That first wagon looks like a Smith of Maddiston, !!
If it is SOM its not from the S’hampton depot 'cause the sheets aint a’flapping!!! Anon.
Sod off Den, I’d have me balls chewed if it wasn’t done properly. I say it myself, but I really could rope and sheet, neat as an Xmas present, all the dollys in a line, Dundee braces on the back, skin on top, tight as a drum…proper job !!
Anyway, it’s not an S.O.M. cause Canaldrifter says he was pulling out to overtake, and you just know that wouldn’t have happened if it was, especially if it had the 8LXB in it !!!
I guess we were lucky with back-loads, all arranged by the nearest depot, sometimes even a loaded trailer waiting to go South, and nearly always back home. It wasn’t very often that you got bumped to another depot, and it wasn’t often that we’d run empty.
canaldrifter:
[Gawd! 'Ow many more times! It was a Housden’s of Hatfield convoy of glass out of Nottingley on the A1, and the unit in front was a Seddon Atkinson.
Canaldrifter…your dealing with a lot of old men you know…they haven’t got all their faculties in the right place anymore, especially those from the Northern hemisphere !! Go easy on us !!! Anything that was maroon and cream was a S.O.M motor…must be the rose tinted glasses…
canaldrifter:
[Gawd! 'Ow many more times! It was a Housden’s of Hatfield convoy of glass out of Nottingley on the A1, and the unit in front was a Seddon Atkinson.
Canaldrifter…your dealing with a lot of old men you know…they haven’t got all their faculties in the right place anymore, especially those from the Northern hemisphere !! Go easy on us !!! Anything that was maroon and cream was a S.O.M motor…must be the rose tinted glasses…
Sorry I’ve took so long to respond Dave,tried this morning but kept getting slung out! couldn’t resist the pun though,sorry! You can see they ain’t SOM motors as they would have had “skins” on and on closer inspection of the frontal shots the sheets are drooping a bit!!! Never mind BRS,SOM and probably Suttons were quick off the mark after de- nationalisation to create a strategic depot system,and all this was done before mobile phones,fax’s and computers.The traffic was organised efficiently by the traffic desks,in writing,and the whole operation managed by phone calls!These “Tautliner” drivers of to-day must be extremely envious of how easy the drivers of yesteryear had it what with the pleasure of using the A class trunk road system,non-sleeper cabs,high quality digs(well not always)and enjoying the pleasures of sheeting and roping in the wind and rain sometimes! They must be really choked about how badly they are done by to-day compared to the “featherbedding” we got in our day.Things do sometime get worse,not always better! Cheers Dennis.
Canaldrifter wrote,
Did anyone actually buy any of those ‘night vision glasses?’ If they’d’ve worked it could’ve saved the forces hundreds of thousands in NVG sights and goggles!
Tone
My old man had a pair and swore by them when he did night trunk from Newcastle to Mossley for a few years in the Sixties, he offered them to me once but I declined, you had to be in total darkness just to wear them as they were an awful Amber colour all over but to be honest they did give better vision. I came across them when sorting through his stuff not long after he passed away in 2008, I might give them a try myself one day soon as I’ve now got to the age where I don’t care what I look like! Or I could take them to Antiques Roadshow.
As for finding our own return loads I thankfully missed that part during my driving time but remember trailing around some clearing houses with Pa when a laddie. He was told once to take a new lad around the places he knew in Liverpool once they had tipped, so off they went, they were both about the same height around 5ft 5in and by the time they had got to about the sixth place with no luck with a load this new lad dropped to his knees and put his hands up in prayer then exclaimed to the surprised clearing agent “For God’s sake give us a load to Newcastle, I was Six Foot Two when we started this”. They got a load, happy days!, mmmm.
Cheers Franky.
Frankydobo:
Canaldrifter wrote,
Did anyone actually buy any of those ‘night vision glasses?’ If they’d’ve worked it could’ve saved the forces hundreds of thousands in NVG sights and goggles!
Tone
My old man had a pair and swore by them when he did night trunk from Newcastle to Mossley for a few years in the Sixties, he offered them to me once but I declined, you had to be in total darkness just to wear them as they were an awful Amber colour all over but to be honest they did give better vision. I came across them when sorting through his stuff not long after he passed away in 2008, I might give them a try myself one day soon as I’ve now got to the age where I don’t care what I look like! Or I could take them to Antiques Roadshow.
As for finding our own return loads I thankfully missed that part during my driving time but remember trailing around some clearing houses with Pa when a laddie. He was told once to take a new lad around the places he knew in Liverpool once they had tipped, so off they went, they were both about the same height around 5ft 5in and by the time they had got to about the sixth place with no luck with a load this new lad dropped to his knees and put his hands up in prayer then exclaimed to the surprised clearing agent “For God’s sake give us a load to Newcastle, I was Six Foot Two when we started this”. They got a load, happy days!, mmmm.
Cheers Franky.
I’ve got a confession to make Franky,I got a pair off a Sutton trailer mate in the Hollies cafe at Cannock,when I was a 19 yearold trailer mate on the Brady Octopus.A few day’s later I had just got behind the wheel late one night,so I puts these things on! Eric my guv’nor is in the passenger seat,so he say’s lets have a butchers at them specs! he puts them on,then winds the window down and slings them out!!! You’ll have us through the(zb) crash barriers with them on he says!!!End of night vision specs!!! Bewick.
pete 359:
hi all,
great thread john,bewick totally agree with the “lacing of the boots point” .my father and many other south wales drivers from the 60’s always mention jack sharkey from newcastle?i believe he ran a clearing house during the 1960’s,based somewhere on the north east? i was only a baby at the time.anyone else remember back loading through him?
regards andrew.
As far as I remember Jack Sharkey ran Archbolds Newcastle office for years. He had all the
paper reels (have you got a back scotch?) and timber on the river. Kevmac47
Bewick:
[ You can see they ain’t SOM motors as they would have had “skins” on
Actually they have. We used to spread and tie the fly-sheets under the main sheets on those loads, to hold the corner boards in place while we roped and sheeted the load. I know this wouldn’t throw the rain off, but that didn’t matter with paletised and shrink-wrapped glass. We stopped putting corner boards on top of the sheets after one of our lads was hit on the head and nearly brained by one.
Incidentally, it used to amaze me how many drivers roped over the top of fly-sheets. We would put a cross front and back, but that’s all. they were designed to flap, cos that threw off the rain. Am I right?
Bewick:
[ You can see they ain’t SOM motors as they would have had “skins” on
Actually they have. We used to spread and tie the fly-sheets under the main sheets on those loads, to hold the corner boards in place while we roped and sheeted the load. I know this wouldn’t throw the rain off, but that didn’t matter with paletised and shrink-wrapped glass. We stopped putting corner boards on top of the sheets after one of our lads was hit on the head and nearly brained by one.
Incidentally, it used to amaze me how many drivers roped over the top of fly-sheets. We would put a cross front and back, but that’s all. they were designed to flap, cos that threw off the rain. Am I right?
Tone
You are right,the guy i worked for used to bollock up hill and down dale any driver guilty of roping a fly sheet or commiting the carnal sin,sheeting steel with one.
regards dave.
Hiya …our bottle sheets at Harrisons had a rope stitched all around the edge of the sheet ,that had rings fastened
to it and a lenght of rope from the rings. we carried cans from crown cork at southall 15ft high i had 2 large sheets
and the bottle sheet. you draped the bottle sheet over and tied dollys on the sheet ropes . no need for any other ropes.
John harrison always got us tackle that made the job easy. our sheets was 30ft square with 3 rows of envalope ties
on each side of the sheet. if you folded the sheet propely it did,nt matter how high the load was there was always
a row of ties to make sheeting easy and not trying to fold up unwanted sheet.
the key thing in my eyes was to spend time rolling up your sheets.
John
Bewick wrote;
I’ve got a confession to make Franky,I got a pair off a Sutton trailer mate in the Hollies cafe at Cannock,when I was a 19 yearold trailer mate on the Brady Octopus.A few day’s later I had just got behind the wheel late one night,so I puts these things on! Eric my guv’nor is in the passenger seat,so he say’s lets have a butchers at them specs! he puts them on,then winds the window down and slings them out!!! You’ll have us through the(zb) crash barriers with them on he says!!!End of night vision specs!!! Bewick.
Ha ha, brilliant, knowing my old man he probably picked them up! Some of the lads have mentioned backloads from Newcastle and Kevmac suggested Jacky Sharky as one agent, Ouseburn Transport and Warehousing also stored many goods shipped into Newcastle Quayside, they had some of the largest warehousing in the Northeast, I remember the Orange boats (lovely big juicy Jaffa’s) Peanuts, Potatoes as well as chemicals, Carbide, some acid that smelled like Pee, and animal feed stuffs, meal full of grubs and strange creatures! They also stored Hundreds of tons of Lead from the Elswick Works and I witnessed many motors from up and down the country that would load out of the Sheds on the quay and Ouseburn’s warehouses. If you were unlucky you might have to try and reverse into the archway below, there was always a helping hand though to get any driver in to load and sometimes some of the old hands would do it for them as there was a bit of a knack to negotiate the dog leg, all good fun! Franky.
3300John:
our sheets was 30ft square with 3 rows of envalope ties
on each side of the sheet. if you folded the sheet propely it did,nt matter how high the load was there was always
a row of ties to make sheeting easy and not trying to fold up unwanted sheet.
the key thing in my eyes was to spend time rolling up your sheets.
John
During the mid/ late 80s can remember back loading out of the following on a regular basis
East Lancs paper- Radcliffe.
Goodlass wall - Speke.
Preston board and paper.
Eastlight- Denton.
Bowaters- Ellesmere port.
E J Arnold - Leeds.
Fisons- Swinefleet.
Spandler bros- Gt Yarmouth. Fertliser out of Gorleston?
Uniex-Gt Yarmouth.
Bowaters - Northfleet.
Laportes - Redhill.
Mardons -Warmley.
Drg- Fishponds+Shortwood.
Most of the work from up north was sourced through Global freight- think they went on to become Dnd?
I can vividly remember running for J&J Campbell with a load of Contiplas out of Rickmansworth, for Glasgow. It was always a slippery load, and sure enough, after crossing the A5 from Watford Gap to Cannock, it started to overhang dangerously on the nearside.
I got as far as Keel Services. Parked next to me was a fella with a load of newsprint reels under ropes and sheets. It overhung the back of the trailer. I persuaded him to back into the side of my load and push it back on for me. Unfortunately, neither of us realised how fragile a reel of newsprint is. Although the exercise was successful as far as I was concerned, the back reel collapse like a pancake.
canaldrifter:
I can vividly remember running for J&J Campbell with a load of Contiplas out of Rickmansworth, for Glasgow. It was always a slippery load, and sure enough, after crossing the A5 from Watford Gap to Cannock, it started to overhang dangerously on the nearside.
I got as far as Keel Services. Parked next to me was a fella with a load of newsprint reels under ropes and sheets. It overhung the back of the trailer. I persuaded him to back into the side of my load and push it back on for me. Unfortunately, neither of us realised how fragile a reel of newsprint is. Although the exercise was successful as far as I was concerned, the back reel collapse like a pancake.
He was not pleased.
Tone
I used to carry a lot of that and egger board, don’t know why but it was always the second pack from the headboard over the landing legs that always slipped. Before straps we used to rope it , sheet it, then rope over the top again inbetween the bottom ropes.
Took a lot of it to kitchen manufacterers and game machine makers. My mate had a load turn him over on Derby ring rd. going to Bell fruit at Nottingham, it went to court as insecure load but got thrown out when he told them he needed rachet straps to secure it and the firm didn’t supply them. Result! we were never allowed to carry it without straps after that.
