Carl
How true many tales are not to be printed i could write a book but i would get arrested, i am truly pleased you are still feeling well to keep it going i also like Eddies tales of entertaining eeee he was a lad was our Eddie, i never worked with him but by gum i heard plenty tales years after he left so he is history.
Has anyone heard how Geoff Pye is?
Gordon.
goggietara:
Carl
How true many tales are not to be printed i could write a book but i would get arrested, i am truly pleased you are still feeling well to keep it going i also like Eddies tales of entertaining eeee he was a lad was our Eddie, i never worked with him but by gum i heard plenty tales years after he left so he is history.
Has anyone heard how Geoff Pye is?
Gordon.
Hi Gordon,
I haven’t heard from Barbara or Geoff for a while, and they say no news is good news and I am sure Barbara would be in touch if he was ill.
I’ll wait until the new year and arrange to meet up with him again and take him for a drink. Be about Feb, wuld you like to come?
Carl
Hi Carl, I hope you don’t think I’m being cheeky but when you arrange to see Geoff would it be ok if I popped in for a drink? I don’t know if Geoff can remember me but I certainly remember him. Especially the baby episode. Chris
825christineh:
Hi Carl, I hope you don’t think I’m being cheeky but when you arrange to see Geoff would it be ok if I popped in for a drink? I don’t know if Geoff can remember me but I certainly remember him. Especially the baby episode. Chris
Hi Christine,
That’s a great idea. I’m sure Geoff would enjoy seeing two or three of us. He really enjoyed going for a drink with mysef and Paul last time. I am ■■■■■■■ first three weeks in Jan, but will try to sort out for beginning of February
Will let yu know as soon as i have date etc
Best wishes
Carl
Hi Carl & Christine.
A great suggestion i would love to go with you all to Birtley, i have tried a few times ringing both & leaving texts & still no answer so like you say Carl no news is good news.Christine that baby is now a grown woman & i am still 25 ha ha.
Gordon.
Carl
Yesterday i popped over to John Woods Car Spray workshop @ Hetton Le Hole we had a great chat about our reunion but most took awhile for everyone to get recognised & he could not wait until next years he has been there since W H Williams closed 1986 i think, a lot of years has gone by we both had dark hair & hair then.
Gordon.
Hi Carl. Excellent Christmas card you sent us you were very quick in getting them printed. You mentioned Leyland Lairds and Boxers you had being very unreliable which they were but you had a very reliable Bedford TK towing breakdown truck towing them in. If I can remember correctly some of them came from Judge Plastics and were painted blue I know they were overhauled before you put them on the road but being Leylands of that era they were not upto the job unlike the FG DPT100B. I travelled many miles in this and it never let you down I will tell some tales later Eddie start getting worried (just kidding)
Hope you all have a good Christmas. Peter
goggietara:
Hi Carl & Christine.
A great suggestion i would love to go with you all to Birtley, i have tried a few times ringing both & leaving texts & still no answer so like you say Carl no news is good news.Christine that baby is now a grown woman & i am still 25 ha ha.Gordon.
Hi Gordon,
I will contact Barbara in the new year and arrange that you, me and chritine can take Geoff out for a drink. I know he will be so pleased as it wil brighten his life up so much, and yes he certainly can talk about old times.
Carl
pbsummers:
Hi Carl. Excellent Christmas card you sent us you were very quick in getting them printed. You mentioned Leyland Lairds and Boxers you had being very unreliable which they were but you had a very reliable Bedford TK towing breakdown truck towing them in. If I can remember correctly some of them came from Judge Plastics and were painted blue I know they were overhauled before you put them on the road but being Leylands of that era they were not upto the job unlike the FG DPT100B. I travelled many miles in this and it never let you down I will tell some tales later Eddie start getting worried (just kidding)
Hope you all have a good Christmas. Peter
Hi Peter,
I thought the Christmas card was good, and I used it, as it was no longer advertising and I’m sure we never will see that Ford van again. As I was able to find the picture so near Christmas and there was snow on it, I think it was a message from dad so I used it.
We never bought a new BMC/ Leyland Lard. Most were as you say acquired when we bought the ex-fleet of Judge, the manufacture pans. How they ran them no-one would ever know as we fitted engines galore and like you said they were continually pulled home. We did however buy a second hand Laird platform that ran from Courtaulds Spennymoor to Oldham five days a week and that was not much trouble. Perhaps they didn’t like the wind pressure aused by the high van bodies.
We did buy two new boxers, first being RPT603M which was the second Coachskill body. I think it probably had a Leyland (BMC) engine, and was a complete failure. We also inherited a few Boxer box vans when we took over ATM’s transport, with Perkins pathetic engine effort, that again were continual trouble. Finally we bought a new Boxer, with another Perkin’s effort that soon had the spot 2 engine fitted under warrantee that proved another pathetic effort at engine manufacturing.
All in all coupled with Leylands prime failure the Lynx they kept our breakdown (fortunately a reliable Bedford, which did more mileage nearly than all the Boxers and Lairds in total without ever breaking down) very busy.
Like you say DPT100B was in theory a good vehicle, apart from being a pig to drive, as were all our other FG’s (reliable but not pigs). I hated driving DPT100B. Several times I had to drive it down to Altringham with the Pyjamas. I don’t remember for certain but you might have gone with me once or twice. You know Peter, the one thing I hated most about that job was having to pull out of the garage at Marmaduke Street at 5-00Am on a morning and disturbing the residents. (Well that’s my excuse for not liking to get up so early on a morning).
I remember going down to Manchester which was OK, over Stawich, then I remember we drove round Manchester past Belle Vue fun fare on our way round to Altringham and by leaving at 5-00Am we got through before the ‘Rush Hour traffic’ In traffic I never felt safe with DPT100B as you never really knew where you were on the road, and in fairness it drove itself.
The final word on the Lairds and Boxers goes to my dad. ‘We never really found out what they were like for wear and tear from the likes of track rod ends etc., as the engines never let them do sufficient miles to find out’
Carl
edworth:
Carl Williams:
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.
EddieYou 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
Eddie
Hi Eddie
With you taking of sleeping on the lutons and above the engines in the Marsden integral TK cabs reminded me of when we bought the 6 new Mercedes curtainsiders A 501XVK to 506XVK, long after you had left. They had the standard Mercedes cab and curtainsider bodies, so there wasn’t the attraction of sleeping in the back of the bodies, and the six drivers who got them to drive had all been driving Bedford integrals before that.
They obviously were keen at first with the thoughts that the Mercedes turbo charged engines would give them much more power and be better to drive, and between them devised ways of making beds, stowed behind the driver’s and passenger’s seats that they could lower over the seats to sleep on on a night, but one thing none of them had bargained for was tha the Mercedes cabs were not well insulated, and unlike the fibreglass cabs were very cold.
Calling the Mercedes the ‘Tin cabs. They all wanted their Bedfords back.
Carl
Merry Christmas Everyone.
Eddie[
Hi Eddie, I told our Trev you were asking after him and he sends his regards. I told him what you said about him going down the pits when he was a young lad. He said that he would go back down tomorrow if possible he liked it that much. Chris
To all Truckers,
A very Merry Xmas to you all & a Happy New Year.
Gordon.
Carl Williams:
edworth:
Carl Williams:
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.
EddieYou 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
EddieHi Eddie
With you taking of sleeping on the lutons and above the engines in the Marsden integral TK cabs reminded me of when we bought the 6 new Mercedes curtainsiders A 501XVK to 506XVK, long after you had left. They had the standard Mercedes cab and curtainsider bodies, so there wasn’t the attraction of sleeping in the back of the bodies, and the six drivers who got them to drive had all been driving Bedford integrals before that.
They obviously were keen at first with the thoughts that the Mercedes turbo charged engines would give them much more power and be better to drive, and between them devised ways of making beds, stowed behind the driver’s and passenger’s seats that they could lower over the seats to sleep on on a night, but one thing none of them had bargained for was tha the Mercedes cabs were not well insulated, and unlike the fibreglass cabs were very cold.
Calling the Mercedes the ‘Tin cabs. They all wanted their Bedfords back.Carl
The reason for the purchase of the six Mercedes was John Dee had persuaded Thorn to give him a contract to operate 2 Volvo ridged 16 tonners curtainsiders for multi drop deliveries. In return Thorn gave us a contract to operate initially six with the instruction that a total of thirty should be provided over the next two years. We chose Mercedes rather than John Davison’s choice of Volvo; however the use of curtainsider 16 tonners with tail lifts had been John’s.
Never would I have dreamt of such vehicles being suitable. The weight of the vehicles was totally over specified as 12 ton GVW would have been adequate and curtainsiders was a stupid choice. However the John Dee idea was that they could be loaded at the sides by fork clamp trucks and unloaded conventially at shops and small warehouses using the tail lifts.
At an Historic Commercial vehicle meeting I spoke to Colin Hodge, who had experience of running Mercedes commercials and he said they had proved to be excellent vehicles and had the benefit of turbo charged engines that proved more reliable than the non-turbo charged used in 12 ton GVW range.
Also the customer I always right and Thorn were giving us a five year contract which gave us a guaranteed weekly payment with a mileage surcharge, so we were paid whether or not the vehicles were used. Over the forty years we had worked for Thorn this was our first contract as we always had worked before on a handshake, but the vehicles we were providing were of precious little other use to us. On the good side the cost per vehicle was less than the cost of a 12 ton gvw Bedford Marsden pantechnicon we normally would have bought, but in reality not as good a vehicle.
We put them into use. At Spennymoor Thorn’s huge distribution centre warehouse did not lend itself to loading from the side, so the curtainsiders were merely used as vans, with convential loading. White goods were rife for theft. Yet with our vans and all the millions of loads we had done over the years we never had any significant theft problem. This was possibly due to the fact that often no one knew what they were loaded with, but also they were quite secure. Stanley knives were s handy too cut through the curtains and pinch the odd cooker or fridge, using a small transit van or the like.
The Mercedes were quite reliable which could be expected in the two years we used them, as they were still new, but a change of management cancelled the contract, deciding it was better to use John Dee 40ft trailers to deliver to town centres with multi drops.
Merry Christmas to all on Trucknet. Chris ■■■
Festive Greeting to everyone.
Her is hoping you all have a good christmas & 2013 is a better year Ang ■■■
What’s happened to Christmas?
I went Christmas shopping this afternoon (early for me like to go 24th about 2.00Pm but now I can’t drive had to go earlier.) Went to Darlington, but what has happened to the toy shops, they’ve all gone. Went to Binns expecting to see Santa Clause and no toy department. In the market there was a stall used to sell some decent cars and busses.-gone.
I got my grandchildren the rubbish Alexis said they wanted (Thomas the tank engine for one and Turtles for the other), but I like to see toy shops when I can find toys I would like, and then buy them.
When I was about 8-10 dad used to park near Garden Street and my enjoyment started by looking at Hayward and Robertson’s vans and then there was always new Dinky toys I wanted and loved. Even when Paul was young I could still buy Corgi toys. They made some excellent Bedford O model vans. Also I remember buying him a Brittain cattle truck. It was a Leyland Redline either Boxer or Mastiff. It was so lifelike it soon broke and Paul still enjoyed playing with it, explaining in his small way that it was in his scrap yard. (The best place for Leyland vehicles).
Now today everything is plastic rubbish that bears no resemblance to a proper wagon or car. All I want is to buy toys that I would like to have played with, and put my grandchildren on the straight and narrow appreciating proper vehicles.
Carl try either Fenwicks in Newcastle or the Model Zone they have some ok toys