We all knew Graham. He was the one that fired Sandro. Sandro had a contract with the Milan office. It cost SCA a fortune 
That Graham was based in Milan . He got sick & had to be flown home. They gave me the job of driving his company car to London. When he recovered I had the job of driving him back to Milan againā¦ A lot of the boys loathed him but I got on with him from that Sunday night when I flew down Milan. He had the keys to the truck but Sandro had turned the electrics off with a safety switch near the battery. It was pitch dark & as luck would have it I went straight to it. // But to be fair I was out of the loop with the road train. I used to take my time. the artics were on tight schedules. ( But they did it themselvesā¦Always trying to race each otherā¦)
Wonder what Kindle thinks about those Trucks .Couldnt see him wanting over the water in them. I bet you lads were jealous of Cauthorn Sinclair in their massive 86s in those days 
Nice pics Dave bring back memories
greek At one time C/Sinclair had some French reg long nose Bussing Artics on the road. I believe they had a depot near Paris. they had to close it down. The French lads were hammering the Shell card. One of them made enough dosh out of his card to buy a new car. the place they did the deals was the last Shell services before you hit the Peripheriqueā¦
Harry I worked with a couple of ex Sinclair men Dickie Parker & Brian Crosson sadly now decesed wonder if you knew them Dickie used work out of BICC at Wrexham till we lost the contract then he went back over the water for Geodis (who i think were the ones who took sinclairs over) he only lasted a couple of years & Brian used to do a regular job France & Swiss (for Galachers) when that went he left but he only lasted a couple of years then he died they were both about 59 --60
I was from the South so we didnt get to know Sinclair's boys. For France we all used Sotton-- Le Havre. That is Sinclair , SCA & most of the lads going to France & Italy. I started in 69 & by then Sinclair were big. By the time I had found myself out of the French docks all the Sinclair boys were half way to Milanā¦ They were good lads, but. & tended to stick togetherā¦
Iāll go along with that Harry, smashing blokes but they were a bit clicky. Couldnāt blame them really as they were already old hands when the rest of us started. I wasnāt so much jealous of the 86s Greek, more envious of the amount of French they spoke. They reckoned it was a bit easier for them to pronounce 'cos of their Geordy accents.
I seem to remember Cawthons had an office in the parade opposite the Townsend Thoresen dock gates. Near to the toy shop that was run by the real nice old lady (probably not that old really, about the age I am nowā¦in fact ā¦she was quite a nice youngish lady).
I thought Cawthorns did mostly France Harry
Yeah ,thats right. come to think of itā¦No sense going Le Harve if you were doing Italyā¦ But I thought they really had the job sewn up.I was surprised when the went pop. I know I had a lovely job with terrific truck doing containers to Marseilles . We stayed in a hotel in Marseilles on the Quay de Belge. We would leave our units on the wide pavement right outside the hotel. And people used to stop to ADMIRE the trucks !! It never got better than that, Dave.
Cawthorn & Sinclair did do mostly France Harry did a lot of Caterpiller work I dont think they went bust I think they wre took over by Geodis from the Leeds area & shut the depot at Birtley
Thought Iād spend 5 minutes practicing my photo restoration skills on the last shot ā¦ hereās the result 
Nice one aimee, though I bet it took a bit more than 5 minutes. Itās a great improvement any way. The purple haze on the original was the very strong (photolight) bulb I used to copy a very much under exposed slide, and it was meant to be in the sky where it would have looked more natural. Just didnāt have the time, or patience, to get it right. Iāve copied it back into my photo album so Iām well pleased!. What photo editing progamme do you use?
Rattlesnake Dave Any Idea what happened to Graham Billā¦? I seem to remember it was something dramatic. When I left SCA I went with the Swiss & didn`t work for UK outfits until a few years agoā¦So you lost touch with peopleā¦
Rattlesnake Dave:
Nice one aimee, though I bet it took a bit more than 5 minutes.
Well OK, maybe 10 minutes It was done in Adobe Photoshop. First used a green radial gradient to neutralise the purple, a bit of contrast tweaking over the same area using a similar gradient as a mask, and a curve adjustment over the whole thing, was about it I think, oh and a linear gradient to put some colour back in the sky. I spend far too much time playing with Photoshop, itās addictive
You got that ,Daveā¦ā ā
Sorry Harry, canāt say I remember Graham Bill, I might have known him but not by name and I do sort of get what Aimee is talking about. I have Photoshop myself and have bought several dedicated publications about using it but I just about get the hang of one thing and forget how to do something else, Itās a pretty comprehensive programme. Guess Iāll just have to invest in a proper (Idiots Guide) dedicated instruction manual. All Iāll need then is the time to play with it. ā ā ā ā work keeps getting in the way!
Aimee, Iāve just had a look at some of your work, itās fabulous, and I feel honoured that you took the time to improve the photo of my old ERF.
I couldnt get along with that prog at all. It wasnt very user friendly. I met one young guy he went to some college & did a three year course on it & then ended up as a salesman in PC World. The one I use most is a free download from picasa . It very user friendly. /// But wasn`t it you that gave me Grahams cardā¦?
Sorry Harry, didnāt realise who Graham Bill was! I just found his business card when I plucked up the courage to go into my garage recently, admittedly I did tie one end of a rope around my waist and the other around the apple tree, with strict instructions to my wife that if I didnāt come out within three days to send in a search party, any way, I found some old log sheets and window stickers etc. oh, and some old pocket calendars from the Bakehouse, and in amongst all this memorabilia was that card. I remember I was just doing a bit of dodgy work for SCA when I was weekended in Milan and I met him in the office. He gave me the card in case I decided I might like a job change. I think I only met him once or twice and canāt remember much about him to be honest.
Are there any pictures of SCA trucks on here Harry? I particularly remember those Crane Fruehauf trailers with the canvas roofs.
My snaps are also in a garage ,Dave. I was going to put my flat up for sale so I cleared out 4 tea chests of old junk & put them in my cousins garage. That was 3 years ago.Changed my mind about selling but haven`t got the snaps back yet. They are all small format because I used a cheap Kodak in those days but I will try to get them back next weekā¦ I have a snap of that FIAT road train I drove that nearly had me over the wall on the approach to Mont Blanc. Also the 3 axle Scanias.
Re- Raymonde from the Bakehouse. What a terrific man. & his wife. All those girls that worked there as waitresss were from orphanages ect. Raymonde & his wife gave them homes & a life. One dark period ,SCA driver took the pretty one. The small little girl with straight reddish hair to the village dance on a Saturday night. & it was alleged that he raped her. This scrote had allegedly been chucked out of the UK police force. I wont go onā¦
I hope the damp hasnāt got to your pictures Harry, I keep mine in the house. Itās old magazines etc. that I have in the garage and the damp has got to some of them. Anyway, go get āem out and letās all have a lookie lookie.
The waitressā names were Monique, FranĆĀ§oise and I canāt remember the other, slightly older one, think it may have been Michelle. I still remember the old (not literally) bread and cheese soup which was frequently served as a starter. Raymonde took me and another couple of drivers down to his house once, it had a cellar that boasted almost as much whisky and brandy as it did wine, mostly donated by drivers that he had helped out at some time or other. At the risk of repeating myself, Happy Days! Although I do remember spending quite a few week ends on my own, bored to tears! You can eat in a fabulous restaurant, but if youāre on your own, itās wasted.
That was Mrs Raymondes Onion Soup. Happy Daysā¦I can smell it nowā¦