great ash, kindle said that machayes is his uncles old truck
get that pooter fixed soon as and get more pics up!!
jj72:
Yep Plant & Engineering from Colnbrook - Ziggy Swanston, quite a colourful character by all (and they’re numerous) accounts,
brings back memories for me when is was a kid in the 70s…i was always hanging around in swanstons (tan house farm) as i lived across the road from them in mill st colnbrook…they had 2 trucks from what i can remember back then…one was a scania 141 and the other my favourite of all time and i suppose the truck that got me interested in driving was the volvo f88…the f88 was driven by a guy called peter and i loved going out on local jobs with him in school holidays when he wasn’t lugging plant abroad… was always helping wash his truck down too ect…the 141 i think was driven by a guy called john might be wrong…
how u doing ash were can I get your book long haul pioneers from its seems hard rock find. And the dvd destination doha
bradfordlad9999:
how u doing ash were can I get your book long haul pioneers from its seems hard rock find. And the dvd destination doha
It’s on Amazon,the book is anyway,priced at £119.00 plus delivery.
Good luck
David
5thwheel:
bradfordlad9999:
how u doing ash were can I get your book long haul pioneers from its seems hard rock find. And the dvd destination dohaIt’s on Amazon,the book is anyway,priced at £119.00 plus delivery.
Good luck
David
Good luck indeed, David, if you don’t live in Blighty that is. 
VAT, customs duty, handling charges, blackmail. 
5thwheel:
bradfordlad9999:
how u doing ash were can I get your book long haul pioneers from its seems hard rock find. And the dvd destination dohaIt’s on Amazon,the book is anyway,priced at £119.00 plus delivery.
Good luck
David
Blimey is that inflammation, or because it’s getting collectable, I got for Xmas few years back, don’t think she paid that much.
A couple of pics given to me by Cliff whos pictured here when he had this ERF new, he spent many years going over the water for JH Willis on the tankers, still going strong doing 4 nights a week and into his 70s now
i remember they used to have a lot of the jennings sleeper cab`s
Come on ASH get that pc sorted and lets see if you can dig up a few more of the Willis fleet 
jaymus:
whytey512:
truckerash:
nice to read all the chat lads. bringin back a few good memories for me.Patricks was one of my favourites too! Keep the pictures coming please!
time to put a few more pics on then:
heres one for you Ian, Promotor F12 with a South African driver, if I remember correctly, his name was George.
Heres the Hercock roadtrain “Roman” in his F12
and how many of you knew Hercocks did a bit of heavy haulage?
this is how Hercocks ended up for those who didnt recognise the Derby and White name
Leggetts was another regular i used to see. Was amusing to see the Volvo F12’s and f89’s “waiting” for the SLACK ATKI’s to catch up!
dont know where this was taken, reckon it was somewhere in Swiss.
Anyone have a clue?
Leggetts were parked in Muttenz Basel
and now a few more to jog yer memories…
who remembers FERRY FRIGHTNING ?
Swains with a French reg 111 and Martintrux, night shot at Dover
Early David Croome F12 especially for JJ72. Croomy had a Mack, ill have to sort that 1 out and post it if anyones interested?
and finally one of my favorite outfits, PATRICKS. They always had top o the range kit. This F88 wagon and drag is a cracker!
now owned by Rogers who have also recently taken KENTVALE over as well.
so, am i putting too many photos on here? Do you guys want to see more?
Or should I be thinking about a book…[/b]
Keep the photos coming brother.
newmercman:
The driver’s door on Keith Headley’s Daf is a proper homemade affair, what the hell is it? I thought the window moulding was from an LN2 Merc when I first saw it again in that photo, looks like a Volvo F series door handle too.
I think this was discussed before and the whole door from an F10 had been butchered to fit as they were longer doors than the DAF. RIP Keith the Header
Wow! What an excellent thread ash. Thanks for all the pics which have brought back lots of good memories. (particularly the tom + jerrys and RH) I wish id took more pics over the years!
Heres some of Caddies from these 2 great sites of old pics This ones a must for any of you who used to go through Dover a lot
truckphotos4sale.albumpost.com/England
And this ones got plenty of old motors from around the country
trucksgalore.co.uk/goldold.html
This is Pat in his FL sadly he passed away earlier this year
This is Mark Samuals (7ft)
This is my mate Alan in his FH for Sunhill Transport,
they used to do a lot of steel over to Eurpoe ,at the time they were in a crappy blue colour
anyone on here got any pics of them from back then?
Come on people we need more pic`s to keep this great thread up at the top
I’ve borrowed these from a couple of sites (including ebay)
Although better known for pulling boxes round the UK, Brain (aka Hollywood) Haulage also ran from a depot in Rotterdam (J & C Brain bv) as well as an operation in Saudi.
This first ones an early X reg 142 which ran out of Brain HQ at Oliver Rd in West Thurrock. It was taken beside the old WW2 Spitfire Hangar at the Birmingam depot - now the site of Betterware, at Castle Vale - Junc 5 on the M6. Pic credited to Lee Hubbard who’s father Mick worked at Grays depot
A one off for Brain’s was this MAN demonstrator
Another V8 Scania but a slightly earlier 141
Unfortunately, after running what was said to be the largest privately owned Scania fleet in Europe a change in policy saw Renault become the main fleet supplier as seen by this G260, B599 BWC which started life in ACT livery
Fortunately, a few of the bigger cab R310’s and 340’s were bought as well
Another firm better known for container work was Sanmar of Wakefield, in the early days however they ran regularly onto the continent
More familiarly on the boxes
Just squeezing in as an 80’s pic, this G reg 2435
And a definite non-qualifier as an 80’s pic, but I’ll post it anyways - K200 SAN - one of ten 2448’s bought in 1993. This always had to be parked up next to K200 MAR if they were both at home
Anybody Remember me, Alan Godfrey, I drove for George Francis out of Surrey Docks in London, with Scanias 111’s never a dull moment with George, He was the one who shot the customs officer in Rotherhithe, over some Cannabis he had hidden in a 20ft container, so we changed the name of the firm to Hilldyke, just to kid them on that it wasn’t us. Yeh right!!! one time I get back to the yard on a Saturday morning, and it’s burnt down, my car that was parked there was nearly melted, George was going round hitting the Firemen, as they where doing to good a job, and putting it out, last thing he wanted, was it out.
There where only two of us on the Continent, Bobby Lardner and me, one did Germany and the other Italy, although we had the Blue Permit Books, that allowed us to go anywhere, I always thought they were forged anyway knowing him. He got shot dead a couple of years ago outside his yard in Rotherhithe, after doing 16 years in jail. Happy days, seeing all these 80’s motors again.
Nutters on the Peripherique.
Little Al.
Great pic`s & tales them Little Al please keep em coming
Welcome to T/Net
Welcome to TN Alan, all memories gratefully received.
Great pics there Al, bet you have some stories to tell!!
Ya ole boss sound a character so, spent 16 yrs in nick ? then gets out and gets shot ? got to be dodge for sure, hes tread on sum1s toes now ?.
Hi All, thank you for your comments here is an article on my mate George, I think I might have to be careful what I say, might end up like him!!!
Although he always owed you money, and gave you a headache in his dealings with him, he always had to win, he did have this Charisma about him, that all his workers and friends would follow, he was a well known villian in South London, and he took a shine to me, I later was his Transport Manager and mate, he involved me in a lot of his business ventures, I used to drive his Roller for him, which went towards the judge, I mean costs, at his Winchester trial, over that shooting of a Customs Man, he then had the Merc after that, the 450 SEL with 6.9 engine, you never knew what was coming with him, happiness was on the ■■■■ big time, up his house in the heated pool, or in the depths of depression giving everyone the hump, complex man.
George never used to have a book by the Derv Pump, as the diesel he got hold of was never Kosher, so he did’nt want it recorded, we never ran on red, but one day, as I was dieseling up I noticed that the smell wasn’ right, and when I looked, it was this thick milky looking stuff, when I set off for Greenwich High St, for my trip to Italy, the bloody Motor went like a rocket ship, but was pouring out thick blue smoke, it turns out George had got hold of some Electrical Oil, and stuck it in the derv tank, still it did have it merits, I have never seen a Motor move so fast and pull so much weight, the blue smoke dies down a little after awhile, and you notice to much, could’nt understand why everyone was flashing me.
By not recording the fuel you used of course, older drivers will know what I mean about “fiddles” as I could get to Hamburg (I did wind up locked up once for falisifying the German Tankshein) and back on a tankful, without buying it abroad, but it was touch and go, many a time in the middle of Deptford High St, it peter out and you had to tilt the cab, and give it a good pump hoping it would get you the last few miles home, we were some of the richest drivers around working for George and his tricks, whatever he got up to, so did we even more.
Loading in Hannover Germany.
On the road Home
Off to get my Weight Watchers fish pie, post some more soon.
Little Al
bullitt:
Ian excuse my niavety but in your pic of the Scania above you have a tyre up on the roof…am I right in presuming that it was just a tyre? Surely not the whole wheel rim and tyre aswell?And if it was how the hell did you get it up there, guess it would come down preety quick though!!
bullitt,
Sorry for not replying to this post at the time you made it,must have missed it.
As I think I said about this particular trip,I was doing a Teheran trip well freighted,so you cannot have too many spares with a step frame.I had two complete spare wheels under the trailer,and two new tyres on the roof rack. I only had one flat,in Bulgaria on the way out ,and I was able to repair that with a new tube.You can bet your life that if I’d only had one spare,I would have had more tyre trouble than I could do with!