mizzo:
Hiya Vic, thats him, I know he was on Suttons last year at Thornaby. Regards, Mizzo.
Now Les,i knew he had gone to another company but i could’nt remember their name,bloody hell ,how long was i on tanks■■? ive got it now Les,Suttons took Phillips contract from P&O and all the drivers transferred over to Suttons.I think he is still there.Vic.
Hi Mizzo and Victor,
Unfortunatly, one of my problems is I have difficulty recognising people, and cannot in the case of Tommy Bowen, however I recon that will be him.
If Colin Watson looks on the site, which he does from time to time, I am sure he will remember the 95mph episode and will cnfirm. Also Geoff Pye will most probably remember. Barbara, if you read this please ask your dad.
Carl
Carl----it is Tommy on the Fork lift, and examining the photo of van in Birmingham I am sure it is Tommy driving it, I can pick out his thick dark eyebrows (like Jimmy Edwards)
Eddie
mizzo:
Hiya Vic, thats him, I know he was on Suttons last year at Thornaby. Regards, Mizzo.
Now Les,i knew he had gone to another company but i could’nt remember their name,bloody hell ,how long was i on tanks■■? ive got it now Les,Suttons took Phillips contract from P&O and all the drivers transferred over to Suttons.I think he is still there.Vic.
Hi Mizzo and Victor,
Unfortunatly, one of my problems is I have difficulty recognising people, and cannot in the case of Tommy Bowen, however I recon that will be him.
If Colin Watson looks on the site, which he does from time to time, I am sure he will remember the 95mph episode and will cnfirm. Also Geoff Pye will most probably remember. Barbara, if you read this please ask your dad.
Carl
Carl----it is Tommy on the Fork lift, and examining the photo of van in Birmingham I am sure it is Tommy driving it, I can pick out his thick dark eyebrows (like Jimmy Edwards)
Eddie
Thanks Eddie
I thought I was right, but bearing in mind when I started on this thread on trucknet I wasn’t even sure we had ever had that Ford van, anything is possible. I had to ask Peter, and he told me all about it, I thought I might have drempt it. When I was told on here about the TV program I couldn’t wait t see which van it was.
Hi Eddie, Seeing as you were asking after Trev the other week, I thought you might be interested in watching this video. It’s our Trev’s sponsored sky dive parachute jump for the Great North Air Ambulance. There’s a bit of swearing at the end mind. Chris youtube.com/watch?v=TgNZT9maLXg
825christineh:
I couldn’t do that for a million pounds Gordon. It made me feel sick just watching it. Chris
That was GREAT…and the Music, I could not make his face out at first, but in the aircraft with that oronge hat on, it all came back, I could see him standing in the shop having a good natter with me, what a lad, I always admired him for his guts to start at the Pits as a young kid…the airfield at Shotton Colliery is on the site of the old pit heaps etc, my grandfather David Park was a Overman at that Colliery and my mother and sisters and one brother where all born at Shotton, some memories, wish him all the best from me and it is the charity I support.
Eddie
That was GREAT…and the Music, I could not make his face out at first, but in the aircraft with that oronge hat on, it all came back, I could see him standing in the shop having a good natter with me, what a lad, I always admired him for his guts to start at the Pits as a young kid…the airfield at Shotton Colliery is on the site of the old pit heaps etc, my grandfather David Park was a Overman at that Colliery and my mother and sisters and one brother where all born at Shotton, some memories, wish him all the best from me and it is the charity I support.
Eddie
I will Eddie. I thought he looked quite laid back on the video but he said that he was bricking it. I thought he hid it quite well. Chris
Although over the years in Spennymoor area we had carried out quite a few large office and school removals this was dwarf by this market in the Newcastle area.
In theory this could have been the most profitable part of our business, as usually it needed doing over weekend times to save disruption in the businesses we were moving. This was ideal as we were using vehicles at times when they would stand idle over the weekend. It also offered our staff high paying overtime (time and half on Saturdays and double time on Sundays).
I was going to say the n….r in the woodpile, but I can’t today, so the obstacle was Pickfords. They quoted stupid, silly low prices. I was to discover that they could do this by employing casual cheap labour. At the time I am sure they were still government owned and it would seem totally unbelievable, but at the time in Newcastle they manned their operation by using off duty firemen.
This was illustrated by their attempt at the British Gas office removal at Cramlington. This was a particularly massive job where the offices of several thousand staff had to be moved, so that asbestos could be taken out of the building and then everyone moved back again afterwards.
Pat asked if I would go with him to the presentation where we with others would be shown round the offices and were invited to quote. He wanted me to see with him so we could work out the times and staff needed to come up with our price to quote.
When we went along there were representatives from Pickfords Hoults and a small operator Harkers from Fence Houses (who I think decided it was too large for them to quote) There were miles of lateral files that needed removing in order so they could easily be refilled in their new position. We were well equipped as we had girls from our office who could oversee this with the help of drivers’ wives and friends who we could recruit.
Together with Pat we came up with a price that would give him a healthy bonus and whilst being quite profitable for us was still reasonable to British Gas. Pickfords were the cheapest Hoults second and we were the most expensive.
Pickfords were given the job, obviously. However the first weekend’s work was so diabolical that they were removed from the work and Hoults were give the work.
When the asbestos was removed the first half was over but then came the removal back and Hoults were expected to do this when it was announced they had sold to Pickfords, and British Gas were so annoyed with their original effort they decided they no longer could use Hoults, and we were given the work. Fortunately we did a good job.
The last laugh goes to a story told to me a few months after the removal. I can’t remember who told me but the gist was. ‘I asked how I could stop my gas bills coming and was told if you find your file and throw it away you’ll never get one again’. He said’ you have no idea how much I looked for my file, but as the whole country’s records were stored there I didn’t have a chance of finding it.’
To be continued
During our history we usually had at least one Morris Commercial, or there derivatives in our fleet, and more than often realised after buying, regretting it.
The first we had, I believe was a ‘Z model’, from about 1927. My grandfather often told me about it and I wished I had taken more notice of when he told me all the problems he had experienced with it. I believe when it was about two months old, it was returned to the factory and almost rebuilt, and he didn’t keep it long, as it was so unreliable. Yet he still bought more, and in fact our first purpose built removal van was a 1934 Morris.
In my memory our first was DPT100B, a FG 2 tonner chassis scuttle, with a Marsden integral pantechnicon body fitted. This was put on the road about 4 months before my 17th birthday and had been planned as a van could drive, once I passed my test. I hated driving it, with L plates when was learning to drive, and as it was an expensive vehicle it needed a regular driver, and I only got to drive it when someone was ill or on holiday. It was a pig to drive as the cab was too wide. In fact a passenger could sit on the right hand side of the driver as there was such a gap between the driver’s seat and the door. Fitted with the 3.8 diesel engine (an extra) and its crash gearbox, it was however a good, reliable vehicle.
We were so impressed that the total number of FG’s we operated was seven, most with the larger engine. However all had the three penny piece standard cab after that Three (J, K and L reg.) 30 cwt. (below operator’s licence) with Marsden large fibreglass Luton bodies, a 4 ton Luton van, a 30cwt platform used mainly by our maintenance side and finally a 30cwt box van (about V or W reg.) We were told that the crash gearbox although old fashioned was very reliable, and it was, and the doors round the corner of the cab were designed to open and close 100 times a day which they were. The four cylinder 3.8 engine was certainly better than Ford or Bedfords offerings and I think they were the best options in their size
In our small vehicle fleet we also ran J2, J4, and JU. EA along with several Transits of various sizes and two Bedford CF and overall the Morris-BMC options were more or less comparative.
WE ran two or possibly three (My memory is unclear) Mastiff tractor units with V8 Perkins engines, which initially we complained about but given time to take a longer view they might not have been so bad.
With regard to the FF models we were tempted to buy a new one at one point. Mark Robertson of Hayward and Robertson Darlington ran quite a few; with large Marsden fibreglass bodies and in the sixties and early seventies we used them quite a lot as sub-contractors. Seeing these vans on the road always impressed me and when they came to us to load, usually transhipping from our vans both dad and myself got a chance to look closer at them. At the time we had just about to change from the SB passenger chassis to the TK and the TK’s needed chassis extensions to get the body length, whereas BMC made a longer wheelbase option making them a cheaper vehicle to buy than the Bedford. Dad saw a new, unregistered chassis cab advertised in Commercial Motor which had been a cancelled order at a very good price and for some reason we got a similar offer on a Bedford so it was not to be.
However when I read on this thread of changing engines, with the Gold engine which was cheap to buy at 120,000 miles, perhaps we were lucky, as our first Bedford Diesel a 1961 SB passenger cassis with 300 cu in engine, did just over 300,000 miles when we fitted a new short motor (Also cheap) and then continued to 625,000 miles when we sold it to go even further, I hate to think how many Gold exchange engines we would have needed to fit. We must hae had well over 100 Bedford diesels and wth the exception of tractor units which were not as successful the rigids mostly achieved similar mileages.We did however inherit two lutons with on this chassis, from fleets we purchased. We rant these for only a few months as they were both relatively old and in fact neither were ever painted into our livery.
Finally our biggest ever mistakes, which did near fatal damage to our business was buying about 14 or 15 Lairds and Boxers, with both BMC engines and Perkins. Their performance and reliability was dreadful. Even with the last new Boxer we bought with a Perkins engine lost us a fortune. Unfortunately even after the dreadful results from the Lairds and Previous Boxers we made the error of buying a last one after being offered the Chassis/ cab with a 50% discount (Special offer to renew our confidence in Leyland Redlines) It’s strange that in the seddon passenger chassis we operated the Perkins engine was quite good. Average in the Dodge rigids (Dreadful in Dodge tractor units) yet in the Leyland Boxer the same engine could not perform and I hate to think how many new engines we fitted. The Leyland disease must have spread even into the engines
Below photo of two BMC Lairds, which must have been amongst the most unreliable commercial vehicles ever built
i don’t know how your threepenny bit bmc vans performed carl . i only ever did one night run down to london with one . it was fine going down , steady plod down the m1 , but it was winter with a northerly wind and coming back the damned thing wouldn’t go over40mph against the wind . as a bonus the heater was useless and i froze my bits of all the way home . it made me appreciate the tk vans a little more with a proper heater and a lot more power . cheers , dave
rigsby:
i don’t know how your threepenny bit bmc vans performed carl . i only ever did one night run down to london with one . it was fine going down , steady plod down the m1 , but it was winter with a northerly wind and coming back the damned thing wouldn’t go over40mph against the wind . as a bonus the heater was useless and i froze my bits of all the way home . it made me appreciate the tk vans a little more with a proper heater and a lot more power . cheers , dave
Hi Dave
Presumably yours would have been the 2.2 litre standard engine that was fitted, whereas we paid extra for the 3.8 litre 4 cylinder engines that were a lot better.
Dave
That brings to mind i had a TK Marsden probably BUP312f & it leaked stinking blue antifreeze from the heater radiater in the cab next to my left leg & the carpet was soaking,it went into the garage for repair & after job done i loaded for Cornwall as far as Penzance in winter cold weather but no snow just icy.En route i had trouble with the wee tap that was fitted to the side of the repaired inner radiator & realised that small brass tap had been used to bypass the radiator (no heat) that trip was horrendous i travelled with my coat over my knees & blanket around my shoulders.I told your dad & he was not amused & went & sorted the problem with the garage this time correctly i was colder than any time in my life blue blood on that trip around 1,000 miles easily.
Gordon.
goggietara:
Dave
That brings to mind i had a TK Marsden probably BUP312f & it leaked stinking blue antifreeze from the heater radiater in the cab next to my left leg & the carpet was soaking,it went into the garage for repair & after job done i loaded for Cornwall as far as Penzance in winter cold weather but no snow just icy.En route i had trouble with the wee tap that was fitted to the side of the repaired inner radiator & realised that small brass tap had been used to bypass the radiator (no heat) that trip was horrendous i travelled with my coat over my knees & blanket around my shoulders.I told your dad & he was not amused & went & sorted the problem with the garage this time correctly i was colder than any time in my life blue blood on that trip around 1,000 miles easily.
Gordon.
Hi Gordon
Sounds like who ever did the repair was working on Alan (Let it develope) Henderson’s instructions. It was bad enough what he did by etting you go without a heater, when most probably we would have had a new heater radiator in stock,in our stores, but had you not told dad it would have been forgotten about and you would have had more cool journeys.
Carl…talking about cold reminded me of Harry Blatchford towing me on a rope up the M1 with no windscreen in it was horrendous, I had a windscreen in when we started off, but so far up it just caved in, then it started raining and Harry would not stop, I was like a drowded rat, when he finally stopped after all my blowing the horn and flashing lights, he looked at me and said, Have you no sunglasses you could put on, I will not print the answer, but even after all that you still look on it as great times.
Eddie
edworth:
Carl…talking about cold reminded me of Harry Blatchford towing me on a rope up the M1 with no windscreen in it was horrendous, I had a windscreen in when we started off, but so far up it just caved in, then it started raining and Harry would not stop, I was like a drowded rat, when he finally stopped after all my blowing the horn and flashing lights, he looked at me and said, Have you no sunglasses you could put on, I will not print the answer, but even after all that you still look on it as great times.
Eddie
You know Eddie, I think it was the excitment and stress of what we often did, gave the adreneline that brings back good memeories.
Often we were using vehicles that were not designed for that type of use and today health and safety would never allow thing we did, like on occasion lowering a piano out of upstains windows and moving heavy safes on rollers.Driving vans like the J2 with two ton loads on etc, no one would ever do today. But don’t you think driving a modern Scania along the road with ABS, airbags, sleeper cab, cruise control, sat nav and cab heaters will never beat the excitment of driving something that you never are quite certain will stop, and if it does will it have enough power to pull away again.
The final part was the comradship and friendship amongst the workforce particularly down at Marmaduke Street. as you will remember working seven days a week was not uncommon, and many did not take holidays at all, prefering taking the money and carrying on working. Life was so different then.
edworth:
Carl…talking about cold reminded me of Harry Blatchford towing me on a rope up the M1 with no windscreen in it was horrendous, I had a windscreen in when we started off, but so far up it just caved in, then it started raining and Harry would not stop, I was like a drowded rat, when he finally stopped after all my blowing the horn and flashing lights, he looked at me and said, Have you no sunglasses you could put on, I will not print the answer, but even after all that you still look on it as great times.
Eddie
You know Eddie, I think it was the excitment and stress of what we often did, gave the adreneline that brings back good memeories.
Often we were using vehicles that were not designed for that type of use and today health and safety would never allow thing we did, like on occasion lowering a piano out of upstains windows and moving heavy safes on rollers.Driving vans like the J2 with two ton loads on etc, no one would ever do today. But don’t you think driving a modern Scania along the road with ABS, airbags, sleeper cab, cruise control, sat nav and cab heaters will never beat the excitment of driving something that you never are quite certain will stop, and if it does will it have enough power to pull away again.
The final part was the comradship and friendship amongst the workforce particularly down at Marmaduke Street. as you will remember working seven days a week was not uncommon, and many did not take holidays at all, prefering taking the money and carrying on working. Life was so different then.
Carl
But carl…if I had a Scania then I could have done more entertaining …remember when we stopped using the lutons for cookers and fridges and some had them sealed off like private bedrooms, think it was Jimmy Hennesy? from Bishop who had a double bed rigged up, myself, I had a ex army sleeping bag, given me from Harry Blatchford I use to be like a bug in a rug it was great, there was some nights, there would be 4 to 6 drivers etc in one van if it was empty and the others were full, personally I would do it all again,great lads and great memory’s.
Eddie
edworth:
Carl…talking about cold reminded me of Harry Blatchford towing me on a rope up the M1 with no windscreen in it was horrendous, I had a windscreen in when we started off, but so far up it just caved in, then it started raining and Harry would not stop, I was like a drowded rat, when he finally stopped after all my blowing the horn and flashing lights, he looked at me and said, Have you no sunglasses you could put on, I will not print the answer, but even after all that you still look on it as great times.
Eddie
You know Eddie, I think it was the excitment and stress of what we often did, gave the adreneline that brings back good memeories.
Often we were using vehicles that were not designed for that type of use and today health and safety would never allow thing we did, like on occasion lowering a piano out of upstains windows and moving heavy safes on rollers.Driving vans like the J2 with two ton loads on etc, no one would ever do today. But don’t you think driving a modern Scania along the road with ABS, airbags, sleeper cab, cruise control, sat nav and cab heaters will never beat the excitment of driving something that you never are quite certain will stop, and if it does will it have enough power to pull away again.
The final part was the comradship and friendship amongst the workforce particularly down at Marmaduke Street. as you will remember working seven days a week was not uncommon, and many did not take holidays at all, prefering taking the money and carrying on working. Life was so different then.
Carl
But carl…if I had a Scania then I could have done more entertaining …remember when we stopped using the lutons for cookers and fridges and some had them sealed off like private bedrooms, think it was Jimmy Hennesy? from Bishop who had a double bed rigged up, myself, I had a ex army sleeping bag, given me from Harry Blatchford I use to be like a bug in a rug it was great, there was some nights, there would be 4 to 6 drivers etc in one van if it was empty and the others were full, personally I would do it all again,great lads and great memory’s.
Eddie
Hi Eddie,
But from what I heard it would have been impossible for you to ‘entertain’ more.
Jimmy Hennesy, well that’s a name from long ago, I have added him onto my list of ex employees.
The reason we stopped loading the lutons with cookers and fridges, was because of cracks developing on the wood beams that held up the floor of the luton on one of the integral vans and we were concerned that drivers might have had to hold the load up with their heads. See we did think of health and safety in the sixties.
Thinking back now I wonder how many heavy drivers needed to jump up and down on the lutons to cause this to happen?I don’t think it was the cookers or the fridges. We said we didn’t mind the lutons being ‘boarded off’ provided it could be taken down so the luton could be used when it was needed for light large capacity loads.
I don’t know if you remember when we bought about five vans from Tom Liddle in Stanley who had started up again as Stanley Removals after selling out his own business as TT.Liddle to P & O. He soon got sick again and decided to retire again and we bought the vans he was running. Two or perhaps three were Seddon Pennine Pantechnicons built on the passenger chassis, and were fairy new, but one in particular was massive 36 ft long and about 15ft high. Ray Hornby used to use it on the North Scottish, inc Scottish Isands, run he did out of Thorn and that was handy for us as there was always plenty of space for any part loads we had. Ray had the luton well and truly boxed off and for some reason when he was off Geoff Pye was sent to load at Godfrey Syrett in Cramlington.
Geoff told me the story when I met him a few months ago. Syretts were particularly greedy, and wanted to use the total van and were demanding he opened the luton up to load. Geoff said he assured them that, as the van was so big it wasn’t necessary. He said he loaded the full load without using the luton and only filled back to the drop well. After that for several weeks Syretts were asking for that van back again, but they never got it.
Times like those will never come back and today’s drivers will never know what they missed, or those like me who were for the most part confined to the office. Every day was a roller coaster ride.
Carl
It is still a great thread Carl. Pleased to see you are still recalling the memories of the company. I need to revisit from about 15 pages back as I jumped a few posts.
Wheel Nut:
It is still a great thread Carl. Pleased to see you are still recalling the memories of the company. I need to revisit from about 15 pages back as I jumped a few posts.
Malc
Hi Malc,
Good to hear you are still reading.
Although officially I didn’t start woring till 1967 and was there till 1986, my memory goes back to the early fifties, and I have been told by dad and my grandfather, many tales and experiences that date back till just past the turn of the century, so tucked inside my thick head are many, many more memories that haven’t yet been stirred.
I get inspiration by hearing stories that come from others and reading from the other threads on trucknet inspire thoughts.
We had a get together of ex staff just over a month ago and about 40 turned up. I had hoped I could persuade more drivers to add their stories, because thats from where the best tales come. Many are not internet able, but I live in hope that a lot of tales will trickle onto the site from this direction.
But most of all the most, and best inspiration, comes from the likes of yourself for reading what is being written. So thank you for spending your time rading of the tales that come from the small north east town of spennymoor
Chris 
