Moomooland that last picture you posted what year would that have been taken ? It’s very much like the trucks we use to drive on Torness power station about 40 years ago , the skip looks smaller though we use to carry 3 metres of concrete
gerard:
Moomooland that last picture you posted what year would that have been taken ? It’s very much like the trucks we use to drive on Torness power station about 40 years ago , the skip looks smaller though we use to carry 3 metres of concrete
Hi Gerard, It was taken during the widening of the runway at Manchester Airport in 1969.
Thanks for the reply , I wish I could remember the type of D series we had but as I said they carried 3 metres of concrete that would be around 9 to 10 tons itself , I’d say they were longer than the one in the picture but the same shape and set up made for tipping into skips or mobile pumps , thanks again for the reply and for bringing back some happy memories from a lot of years ago
paulycats:
My Grandfather’s first vehicle was a 1920 Ford T 1 tonner Left hand drive with solid tyres Reg No J9629. It was exported from America and came just in chassis form. Herbert Raine founder of H. Raine & sons Spennymoor, built the cab (If that’s what you can describe it with half doors & no windows) and a platform body & painted & signwrote it.
I don’t know how many Model Ts he had but I think there might have been quite a few which is not surprising as they only seemed to last 3 or 4 years. However they were evolving quite quickly as in 1921 his second was Right hand drive with what were described as balloon tyres & I suspect by that time it was probably built in England. His 3rd 1922 had regular tyres more like we have today. He never would have anything said about the T models. However eventually along came (I think it was) the A model, which was a bit bigger and it was troublesome. He may have had one or two of these ad one or two Morris Commercials which again were very troublesome till he got his first Chev, and things then changed.
He and his drivers fell in love with these pre Bedford imports and then it was Chev & Bedford all the way.
In 1956 diesel was becoming popular in the smaller commercials and Ford introduced their Thames 4D 5 tonner, and with fuel consumption of around 24 mpg against 10mpg we were achieving with our Bedfords & such a cheap vehicle to buy who could resist. There is a photo of our 4D below (Not a very good one but all that has survived. I think most removal contractors jumped onto the diesel band wagon with the Ford 4D I do know that Hoults Newcastle, Hayward & Robertson Darlington and Tom Liddle at Stanley all succumbed like my dad. I know on many occasions when they met up they exchanged notes on the problems these vehicles gave. The biggest problem was head gaskets with some lasting less than 100 miles. So we decided NEVER AGAIN FORD.
We broke the mould to buy a Ford Thames 15cwt panel van but that wasn’t really a commercial vehicle.
In 1969 Courtaulds opened their Spennymoor factory & we got the transport and we needed lots of extra vehicles and at that time we never used finance and were looking for good used vehicles as well as saving costs we could not get new delivered quick enough. We saw advertised a 6 months old Ford D series Box van with just 4,000 miles on the clock so we bought our 1st Ford D800.
Shortly afterwards we were told regulations demanded with the number of drivers we employed we had to have a Driver assessor so it was decided I should take the course at MOTEC High Ercall & so I took a holiday & spent most of the 2 weeks sitting in & driving a Ford D series & I was converted. When I came back we bought a new D series 20 ton Gross Tractor unit, We bought a new Ford Passenger chassis pantechnicon but inherited a lot of D Series Tractor units which certainly were better than the Bedford TK.
I don’t know how many D Series we operated but quite a few. In rigid form they were not as good as Bedford TKs in our use but as tractors they certainly were better
here’s a D800 360 turbo t/unit my dad painted for an owner driver . I think its a nice looking motor.
tks, I did it on the office scanner, cant get the wretched geriatric thing to make scans the right size
tony
Looks more like a D1000 to me unless they started fitting the Custom Cab at a later date. Franky.
Frankydobo:
Looks more like a D1000 to me unless they started fitting the Custom Cab at a later date. Franky.
No it’s a D 800.The strip on the front is mod and the Western mirrows were an extra as they were on the D1000
Tony
Ah yes its missing the chrome bumper, just thought it was sitting quite high for D800, nice unit all the same. Franky.
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Ah yes its missing the chrome bumper, just thought it was sitting quite high for D800, nice unit all the same. Franky.
Didn’t they also have slightly wider front wings as well.
