TRUCKIN IN THE 80's (International)

[spardo]

truckerash:

maverick72:
what about daniels of bromsgrove the old 111s before they changed to erf

am tryin to keep this topic on european stuff.
maybe i should start another one on companies doing UK work only?..

maverick72:
thought it was about trucking in the 80s

As it’s obvious that’s what you intended Ash, but agreeing that Maverick has a
point, I’ve changed the thread title to (International). Hope you both
approve.
If you follow through with the UK idea, how about giving it the same title but
with (UK) tacked on instead of (International)

[buzzardboy]

truckerash:

BuzzardBoy:
TruckerAsh,

How about S&J Pierce from Leighton Buzzard??

tryin to keep this particular topic to the 80’s. were Pierce’s going back then? cant remember seein um…

Yeah, the latter part of the 80’s though i believe, used to have a single F12 doubled manned by him and his wife iirc, doing Milan for TNT.

[bestbooties]

[quote=“truckerash”
someone ask for Moorlocks i think…

and another for BESTBOOTIES. Any info on Ibis/Morgan Overland would,be most appreciated. They ran to M/E with Whites and I beleive they had a rare bonnetted version…
heres a more humble Merc to jog the old memory Ian.[/quote]

Moorlock’s was on my doorstep, but I never got to know any of their drivers only one,Frank Breeeze,met him in Spain a couple of times.
I saw Morgans about but never got to know anything about them,sorry I can’t help with that one.
The night TM at my place used to do M/E for Comart,bloke named Carl Cornes.Anyone know him?

[the_flying_foden]

ask carl cornes if he remembers terry lewis -phil bunch and ray gold to name but a few ex comart lads

[routier]

pics r stil comin and they r still SUPERB!!! Does anybody on here know a Bobby Joyce, Frank Gary. Barry Madigan or a Peter Reynolds ? all from the 70s era on Internationalwork, Peter and Bobby still doin doin Europe I believe.

[routier]

courtesy of TruckerASH, many thanks, hope ya dont mind me postin them, SUPERB!!!

Some of My dads old companies…

[dieseldave]

OK guys- more crap pics, but this time you’ve got routier and BuzzardBoy to thank for this lot!!!

Don’t worry truckerash, there’s some for you too!!

First up, there’s a couple of Winter “snowscapes” from the arty dept.

I can’t remember where I took this, but I think it was the time when I got snowed-in whilst crossing the Dutch Alps

Only kidding!! It was taken near the Loibltunnel. (Austria into Slovenia)

This next one was taken near Susa, before the new road was built.
We got diverted by the police and made to park-up in the market square in Susa.
The Italian Red-Cross had marquees set up with space heaters inside, and gave us coffee and croissants.
We were there a day or two IIRC. Sorry, no pics of the tents, I ran out of film

The blue thing under the snow is a transit van!!
Fair enough, the snow at the side of it was ploughed there.
The snow on the roof is what fell in a very short space of time.

Now for the gales of '87 or was it '88.■■
I had been weekended in Maenhout’s in Zeebrugge.
Then the winds came and tore the roof of the warehouse.
Two forklifts were needed to clear it up, but they’d use any old excuse for delays in loading us

Once loaded, it was time to set sail for home…

The boats couldn’t dock, due to the high winds…

…so the boats queued for several hours in the channel.
You can see two boats behind us, and we were behind others…

The trucks were sliding around on the boat, and many were damaged.
This crewman had been attaching extra chains, but it was too late…

Almost everybody wasn’t very well, and didn’t fancy their meal.
Those that did eat were soon trying to give it back, but were directed outside.
Then they gave up, which left lots of curry and other tasty stuff for me. mmm…

Fair play to 'em, they kept the boats running…

Also from the 80’s, here’s one end of the Frejus tunnel…

Here’s a 111 I drove for E. J. Lucas. Reg No VEA 253 S
This is loaded with peaches from Cesena, bound for Liverpool fruit market on Edge Lane.
Truckerash, have we forgotten Chivers and Frampton’s?? They were on the peaches job as well.

When Eric packed-up I got a job in Sant’ Ambrogio, near Turin.
Here’s the Italian truck I drove. A 360 V8 Renault. Reg No: TO 10064 Z
The firm was called : Co.Ge.Tra (Compagnia Generali Trasporti.)

This one was taken on the ferry from Reggio Calabria to Messina…
D 693 XPB

Now for one that we might have forgotten. Barco did a bit for…

Now, does anybody know what this is■■? (I haven’t a clue)
I took the photo in Montpellier. ('82ish??)

Did anyone tip Italian backloads in a warehouse near this American plane??

Now for a quiz.
Here’s a photo of two trucks in Barcelona. I was driving the F10.
Both trucks are illegally parked on cross-hatchings.
Fair enough, but only one parking ticket was issued.
Q1. Which truck got the ticket??
Q2. Did the ticket get paid??

Last but by no means least is this 8-legger pulling an 8-legger drag. These things were a common sight in Italy.
They were running at 44 tonnes (with a 2 tonne tolerance ) before we’d added the fifth axle to artics here.

I hope I’ve jogged a few memories. Mine’s certainly been jogged, thanks guys.
I often saw East-West at Eurodisney when I was carrying building materials there for Taylor Woodrow and Laing.

Now, I have a question. Who was the fridge outfit from East London, who went Euro tramping in Seddon Atkinsons?? They used ECMT permits, and IIRC, their colour was a pale blue, similar to Leggetts. I saw one of theirs broken down in Norway once, but where would you get Sedd-Ak parts over there??

Here’s another name: Did we mention Kentvale??

[wheel_nut]

I reckon that picture really shows the weather conditions. I started to make a lot of money immediately after that clearing fallen timber.

My mate came off the ferry empty, cut his tilt off and used it as a flat carrying trees for 6 months

I think the reason that you got done for parking was that

1. You were a foreigner
2. You were an easy target
3. You were parked the wrong way round

I imagine the Spanish police are members of Trucknet now and will be along shortly to collect the fine

[coffeeholic]

The boats always seemed to do the actual crossing in the normal time regardless of how bad the weather was, then hang about outside waiting for their turn or the tug. I think it was this waiting that did for a lot of people. It was funny watching them get greener and greener before a look of relief spread over their face as the old white cliffs appeared through the driving rain and spray, you could see them thing “I’ve made it.” This relief was short lived as the captain came on and informed us there would be a delay of several hours before we could dock, cue mass vomiting as those only just hanging on to their stomach contents realised there ordeal was far from over. I seem to recall my longest time on a ferry waiting to get into Dover due to bad weather was around 8 hours. By the time we got of I had actually had a full daily rest period.

A favourite trick of a driver I worked with called Arthur was to get some fruit salad from the drivers restaurant and put it in a sick bag. He would then go and find a seat in the passenger area somewhere and pretend to vomit into the bag before taking a spoon from his pocket and start tucking into the contents of the said bag with no small degree of enjoyment. Cue mass stampede for toilets.

[lemonmouth]

Now, does anybody know what this is■■? (I haven’t a clue)
I took the photo in Montpellier. ('82ish??)

I’m almost certain its a Berliet.

[truckerash]

now then DieselDave: Lucas International Transport ay??
Look what i got…pulling a Norseman trailer. Essex reg so i guess he got it 2nd hand.

and you mention Framptons so heres one of theirs with a tilt. got sum more with fridges, ill look them out later.

and Kentvale. Now taken over by E M Rogers, Northampton.

ive got some Chivers pics too which ill look out, but in the meantime for now, heres a selection to keep you fridge boys happy

[dieseldave]

truckerash:
now then DieselDave: Lucas International Transport ay??
Look what i got…pulling a Norseman trailer. Essex reg so i guess he got it 2nd hand.

Spot-on truckerash Eric drove that one himself at first and did M.E. with it. IIRC, Eric had some connection with Edmond Despair at that time. I’m not sure whether ROO 107 W was bought second-hand. The writing on the door has absolutely surprised me, because Eric disliked any identifying marks, since that could have an effect on permits, if you catch my drift When Eric bought the 111 in my pic with the fridge, a guy called Neville and I kinda shared that by doing alternating trips. The “Lady Amanda” in the windscreen proves that ROO was driven at the time of your pic by our other driver called Les, since Eric’s wife was called Linda, and he wouldn’t have had “clutter” and stickers if he’d been driving it. So now truckerash, you have pics of the whole E J Lucas “fleet.” The Norseman trailer was sometimes lent to us, because we did a lot of newsprint from Bowater’s, Ellesmere Port to either Dortmund or Bologna for them. Does anybody remember big Arthur on Norseman??

Just to complete the Lucas story, Eric decided to re-spray both trucks blue.
This pic was taken when I “cancelled” an afternoon and took the then Mrs dieseldave and my son to the Atomium.

I didn’t know that Kentvale had been taken over by E. M. Rogers. IIRC and MMTM, Kentvale was run by a rather fearsome lady.

Coffeeholic, your memory of the storms and delays is exactly the same as mine. PMSL about the story with the fruit but I never saw anybody do that. I seem to remember phoning my boss from the boat on the day of this storm. He knew which boat I was on, so when I phoned, he asked whether I’d cleared. Imagine how blue the air was when I told him that I was still on the boat!! That delay was somewhere near 10 hours plus the crossing time. Everybody made such a fuss and said it really was horrendous, but there’s no way I was parting with my dinner or the impromptu all-day brekky!! Add to that the fact that I got a legal daily rest plus a lie-in , and you might agree that I really couldn’t see what all the fuss was about. I treated the whole thing as a nice little holiday cruise, with some amusing entertainment laid on.

Wheel Nut, I think you’re spot-on mate, or is it that we’re both just cynical??

lemonmouth, My gut feeling is that you might well be right, but if we wait for Spardo I’ll bet we’ll learn something

If there are still any masochists in the building, I’ll root out some more pics if you like…

[coffeeholic]

dieseldave:
Coffeeholic, That delay was somewhere near 10 hours plus the crossing time. Everybody made such a fuss and said it really was horrendous, but there’s no way I was parting with my dinner or the impromptu all-day brekky!! Add to that the fact that I got a legal daily rest plus a lie-in , and you might agree that I really couldn’t see what all the fuss was about. I treated the whole thing as a nice little holiday cruise, with some amusing entertainment laid on.

I know what you mean, I also used to enjoy those situations in a perverse sort of way. I guess not suffering in the slightest from the old Mal de Mer helps. It was/is just another aspect of the job to experience and as you say there was always plenty of amusement to be had at other misfortunes.

[bestbooties]

the flying foden:
ask carl cornes if he remembers terry lewis -phil bunch and ray gold to name but a few ex comart lads

I’ll ask Carl when I see him again this weekend.Yes,Ray Gold and “Bunchy” I knew reasonably well.What about Dave Pritchard?,spent more time in the Harem Hotel than on the road I think.

[bestbooties]

dieseldave:
Now, does anybody know what this is■■? (I haven’t a clue)
I took the photo in Montpellier. ('82ish??)

Got to be a bonnetted Berliet ain’t it?

Last but by no means least is this 8-legger pulling an 8-legger drag. These things were a common sight in Italy.
They were running at 44 tonnes (with a 2 tonne tolerance ) before we’d added the fifth axle to artics here.

Didn’t we used to call these caterpillars?

Here’s another name: Did we mention Kentvale??

When I worked for Simon International,there was a big Scouse geezer that came from Kentvale,his name escapes me for the moment.

[the_flying_foden]

bestbooties just to prove dave did come out of the harem hotel now and then

here he his doing a spot of site seeing

[dieseldave]

bestbooties:
Didn’t we used to call these caterpillars?

When I worked for Simon International,there was a big Scouse geezer that came from Kentvale,his name escapes me for the moment.

IIRC, the Kentvale guys I remember were all Londoners. I don’t remember a scouser on there, sorry.

I have heard of those double 8-leggers being called “millepiedi” in Italian, which neatly means “millepede” in English, cos we nicked that word from the Italian language and angliscised it. The literal translation is “thousand feet.” Didn’t those things have a sound and smell all of their own, especially if you overtook one whilst going uphill??

BTW bestbooties, didn’t you say somewhere that you were on Transleam?? If so, I remember them in Ramsgate.

[bestbooties]

dieseldave:
BTW bestbooties, didn’t you say somewhere that you were on Transleam?? If so, I remember them in Ramsgate.

Look at the “Terry Walters looking for old mates” thread.

The last time i saw Dave Pritchard in recent years,he had a motor running clay from Knuttton to the Ibstock brickworks at Chesterton,not quite as glamourous as the M/E?

[the_flying_foden]

dave work’s for a cheese company near crewe .or he was last time he passed me

[runabout28]

kerbut wrote:
Carl

Nice to see the photos of Alan Taylors trucks. I think he used to have a Mack also. I used to know Alan fairly well as we both did traction for GBE and he bought my Globetrotter from me ( HNH 350 Y ) when I bought a Pegasso Troner which was in GBE,s colours, any photos of my old Globetrotter ? ,I did see it about 7 years ago going around Rennes painted orange.

this the photo you looking for kerbut