Hi Robmorris , great pictures , carry on with taking them and with any removal stories . 
I’m sure when I was younger we were moved by Brewin’s from March. They stopped for a fry up at the cafe at Necton.
Anyone got any pics of Brewin’s?
A few old photos from McIntosh at Glasgow. At the time they were running 40 vans
Carl Williams:
I surprised that no one commented on Fowler’s vehicle. Certainly an unusual artic before the days of the fifth wheel when the tractor unit’s tended to stay with the trailer, and in fact were bolted on.
Hi Carl
I’ve not time to be on here much these days so I’ve dropped the ball a bit. As you say an unusual wagon, if there was no 5th wheel what was the mechanism used?
robmorris:
Hi Guys,Im new to the site and just wanted to say hello! Im currently running a Merc 814 Marsden 3 container body (7.5 ton) and a Transit luton, so thought id share some pics with you all… Hope you like!
Cheers
Welcome Rob, always good to have another furniture humper on board. Surprised to see an 814 still earning its keep - I remember them well and with some affection. They were a helluva lot quicker and pokier than any other 7.5 tonner I’d ever driven and despite the soft suspension could get round bends very well, even lifting the nearside rear wheels off the road… or so I’m told (cough cough) 
ParkRoyal2100:
Carl Williams:
I surprised that no one commented on Fowler’s vehicle. Certainly an unusual artic before the days of the fifth wheel when the tractor unit’s tended to stay with the trailer, and in fact were bolted on.Hi Carl
I’ve not time to be on here much these days so I’ve dropped the ball a bit. As you say an unusual wagon, if there was no 5th wheel what was the mechanism used?
Hi,
I think I was only about 4 to 5 years old when we sold our first artic. (Bedford O model).
However I asked dad about uncoupling the tractor and trailer. Although I don’t know the technical details of how it turned. They only uncoupled it once when it was painted. The complete vehicle was reversed into the rear of our garage and the back axle of the tractor was jacked up. (Which also lifted the front of the trailer). The Trailer was then chocked up (No trailer legs fitted) and the bolts that held tractor and trailer together were removed. The Jack was let down leaving the trailer front higher than the rear of the tractor enabling it to be pulled out.
I think that would be difficult in today’s usage, as in those days with many artics they were just used as rigid vehicles were with a tractor and trailer rarely separated.
Carl
From the way the front axle is set back on the last Albion, it looks like its built on the Albion Victor passenger chassis, which was used quite a bit for a base for pantechnicons in the sixties.
One of our customers who were furniture manufacturers bought two with bodywork by Arlington. At that time all our new vans were Bedford SB passenger chassis based. As is often with own account operators their vans were not used efficiently and our Bedfords did about twice the weekly mileage that these Albions did. The Bedfords did much better fuel consumption, and outlived the Albions by about 6 years, and I guarantee our total maintenance costs for a Bedford over their total life was half the costs the Albions achieved in their much shorter unreliable lives.
ParkRoyal2100:
robmorris:
Hi Guys,Im new to the site and just wanted to say hello! Im currently running a Merc 814 Marsden 3 container body (7.5 ton) and a Transit luton, so thought id share some pics with you all… Hope you like!
Cheers
Welcome Rob, always good to have another furniture humper on board. Surprised to see an 814 still earning its keep - I remember them well and with some affection. They were a helluva lot quicker and pokier than any other 7.5 tonner I’d ever driven and despite the soft suspension could get round bends very well, even lifting the nearside rear wheels off the road… or so I’m told (cough cough)
Yeah bought her a few years back and love her! A little heavy but runs like a dream. Body needs some TLC at the minute. I’m thinking of moving up in weight in the new year, any suggestions on trucks, weight, body, etc that I should look out for? I’m not in the market for a new one (Dreams…) 
Cheers
robmorris:
ParkRoyal2100:
robmorris:
Hi Guys,Im new to the site and just wanted to say hello! Im currently running a Merc 814 Marsden 3 container body (7.5 ton) and a Transit luton, so thought id share some pics with you all… Hope you like!
Cheers
Welcome Rob, always good to have another furniture humper on board. Surprised to see an 814 still earning its keep - I remember them well and with some affection. They were a helluva lot quicker and pokier than any other 7.5 tonner I’d ever driven and despite the soft suspension could get round bends very well, even lifting the nearside rear wheels off the road… or so I’m told (cough cough)
Yeah bought her a few years back and love her! A little heavy but runs like a dream. Body needs some TLC at the minute. I’m thinking of moving up in weight in the new year, any suggestions on trucks, weight, body, etc that I should look out for? I’m not in the market for a new one (Dreams…)
Cheers
I suppose only you can really answer that question as you know what size moves you cover to know what size body you need. I have always found that having a 5 - 5&1/2 door 12m truck is essential as it gives you maximum load space. I work in an area that can be a nightmare for access which can often mean transhipping the load if going or coming from distance but that is just something we have to work around!
As regard make of truck, I am a Scania man through and through having driven them for previous employers before buying them myself. I still have a 14 year old Scania with 1.5 million kms on the clock and that is currently on its way back from Spain. That is the faith I have in them. Volvo is another good make. I have a 2005 Volvo fm with 600k km on the clock which is the best for fuel consumption, though I do try to spec a larger engine for better fuel consumption. To be fair if I could put a scania cab on a Volvo engine I would be a happy man! Stay away from Iveco though, I have a 2008 Iveco that is plagued with electrical faults. Its a good little workhorse but there isn’t a day that goes by without a new light appearing on the dashboard!!!
I can remember when all the large department stores had their own removals and storage department. Waring and Gillow had a massive furniture store on Tottenham Court Road and stores throughout the country. here is one of their removal vans
Jensen for a few years in the fifties were popular for making a fully integral aluminium body and chassis, pantechnicons. They were very light weight and as a result could run at 30mph instead of 20 as our petrol Bedford SBs were restricted to doing.
I asked dad why he had not considered operation one as the other benefit was that they were diesel. He told me the problem was that the bodies were riveted together and it was commented that after a journey the drivers had to sweep them out as so many rivets dislodged during usage.
This accounts as to why they were only bought over two or three years and Jensen went onto pastures new with their much more successful Intercepter sports car.
Here is a photo of one operated by Watts Bros o Beverley and a photo of their stand at the Commercial Motor show
jdc:
robmorris:
ParkRoyal2100:
robmorris:
Hi Guys,Im new to the site and just wanted to say hello! Im currently running a Merc 814 Marsden 3 container body (7.5 ton) and a Transit luton, so thought id share some pics with you all… Hope you like!
Cheers
Welcome Rob, always good to have another furniture humper on board. Surprised to see an 814 still earning its keep - I remember them well and with some affection. They were a helluva lot quicker and pokier than any other 7.5 tonner I’d ever driven and despite the soft suspension could get round bends very well, even lifting the nearside rear wheels off the road… or so I’m told (cough cough)
Yeah bought her a few years back and love her! A little heavy but runs like a dream. Body needs some TLC at the minute. I’m thinking of moving up in weight in the new year, any suggestions on trucks, weight, body, etc that I should look out for? I’m not in the market for a new one (Dreams…)
Cheers
I suppose only you can really answer that question as you know what size moves you cover to know what size body you need. I have always found that having a 5 - 5&1/2 door 12m truck is essential as it gives you maximum load space. I work in an area that can be a nightmare for access which can often mean transhipping the load if going or coming from distance but that is just something we have to work around!
As regard make of truck, I am a Scania man through and through having driven them for previous employers before buying them myself. I still have a 14 year old Scania with 1.5 million kms on the clock and that is currently on its way back from Spain. That is the faith I have in them. Volvo is another good make. I have a 2005 Volvo fm with 600k km on the clock which is the best for fuel consumption, though I do try to spec a larger engine for better fuel consumption. To be fair if I could put a scania cab on a Volvo engine I would be a happy man! Stay away from Iveco though, I have a 2008 Iveco that is plagued with electrical faults. Its a good little workhorse but there isn’t a day that goes by without a new light appearing on the dashboard!!!
I’ll keep you updated on my decisions but i think a 5 container is the best bet.
Cheers
Inside a removal van from the early sixties. Times have changed and loading in those days was from the back, but with the best of respect removals in those days were on average much bigger, with many more items of large bulky furniture.
Every home had at least two bedroom suites, with a double and single wardrobe in each, dressing table, as well as the bed. Even televisions were bigger in the non flat screen era. Pianos were more common, and I don’t know if anyone elce remembers the old 1950s Bendix washing machines and old bedsettees, which both seemed as if they were filled with concrete. And finally as has been mentioned on this thread before came the bags of coal out of the coal house. We needed every inch of space to get the load onto the van, and tight packing, front to back was often required.
we often had a tail board load in the 70s loaded up to top of van no way could you do it today
Carl Williams:
Inside a removal van from the early sixties. Times have changed and loading in those days was from the back, but with the best of respect removals in those days were on average much bigger, with many more items of large bulky furniture.
Every home had at least two bedroom suites, with a double and single wardrobe in each, dressing table, as well as the bed. Even televisions were bigger in the non flat screen era. Pianos were more common, and I don’t know if anyone elce remembers the old 1950s Bendix washing machines and old bedsettees, which both seemed as if they were filled with concrete. And finally as has been mentioned on this thread before came the bags of coal out of the coal house. We needed every inch of space to get the load onto the van, and tight packing, front to back was often required.
Not having done a removal in the last 20 years (apart from my own, you’d think I would have learned by now) I can’t make valid comparisons. But we were still using wagons with tailboards in the early 80s, later the mob I was with went to large box vans with removable ramps. I never liked the ramps much, always felt like they were too easy to fall off and injure yourself, and though I understand why they specified box vans (they were much more versatile and could be used on general bulk work) the well at the back of a dedicated removvals van is a very useful place to put all sorts of assorted garden/ shed/ garage/ coal cellar cr@p because it’s often awkward, heavy and filthy. OTOH tailboards often got very slippery when they got worn and it was wet or muddy. I left removals just as they were getting into side-loading doors and storage crates so I never really got my head round doing things that way.
I do remember ■■■■■■■ heavy old double robes, and TV’s were big heavy awkward things especially the old valve ones, often a 2-man job to move them and many of them didn’t take well to being bumped. Mattresses felt like they had 2cwt of steel in them, then there was a spring steel base and then steel side bars that slotted into cast brackets on the head and foot board that were traps for the unwary - you only ever got your fingers caught in them once. Washing machines became more common as time went on but though heavy they were okay once on the trolley. All that said I would still rather move a house full of heavy old furniture than one full of Ikea-type MDF or chipboard rubbish - we used to call it “suppository furniture” (cos you put it up yourself, ho ho ) - because it’s invariably wobbly and often falls apart completely.
scarboroughpete:
we often had a tail board load in the 70s loaded up to top of van no way could you do it today
When I first arrived down under I saw not just tailboard loads but roof loads, covered with a tarp. I was more than a bit 
Like this (not my photo):
flickr.com/photos/52482526@N05/6308296017/
How Alfred Bell dealt with removals in 1932. I don’t think we’ll ever see the like of that again!
INTERESTING FEATURES OF TRUNK-SERVICE OPERATION. I N addition to its normal removing business, which extends throughout the British Isles, Alfred Bell (Newcastle), Ltd., runs a trunk service, both night and day, between Newcastle and London. As the majority of vehicles employed on this long-distance work is limited to 20 m.p.h., the company has opened a depot and drivers’ hostel at Tuxford, so that changes of drivers can be made in order to comply with the Road Traffic Acts. There is accommodation at this depot for some 80 men.
At the London terminus at 24, Friern Park, North Finchley, the company has extensive covered garage accommodation and a hostel, where’ it can sleep and feed approximately 40 drivers. Vdhicles of a number of other concerns are also serviced at this terminus.
The company’s fleet is made up of Albion, Garner and Bedford vehicles, although the latest vehicle to be added to the fleet is a Thornycroft, this having been purchased mainly because of its large carrying capacity. (1,500. cubic fit.). During the past year the trunk-service vehicles covered Over 800,000 miles.
The vehicles are serviced from the head depository at Higham Place, Newcastle, which has accommodation for 3,000 loads, and every vehicle, upon completion of a journey from Newcastle to London and back, passes through the, hands of the mechanics, who check over the reports handed in by the drivers. As each vehicle is in the hands of five drivers after leaving Neweaet e until its return from London and every driver is instructed to report on his log sheet any defeats or trouble that may arise, it is passible for the’ mechanicsto maintain the fleet in first-class condition and practically to ensure an absence of breakdowns, PROGRESS OF IMPORTANT LANCASHIRE CONCERN.