ronhawk:
S Jones the Red Arrows from Aldridge that’s what the cops called the fleet of ERFs that ran the M 1 to the smoke and back the Gardner’s 6 LX s with the triggers filed down letting the rack bar to travel just a little further giving extra fuel and this I turn gives more power , working on nights I must confess that I did this as a favour ? It may well have been Gordon Taylor !! But like all the lads at Jones they soon found out and they all wanted the same , I had been brought up on Gardner,s and new all the tricks , a driver call ( Collin Hunt ) can you believe that ■■? He kept pestering me to give him the same treatment so I did just that !! But I took more than I should have off the trigger and it was black smoking a bit on test , I though bloody hell I will have to put in another trigger ? I looked through the stores !! we had none !! The next night he came in with a big smile on his face he said there are flames coming out of the exhaust ? I said bloody hell there are no triggers left just back off a bit will yah ,he went on leave and another driver had his A Series !! he booked it in for black smoke and flames and said it was dangerous ? By this time I did have another trigger and was glad to rectify my mistake much to Colin’s disappointment , Ron
Just watched an Expedia advert - a tanker driver takes his wife to the opera in Italy. Well, the opera isn’t my thing, but certainly in my driving career and since, I found that owners and drivers were a total cross section of society.
I have known lorry drivers who were Public Schoolboys, Grammar Schoolboys and Secondary Schoolboys. Accents ranged from regional ‘Haway man!’ To received ‘Oh gosh, I say.’ Drivers ranged from ex borstal boys to bored headmasters. Ex fighter pilots to scrap yard workers.
None of it mattered. I first heard the expression ‘hard work’ As in ‘he’s hard work isn’t he!’ Spoken by a Lancashire driver about a rather posh owner driver, who’d just bored us to death on his opinions of the customs somewhere, about Yugoslavia.
You could either do the job, or not! That was our equality.
ronhawk:
S Jones the Red Arrows from Aldridge that’s what the cops called the fleet of ERFs that ran the M 1 to the smoke and back the Gardner’s 6 LX s with the triggers filed down letting the rack bar to travel just a little further giving extra fuel and this I turn gives more power , working on nights I must confess that I did this as a favour ? It may well have been Gordon Taylor !! But like all the lads at Jones they soon found out and they all wanted the same , I had been brought up on Gardner,s and new all the tricks , a driver call ( Collin Hunt ) can you believe that ■■? He kept pestering me to give him the same treatment so I did just that !! But I took more than I should have off the trigger and it was black smoking a bit on test , I though bloody hell I will have to put in another trigger ? I looked through the stores !! we had none !! The next night he came in with a big smile on his face he said there are flames coming out of the exhaust ? I said bloody hell there are no triggers left just back off a bit will yah ,he went on leave and another driver had his A Series !! he booked it in for black smoke and flames and said it was dangerous ? By this time I did have another trigger and was glad to rectify my mistake much to Colin’s disappointment , Ron
is that the same colin hunt who went on to work for reban transport aldridge driving a erf b series & c series?
Ergomatic man ! Don’t know is the answer to your question this was late 60s or early 70s , names that spring to mind ? Charlie Owen, Alfie Adams , Gordon Taylor , Grahm Griffis , Ernie Hathaway, peg leg Jona ,Dicky Granthom ,bloody hell !!! i could go on for ever ? This was the time when the miners went on strike and the country was blacked out !! I Borrowed 2 ERF Batteries some cable head lights rubber trailer marker lights switches etc up the stairs and our house looked like a D/D ERF , and was better than Blackpool illuminations ,it was the only house in our steet that had Shadows , Ron
Tales from S Jones , Alfie Adams!! he was a great caricture 6ft 2 aways with his white cap on he was bald like Mirlin !! And aways had with him his overnight case , he told me about a night out that he had with another S Jones driver■■? ! it was at the same time during the black out caused by the miners strike in the 70s and was lead into a room and shown the beds ! Now this other driver was ? ( How can I put it ) A Peadophile sort of a bloke and was all the talk at Jones , Alfie was very uncomfortable in his presents, !!!Eventually getting to sleep ? Now This bloke got up in the dead of night for a ■■■■■ !! In pitch black his foot got stuck into Alfie’s case and he fell onto Alfie !!! Well Alfie screamed as if he was being raped and awoke the whole house up this story is as it was told to me ( true I am sure ) Ron
ronhawk:
Ergomatic man ! Don’t know is the answer to your question this was late 60s or early 70s , names that spring to mind ? Charlie Owen, Alfie Adams , Gordon Taylor , Grahm Griffis , Ernie Hathaway, peg leg Jona ,Dicky Granthom ,bloody hell !!! i could go on for ever ? This was the time when the miners went on strike and the country was blacked out !! I Borrowed 2 ERF Batteries some cable head lights rubber trailer marker lights switches etc up the stairs and our house looked like a D/D ERF , and was better than Blackpool illuminations ,it was the only house in our steet that had Shadows , Ron
Knowing a little of your resourcefulness Ron I am not all that surprised that you came up with something.
Our electricity supply is incredibly reliable - and apart from a period in the early seventies where industrial strife (otherwise known as ‘I’ll bend over and you kick me in the balls, then you bend over and I’ll kick you in the balls!’ - southern rail are currently playing that game…) we’ve hardly had more than a few minutes off at any time.
I hate the way we return to the Middle Ages, fumbling for candles and wondering what to do next!
I had 2 weeks in the Mocamp in 1976 when the 140 ran the rear bearing in the gearbox and it seemed impossible to import a new one into Turkey. The electricity was always going off.
We eventually piggy backed the Scania back home. To get from Aydin’s, where we put it on the back of another trailer, to the Mocamp, I had to stand on the back with a plank and push the unshielded power cables up so they didn’t touch the cab - then dodge the spray of sparks as live met neutral, putting the area into darkness once more!
Since I came home from Saudi in '87, I’ve had 2 generators. The first a 1 kW. Backed from the garage it would run the lights and the TV. It was a pull start and got hard to get going, so I dumped it about 2 years ago and bought an electric start 3kw.
The gas board cut through a cable a month ago. Vindicated at last! We were off for 12 hours, but we had electricity when all around us had none.
Smug? You bet! So Ron, I know how you felt back in the seventies!
Just to add, I remember back then, there was a letter in the local paper complaining that when the rest of us were doing without electricity ‘The buses are running up and down abbey road with all lights blazing, that can’t be fair!’
Och Ron … was that dirty dicks at Garstang that Alfie was parked up at ■■? certainly sounds like it !!!
anyway Ron my young “mucker” I had a visit to a new car museum this morning and took these pics especially for you ■■?
now the first one is to keep you on your toes ok !!
its an engine (of course !!) but you would never guess what …NO its not a ■■■■■■■
the others are just because your a good bloke … a wee bit off course from KSA but we,ll get back on track later ■■
Backsplice ? That engine ■■? I can’t think you have caught me cold !! the fact that has a S U dash pot on the front end suggest it’s a petrol ? But it don’t look right , one carb feeding 6 ? May be its an air cooled Diesel A Lister ? Please put me out of my misery !!! Mean while what car am I standing by today , with cap in hand , Ron
Backsplice ? Yes I have !!! But this Apple Keeps crashing ! don’t tell me , You know I’ll get there in the end !!! you did say it wasn’t ■■■■■■■ so that makes it ezzer Ron
Stopping on the mountain road , you can see the old paths that the camel traders must have used in the days gone by !! deep into the rocky valleys like silken threads twisting and turning going up and over the 6500 ft and down to the Desert floor , The mountain rd was built by Binladen construction company he was the father of Osama Binladin. Along the flat desert rd approaching Mecca the signs for the none Muslims Turn Right along another Rd called the Christian By Pass you realy where stepping back in time , this rd must still be there today , as the silken paths in among the mountain peaks that could clearly be seen , Osama Binladen father was killed in a air crash along with a few more top Saudis .the mountain Roads where Much improved , I saw great improvement from Jeddah to Abha with concreat barriers on death streachers of road down south , But the flat roads in the desert were just as bad with the crazy drivers going to there deaths, and it’s even Worse to day with the bored youth taking risks to there selfs in fast cars today ? (Two much Money better to live without ■■ ) Ron
No Entry to Non Muslims
Ron I remember one trip there were 3 of us loaded with big generators in Tilts for Medina diesel electric power station … I was getting the wind up as we had past three of these signs before we eventually got there … there were stories about Christians vanishing ■■? anyway it went well but the sight was the hottest place I have ever been in my life …especially stripping the tilts …the three of us had drank all our water and were Gagging but were saved when one of the workers took us down in a cave and pointed out this pure COLD running water he called it sweet water…we filled our bottles and containers before we left (the tilts were not rebuilt just piled on the back and tied down ) took a chance on not getting King Faisal,s revenge!!! which we did,nt ■■?
Yes Backsplice , there where natural springs in this red hot country but very few and far between the Sweet Water pools of gold mirrors in the sun , John Davies and Ernie Hathaway sitting by this one that Hammed had taken them to , just outside Madeana, We where looking for Desert Roses near Rastanora and came upon a spring that was just oozing out of a sand bank into a deep pool we could not believe it and we where diving in it !! I did have photos of Ronnie Hinton diving , but I lost the photo ■■? Ronnie lost his life in Dammam with a heart attack, not long after through the heat !! he was a great man to say the least always looking after his truck and others ,I think of him often , I used to take his mail home to his family in Aldridge , it’s unforgiving to say it was not that hot in Saudi , certainly sweet water pools like this can save your life . Ron .
The experiences in Saudi I find fascinating especially when I can retrace the mountain roads that I experienced from Jizan ,Nazran to Abah across the Asir mountains , with the help of this eye pad . I can pick up the mountain roads but can’t find those 2 stainless water tanks that I stayed by ? All those years ago ? Having traveled this world far and wide , the memories of Saudi stand out mainly because of the Desert heat and the roads that go on forever and then the fascinating mountain roads, and to drive with the ERF and get paid for this was a privilege , Ron
he was bald like Mirlin !! And aways had with him his overnight case , 
he told me about a night out that he had with another S Jones driver■■? ! it was at the same time during the black out caused by the miners strike in the 70s and was lead into a room and shown the beds ! 
Now this other driver was ? ( How can I put it ) A Peadophile sort of a bloke 
and was all the talk at Jones , Alfie was very uncomfortable in his presents, !!!Eventually getting to sleep ? Now This bloke got up in the dead of night for a ■■■■■ !! In pitch black his foot got stuck into Alfie’s case and he fell onto Alfie !!! Well Alfie screamed as if he was being raped 
and awoke the whole house up this story is as it was told to me ( true I am sure ) Ron 
