harry_gill:
hiya,
Many moons ago had an old Seddon, not Sed Ak which i ran on nights from time to time and it would do 90 comfortably and i used to run at that speed clear road permitting especially on nights passed two fire engines very early one morning was fully frieghted they must have thought they was parked up, they was going to an emergency as well, and they did’nt even flash me in.
thanks harry long retired.
C’mon H I think you must have been parked up and fast asleep dreaming at the time !!! Bewick .
harry_gill:
hiya,
Many moons ago had an old Seddon, not Sed Ak which i ran on nights from time to time and it would do 90 comfortably and i used to run at that speed clear road permitting especially on nights passed two fire engines very early one morning was fully frieghted they must have thought they was parked up, they was going to an emergency as well, and they did’nt even flash me in.
thanks harry long retired.
C’mon H I think you must have been parked up and fast asleep dreaming at the time !!! Bewick .
hiya,
Was me at the wheel wide away and i know what speed i and the motor was capable of doing and as said did it regularly, no need to tell fibs, the years i was in the game have got nothing to prove, and it was MPH not to be confused with KPH.
thanks harry long retired.
harry_gill:
hiya,
Many moons ago had an old Seddon, not Sed Ak which i ran on nights from time to time and it would do 90 comfortably and i used to run at that speed clear road permitting especially on nights passed two fire engines very early one morning was fully frieghted they must have thought they was parked up, they was going to an emergency as well, and they did’nt even flash me in.
thanks harry long retired.
C’mon H I think you must have been parked up and fast asleep dreaming at the time !!! Bewick .
hiya,
Was me at the wheel wide away and i know what speed i and the motor was capable of doing and as said did it regularly, no need to tell fibs, the years i was in the game have got nothing to prove, and it was MPH not to be confused with KPH.
thanks harry long retired.
The problem is harry that everyone’s got so used to limiters now that they just don’t seem to be able to comprehend how fast an unlimited wagon can run at and how much power it takes to do those types of speeds.A 290 Eagle in an unlimited 32 tonner I reckon could be wound up to 90 mph on the flat.I know how fast a DAF 2800 with less than that in it could go and I know how fast one with a bit more could go too because I saw enough of them come by me with 3300’s and then the 3600.
harry_gill:
hiya,
Many moons ago had an old Seddon, not Sed Ak which i ran on nights from time to time and it would do 90 comfortably and i used to run at that speed clear road permitting especially on nights passed two fire engines very early one morning was fully frieghted they must have thought they was parked up, they was going to an emergency as well, and they did’nt even flash me in.
thanks harry long retired.
C’mon H I think you must have been parked up and fast asleep dreaming at the time !!! Bewick .
hiya,
Was me at the wheel wide away and i know what speed i and the motor was capable of doing and as said did it regularly, no need to tell fibs, the years i was in the game have got nothing to prove, and it was MPH not to be confused with KPH.
thanks harry long retired.
The problem is harry that everyone’s got so used to limiters now that they just don’t seem to be able to comprehend how fast an unlimited wagon can run at and how much power it takes to do those types of speeds.A 290 Eagle in an unlimited 32 tonner I reckon could be wound up to 90 mph on the flat.I know how fast a DAF 2800 with less than that in it could go and I know how fast one with a bit more could go too because I saw enough of them come by me with 3300’s and then the 3600.
Hi Carryfast,
There was a Tilcon driver from this way who did over ninety with a 290 Eagle engined Foden,also loaded,as you are saying the guys with limiters that didn’t drive before they came in,won’t believe it. I had a Bedford KM in the late sixties with a five speed box and a two speed axle that did 75 mph no sweat.
Cheers Dave.
Back in the 60s the actual speed limit was 25MPH for trucks, but there was no limiters and we went as fast as the conditions allowed. with an empty flat single axle trailer I got up to about 70MPH on shap in what we used to call Aberdeen overdrive, or silent sixth. [out of stick], old shap that is. with the benefit of hindsight it must have been scary, but when yourin your 20s its exciting. Mind you ,you could go from Kendal to Penrith without meeting another motor sometimes.
there are more trucks going over shap now in a day than there used to be going over in a week.Happy days.
Rocky 7, 30 mph was the limit, other than waggon and Trailers, also the Motorways had in the early days no limits, Suttons etc. used to pay based on 20 mph while BRS pay was based on 30 mph.
Hi suttons Tony in the 60s BRS ran at a lot less than 30mph as their London trampers used to run from Sheffield to South Mimms on Sunday for 10 hours that was before the M1 was open up to Sheffield the route was A57 from Sheffield through Worksop to the A1 down to South Mimms I was not on the BRS but worked for Pickfords and knew quite a lot of the drivers very well I think it would be early 70s when they upped the running speeds as that was only around 150 miles.
sammyopisite:
Hi suttons Tony in the 60s BRS ran at a lot less than 30mph as their London trampers used to run from Sheffield to South Mimms on Sunday for 10 hours that was before the M1 was open up to Sheffield the route was A57 from Sheffield through Worksop to the A1 down to South Mimms I was not on the BRS but worked for Pickfords and knew quite a lot of the drivers very well I think it would be early 70s when they upped the running speeds as that was only around 150 miles.
But harry would have been running with that Rolls Eagle powered beast long after the 1960’s.
I’m still looking for anyone who knew my father, Tom Johnson of Ormskirk back in the 1950s early 60s when he drove for Suttons out of St Helens (London and Glasgow nights). Any help much appreciated.
Tom Johnsons son:
I’m still looking for anyone who knew my father, Tom Johnson of Ormskirk back in the 1950s early 60s when he drove for Suttons out of St Helens (London and Glasgow nights). Any help much appreciated.
Hi Tom, I probably knew your Dad, I did a few months for Suttons out of the TRafford Park depot, I was on night trunk to Bethnall green down one night back the next. The only other driver I can remember by name though wqs Dave Edwards a londoner living in Oldham
Hi, Sammyopsite. We did Hampstead, London to Liverpool, Manchester and Preston etc. on Birmingham and Coventry change overs, also Tuffnel Park, London used to trunk with Team Valley, Newcastle which is a dam sight more than 150 miles. I once spent a week on Pickford Heavy Haulage at Stratford as holiday relief, when I was on the BRS, but only as a mate on an old Schammel and solid wheeled trailer with about a 100 tons of Generator as a load and that took us that week just to get to St. Albans with me jumping out to wind on the trailer brakes at every little slope on the way.
Hello Toms Son, I’m sorry but I can’t remember your father, I’m terrible at names, but I was a Trailer Mate until 1964 then Driver after taking my test on one of Suttons old Atky 8 wheelers, on shunting at St. Clements Street Depot, which was around the back of Pentonville Prison in Islington, North London, allthough I probably bumped into him.
Suttons Tony:
Hello Toms Son, I’m sorry but I can’t remember your father, I’m terrible at names, but I was a Trailer Mate until 1964 then Driver after taking my test on one of Suttons old Atky 8 wheelers, on shunting at St. Clements Street Depot, which was around the back of Pentonville Prison in Islington, North London, allthough I probably bumped into him.
Tony.
Hi Tony I was interested to learn you worked for Suttons when I was a trailer mate at Brady’s we used to come across gatherings of Sutton’s 4 Wheelers and trailers usually at the Hollies or the Jet at Clifton -on Dunsmore as a youngster I always admired these motors ,150 Gardeners/Twin wheel Dyson drawbars.I noticed they more often than not were loaded with Triplex stillages for the car factories but what wieght could they put on them ( were they 16 ton gross each ?) I remember there was always a bit of banter between us ---- I had to sit with the Suttons mates while my Boss chatted to the Sutton drivers !!(class distinction ).I remember one morning in the Hollies the Sutton mates got huddled roundthe Gift Grab bandit and they got the lid up and cleaned it out !! The manager went mad !! Another thing I recall is my driver Eric telling Suttons not to bunch up as we couldn’t get passed them all in one go !! Spread out Lads give us some room !! The response ( all in jest) was something to do with ■■■ and travel !!! Regards Bewick.
Hi Bewick, No they were 14 ton gross as built before the changes to the weight rules, but of course as with all 4 wheelers in those days they were rated as 10 tonners and they tared out at about six and a half tons so they regularely grossed over 16 ton. The twin wheeled Dysons were terrific Trailers which tared out at over three and a half tons and I think you could have put 20 tons on and they would have handled it, no sweat, but god help the waggon on the front. At one time Suttons ran these Trailers behind two Leyland Octo’s which only had the 600 engines in, with 16 ton on the waggon and 10 ton on the Trailer, these were GDJ 83 and KDJ 175.
hiya,
Suttons Tony, drove an Octopus drawbar outfit when on for the BRS the trailers were just bog-standard Dyson’s which i’m pretty certain we loaded out at 6 tons payload the Octopus’s i think we put 14 tons on, would that be right?? the old memory is a bit rubbish but a total of 20 tons seems to stick somewhere they was engined with the Leyland 600 i think.
thanks harry long retired.
Hi harry_gill.
As I understand it in the late fifties and up to 1967 the GROSS vehicle weights were 14t for 4 wheelers, 18t for a chinese 6, 20t for a 6 wheeler or 6 wheel artic, 24t for an 8 wheeler or 8 wheel artic ( includes 4 in line trailers unfortunatly ) and 32t for a waggon and trailer. By the way the dimentions were rigids max length 30ft, artics 36ft and waggon and trailers were 57ft, max width 8ft.
Tony.
harry_gill:
hiya,
it was mid to late 80s when punching the Rolls Eagle about.
thanks harry long retired.
That’s what I’d have guessed Harry.I was driving the Foden gritters with them in during the early 1980’s when I was a new driver I’d only had my class 2 licence for a couple of years and sometimes I reckon that I was driving better wagons then than some of the artics which I drove 10 years later.But in general I reckon that it’s the big engined DAF’s which I’ll always remember most as being the fastest road wagons which I drove and one of those was a 1978/9 2800 which was the first artic I ever drove after getting my class 1 and it was 7 years old at that point.It could still pull at 70mph +.If only I could have had a 3300.
In 1968 i was at the tender age of 21 i got my first job as a driver working for a company on the Isle of dogs in London its name was Cubitt town transport a real old fashoned firm in a lot of ways but modern in others they had one of the first volvos in the country 1964 i think but we also had some two stroke commers well the gave me one of them number PCL773 and this one also had air brakes if you drove it you would know why.One of my first jobs was a load of stainless steel pipes on a Swedish Lloyd flat chained on the back for RG Browns at Smethwick and at that time birmingham for us was a night out so off i go nice and early on a monday morning with me case and my little book with all the digs in half past 5 bottom of M1 half past 7 Smethwick this thing was like a racing car the clock stopped at 70 and at one time i was half way past the fuel gauge so only god must have known what it did flat out i was to scared to go any faster in case i meet my self going the other way needless to say i never had many nights out used to park up on the other side of the island in PADs yard down my turning then back to Tilbury to get rid of the flat but not till midday then back to the yard then in the pub right next door ah happy days.
harry_gill:
hiya,
it was mid to late 80s when punching the Rolls Eagle about.
thanks harry long retired.
That’s what I’d have guessed Harry.I was driving the Foden gritters with them in during the early 1980’s when I was a new driver I’d only had my class 2 licence for a couple of years and sometimes I reckon that I was driving better wagons then than some of the artics which I drove 10 years later.But in general I reckon that it’s the big engined DAF’s which I’ll always remember most as being the fastest road wagons which I drove and one of those was a 1978/9 2800 which was the first artic I ever drove after getting my class 1 and it was 7 years old at that point.It could still pull at 70mph +.If only I could have had a 3300.
Hi don’t get to excited about having a 33/3600 DAF after a 2800 I had a 2800(B250CCA) just to fast I never had it flat out. I had a 3300 for 10 years it was 4 years old when it was passed to me, it came from a depot in Crigglestone, They closed that depot down after a driver had been caught speeding on the m1 North bound at Toddington doing 85 mph (it was 4 am) the police checked his tech’os and the chap had been doing this speed for months on end so they closed the transport down. Not to say I was told my DAF( B601KGU)would not go over 60 mph at any time.The 3600 just cruised uphill but did they like diesel.
The white one in this picture is mine now that dose 60mph. The Green one was 12 years old when i took this photo.
John
