16 ft hieght limit. they were on lightweight SAF air and while they had been parked up they had had some wheels and tyres robbed off them so they weren’t very well tyred. Anyway as far as Trans Am were concerned they were White Elephants and they just wanted shot of them. So when I showed interest they fell over them selves to accommodate me on the derisory bid I made plus I insisted that a number of them wanted some legal rubber fitting before we picked them up. Anyway what they didn’t know and what I didn’t tell them was that I had sussed out that the roofs could be lowered to re configure them as 4 mtr bodies. I had spoken to Lawrence David and they had quoted me £800 a trailer to do the job BINGO ! So when I shook hands with David George the Trans Am Manager on the deal and gave him the cheque I told him what was going to happen and he was pissed off but a deal was a deal ! If they had had anything about them they could have done the same alteration and then put them out as 4:2 or 4:0 mtrs. The trailers had done very little work and fitted our operation nicely and at a lump cheaper than new trailers.

The second shot is one of 7 ex Essex International units I bought in early 1984 which were 5 “A” reg 330’s, 1 Y reg 305 bhp FNO 40Y and 1 late 1982 XHK600X 305bhp and this last unit had been the one that Scania used for their publicity shots when the 112’s were launched into the UK.That unit in the shot was driven by Dave Bateson a Windermere lad and the trailer was one of the many Boalloy Tautliners we ran on the Bewick Fleet back in the day. Cheers “ramone” !

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Well Dennis as always it is nice to hear some nice stories in this funny day and age, particularly as we were all shafted by Madam Rachel from Acc’s last week….:face_with_raised_eyebrow:

I am rather impressed with your memory detail after so many years since you hung up your boots n pens :grinning_face:, keep it up it certainly keeps your mind young :+1: & long may your posts continue. E.W.

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Nah , if i see something on the internet that Dennis might not be aware of i post it. He’s seen or taken most of the photos but not everyone else has seen them

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I am told this was the last chassis produced by ERF

The tankers are Smith & Robinson GOM

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I was just pulling your leg, mate. :wink:

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The Leyland gas turbine. A good looking motor IMO