pete smith:
Retired Old ■■■■:
Come now, lads, you’re forgetting my famous Overpriced Roping, Sheeting & Strapping Courses subsidised by Bewick’s contributions to the Motec fund!There’s nowt left in that ROF, I’ve had a fair bit out of that 29 years ago!
Hiya,
Mine’s still free but please bring your own ladder (for me).
thanks harry, long retired.
No rope hooks on most trucks now,like pubs,a thing of the past. 
I don’t think my knees would stand up to the sort of abuse that they used to take, jumping out of cabs, jumping off loads and even running down the side of a load of straw ( my party piece!).
i’m going to stop reading this thread , i come over all tired just thinking about it !
I wouldn’t no where to start with to-days “steering and curtain pulling jockeys” the days of sheeting and roping are over save for a few exceptions with the likes of M. A. Ponsonby and “Dan The Man”. Seeing one of Ponsonbys tidily sheeted outfits on the road brings tears to an old haulier’s eyes 
Cheers Bewick.
It hardly seems like about 50 years ago on a Sunday there would be a constant flow of lorries leaving Dundee Allisons ,D&D J&E Smedleys Harry Lawson and a few odds and sods not one load would be under 10 feet high right to the tail end hardly any looking like a Spanish Galleon in full sail all neat and tidy these were the days with Allisons I had an AEC Mandator for a while with park royal cab that was where I learned the “ropes” I had been at sea before that though any of you who drove one of these may have experienced the same thing as me … when sliding out of the drivers seat I continually caught the arse of my bib,N brace overalls on the ratchet hand brake bloody annoying …and yes liked to see the cross on the backend of a sheeted load locally known as the “gallas”
Dead easy, I see you can do it standing on you head !! 
Regards. John.
lakesidelee:
Start again,
Cheers
Oily
backsplice:
It hardly seems like about 50 years ago on a Sunday there would be a constant flow of lorries leaving Dundee Allisons ,D&D J&E Smedleys Harry Lawson and a few odds and sods not one load would be under 10 feet high right to the tail end hardly any looking like a Spanish Galleon in full sail all neat and tidy these were the days with Allisons I had an AEC Mandator for a while with park royal cab that was where I learned the “ropes” I had been at sea before that though any of you who drove one of these may have experienced the same thing as me … when sliding out of the drivers seat I continually caught the arse of my bib,N brace overalls on the ratchet hand brake bloody annoying …and yes liked to see the cross on the backend of a sheeted load locally known as the “gallas”
Hi backsplice, I know where your coming from with the gallus, growing up with the Doric dialect of the northeast of Scotland our trouser braces were never referred to as such, always galluses, hence the cross strap banding at the rear of a load, the gallus. A sheet was a hap as in happit (covered) and a flysheet a skin. That’s anough o’ the lingo. nae mair confusion for sooth o’ the border billies, they micht jalouse whit wir up tae
Oily
Well Backsplice and Oily, having done my ‘apprenticeship’ on timber from the borders to Wigan (mainly) - and how well I remember the Allison’s coming the other way as I made my way North on a Sunday afternoon - I remember going into the traffic office in Bowaters at Barrow and asking for my ‘lines’. This was greeted by baffled looks until another driver (actually a Scouser) asked ‘are you f******* Scottish? - DELIVERY NOTES!’
John
I’m not familiar with the term ’ gallus ’ although I am familiar with the cross on the back of the load. We used to call it an ’ Aberdeen spider ’ an indication of it’s Scottish origin possibly ?
In my part of the world, well at Bewick Transport, when we finished off at the back end we put the normal cross on then to make the cross super tight we fed the rope from one of the hooks at the backend up through the cross and then hitched the rope down to the hook at the other side. We called this “putting a Scotchman on” as in “tight as a Scotsman” ! Cheers Bewick.
That’s the one I’m talking about Dennis.
Bewick:
In my part of the world, well at Bewick Transport, when we finished off at the back end we put the normal cross on then to make the cross super tight we fed the rope from one of the hooks at the backend up through the cross and then hitched the rope down to the hook at the other side. We called this “putting a Scotchman on” as in “tight as a Scotsman” ! Cheers Bewick.
Aye Dennis that’s what we called them too in The Toon, Regards Larry.
geoffwales:
Do any trainers offer roping and sheeting courses
Get hold of an old driver 60+
You’ll learn more in half an hour than on any course.
backsplice:
1These were the days the only bit of duel carrigeway was the Perth road then from A74 Abingdon to Carlisle the Moss for a cuppa then on down Shap to Claras at Kendal coming back from the pub all Charlie Alexanders trunks (fish usually) would be changing over a catch phrase I remember "its nae the wecht oh the fush its the wecht oh the ice " …aye lads days gone forever !!!
I accept they are only drawings of a backend of loads but IMHO the Allison one would probably come slack whereas the “English Scotchman” cannot slacken ! Just my observation but based on long gone experience maybe someone else will have a comment Great old shots of the Allison motors though which I can remember them running through Kendal in the 60’s when I were a Lad !! Cheers Bewick.
Who said this to me on a number of occasions in the late 60’s------- " Luft yer skin Son and I’ll pit it on tap wi the Hyster"? answer-----Big Hughie, Smith of Maddiston’s yard foreman at their St.Albans depot. Cheers Bewick.
