Any picts or yarns from this good old firm based in E14.
Thomas Paine known by one and all as “Tinker” Paine ran a large varied haulage business in the sixties, which at that time was based at Peel Grove in Bethnal Green
it subsequently relocated to the Isle of Dogs at Millwall. My association with them was as a salesman selling Bedfords. There were two Main operating companies at
Peel Grove. Thomas Paine Ltd which carried out general haulage in and around London and the docks and was run by Fred Abdee, and J Beasley run by George Tullett
which seemed to be heavily involved carrying beer for Whitbreads the brewers. They also operated vehicles at the old Covent Garden Market, these I seem to recall were managed by John Pauling.
Dealing with Tinker was definitely an educational experience, Whilst the vehicles one saw around the town looked smart and tidy painted in their own recognisable livery,
woe betide the salesman who assumed that the vehicle Tinker offered in part exchange, as was his habit, would bare anything but but a passing resemblance to the one
that arrived at the dealership. these were frequently towed to just outside the door and only able to wheeze the last few yards under their own steam
I could not count the old Seddons, Magauris, TS3’s,etc that Tinker dropped on my toes in my early dealings with him. However I quickly learnt stratagems to deals with
these “strokes” and we had a good business relationship over a number of years. Tinker himself was a likeable person, and once you got to know him quite kindly.
Fred Abdee seemed to take care of the overall admin, whilst I recall George Tullett ran Beasley like a drill sergeant,at least in the language he used to the drivers.
During my time they purchased from me TK and latterly KM 4 and six wheelers, the 6 wheeler conversions were carried out by Primrose
Although I remained in the retail motor industry for the rest of my career, only retiring 9 years ago, and met and dealt with many characters I don’t believe
I ever came across anybody that could compare with Tinker and his love of a deal.
Thank for all the info . guy in my street used to bring home a very smart KM unit.great old times. regards mick.
I remember their motors when I was a kid they were every where I lived near kings cross, quite a few men drove for them where I lived they brought the lorries home in those days of course then my old man did a bit for them as I recall in the early 60s although he did have a lot of jobs back then he was very short tempered although he said they were a very smart outfit , I worked for about 6 months for Abdee transport in 1990 which was the remains of paines it was run as the name states by fred abdee and they had a lot of contracts from paines one was for paynes poppets the sweet people we took cocoa beans to their factory in croydon and we also took tea to their factory in swindon where they made sainsburys red label tea bags, they had at the time I was there 2 bedford TM artics 2 daf 3300 units 2 2800 daf units and a few bedford tl rigids they had a yard in silvertown , there was another small company speedy transport which fred abdee owned as I recall ,I think they went out of business not long after that in 91 or 92 I think, I have seen a picture of a TM artic in thomas paines colours on this site somewhere, fredm
coldpans:
Thomas Paine known by one and all as “Tinker” Paine ran a large varied haulage business in the sixties, which at that time was based at Peel Grove in Bethnal Green
it subsequently relocated to the Isle of Dogs at Millwall. My association with them was as a salesman selling Bedfords. There were two Main operating companies at
Peel Grove. Thomas Paine Ltd which carried out general haulage in and around London and the docks and was run by Fred Abdee, and J Beasley run by George Tullett
which seemed to be heavily involved carrying beer for Whitbreads the brewers. They also operated vehicles at the old Covent Garden Market, these I seem to recall were managed by John Pauling.Dealing with Tinker was definitely an educational experience, Whilst the vehicles one saw around the town looked smart and tidy painted in their own recognisable livery,
woe betide the salesman who assumed that the vehicle Tinker offered in part exchange, as was his habit, would bare anything but but a passing resemblance to the one
that arrived at the dealership. these were frequently towed to just outside the door and only able to wheeze the last few yards under their own steamI could not count the old Seddons, Magauris, TS3’s,etc that Tinker dropped on my toes in my early dealings with him. However I quickly learnt stratagems to deals with
these “strokes” and we had a good business relationship over a number of years. Tinker himself was a likeable person, and once you got to know him quite kindly.
Fred Abdee seemed to take care of the overall admin, whilst I recall George Tullett ran Beasley like a drill sergeant,at least in the language he used to the drivers.During my time they purchased from me TK and latterly KM 4 and six wheelers, the 6 wheeler conversions were carried out by Primrose
Although I remained in the retail motor industry for the rest of my career, only retiring 9 years ago, and met and dealt with many characters I don’t believe
I ever came across anybody that could compare with Tinker and his love of a deal.
I drove for Thomas Paine from 1980 until 2000 we were based in millwall then silvertown finally Barking where Fred Abdee sold out to Euro Span we had some great drivers there.
Thomas Paine 1960 loaded and ready to go or maybe just arrived 
.transportphotos.com/road/photos
A good old Cockney outfit which I would see all over London,always nicely painted and lettered and always had a high headboard for the fruit job which was their main traffic I believe,but they did conform to that which all Cockney outfits did in those days and that was they all used bloody heavy sheets,I was on “the stones” at Covent Garden waiting to load one day and the one of Paines pulled in loaded so I gave him a hand (as you did in those far off days!) come to lift his sheet “■■■■■■■ 'ell John that’s heavy and it’s dry”! So this Cockney driver say’s “how heavy is your one John”? So I said help yourself so he gets hold of my main sheet and slung it on his shoulder the there was a load of expletives !! He couldn’t believe how light my main sheet was compared to his and they were a similar size !! Cheers Bewick.
This little Albion we ran for a while in the early '70’s was an ex Cockney fruit motor,it hat a 20foot all ali flat with cab high headboard.It was a right little cracker and hadn’t been killed with work when we got it at about 3 years old.Cheers Bewick.