Chris Webb:
legion:
we had a stuffed buffalo once had been used in dances with wolves
Thereās got to be a joke about a stuffed buffalo on a wagonā¦
Err was it a Leyland Bison by any chance ?.
O.K. Hat, coat, number 47 bus etc. 
hiya,
Whatās the difference between a buffalo and a bison??, you canāt wash your hands in a buffalo,
Sorry Chris honest, i know, i know, the old ones are the best.
thanks harry long retired.
harry_gill:
hiya,
Whatās the difference between a buffalo and a bison??, you canāt wash your hands in a buffalo,
Sorry Chris honest, i know, i know, the old ones are the best.
thanks harry long retired.
Harry,get yer coat and away with Steveā¦
hiya,
Hang on Steve i want the 47 as well ta ta.
thanks harry long retired.
Hi all and what a good thread as I have heard of many strange loads in the many years spent behind the wheel. Whilst working for Jameson Europa back in the 60ās four of us drivers were asked to go on two double manned jobs with two 40ā flat trailers and I did think it may have been a bit of a wind up; but no. We had to go to 104 berth in Southampton docks and take two crated animals to Longleat Zoological Park ,Somerset for quarantine. One contained a full grown Hippo and the other a full grown Rhino both of which had been shipped in form South Africa. I wonāt bore you with the details of the journey but I did find all aspects of the job very interesting indeed.
When the Falklands was on and I was working for GBE ,I was empty in Barcelona ,phoned in and was told to make my way to Gibraltar and report to the naval base who would be expecting me. I eventually arrived there and after loads of security checks loaded a very long wooden case . I was told it had to go to Lochgoilhead in Scotland, arriving at the Loch I was escorted to an unloading area ,they duly unloaded the case and told me I had to wait a week until their tests were over and to return the case to Gib.
There was a submarine in the Loch which the winched down by chains when they wanted to submerge it ,there was also several vans there full of electrical gear which seemed to bristle into action every time the submarine submerged.
It turned out my load was a captured Argentine torpedo and they were getting sonar sound traces from it.
Not carried as such but I remember one of our trucks going to pick up a load at Hullās Alexandra Dockā¦It was a very incomplete load of burglar alarms, most of which had been nicked!
As a driverās mate in 1977 (J. Haydonās cattle wagon) we loaded cows on our 4 wheeler J Reg ERF LV that were going to a slaughter house in Oldham from Newcastle U Lyme.
They were so old and knackered we had to tie every cowās back legs together with string because if theyād done the splits during the journey we would have been up s * * * creek without a paddle!
Nothing as exotic as some of you but,I turned up at Urk in Holland on my regular run to load fresh and frozen fish for Sweden.On a pallet at one of the loading points was a bloody great big frozen fish that was so long it had to go in the trailer at an angle.
I asked what it was and was told itās a tuna.TUNA?!!! I never realised they were that size. 
Like a berk I assumed they were the same size as a salmon.
Well,the tins are the same size arenāt they! 
KW:
Nothing as exotic as some of you but,I turned up at Urk in Holland on my regular run to load fresh and frozen fish for Sweden.On a pallet at one of the loading points was a bloody great big frozen fish that was so long it had to go in the trailer at an angle.
I asked what it was and was told itās a tuna.TUNA?!!! I never realised they were that size.Like a berk I assumed they were the same size as a salmon.
Well,the tins are the same size arenāt they!
I know what you mean Keith, many years ago I was loading next to a cold storage place in Cape Town and I noticed these guys loading a forty foot fridge trailer. It took four of them to lift those huge frozen fish and then slide them along the floor to the front of the trailer where they were then stacked up. I asked them what they were and they told me that they were Tuna fish, up until then I thought that they were Dolphins .
Hiyaā¦ lots of loads i,ve carried seemed strange to meā¦ie i took a load of plywood from liverpool to essex
and then loaded the same type of plywood in tilbury for simonswood kirkby. (strange) i loaded tyres from Lincoln
to stoke ā¦they was all bauldā¦(they was going to be remoulded)that was strange at the time.
John
3300John:
Hiyaā¦ lots of loads i,ve carried seemed strange to meā¦ie i took a load of plywood from liverpool to essex
and then loaded the same type of plywood in tilbury for simonswood kirkby. (strange) i loaded tyres from Lincoln
to stoke ā¦they was all bauldā¦(they was going to be remoulded)that was strange at the time.
John
Yes john i did similar myself,loaded paper reels out of thames board mills at warrington down to thames board mills at purfleet tip/load reels for warrington,same paper differnt size.Think there must have been a fiddle on somewhere.
regards dave.+
hiya,
Did a large diameter pipe to a secret location on the Otterburn ranges in Northumberland just a normal load outbound but seemingly it was a testing site for British Gas, the pipe was unloaded the ends sealed filled with gas at high pressure and buried at normal depth for trunk mains and then blown up a la terrorist attack the pipe was then loaded back on the trailer and transported back to the British Gas experimental site at Killingworth the only odd thing was the pipe was all shapes and sometimes was wider than the trailer and had to be roped and sheeted that was no mean task and the sheets got ripped to pieces but the gas people payed for a new set of sheets everytime the job was done we always took the knackered sheets, a bit like new lamps for old, just local work but a piece of cake plus a big bang and a fireworks display thrown in.
thanks harry long retired.
Hi all, strangest load i carried ,when i worked at BRS in 1965 i took an 8 legger AEC van to Liverpool docks that had come down on nights from Team Valley Gateshead ,it was loaded with money 15 tons of it.Japanese Yen,a guy from Del-A-Rue the printers travelled with it he had all the paperwork.When we got to the docks we were took straight in to the bond cage ,i never got out of the cab the dockers unloaded it,that was the only time i ever saw L-pool dockers unload a lorry.The guy wouldnt tell me how much money was in the load except to say there was a lot,Cheers TED.
Someone mentioned chain, so in 1980 I loaded a 20 ton chain in Cardiff for Rotterdam
But during my short stint in Canada I loaded in Hensall, Ontario, which is just north of London, Ontario and delivered to the big hotel at Lake Louise, Alberta, a run off 2300 milesā¦ the load was Blocks of ICE!!! yes ICE, the company in Hensall also exports this same ice to Norway.
SMA 13H - ERF 4 wheeler cattle wagon 16 tonner in 1974 with all our furniture moving house! Well it was buckshee and had had a good wash out beforehand 
i once backloaded 20 tons of 2" ballbearings from teeside steelworks to black hole mine at eyam , in a tipping trailer . it was like a tanker with no baffles . the b. things rumbled up & down the body all the way back , quick tip though !!
That reminds me of a quick tip I did. Loaded a full load of shopping trolleys , ( they loaded on the floor and then overlayed them with plywood and stacked another lot on top ) at Clares Equipment at Wells to go to a new Toys r Us in Toulon ,the instruction was I had to be there at 0600 on the Saturday as the store was opening that day.
On arrival I was told they wanted them on the loading bay, the bay had a slope down to it , I opened the doors and slowly reversed down the slope ,their was a roar as 2 levels of trolleys unloaded them selves.
As an owner/driver in the early 1980s I got a job through Mason Bros of Rotherham to transport a pit wheel from Needhams in Barnsley to Glasshoughton Colliery. The wheel was in two halves and althought it only weighed about 4 tons it was 16 feet wide and as such needed a police ā ā ā ā ā ā and a driverās mate.
Masonās provided Wayne, their yard boy at the time and the police ā ā ā ā ā ā was already booked, so I went to Barnsley and loaded the wheel on a 36 foot flat trailer. When the police ā ā ā ā ā ā arrived he was quite brusque and said it was near the end of his shift so he wanted to āmake progressā. He said you follow me to the M1 then you go in front and Iāll follow, if you want to overtake use all 3 lanes and Iāll keep traffic back so you can, so we set off up to the Dodworth junction from Sheffield Road. There are trees every so often on the pavement edge up this road and the police car was off like the clappers - I had a hard time trying to keep up what with weaving around the trees and parked cars etc, but when we joined the motorway I thought ānow itās my turnā. The Scammell Crusader I had had a 280 Rolls engine and with only 4 tons on board it could really fly, so I gave it some welly down the hill and reached over 70mph in places - the copper was as good as his word and sat on my rear offside with his blue lights flashing as i roared up the M1 overtaking cars etc in the outside lane with the police chasing me! It was fantastic (poor old Wayne was terrified though) - Iām sure the other motorists thought the police were chasing me! When we arrived at the colliery I pulled into the yard and the copper spun round and went, never saw him again.
Imagine my delight when after delivering to Adsa Glasshoughton last week I spotted my pit wheel again:
A couple of pics with a different wheel on board:
I was asked to collect a load ( well A4 envelope ) went to collect did I have any ID with me as they needed it ( never been asked that before ) this was a travel agent in Newcastle city centre had to sign a variety of documents leaves there had another collection en route so this envelope is all sealed up well & was placed on the front seat np thought I it was going to a travel agent in Ilkeston
Up to counter handed over the envelope asked them to sign for it no not yet ned to check it so she opens it not happy as it had been tampered with even though there was a letter in to say it had been delivered to the wrong address will have to check it but oh please move I need to serve this customer
Me No you are serving me
her but I cant check this here has to go upstairs
Me yes and
her but I cant leave here as there is only me & need to serve next customer
Me so are you going to pay me parking or pay when my vehicle is towed away
her No not my problem
Me so will you sign to say you have received it
her oh I suppose but not happy it has been tampered with
So I left her to it there was only approx.20k in the envelope but they wernt even the same travel agents as 1 was Dawson & Sanderson the other the co-op