Nice photos of Claribells motors, I used to load back off them when in Manchester, Mr Ogden was the manager nice old bloke as I recall, allways looked smart with his neatley trimmed tash. Regards Larry. 50s60s Era.
A shot of Henry Cooke liveried artic coupled to a 36ft trailer.The fly sheet has a green centre panel indicating a 36ft trailer!
A B/W shot of circa '71 of two of our earliest 34ft T/axle York SL’s parked on the side of the A6 in Milnthorpe,the furthest one has a cab high headboard which means it was T2 the nearest one is T5 and it is sheeted with a set of red pvc main sheets which I bought “as new” from a local owner driver.The sheets weren’t a success but at least we tried them! Both trailers are carrying spare wheels which we did on( IIRC) our first 8 or 9 trailers.I can’t recall ever needing to use a spare so we packed in that practice in and in any case we would have soon have run out of spare wheels!!! IIRC both trailers were loaded with Petfoods from Asfordby Storage in Melton Mowbray,one for Barrow and one for West ■■■■■■■■
Bewick:
Three motors standing loaded with Bowater Scott tissue ready for their night trunks.Two of the trailers have the white fly sheets on which were a job lot of 6 I bought but they were ideal for the Bowater loads even if they wern’t the proper “corperate” colour of Red!!! But from memory I got the 6 for the price of 4 red and they were brand new!! Bewick.
Nice picture that 
Did you run many spreadaxle trailers Dennis? I only see the odd one in your pics, I would’ve thought they would’ve been more versatile with their higher axle weight tolerances 
Hiya NMM,with regard to widespread axles,I never really fancied them but in 1974 when I bought McGuffie Transport there were 5 widespread C/F’s in the 7 trailers we aquired,the other two were close coupled and were the last two John had bought 18 months prior.Once the bogie/axle weights had been increased for ordinary tandems in late 72 widespreads seem to fall out of favour.We ran them for a while usually between W.■■■■■■■ and Lancs/Cheshire/N.Wales and while they were a far smoother ride when running loaded than an ordinary tandem their main draw back was tyre wear and boy could they chew tyres!!! One of the ex McGuffie W/spreads was a PSK and it was as solid as rock,as Iv’e seen it standing with 20ton on one landing leg,the other one being clear of the ground over a pot hole!!! No they weren’t my kind of trailer and I think John McGuffie had gone off them as well having bought two normal tandems latterly.Cheers Dennis.
Tamworth1:
0
But its only half finished “T1” !! Tidy job so far but where’s the nice fly sheet as those main sheets look a bit “iffy” to me,what colour did they set off as ? Just a bit of banter!! Cheers Bewick.
8LXBV8BRIAN:
Bewick:
OssieD:
Bewick:
Keep the thread going if only to “wind up” the " curtains only jockey’s"!!!Very smart load, not a curtain clip in site.
Ossie
A shot of the backend of part of the trailer park at Milnthorpe before Tautliners became prevelant on the fleet,every shape and size of load and sheeted and roped to a “T” by the Bewick shunters who were ,without doubt, some of the finest masters of their trade within the transport industry!!
bit short the drip sheet on the first load ? or was it sunny the day it went down the road.
Will these two tidy loads appease the “critics” as regards the length of the fly sheets on the previous shot■■? Anyhow I can see two similar loads further along the rank!! These loads used to run up to Kirriemuir in Scotland and capped out at around 10ton.cheers Bewick.
i think i could sheet them up dennis , but i would need a "lad " to climb up on top and roll the sheets out for me and throw the ropes over , i could do the rest ! cheers , dave ps , your not in a hurry for them are you ?
rigsby:
i think i could sheet them up dennis , but i would need a "lad " to climb up on top and roll the sheets out for me and throw the ropes over , i could do the rest ! cheers , dave ps , your not in a hurry for them are you ?
Don’t look at me Dave 
ANON.
rigsby:
i think i could sheet them up dennis , but i would need a "lad " to climb up on top and roll the sheets out for me and throw the ropes over , i could do the rest ! cheers , dave ps , your not in a hurry for them are you ?
Hiya Dave,aye 'elf and safety would have a field day with those loads nowadays!! I don’t think reels are carried on “the roll” like that to-day.But we didn’t have any problems sheeting and roping then although I think some of to-days hero’s that call themselves drivers would be falling off like apples off a tree!!! Plus none of these 'ere risk assessors could help as they won’t have done the job either!! Another era and a set of skills lost!! I’ll get up on top and spread the sheets Dave---- if your bottles gone ,of course!! Cheers Dennis.
sammyopisite:
rigsby:
i think i could sheet them up dennis , but i would need a "lad " to climb up on top and roll the sheets out for me and throw the ropes over , i could do the rest ! cheers , dave ps , your not in a hurry for them are you ?Don’t look at me Dave
ANON.
Pickfords oily and torn sheets would be no good for those loads Johnnie!!! Nor did they need red lamps put round the trailers!! they weren’t stood for that long!!! “Chocks away” lads 50 miles to-day I think,we’ll be there by next week!!! Anon II.
How right you two are drivers who could rope & sheet & took a pride in it are few and far between now, I myself learned in the 50s when sheets were bloody heavey and got heavier when they got wet, drip sheets were just coming on to the scene in those days, of course the curtainsiders have taken over, but you still see some loose straps, in fact I saw one today, how drivers can drive them with the curtains flapping like wings beats me, its common sence to keep them tight at all times. Regards Larry
bottles not gone , its the legs and back dennis , old age and poverty have finally caught up with me . young anon from sheffield would have to go on top or the knotted rope for him , cheers , dave
.
