It is with great sadness that i have to announce that my dear friend Tom Riding passed away in hospital after a short illness on Saturday 6th June with his family at his bedside.
Tom was a true gentleman of great knowledge, a legend in the haulage industry and most of all a family man who, with out doubt, will be sadly missed. [/b]
A youthful Tom Riding in 1955 pictured in the yard at Longridge reversing Leyland Beaver
four wheeler Reg No EBA 151 on to its draw-bar trailer.
This was a Saturday afternoon when he was on a 36 hour pass out of R A F Weeton.
Tom Riding takes time out for a photograph with his close friend ‘Doctor’ John Killingbeck
during an Atkinson gathering at Leyland on the 22nd of May 1988.
Tom Riding seen here celebrating his 80th birthday on the 13th of October 2013
complete with a very apt birthday cake while at his daughters Anne’s house in Chislehurst Kent.
R.I.P. Thomas William Riding 1933-2019
That’s sad. 
I exhibit at some vintage rallies with an ex Riding fitter/driver who still has a house in Longridge and he speaks very highly of him.
Pete.
Hiya,
RIP Tom you was my boss in the mid 60s and a true gentleman you will
be sadly missed by all who worked for you and those who knew you.
Sad news, Another great haulage man passes away, RIP Tom, Regards L.S.Dunbar & Son.
What a shock ! unbelievable ! shattering news ! Tom and I must have “craic’d” for a couple of hours at Llandudno on May 4th and Tom said he would look forward to arranging a visit up to Kendal to see Anne and I and continue the interesting conversation we had. Well you never know when your time has come ! I think this may be the last shot of the Great Man involving himself in his passion which he proved over his lifetime that he was Second to None as a Road Haulier when the name meant something ! RIP my Pal Tom ! Sincere condolences to Tom’s family Kindest Regards Dennis Smith.
Uncle Tom - Very sorry to hear the sad news of Toms death - a legend to our industry. He was a great help to me in my days at TDG - keep on trucking Tom up in those clouds - No VOSA up there!!
Fond memories - especially the one where 4 of us were stood on Frankfurt station at about 11pm one night - Tom looked up and said How the F did we miss this!! RIP TOM for ever
Ken Broster
Sorry to hear that Tom has passed Paul. Knowing you like i do he must have been some character. RIP
Very sad news indeed R.I.P Tom
R.I.P Tom.
Danne
I never met the man, but I am sure he was a great character, His wealth of information on here will be missed. R.I.P Tom.
Dave…
Bewick:
What a shock ! unbelievable ! shattering news ! Tom and I must have “craic’d” for a couple of hours at Llandudno on May 4th
Have sent you an email Dennis.
What sad news and totally unexpected. I last had a long chat with Tom at Harrogate and the 2018 Trans-Pennine Run, where he was his usual hale and hearty self. Tom was a purchaser of my " Commercial Vehicle Archives Series" of books and I published a new title annually. He would ring up during the daytime to order his copy so my late mum would deal with it as I was at work. Tom would ask the price, mum would reply £10 (or whatever) plus postage. They would then barter over the price! I would get home and mum would say “that Mr Tom Riding has ordered a book, he wanted a discount but I stuck out for the price”.
When the arrangements are announced I would appreciate it if you can let me know please MML.
My condolences to Tom’s family, and RIP Tom…one of few remaining old-school transport men.
gingerfold:
When the arrangements are announced I would appreciate it if you can let me know please MML.
Understandably the family have quite a lot to do as Tom died in hospital down in London.
I will post the funeral arrangements on here when they are announced.
Here’s a shot of Tom in his ‘man cave’ at home in Ribchester which i took in September 2017.
moomooland:
Bewick:
What a shock ! unbelievable ! shattering news ! Tom and I must have “craic’d” for a couple of hours at Llandudno on May 4thHave sent you an email Dennis.
Hiya MML sad news indeed what a shock ! Tom was hail and hearty when I chatted to him at Llandudno as we had a right “chuckle” at times and we parted back to our respective “teams” agreeing to meet up again to continue “The Saga” of the many years we had both spent in the industry, Tom more years that me !! And I haven’t got the e.mail as of yet MML ? I’ll send you a PM. Cheers Dennis.
Back in 2005, myself & Kevin Battersby had a discussion with Tom about preserving for posterity his photograph collection - which he’d mentioned a few times were in shoe boxes, etc. in no particular order. After a few phone calls to arrange a meet-up at Tom’s house, we finally made it up to Ribchester to have a look at what he had. I’m not kidding - it was a treasure trove of wagon nostalgia - and every picture had a story. We set-about arranging to get all the pictures Tom picked out scanned and saved to CDs, with a promise from Tom that he’d make a start on the next batch. Myself & Kevin left that night with the back seat of my Astra holding boxes and albums of photographs - the like of which we’d never seen.
Over the next couple of weeks, I made a start at scanning each image, repairing & cleaning them up where it was needed. It was scary in places - removing photographs which had been in albums for Lord knows how long. I was managing to do around 30-40 each evening and eventually got through the first batch, so I called Tom to let him know. “When are you coming for the next lot?” was his first question, so off I went again to Ribchester - returning one lot, and bringing another pile home again. The next day, my wife’s face was a picture when she saw what was sat on the kitchen table. I set about these in much the same way, and when I called Tom again, he said “I’ve found some more & I’m in Southport tomorrow, so I’ll stop by and stick them through your door, will that be OK?” Will that be OK? I thought - I’ve got him carting his own loads - how does it get better!?!
Eventually, all the pictures Tom had looked through and recognised as being of note had been scanned, and I got them on CDs and handed them over to him. I showed him how to scan as well as cut & crop them on his computer and all went well until we had an argument about using the F12 button on the keyboard to save the cropped images. I said “everyone’s favourite Volvo” to get him to remember which key - to which he initially said there was no favourite Volvo in his house - then he said “hold on a minute” and went to a drawer and found some colour pictures of the F7s he bought from Bowkers, so we had to have a rethink…
While all this was going on, the Long Haul Club had come into being, and I mentioned to Tom that (in much the same way the Bowker archive had spawned a fantastic slideshow - which Tom had been to see, along with a packed house) his own archive would be as - if not more interesting to a lot of people. We discussed the merits of doing a show for the Long Haul Club and I told Tom that if he wanted to do it, he needed to spend a bit of time going through the CDs I’d given him to select around 100 pictures. By this time, I was in no doubt that he would have stories for each, if not every one - so I was happy that he’d not have to do any ‘swotting-up’. There were nearly 1000 pictures on those CDs, and to my surprise Tom started ADDING to the archive with more, which he said were important to the story of Ridings. I was getting almost daily emails as these pictures kept surfacing. We eventually got a running order sorted-out, I did a bit of mucking about with the presentation and we set the date for the show.
To be honest, after the Bowker show - which had been held at The Mill at Croston a couple of years previously, and was packed to the rafters (folk stood up at the back, down the sides, sharing chairs, etc.) I didn’t really know what to expect. The room at Fence was bigger, but in previous visits I’d never seen it full. Come the evening of the event, I got the projector, screen, computer, microphone & speaker working - then folk started turning up. And then more came, then more - they KEPT coming. I was at the front on the computer and the room behind me was PACKED. Given that Preston North End were playing at home that afternoon, Tom was a little late in arriving, but just strolled to the front of the hall, we killed the lights and he set to it in typical fashion. Every single picture got the Tom Riding treatment. He knew every single last detail, about every wagon, trailer, tyre sizes, spring ratings, paint colours - the absolute lot. Every single question from the audience (to a man, agog in almost silence) was answered without a single hesitation. It was a very special evening with a legend of the UK road haulage industry.
I met up with Tom a few more times afterwards - he joined the Long Haul Club and continued with his membership long after I ceased my involvement - I can remember sitting with him at an excellent slideshow in Burscough in 2015 on Hagues Transport, which was hosted by David Rimmer and he (and Martin Wainwright, Tom’s longtime friend) badgered me to rejoin. He still wouldn’t have an F12 as his favourite Volvo though…
It’s to Paul’s credit that Tom’s archive has become accessible to the public on the website he’s created and continued to work on with Tom to keep updated. I must admit, I hadn’t realy understood what I’d taken-on when I came home with that first pile of pictures all those years ago, but if Kevin Battersby hadn’t had the original idea to approach Tom with a suggestion of getting his pictures digitally archived, I don’t suppose any of us would’ve ever seen all those marvellous images Tom had taken to the trouble to capture and save. For that, I have to express an eternal debt of gratitude to Kevin.
I’m really saddened by Tom’s passing. I looked through some of his pictures only a few days ago, and there was one from the late sixties of a group of hauliers congregated at an RTITB event. There was Tom, along with the likes of youthful looking Bill & Ken Bowker and I suppose Tom stood in that group in much the same way as he led his life. On the front foot in everything he did, stood proud and ramrod straight.
Rest in peace Tom, it was a great pleasure to have met & shared time with you.
Great post Mark.
Tom was fascinating to listen to and was a fountain of knowledge the people he knew and he has brought together but have never met each other such as yourself is astounding.
Took him with me several times on night trunk the last time being in April he loved to be on the road whatever the hour in fact he was always out and about with friends in the haulage industry or driving down to his daughters in London.
He was also a keen railway enthusiast and many a time through his various contacts he managed to get a lift in the drivers cab of a Pandelino between Euston and Preston or vice-versa.
After a meal out one night last April we finished up back at his house and my wife Jane admired his bird table in the garden which he had made himself.
The following day he turned up at our house with one in the back of his car which he had put together that morning in his workshop that was the kind hearted gentleman that he was,
Yes he was a one off and it was an honor and a pleasure to have known him personally.
marky:
Back in 2005, myself & Kevin Battersby had a discussion with Tom about preserving for posterity his photograph collection - which he’d mentioned a few times were in shoe boxes, etc. in no particular order. After a few phone calls to arrange a meet-up at Tom’s house, we finally made it up to Ribchester to have a look at what he had. I’m not kidding - it was a treasure trove of wagon nostalgia - and every picture had a story. We set-about arranging to get all the pictures Tom picked out scanned and saved to CDs, with a promise from Tom that he’d make a start on the next batch. Myself & Kevin left that night with the back seat of my Astra holding boxes and albums of photographs - the like of which we’d never seen.Over the next couple of weeks, I made a start at scanning each image, repairing & cleaning them up where it was needed. It was scary in places - removing photographs which had been in albums for Lord knows how long. I was managing to do around 30-40 each evening and eventually got through the first batch, so I called Tom to let him know. “When are you coming for the next lot?” was his first question, so off I went again to Ribchester - returning one lot, and bringing another pile home again. The next day, my wife’s face was a picture when she saw what was sat on the kitchen table. I set about these in much the same way, and when I called Tom again, he said “I’ve found some more & I’m in Southport tomorrow, so I’ll stop by and stick them through your door, will that be OK?” Will that be OK? I thought - I’ve got him carting his own loads - how does it get better!?!
Eventually, all the pictures Tom had looked through and recognised as being of note had been scanned, and I got them on CDs and handed them over to him. I showed him how to scan as well as cut & crop them on his computer and all went well until we had an argument about using the F12 button on the keyboard to save the cropped images. I said “everyone’s favourite Volvo” to get him to remember which key - to which he initially said there was no favourite Volvo in his house - then he said “hold on a minute” and went to a drawer and found some colour pictures of the F7s he bought from Bowkers, so we had to have a rethink…
While all this was going on, the Long Haul Club had come into being, and I mentioned to Tom that (in much the same way the Bowker archive had spawned a fantastic slideshow - which Tom had been to see, along with a packed house) his own archive would be as - if not more interesting to a lot of people. We discussed the merits of doing a show for the Long Haul Club and I told Tom that if he wanted to do it, he needed to spend a bit of time going through the CDs I’d given him to select around 100 pictures. By this time, I was in no doubt that he would have stories for each, if not every one - so I was happy that he’d not have to do any ‘swotting-up’. There were nearly 1000 pictures on those CDs, and to my surprise Tom started ADDING to the archive with more, which he said were important to the story of Ridings. I was getting almost daily emails as these pictures kept surfacing. We eventually got a running order sorted-out, I did a bit of mucking about with the presentation and we set the date for the show.
To be honest, after the Bowker show - which had been held at The Mill at Croston a couple of years previously, and was packed to the rafters (folk stood up at the back, down the sides, sharing chairs, etc.) I didn’t really know what to expect. The room at Fence was bigger, but in previous visits I’d never seen it full. Come the evening of the event, I got the projector, screen, computer, microphone & speaker working - then folk started turning up. And then more came, then more - they KEPT coming. I was at the front on the computer and the room behind me was PACKED. Given that Preston North End were playing at home that afternoon, Tom was a little late in arriving, but just strolled to the front of the hall, we killed the lights and he set to it in typical fashion. Every single picture got the Tom Riding treatment. He knew every single last detail, about every wagon, trailer, tyre sizes, spring ratings, paint colours - the absolute lot. Every single question from the audience (to a man, agog in almost silence) was answered without a single hesitation. It was a very special evening with a legend of the UK road haulage industry.
I met up with Tom a few more times afterwards - he joined the Long Haul Club and continued with his membership long after I ceased my involvement - I can remember sitting with him at an excellent slideshow in Burscough in 2015 on Hagues Transport, which was hosted by David Rimmer and he (and Martin Wainwright, Tom’s longtime friend) badgered me to rejoin. He still wouldn’t have an F12 as his favourite Volvo though…
It’s to Paul’s credit that Tom’s archive has become accessible to the public on the website he’s created and continued to work on with Tom to keep updated. I must admit, I hadn’t realy understood what I’d taken-on when I came home with that first pile of pictures all those years ago, but if Kevin Battersby hadn’t had the original idea to approach Tom with a suggestion of getting his pictures digitally archived, I don’t suppose any of us would’ve ever seen all those marvellous images Tom had taken to the trouble to capture and save. For that, I have to express an eternal debt of gratitude to Kevin.
I’m really saddened by Tom’s passing. I looked through some of his pictures only a few days ago, and there was one from the late sixties of a group of hauliers congregated at an RTITB event. There was Tom, along with the likes of youthful looking Bill & Ken Bowker and I suppose Tom stood in that group in much the same way as he led his life. On the front foot in everything he did, stood proud and ramrod straight.
Rest in peace Tom, it was a great pleasure to have met & shared time with you.
A fine Epitaph to a fine Gentleman ! Bewick.
R.I.P Mr Tom Riding,
Thank you for all the comments and facts about most of the vehicles you ran over the years,and a thank you also to Marky and Paul (MML) for the hard work in cataloging Tom’s photos’, Best Regards Pete
This was one of Tom Riding’s favorite ‘on the road’ pictures taken on the A59 which he always said was his favorite road having traveled along it countless times over the years.
Atkinson Mk II Silver Knight 4X2 tractor unit Reg No BTF 140J Fleet No 59 ‘Jubilant’, powered by a Gardner 180 engine, was registered new by Riding’s on the 1st of November 1970 at a cost of £4598 7s 6d.
Baring Chassis No FC 19078 BTF 140J had the standard specification at the time which was a Gardner 180 engine in line with a David Brown 6 speed gearbox and Kirkstall BDR axle…
Driven from new by the late David Roberts, who is pictured at the wheel, it is seen here in 1971 while heading West on the A59 near Skipton in North Yorkshire.
After 8 years hard work in the Riding fleet it was sold to John Killingbeck of Blackburn in November 1978 for the sum of £2,500 plus vat.
moomooland:
This was one of Tom Riding’s favorite ‘on the road’ pictures taken on the A59 which he always said was his favorite road having traveled along it countless times over the years.0Atkinson Mk II Silver Knight 4X2 tractor unit Reg No BTF 140J Fleet No 59 ‘Jubilant’, powered by a Gardner 180 engine, was registered new by Riding’s on the 1st of November 1970 at a cost of £4598 7s 6d.
Baring Chassis No FC 19078 BTF 140J had the standard specification at the time which was a Gardner 180 engine in line with a David Brown 6 speed gearbox and Kirkstall BDR axle…
Driven from new by the late David Roberts, who is pictured at the wheel, it is seen here in 1971 while heading West on the A59 near Skipton in North Yorkshire.
After 8 years hard work in the Riding fleet it was sold to John Killingbeck of Blackburn in November 1978 for the sum of £2,500 plus vat.
I wish I had a £ for every mile the Riding motors covered between Longridge and Teeside or for that matter Longridge to Wishaw ! I wouldn’t be sat here in the UK now ! Still can’t believe the Great man has left us ! 
Cheers Bewick.