Computers don’t you just love 'em… I’ve had more trouble with them then every lorry I ever drove put together,
When it was re-booted after a virus, it got slower and slower until it would have been quicker to have fired up the boilers on the S.S. Great Britain and get her under way, out the harbour, and half way across the Atlantic… When I eventually got the thing on it would take 3 or 4 minuets to get Google up, then about the same time to get on Trucknet, but it would never go in the first time, it took ages to load up pictures with several failed attempts, when it would just lock up, grinning at me, as if to say f**k you. 
So, along comes a mate who knows about these things ( we’ve all got one of those, haven’t we ?) and he says LINUX is what you want 
…Long story short, it wiped everything off automatically, all that Windows crap, loaded Linux on…and…new computer, its that quick I can’t keep up with it…from a Gardner 4 pot, miss firing on 2, to a V8 Scania that’s just been chipped …magic…long may it last. 
To celebrate…some pic’s
Well, that was quick, to select and post a pic on here would take a couple of minuets each one, those last pic’s took about 3 seconds each…heaven
Here’s a few more…If I remember, all these pictures were taken by the Patron outside his Restaurant, can’t find out where though, perhaps Michel will know ?
Click on the pic for full view…
And some more old girls rusting away…
Suns shining for the first time for ages, so out on the bike for a couple of hours before I forget how to ride it… 
Wonderfully evocative pics there Fergie! Robert
Hiya,
Been going through the archives again and found some pics I’ve made some years ago, some of it is french related, others a bit less 
I think that Foden’s on Irish plates. Robert
Following pics were taken in the Czech Republic some years ago, I was there to load a stone crusher, but the exibition wasn’t over yet, so I got the chance to wonder around a bit
I was lucky enough to see some good old Tatra’s in action, and I was a bit disappointed to find that it’s all been taken over by Paccar nowadays, so out with the old cabs and engines and in with the Daf MX engines and Daf cabs
robert1952:
I think that Foden’s on Irish plates. Robert
Hiya Robert,
Yeah you’re right, think they’ve used it at Dublin airport…?
Fergie47:
They still make these to-day, there was one parked up in out local supermarket delivering steel bars for an extension they are doing…probably rarer than they use to be for sure , saw them all over the place in the '70’s / '80’s
I’m not so sure these “porte-fers” are still made nowadays. Some 20 years ago, I used to deliver iron bars and wire mesh for building sites with such a truck. It was a Berliet GR 190, very similar to the two Unics in appearance; the six-speed gearbox stick was on the left, just as on a RHD lorry.
Certainly very appropriate for what it was designed for. The main problem was that, with the central cab, no matter how concentrated you were, you always ended in the middle of the road.
Another thing was that climbing to the cab was very awkward. You had to make your way across the load, without bumping your head on the mirror, and enter the cab through a sliding door. The cab wasn’t made for claustrophobians either!
Froggy55:
Fergie47:
They still make these to-day, there was one parked up in out local supermarket delivering steel bars for an extension they are doing…probably rarer than they use to be for sure , saw them all over the place in the '70’s / '80’sI’m not so sure these “porte-fers” are still made nowadays. !
Froggy55…think they are, the one I saw certainly wasn’t very old by the condition, and based on a modern-ish Renault like this one…(picture off the internet)…certainly don’t see many though…
I remember seeing those centre driver position lorries when going up to Modane on the old road to FREJUS, in the steel works you passed…
Does the driving position makes séance ,yes for the steel that is being carried ,however for ordinary road traffic use since road transport [lorry’s] began why was that position not adopted .yes I understand the engine would have been in the way but it could have gone back as the front axel could…Mirrors yes very small budgie cage ,probly not invented,[ Q ] , did horse drawn coaches drive from the middle ?, I t has just come to me ,STEAM ENGINES driver was he on the left or was he on the right? Saviem I am sure you will be able to explane how driver position came about.
deckboypeggy:
…Saviem I am sure you will be able to explane how driver position came about.
Good question. I reckon I might have the answer- the engine protrudes above the level of the load bed, so you cannot put a full length of steel in the middle anyway. Put the driver above the engine, and there is more space either side of the engine for the load. The alternative would be to raise the load bed in the middle, but why raise the vehicle’s centre of gravity unnecessarily?
Tha cab on that one looks as if its styling is based on the Magnum. I wonder if any of the panels are adapted from parts of a Magnum cab?
deckboypeggy:
however for ordinary road traffic use since road transport [lorry’s] began why was that position not adopted .yes I understand the engine would have been in the way but it could have gone back as the front axel could…Mirrors yes very small budgie cage ,probly not invented,[ Q ] , did horse drawn coaches drive from the middle ?, I t has just come to me ,STEAM ENGINES driver was he on the left or was he on the right? Saviem I am sure you will be able to explane how driver position came about.
When I started out driving aircraft fire trucks I drove more centre drive than anything else.It seems to be a process of natural selection in that centre drive only makes sense for specialist applications where the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.In the case of road vehicles that obviously being forward visibility and blind spots regarding lane changes v over taking traffic depending on which side of the road is used to drive on.IE RHD for left hand side of the road rule of the road and vice versa.With exceptions like RHD in Italy for it’s advantages of nearside visibility on tight mountain roads in which even that has reverted to the usual natural selection of LHD for right hand side rule of the road in recent times.
On that note trust me centre drive in road applications is in most regards a liability in effectively just making two nearsides regarding over taking traffic and side visibility and reducing forward visibilty in traffic.Which is probably part of the reason why even the American narrow cab conventional idea,which is effectively almost centre drive,has now given way to full width conventional cabs.
Carryfast:
deckboypeggy:
however for ordinary road traffic use since road transport [lorry’s] began why was that position not adopted .yes I understand the engine would have been in the way but it could have gone back as the front axel could…Mirrors yes very small budgie cage ,probly not invented,[ Q ] , did horse drawn coaches drive from the middle ?, I t has just come to me ,STEAM ENGINES driver was he on the left or was he on the right? Saviem I am sure you will be able to explane how driver position came about.When I started out driving aircraft fire trucks I drove more centre drive than anything else.It seems to be a process of natural selection in that centre drive only makes sense for specialist applications where the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.In the case of road vehicles that obviously being forward visibility and blind spots regarding lane changes v over taking traffic depending on which side of the road is used to drive on.IE RHD for left hand side of the road rule of the road and vice versa.With exceptions like RHD in Italy for it’s advantages of nearside visibility on tight mountain roads in which even that has reverted to the usual natural selection of LHD for right hand side rule of the road in recent times.
On that note trust me centre drive in road applications is in most regards a liability in effectively just making two nearsides regarding over taking traffic and side visibility and reducing forward visibilty in traffic.Which is probably part of the reason why even the American narrow cab conventional idea,which is effectively almost centre drive,has now given way to full width conventional cabs.
Most of that makes good sense. However, I would suggest that the wider the cab (within the overall width of the vehicle), the shorter the mirror arms; and the shorter the mirror arms, the less vibration and wobble (not to mention less vulnerable. The less wobble, the better rearward visibility. Robert
1950s Bernard 120MC.
Bernard on the hood, but the sleeper is believed to be by Cottard of Bourg, Ain.
Evening all,
What a conundrum! DBP, truly, I do not know how we came to dive on the left, and our cousins on the right. But those " porte a fers", that is an easy one, it is as anorak says, a way of carrying long loads, “cheaply”, because the tax is for a 19 tonne 4x2, and you can get very long bars, or sections within the overall length. But as froggy 55 says, evil, horrible things for the driver. Those cabs had zero insulation, sound, or temperature, and access, or egress needed the dexterity of a true athlete. I marvelled at the double cab Pelpel versions, one behind the other, just like a Meschersmitt bubble car, or the one with a lifting roof hatch…so when the load was well above your sliding side door, or rear “bi-fold”, (bi-focal if you live in Lower Gornal), door, then you climbed out via the roof!..What would H&S say today about such an arrangement?
I can well identify with froggy 55`s description of driving from the centre of the vehicle, I had couple of Alvis Stalwarts, great fun off road, but on road, driving from the centre, you tended to “stray” towards the other side…the flashing headlights of on coming cars soon warned you…or their departure through the nearest hedge to their left!..Could have been that I was a bad driver…?..Oh of course not!
But carryfast is right the central driving position is perfect in a vehicle that is designed to respond to emergencies in wide open spaces, or where getting their is more important than observing the “niceties” of on road work!
Chris, (adr), I think that that Bernard 150 has a Pelpel, type 2 cab, not one by Cottard. The Cottard ones tended to have a rearwood slant to the door window, sort of a half moon shape, shown on Fergies pictures of the Somua, and Saviem 150s with the “Boule” cabs. Cottard created some fantastic designs, as did Frappa, (beautiful flowing lines from the cab to the rear axle, really made the lorry look streamlined. Transports Borca ran many of these Bernards on the Frigidaire Contract throughout France.
Georges Pelpel works tended to turn out less styled, but really well proportioned cabs. The type 1, 2, and finally 3, versions are really handsome, but quite plain in design. But the engineering behind the look of the cabs was very sound, and they lasted well, (sadly Cottards did not). Pelpel turned out some really beautiful bodywork apart from cabs, and their integral vans were the equal of Chereau`s from not far away.
If ever you get the chance do have a sit in a Pelpel cab, the driving position is superb, (as is the bed), and they are well insulated, (better than any 2800/3300 DAF could ever be)…and they were on the market two decades before!
pv83, lovely shots of those TATRAs, wonderful engineering, and really strong lorries. I always found a strong bond with the “Eastern Bloc” lorry men, made very good products with limited resource. …but could they drink alcohol! Did not the Knowles family , from Alfreton, (who perhaps knew more about Foden, than Foden did themselves), take on the importation of TATRA off road chassis in the `80s? Did they sell many?
By gum Gentlemen, you have given my aged grey cells something to mull over tonight!
Perhaps a (largish), Bollinger may lubricate them well.
Cheerio for now.
Driving Positions.
My first trips across the channel were in Pete Robbins’s N reg 141, I did several trips to France in 1975 - mainly whisky down, Champagne back. No problem with driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the road. You’re used to positioning the vehicle, what side you’re driving on doesn’t matter.
Then on overland, after the 141 gearbox packed up I was pickybacked home by a Manchester lad from Whitefield. I can’t remember his name. He was a superb driver. His DAF was the 2800? The bigger engine and the Fuller gearbox. We did Istanbul to Manchester in less than 4 days and he drove almost every mile. This was Eastern Bloc permits to Hamburg or Bremerhaven.
He let me drive in Hungary, but because the DAF had the steering wheel further to the right than the Scania, so I wasn’t positioning the vehicle to his satisfaction, and also because it took me a while to get used to the Fuller, he took it back off me.
At the east west border we didn’t know which port we were heading for, but either way, the time was tight. The east side was very strict but straightforward. On the western side the customs officer was sarcastic and unhelpful, refusing to speak English and incredibly slow. Eventually, with the help of a German speaking Hungarocamion driver, we cleared. At that point the German customs officer said in perfect English ’ you really should learn to speak German, you know, you would find it very helpful!’
I had to drag the Manchester lad back, he was practically foaming at the mouth!
Much later in Saudi, when I started to drive the left hand drive Saviem, I realised that I needed to stop driving in the gutter all the time! You do adjust of course and it becomes natural.
The only other embarrassing moment was returning home after over a year away - stopping at the Little Chef near Grange on the A 590. Coming out, getting in the hire car and suddenly realising after 3 blind bends that I was on the wrong side of the road! Lucky me!
John.
