marky:
Cripes!! We can only assume that, once loaded, progress in the six-wheeler was, shall we say, sedate…? The driver must’ve thought they’d moved Yorkshire by the time he got there from London…
That’s the first time I’ve seen a photo of that model Bedford with three axles.Aye,it would have been a long day Marky.
Never seen a 6 wheel wd type Bedford before --wonderful pics for my generation -yes a struggle to get along but so what -speed limit was 20 mph so no hurry -the same as any other truck (over 3 ton) unlike todays pressures on drivers .We (AMEYS) had a long distance fleet of them ,rigid and artic and they were very reliable ,a Glasgow run was a easy weeks work —toshboy
The Bartrums F88 VCL 520S was brought by Barry Burton of Setch Kings Lynn. I was told that the engine went up in Scotland and was rebuilt by Volvo at Irvine. I don’t know what they did with the injector pump, it was like driving an over grown car, pulled like a train.
I did a crank rebuild on it. The crank was reground a weak point on early Volvos, it always had a ticking noise after that. Lasted about two years when it came in for a top liner seal repair, on strip down I found that number three or four big end journal had cracker. I think that I rebuilt it with parts from an old engine that was in the yard.
All the same it was a bloody good lorry.
MOC, great pics there. the Vanguard motors in particular. They had a place in Greenford Middx, just of the A40, and were regulars in our shop for brake roller testing and tacho seals.
We used to call them the undertakers, because if they showed up at your factory you were out of work.
Chris Webb:
Well Alan,that Lincolnshire Lass is better looking than another Lincolnshire Lass - the Grantham Gobbler.
I think Musgrove was still running Sabrinas in the late 60s.
I bow to your superior knowledge,of ladies of the road chris,I was young & innocent then,& one of the few greens drivers who never gave a ride to a certain resident of Ripley
When I was a young impressionable lad (a few years ago now ) I knew an old hand with a few miles under his belt, mostly covered in the 50s & 60s ,he told me numerous stories about these old birds of the road and I used to think he was making most of them up, however after all these years I have apparently found out that it looks like he wasn’t, as one of the said “ladies” was the “Grantham gobbler” aka “Winnie the gobbler” are they one and the same?? he also used to refer to an old boiler known as “The old A5”, he told me her whole adult life was hich hiking the entire length of the A5 with a sleeping bag on her back providing a service to lorry drivers,… but the best one was Peg, aka “Peg leg” who had a false leg which she used to hang on the mirror while she was doing the business with the driver, and one of the drivers went and took off with it one day and saw her in his nearside mirror hopping down the A6 . Can any of you old-old timers verify any of this, although I don’t think for one second that ANY of you took advantage of the services these ladies provided
Hello Rob, the only two that spring to my mind were Bridget The Midget who used to hang around Vallance Road car park just off Whitechapel Road in the early seventies and Diesel Sally who used to stand on Holloway Road and jump out in front of any lorry that displayed a T.I.R. plate.
Hope this helps.
mushroomman:
Hello Rob, the only two that spring to my mind were Bridget The Midget who used to hang around Vallance Road car park just off Whitechapel Road in the early seventies and Diesel Sally who used to stand on Holloway Road and jump out in front of any lorry that displayed a T.I.R. plate.
Hope this helps.
Yeh he definitely mentioned Bridget the midget , I’d forgotten about her, I just wish my old mate was still alive he could have wrote a book about some of the stories he told, and all these years I have thought he made these things up.
MOC, great pics there. the Vanguard motors in particular. They had a place in Greenford Middx, just of the A40, and were regulars in our shop for brake roller testing and tacho seals.
We used to call them the undertakers, because if they showed up at your factory you were out of work.
I make you right there Paul john.iv remember seeing them in action clearing the machines out of some of them big companys .
excellent name for them i think “the Undertakers”
MOC, great pics there. the Vanguard motors in particular. They had a place in Greenford Middx, just of the A40, and were regulars in our shop for brake roller testing and tacho seals.
We used to call them the undertakers, because if they showed up at your factory you were out of work.
I make you right there Paul john.iv remember seeing them in action clearing the machines out of some of them big companys .
excellent name for them i think “the Undertakers”
Didn’t they also have the job of transporting the christmas tree to Trafalgar square every year ?
Cockney Pete3: http://www.trucknetuk.com/phpBB/download/file.php?id=45390&mode=view More memories from my childhood Bubbs, Tunnel Refineries was a large factory right next to the approach to the Blackwall Tunnel, hence the name, I’ve seen pictures of LAD octopus, Guy Big J and Borderers in there livery. Obviously before Tankfreight took over, they had 2 yards in Greenwich the other being across the motrway next to the tank wash. Locals knew the factory because of the smell of them processing the maize to make glucose syrup, in the summer the silos at the riverfront would be alive with cockroaches, it was like walking on a gravel drive! Oh and the huge black rats that lived under the silos, I mean jack russel size! No pics of the wagons unfortunately but I’ve got plenty of the ships on the wharf. Last time I was down sarf its gone, demolished ready for more flats.
I forgot about the smell it used to stink. As soon as I read it the smell came straight back.Great fun in ones of the worst roads in London for a traffic jam.
