Was being a member of the NAFRW or BAR of any benefit ?
or a badge of honour like checkatrade nowadays
Great looking Bedford you posted above Carl. 
First VAM pantecnicon 1966.
Click on page once.
Mark ,that was a long walk mate ! 
glad you got on the drive though ! i hate putting a 18 t on block paving though 
Dean , great clipping of a early Marsden body builder advert .
DEANB:
Great looking Bedford you posted above Carl.First VAM pantecnicon 1966.
Click on page once.
Hi Dean, I think that van or in particular finding an example might be as difficult as finding a Guy big j with a Gardner 8 cylinder engine.
In 1966 we were , like many others building on the Bedford SB passenger chassis, and had the last 4 of these in process of being built by Marsden. My dad and me were down at Warrington seeing how the latest was progressing and talking to Ken Marsden, and he said that was an artists interpretation of what one would look like.
We were in the very early days of Plating & testing and suffering with the shock that our Bedford SBs which we always with Vauxhall motors encouragement have considered them a variant of the S type, (Then known as the Big Bedford 7 tonner) & as a 7 tonner weight had not been a consideration. We were however shocked to find that without modification our SBs (In truth weighing unladen about 4 ton 5 cwt although we managed to get them just under 4 ton for taxation purposes) were without modification being given a plated GVW of 8.9ton. We had to modify each by fitting heavier springs both front & back to get them up to the maximum they ever would achieve of 9.5 ton (Which all of ours were modified to achieve including the last 4 that Marsden were in the process of building for us.
Ken Marsden said the problem they had encounted with the VAM passenger chassis was that for commercial use they would not achieve much more that the SBs and so our best choice would be Bedford KFs plated at 11.15ton GVW that they were building integrals onto (like this F reg on the photo).
At the time the SBs after plating & testing could only achieve 5 ton instead of the 7 we had expected, but still for 90% of our use that was adequate. Even with a full load of 120 Tricity Fridges were only about 4 ton and average removal under that. Cookers which we delivered at that time were The Tricity Marquis & Vicount which were heavier than Fridges had high level grill at the top could only be carried single level (However eventually found a way of folding down the grill & packaging to enable stacking)
So our last SB was VPT 882F & our first KF BPT312F were not far apart. We had always been suspicious of TKs with regard to overheating but after that time we never bought another SB , but you can see the logic of us considering the VAM chassis.
The SBs in our eyes were wonderful vehicles easy to maintain & very popular with drivers as after all they were the same experience as driving a Bedford Coach and although our KF fleet was eventually out numbering them we happily continued to operate them as they were making us good profits, until one day I found myself as Company Secretary having to travel down to Harrogate Magistrates Court after one of our SBs had been pulled in and weighed & found to be overloaded on the front axle.
We loaded front to back & obviously unloaded back to front. Fortunately I could prove we had issued written instructions to all of our drivers that as they unloaded their first deliveries they should move their load back & ‘level off’ but as we all know ‘Drivers will be drivers’ and this one had simply tied off his load & the rear half of the van was empty & the front including 4 fridges on the Luton was full & the seesaw effect had put too much weight on the front axle.
Fortunately we were given a conditional Discharge which had little if any effect on our ‘Operators Licence’ As you can imagine any fine they imposed although not welcomed would be no penalty compared to what the Licencing Authority at The Northern Traffic Area could expose.
This spelt the end for our SBs We switched them onto our Courtaulds work which was lighter loads & phased them out over about 2 years. This was costly as in our spares department we had at least the equivalent of one van, which took years to dispose of mostly to coach operators needing SB parts.
JAKEY:
Mark ,that was a long walk mate !Dean , great clipping of a early Marsden body builder advert .
Steve…it was mate a lot longer if i had not been given permission to go up that drive…the truck was far from full with weight it was mainly paintings.
I had a good look at the drive and could see it was solid no movement in the block’s anywhere…just made sure the truck was pretty level sitting on the drive at the top not on a the grade for the weight of the truck…he was a pretty awkward customer who just had to be reassured at all times including is late fathers paintings…all went well he was most generous at the end 
smallcoal:
hi mark im ok thanks everything good mate how you and the family keeping you busy mate we up and down in work they just took a 26 tonner of us cutting the fleet down
Hi John,
Family are well thanks mate…hope its the same with you also mate.
Its sluggish with us manic certain days slack the next…is the a plan from Clarkes to return that 26 tonner or is it gone for good mate ?
A freind of mine unexpectedly sent me this pic this week…this Leyland Boxer MGU 353L one of three also 354 and 355 built by Norwich Coachworks for Griff Fender on behalf of Pickfords in the early 70s…they were versatile vans with split tailboards so they could be turned in to bay loading vehicles by altering the tailboards to the the level of the main floor of tbe body.
This boxer along with the other two were the first 16 ton vans Griff Fender ran…before these boxers it was mainly 12 tonners down…from these boxers all the new vehicles were 16 tonners boxers and also standard Pickfords Bedford KMs.
These boxers were used on a variety of work when new…Addis housewares…Mettoy’s model vehicles…Christy Tyler furniture…Hover… and Removal and Storage work and so on.
marktaff:
smallcoal:
hi mark im ok thanks everything good mate how you and the family keeping you busy mate we up and down in work they just took a 26 tonner of us cutting the fleet downHi John,
Family are well thanks mate…hope its the same with you also mate.
Its sluggish with us manic certain days slack the next…is the a plan from Clarkes to return that 26 tonner or is it gone for good mate ?
Hi mark ,gone for good mate,causing us problems,this week has brung headaches our diesel tank broke losing 18,000 pounds worth of diesel also 3 lorries broke down contaminated diesel so we got to use Pencoed we maxed out 2 cards in 2 days 
so big mess this week mate ,that job you did hope he tipped you well ,hi Steve how’s things with you
Intresting read about the Bedford Carl.
Cant remember if i have popped this one on before.
Marktaff, Nice pic of the Griff Fender boxer.
I know this was built for carrying plastic,but you can guarantee when it was sold on a removal company would have bought it.
Look at the size of that Luton.
John, That was an expensive week loosing £18,000 grand of diesel.
What was wrong with your Merc then ?
Hi dean ,they filled up Friday the diesel had water from the bund leaking into the tank due to a crack in it 3 Merc s water in the diesel tanker came in Monday put pipe on started pumping bang blew the crack wider out flowed the diesel all over the yard so we waiting for a new tank to arrive,the bill for the 3 lorries costing £500 for cleaning and draining the tanks with the cost of the cards and the tanks and hire of a couple of units it’s going to cost Clarkes about £40,000 at the end of the month 
sorry dean should have read 18,000 Ltrs not pounds
Hi lads my mother found this gem w Jones invoice 16/1/1978 when we moved from Baglan to port talbot £17.50 plus £1.40 vat total£18.90
Good morning John,
What a lovely find .
Jakey.
smallcoal:
Hi lads my mother found this gem w Jones invoice 16/1/1978 when we moved from Baglan to port talbot £17.50 plus £1.40 vat total£18.90
John thats a cracking find mate £17.50 + vat…how times have changed mate…also the phone number of 4 numbers
Who was the Director Frankcom ?
Dean it sure would have been snapped up by some furniture remover back then.
Its looks about 14ft tall…“Bridge Monster”
marktaff:
smallcoal:
Hi lads my mother found this gem w Jones invoice 16/1/1978 when we moved from Baglan to port talbot £17.50 plus £1.40 vat total£18.90John thats a cracking find mate £17.50 + vat…how times have changed mate…also the phone number of 4 numbers
Who was the Director Frankcom ?
Hi mark,neil francome that who it is ,I remember doing dss removals £28 ,you won’t get much change out of a £1000 nowadays
smallcoal:
marktaff:
smallcoal:
Hi lads my mother found this gem w Jones invoice 16/1/1978 when we moved from Baglan to port talbot £17.50 plus £1.40 vat total£18.90John thats a cracking find mate £17.50 + vat…how times have changed mate…also the phone number of 4 numbers
Who was the Director Frankcom ?Hi mark,neil francome that who it is ,I remember doing dss removals £28 ,you won’t get much change out of a £1000 nowadays
John…i always thought Neil was a Jones !
Yes same here mate i also remember DHSS jobs to my old man used to charge £34.50 for smaller moves and £48 including VAT for larger ones…that was around 1980…Teachests not included
Like i said how times have changed…in this part of the world you would be looking at £800 to a £1000 these days
Hi mark,Neil was Phil Jones,s nephew Neil was a driver as well before he went in the office that is why he is a director ,strange how we took on dhss jobs that was a big norm them days but good times though
Turnbulls of Leeds Scania.
Pages found on Bootle History Forum from a trade directory on Merseyside from long ago.
Some of the older chaps on this thread will remember some of these companies.
The firm of S & R Smyth is shown in the 3rd picture, but as far as I know, they are no
relation to me despite the fact that I have the same name, and as a young lad, I lived
quite near to their depository and office in Liverpool.
Ray Smyth.
Ray Smyth:
Turnbulls of Leeds Scania.
Turnbull of Leeds brings back memories. Going into Leeds from Wetherby direction, you couldn’t miss their office & I cannot remember the Managing Directors name but I met him several times when he came up to Newcastle to visit our local BAR meeting. In their day they were the market Leaders for removals in Leeds and now like so many of us, they’ve gone.