Just to answer the question by Dennis of how many Bristol 8 Wheelers BRS had. The British Transport Commission or BTC as it was more widely known looked to Bristol to supply the vehicles for the Road Haulage Executive and they placed an order for 200 max cap lorries, they had plenty of acquired medium weight vehicles but not enough of the heavier variety. The order was known as Sanction Number 88 and placed in 1950 although by 1952 only 18 rigid 8 Wheelers had been built, the first of these HG6L’s chassis no 88.001 was delivered to East Bristol Group in November 1952. These 8 Wheelers had Single axle drive double reduction through spiral bevel and double helical gears. In all though 517 HG6L’s were built with of course the Leyland 0.600 125 bhp engine and the last one was delivered to BRS Bristol in November 1958 by which time production had ended in favour of Articulation.
The HA6 type 24 Ton GCW artic appeared in June 1955, BRS realising the advantages of max capacity artics took delivery of 651 up to February 1964, with the first going to Hampstead Branch and the last to South Wales District, over half of the order had Gardner 6LX engines (it is presumed H stood for Haulage chassis, A for artic, 6G for Six cylinder Gardner engine) and the remainder of the mix had the two Leyland engines fitted. Many of the early cabbed vehicles were fitted with the later 1961 Bristol designed fibreglass cab which had better vision due to the deep screen and side windows and adjustable seats. Hope this info found in the History of BRS by Nick Baldwin answers your question Dennis. Cheers Franky.
By the way older 8 Wheelers did have the 1961 designed cab fitted as this pic shows. Franky.
Frankydobo:
Just to answer the question by Dennis of how many Bristol 8 Wheelers BRS had. The British Transport Commission or BTC as it was more widely known looked to Bristol to supply the vehicles for the Road Haulage Executive and they placed an order for 200 max cap lorries, they had plenty of acquired medium weight vehicles but not enough of the heavier variety. The order was known as Sanction Number 88 and placed in 1950 although by 1952 only 18 rigid 8 Wheelers had been built, the first of these HG6L’s chassis no 88.001 was delivered to East Bristol Group in November 1952. These 8 Wheelers had Single axle drive double reduction through spiral bevel and double helical gears. In all though 517 HG6L’s were built with of course the Leyland 0.600 125 bhp engine and the last one was delivered to BRS Bristol in November 1958 by which time production had ended in favour of Articulation.
The HA6 type 24 Ton GCW artic appeared in June 1955, BRS realising the advantages of max capacity artics took delivery of 651 up to February 1964, with the first going to Hampstead Branch and the last to South Wales District, over half of the order had Gardner 6LX engines (it is presumed H stood for Haulage chassis, A for artic, 6G for Six cylinder Gardner engine) and the remainder of the mix had the two Leyland engines fitted. Many of the early cabbed vehicles were fitted with the later 1961 Bristol designed fibreglass cab which had better vision due to the deep screen and side windows and adjustable seats. Hope this info found in the History of BRS by Nick Baldwin answers your question Dennis. Cheers Franky.
Many thanks for the comprehensive explanation Franky ! 
Cheers Dennis.
Now this Octopus JEO 192 was “The Daddy”, looks like the trailer mate is stood on the back as well, they started 'em young at Brady’s 
When I was at Hampstead Branch I drove a number of different types of Bristols, both 8 Wheelers (starting on trunk my first night work started with a Bristol 8 wheeler do a change over at Bromford Lane Depot with a Blackburn AEC Mercury Artic) and the Artic units. I found that they were a better drive than other motors of the day except perhaps the AEC. when being designed Bristol asked for and received some driver input which showed in a very good driving position. The 8 wheelers chassis was based on the ERF chassis, and the artic unit had a very short wheel base. I alway felt that Bristols were not as strongly built as some other motors and tended to creak a bit if well loaded, I once done a half shaft climbing Highgate Hill in an 8 wheeler but found out afterwards that it had nearly 24 ton on board not the 16 tons it should have had, but they did the job as well if not better than most other motors of their day. After AEC’s, Bristols were my favorite drive. This business of single drive with a Trailer is an interesting one as on Suttons we had for a short period of time a six wheeler TVR with single drive with a Trailer which carried up to 10 ton and we never seem to have any trouble with loss of traction and also we sometimes had a very old Atkinson 8 wheeler and trailer which while it had double drive it would have been of the compensated drive which would have been no better than single drive ( compensated drive put the drive through to only the one wheel with the lowest resistances). The Leyland 600 Bristols were not as good as the Gardner 150 LX engined motors but the 680 powered Bristols were the best although they could lack reliability and they varied on performance, but in their day Bristols were a very good machine to do the job with…Tony.
TIDDERSON:
harry_gill:
Hiya,
I remember Oliver Hart’s having a motor with a Bristol cab but knowing that firm and
their rather mixed fleet it could have been a “bitsa” he had quite a few of them most
likely one of his cobbled together concoctions.
thanks harry, long retired.Photo of Harts. This cab wasn’t used on BRS 8 wheelers so I guess only the cab was used on a different chassis. Someone might recognize the axles
that looks like the length of a 28 tonner , when the weights went up the length specified was ridiculous . that one would be a nightmare in the towns and cities . dave
Did Bristol also build the tandem axle trailers that went with their tractor units?
rigsby:
TIDDERSON:
harry_gill:
Hiya,
I remember Oliver Hart’s having a motor with a Bristol cab but knowing that firm and
their rather mixed fleet it could have been a “bitsa” he had quite a few of them most
likely one of his cobbled together concoctions.
thanks harry, long retired.Photo of Harts. This cab wasn’t used on BRS 8 wheelers so I guess only the cab was used on a different chassis. Someone might recognize the axles
that looks like the length of a 28 tonner , when the weights went up the length specified was ridiculous . that one would be a nightmare in the towns and cities . dave
I don’t think that Oliver Hart would have been too worried about accurately complying with the C & U Regs. 
gingerfold:
Did Bristol also build the tandem axle trailers that went with their tractor units?
I have read that they did.
Pete.
windrush:
gingerfold:
Did Bristol also build the tandem axle trailers that went with their tractor units?I have read that they did.
Pete.
The Bristol did make both tractor unit and semi trailer with tandem axle.
The plant was at Longwell Green.
windrush:
gingerfold:
Did Bristol also build the tandem axle trailers that went with their tractor units?I have read that they did.
Pete.
Hiya,
Bristol artics always arrived when new with a new Bristol trailer attached as a package.
thanks harry, long retired.
harry_gill:
windrush:
gingerfold:
Did Bristol also build the tandem axle trailers that went with their tractor units?I have read that they did.
Pete.
Hiya,
Bristol artics always arrived when new with a new Bristol trailer attached as a package.
thanks harry, long retired.
Got a coloured photo of a bristol connected to a flat leaving the entrance of brs bridgend depot.When i get time will put the photo up.
Also when i work out how to do it.
I stay in oldland common a lot on my travels and the factory in longwell green was just down the road.
Hiya,
Bristol artics always arrived when new with a new Bristol trailer attached as a package.
thanks harry, long retired.
[/quote]
As new
I recall the early tandems that Brady’s and Athersmiths ran were mainly 24/26 footers which I suppose were ideal for running at 24ton GVW just like the 8 wheeler flats at 24 ft.I can also recall when the C & U regs must have changed and 33ft tandems started to appear in the mid 60’s,Brady’s bought quite a few and they had their bogies set right at the back end with very little overhang. Athersmiths on the other hand seemed to stick to their old short tandems and they also had a lot of 4 in lines, as did Brady’s of course. I can also recall that Robsons got well caught out when the 40 footers started to appear in '68/69 they had a large trailer fleet consisting of 33foot tandems so they had to embark on a very expensive replacement programme although I believe they had a lot of the 33 footers extended but it was still an expensive exercise as their MB and UG traffic demanded 40 footers overnight ! Cheers Bewick
I remember that the 24-foot trailers seemed to be far too long when handballing a load off the back end.
Little did I know what was to come! But most places had FLTs by the time 40-footers arrived.
Bewick:
I recall the early tandems that Brady’s and Athersmiths ran were mainly 24/26 footers which I suppose were ideal for running at 24ton GVW just like the 8 wheeler flats at 24 ft.I can also recall when the C & U regs must have changed and 33ft tandems started to appear in the mid 60’s,Brady’s bought quite a few and they had their bogies set right at the back end with very little overhang. Athersmiths on the other hand seemed to stick to their old short tandems and they also had a lot of 4 in lines, as did Brady’s of course. I can also recall that Robsons got well caught out when the 40 footers started to appear in '68/69 they had a large trailer fleet consisting of 33foot tandems so they had to embark on a very expensive replacement programme although I believe they had a lot of the 33 footers extended but it was still an expensive exercise as their MB and UG traffic demanded 40 footers overnight ! Cheers Bewick
With the 24 tons GVW limit it was just possible to use a 26ft trailer within the then maximum C&U overall outfit combination length, (depending on the kingpin position) although a 24ft trailer was more common. When the new C&U Regs of 1965 came into being the max GVW weight became 32 tons on 4 axles for an artic, but again within a maximum overall combination length that permitted a trailer of approximately 33ft maximum length. But there were axle weight limits and spacing dimensions in the equation that for maximum weight on 4 axles meant that the trailer bogie had to be set right back. This then resulted in the probability of the tractor unit drive axle being overloaded (10 tons then). A “normally” positioned trailer bogie reduced the maximum gvw to 30 tons. So to get 32 tons with all axles not being overloaded trailer the answer was to have either a 33ft tri-axle trailer or a three axle tractor unit with a “normal” 33ft tandem axle trailer. By 1969 (I think it was) the C&U Regs were revised to allow 40ft trailers because of the rapid growth of containerisation and the 40ft ISO container. (Sorry for the geeky answer 
)
Thanks for the well crafted explanation “GF” and you have jogged my memory as I recall that our local Paper Mill James Cropper PLC got their first Seddon tractor unit which was “C” reg and the trailers were only short 24/26 ft Boden Tandems . Just an aside this first unit didn’t have power steering and the driver, Gilbert Wilkinson, got tight up to a wall on his near side in the Mill and he couldn’t get it off, the next units that joined the fleet all had P/steering ! Cheers Bewick.
I heard that Smiths of Maddiston got Bristol to put them back into production in the early 70s and ordered 40 with 240 Gardners , i just cant find any photos
ramone:
I heard that Smiths of Maddiston got Bristol to put them back into production in the early70s and ordered 40 with 240 Gardners , i just cant find any photos
You should know better “ramone” than to set the Proles off !! No doubt one of them will claim that they were actually Bristols and not Big J’s !! Cheers Dennis.
