When i started shunting i had this
Not fun winding legs all night.
But now iv’e got this.
But i still get my share of this.
Tonyb
Bewick:
There must be loads (excuse the pun) of tales out there about this hardworking set of lads so come on and lets have some !! How about some of you ex SOM drivers kicking the thread off !!
I thought we might have heard from Fergie but he probably dosen’t know what a shunter is as he only ever dropped loaded ones off and picked up loaded ones to go on change over !! Anon.
Hiya …when it comes to ropeing and sheeting(to which i did for 6/7 years on general haulage) you could’nt nock Gordon Plants drivers(Macclesfield ish)
I think part of your interveiw was to sheet a load before you got a start. I was working with a chap called Garry Morgan at Coopers Bollington and his dad
Ian Morgan (ex Plants driver) came to pick his lad up from work. He saw the job of R and Sheeting his lad had done.Ian got a knife out and cut all the dolly’s.
He then said now do it propley and keep the dolly’s vertical and in line.Garry did what he was told as Ian was a right hard b…d and took no sh…
John
coca cola kid:
Three of the best R & S I knew was Pete Wass & Gilbert Of A&E Transport & A guy called Lenny of Armitage Transport,
all three worked for years in TWIL where every load was different in size, shape & weight, many of them were multi drops but they were all very neatly done every time, Five star ratings from me, Cheers Mel
Hi Mel.Tinsley Wire Industries,what a place.We used to go round the back and load off a bloody chute,rolls of wire netting all different sizes 
I went in one morning to load for AEI at Trafford Park and was still there at 4-00pm.I was next to be loaded but they came and told me that Trowbridge trunkers had priority and “come back tomorrow”.One of their shunters was called Proud,a Geordie,can’t recall his first name and his loads were perfect when he’d done 
Bewick:
Chris Webb:
There was always an inquest if any Tesco or Safeway loads were late.One night a contractor came in for a Safeway Bellshill and the warehouse had to break the load down from about 30 pallets to 26 so they could get it on.It was one of V.G.Mathers from Aberdeen and he only had a 24 pallet box,not his fault.They couldn’t lose any more pallets so one of our drivers had to take it.It was late getting there of course but instead of ringing Mathers to make sure they came in with 26 boxes in future they were bloody barred! They were always on time coming in,the trailers were always spotless and they always delivered on time like the majority of subbies but Wincanton had that sort of attitude.
Not long after they were struggling for a subbie for Livingston and Mathers were in the area so my mate upstairs got him in,loaded him and away.Nothing was said because the powers that be didn’t know as it was a saturday night
I could write a book…Aye Chris the modern "Traffic Planners " leave alot to be desired now-a-days ! You would think the first requirement at Wincanton should have been all trailers must be 26 'ers on this traffic unless we request otherwise !! But from what I can gather now ( having been out of it for 10 yrs ) Wincanton are not alone in their hide bound approach to traffic management as there are now so many rules and regs managements seem to think an operation can be run by someone in fron’t of a computer screen who dosen’t have a clue how the job runs at ground level !! This is made worse by the senior management understanding even less than the traffic planners !! Believe me I saw this change creeping in in the mid 90s when the old managements were retiring and the wizz kids were moving in and were going to "break eggs with a stick " .Common sense was one thing that went straight out the window !! I remember when the in thing was you achieved BS 9000 or some other number and a bloke came to see me and try to persuade us to achieve this mythical standard !! He tried to convince me that if I was to fall under a bus someone else could sit in my chair and open the BS file and run the firm as if nothing had happened ! B******s ! We were never once required by our exsisting or new customers to be British Standard accredited and I new of a couple of local Hauliers that were BS and they couldn’t hold a candle to our operation !!Cheers Bewick.
Bewick,we had 20 pallet tandems and tri-axles,24 pallet tandems with barn doors and shutters,26 pallet tandems and tri-axles,double deckers that were never used as such,and latterly DDs hired off Dawsons that were forever giving trouble - usually when you’d got the last pallet on.We had to check everything on them before we offered it to the Warehouse,bags of ■■■■■! You daren’t send one of your best tri-axles on a run where it might get changed over as you’d never see it again 
.Our running sheet was sometimes 15 pages and a lot of it handwritten so you had to work out what was going where and who was taking it and supply the shed accordingly.Sometimes a subbie would take one of ours and we’d use his,bloody hell there was some crap trailer wise and of course trailers had to be clean inside,especially if it was an M and S job - mind you,some of their sheds were filthy same as Sainsburys.
Trailer washing was a good 12 hour sunday job for us,no problems there 
BS boll****,summat else that Wincanton loved and they wouldn’t be on their own.
I used to sing “Oh the shunter and the warehouse should be friends” to that tune out of Oklahoma (sad owd sod).
tonyb70:
When i started shunting i had this
But i still get my share of this.
Tonyb
Wow look at that sheet thats the key to rope and sheeting.First you need a good sheet with plenty ties and if you fold the sheet up properly
your half way their.The clever bit is to fold your sheets neatly then when you’ve loaded it dose’nt matter if the load is 3ft /6ft or 8ft high
you unfold the right amount of sheet. some people just open all the sheet up and then try tucking unwanted sheet up and getting all ■■■■■■■
under the sheet.Then its nasty. I always hated getting a empty trailer and folded sheets because half of the time the sheets was folded anyhow.
We had a regular job out of Crown Cork Southhall and the load was 9ft high. My sheets was 24ft square and a 50ft bottle sheet my best time start to
finish was 25 mins. mind you i was only 26 at that time.sorry i have no photos the load was beer cans for Burton its a tautliner jobbie now a days.
John
Chris Webb:
Bewick:
Chris Webb:
There was always an inquest if any Tesco or Safeway loads were late.One night a contractor came in for a Safeway Bellshill and the warehouse had to break the load down from about 30 pallets to 26 so they could get it on.It was one of V.G.Mathers from Aberdeen and he only had a 24 pallet box
Not long after they were struggling for a subbie for Livingston and Mathers were in the area so my mate upstairs got him in,loaded him and away.Nothing was said because the powers that be didn’t know as it was a saturday night
I could write a book…Aye Chris the modern "Traffic Planners " leave alot to be desired now-a-days ! You would think the first requirement at Wincanton should have been all trailers must be 26 'ers on this traffic unless we request otherwise !! But from what I can gather now ( having been out of it for 10 yrs ) Wincanton are not alone in their hide bound approach to traffic management as there are now so many rules and regs managements seem to think an operation can be run by someone in fron’t of a computer screen who dosen’t have a clue how the job runs at ground level !! This is made worse by the senior management understanding even less than the traffic planners !! Believe me I saw this change creeping in in the mid 90s when the old managements were retiring and the wizz kids were moving in and were going to "break eggs with a stick " .Common sense was one thing that went straight out the window !! I remember when the in thing was you achieved BS 9000 or some other number and a bloke came to see me and try to persuade us to achieve this mythical standard !! He tried to convince me that if I was to fall under a bus someone else could sit in my chair and open the BS file and run the firm as if nothing had happened ! B******s ! We were never once required by our exsisting or new customers to be British Standard accredited and I new of a couple of local Hauliers that were BS and they couldn’t hold a candle to our operation !!Cheers Bewick.
Bewick,we had 20 pallet tandems and tri-axles,24 pallet tandems with barn doors and shutters,26 pallet tandems and tri-axles,double deckers that were never used as such,and latterly DDs hired off Dawsons that were forever giving trouble - usually when you’d got the last pallet on.We had to check everything on them before we offered it to the Warehouse,bags of [zb]! You daren’t send one of your best tri-axles on a run where it might get changed over as you’d never see it again
Trailer washing was a good 12 hour sunday job for us,no problems there
BS boll****,summat else that Wincanton loved and they wouldn’t be on their own.
I used to sing “Oh the shunter and the warehouse should be friends” to that tune out of Oklahoma (sad owd sod).
Heres me thinking all big outfits operated large fleets of identical gear all suited for the job they were doing or thats what they would have their customers believe !!! Bewick
Bewick:
Suttons Tony:
Hy, Bewick I’ll help you out, I was a Shunter first as a Trailer Mate and then as a Driver on Suttons and I did spells of night trunking and shunting at BRS this was vitually all ropeing and sheeting. The day shunter in those days used to take over the waggon from the night Trunker and do what was known as a tip and turn which meant delivering one, two, three or more deliveries depending on the load, and then loading the waggon for the night Trunker to take, this would occur 6 and sometimes 7 days a week. Off course it was possible on occasions to have a full load for a shed at the Docks and wait all day only to be quickly tipped late after the dockers had been put on overtime and if this happened you could get a late load which meant a late finish (Hours regs what were those?) or even worse you would be signed off at the Docks and would have to return the next day which meant that if the waggon was an 8 wheel rigged or a waggon and trailer the night Trunkers who on Suttons for instance would be from Lancashire would have to stay on overnight and the next day at Brays, Liverpool Road and the waggon had lost a trip. I might add the roping and sheeting could be the easy part as so many loads were handballed including Orrs zinc white powder that allways felt a lot heavier than 112 pounds ( Hundredweight ) and when you got 224 pound sacks which were dead they could be a back breaker. Old Drivers will know what I mean when I talk about dead weight as a 112 pounds could feel very different according to what it was. During my time, only 10 years from 1958 to September 1968 the use of the fork lift began and grew and in the last couple of years the ISO containers began to appear and then the Skeletal Trailers to carry them, before this they would be roped. The worse loads to rope and sheet were the light but bulky loads of a mixed nature where you would try to build a wall each side of the flat with the heaviest and strongest cartons or crates and put the lightest and flimsiest and most crushable parcels in the middle, it must be remembered that all Bosses believed that everything above the flat on their waggon was theirs to be used for carrying loads and that bridges etc. could be avoided. All unloading, loading and roping and sheeting would normally be carried out in all weathers, and on Suttons the London Shunters were paid a gauranteed 68 hour week (the legal maximum driving time), Sundays was 11 hours at double time and Alf did not throw his money around. On Suttons as a shunter you sometime had to catch the milk train out of Waterloo to Southampton where you would find the waqggon or waggon and trailer parked outside in the front of the main Southampton Station in the car park, (try that today) tip at Esso Fawley, sometimes with extra deliveries of ships stores or if normal export at the Docks we would take these extra deliveries to Pitter’s for them to deliver for us, we would then drive back if early enough to ICI Dulux at Slough or back to the Depot for a load of Tea, six high and a binder and all handball or we would catch the train from Paddington to Oxford via Didcot to tip a full load of leathercloth in stillages at Morris Motors at Cowley, and then reload at ICI Dulux at Slough. We had one shunter who used to train it to Newport in South Wales who would tip a load of lever brothers soaps on pallets and the load hot tallow in a big rubber tank, known as a Portolite, leave the waggon there and catch the train home until one day he openned the wrong tap and was drenched in hot tallow which not only stank but began to solidify as it cooled in the open air, he had to go up to Sandbach with the night trunker or somewhere and swap to a southbound trunk motor as there was no way he could have travelled on the train. I’m sorry if I have bored you all but just some stories from times past…Tony.Spot on Tony I think the thread could be up and running !! Your spiel has certainly put a differen’t spin on the term “shunter” going by train to S’ampton & Newport ect. to catch up with last nights trunk !! Alf was some taskmaster wasn’t he just !! Thats really tickled me -------did you have an " awayday " or a "runaround " ticket ? One of the first jobs I used to do when I ran my first motor was loading ex covent garden to Barrow ( sub off J&W Watt Carlisle) and I would load it as you describe hard boxes on the outside and softs/ flowers ect in the middle . Mind you it was like doing a jig-saw with the differnt porters comming at you in not the order you wanted ! But all the times I did the job I never had any damages( the fruit merchant in Barrow loved me doing the load ) but oh dear when Watts loaded it their shunters just fired it in Heavy on soft ect. I somtimes used to load barytes powder from a London wharf for the Dolly Blue works at Backbarrow now that was a " dead weight " it was in little cloth bags and they wern’t half awkward little B******s to handle !! anyway we’ll have to wait and see who else pops up with further “Tales of a Shunter” Cheers Bewick.
We had a tractor pulled Ross/youngs fridges between Grimsby & Harthill the day shift was the scotch end and on tuesday after one red hot August bank holiday monday our lad was sat waiting behind a scouser to tip. Anyway scouse comes round to open his doors and when he lifted the handle on the door it pushed open and scouse got buried up to his waist in vanilla ice cream !! Our driver said he ■■■■■■ himself never seen any thing as funny for ages although scouse was not amused and niether were Ross Youngs !! Bewick.
Bewick:
mercman123:
Hi all yes the shunters had the crap lorries and usually the worse jobs.I loaded trailers for Joint Motorways In 1994. I was lucky I only had too load scap bails on flat trailers only put [zb] sheets on the back and a bit of rope on them lol. Mind you I had too unload at Blackburn, Widnes etc before I went and load the trailers for the night blokes from Shrewsbury. The worse thing about my job was the lorry I had was a daf 2300 day cab. It was as flat as a pancake it was an ex Tesco lorry only plated up too 36 tonnes it should have stayed at Tesco’s !! I once had an old Merc 1628 with a mid cab that was great. The Daf you had too trash the f**k out it too go round the scap yard where the Merc went round on tick over ! I also had a 1834 once and that was no good because it had no back windows. So yes I feel the shunters are definatly the unsung heroes !!
tonyFrom what I’ve seen of Joints they were all crap so you must have had a good one Mercman !! How did they let you out scrap yard without weighing the whole tractor and trailer in with the load !! The 1834 didn’t have windows in so that all the coils they threw off at Joints didn’t come into the cab to join you Only having a wind up Andrew ! Cheers Dennis.
No too be fair most of the lorries at Joints were in very good condition.Some of the trailers were a bit iffy but they were all legal.Also some of the fault was with me concerning the Daf I had. When I went down with my dad I think it was the second day I worked there Alun Jones the boss asked if I wanted a Daf or a Merc. Being new I said I didn’t care.I now know now I took the wrong Choice .The better one was the Merc 1628 with the mid cab for the reasons I said before.Also I got around the problem of being only plated to 36 tonnes by always being 2 tonne under so when the night men picked up the trailers they were at the right weight and not over 38 tonnes. I also picked the best load too take back too Shrewsbury. ( a perk of the job lol).
Tony
One of the driver’s favourite sayings was “I always wanted to be a shunter but they found out me parents were married”
I used to reply “I always wanted to be an engine driver but me eyes weren’t far enough apart”
Bewick:
Bewick:
There must be loads (excuse the pun) of tales out there about this hardworking set of lads so come on and lets have some !! How about some of you ex SOM drivers kicking the thread off !!I give up!!! it wasn’t the old knacker tractors I meant but the "salt of the earth sheeting and roping lads " .So I suppose those shunters that ponce about with Tautliners and Vans don’t qualify and would run a mile if they were asked to sheet and rope one flat never mind 10/12 in a shift !! Bewick.
back in the 80s my brother in law took severance from the docks (not all dockers were bad) and got a job at I think gem transport in grays he used to load all their lorries and rope and sheet and the drivers all loved him for it but he never got home till late every night and evetually gave in to his wifes tongue and left
we had a guy who wasnt a shunter but got roped into it one night as there was nobody else. he done NINE red lines that night. when the fitters went home they left a box full of them and a spanner for him
In my early years before I was driving I was working part time around the yard on a fork truck and a brush up my bum. We had a bloke called Alan Cox who loaded 6 or 7 trailers on Hull docks when most folks struggled with 1 in the same day. He would then bring a couple back to the yard and I transhipped them if necessary.
Unfortunately Alan fell off a high trailer and broke both his heels 
he didn’t work again but the boss and his brother carried on at night with another driver. He was a diamond and it took 3 drivers to replace him. He even had time to keep his new fangled F86 mint 
you dont get many of them to the pound do you. cracking lad.