Now this Roadtrain was a 265 roller , it was driven from new by Steve Wright , it was a basic model with no radio and no exhaust brake , this is pictured at Oxford Brs , I worked on this when I was a fitter and only drove it when it was sent to Wallingford depot as a shunter , steve sort of looked after it ,he did fit a second bunk out of one of Bennets of Thames old roadtrains ,who he use to work for before us .
After years of moaning it was replaced by a Scania 92 low cab ,second hand which came off Servis pak contract ,sod the Scania I rather have the Roadtrain .
pete smith:
Hi Jakey, here is one i drove for Exel out of Penkridge 70 mph easy, 265 roller 10 speed Spicer box
Remember those Pete, across the road from my house
Those were the cream Trev, remember the silver 16.15 day cab Cruisers if it was windy on the M1 you had to leave them in fifth gear as they got no balls to pull sixth then i got spoilt with a sleeper cabbed 16.17 Cruiser C777 MRP a hand me down from the Daventry depot, i kept my Roadtrain even when offered a new Merc a 1726 short sleeper, one day was enough in that thing and i had the Roadtrain back
JAKEY:
Great picture Pete , yes I know they were not the best but I loved them .
Your looks mint in the picture , I see you got the curtains pulled round the back .
Paint work was only 18 month old they used to red but the soap they used to wash off with was a bit strong and it turned them nearly to pink, it was double shifted romford and croydon on days then it done two High Wycombes on a night, can remember one christmas having a few Oxford depot rental units in, Merc powerliners looked like oragutangs had been living in the cabs
Hi Pete , yes I remember when the Merc powerliners came in on the rental fleet , I was on Habitat on drawbars then ,and whilst my Daf was off the road I had to haul a 30 ft single axle trailer around on two runs a day because of the bad access , they were ok but it didn’t take long before they were ■■■■■■ up , I remember one bloke was caught with a large can of diesel on his bunk , mmmm where did that come from ? , he was sacked on the spot .
Yes Pete ,that Scania was retired from one contract and should of ended its days on general haulage or even road shunting at the Cowley Rover plant but Steve was moaning about the Roadtrain being tired ! ,it wasn’t it was ok but our engineer got fed up and resprayed the Scania and replaced the drivers seat as the swab was worn out, and gave it the driver , he was not pleased at all and was moaning even more , by then I was being used as holiday relief and was still in the workshops , every time I had the Scania I had to clean the inside of the cab and was the outside of it and the trailer ,oh and repair the cab curtains as the hooks kept breaking .
OK, that’s me!
And I spy my Big J in the background- must have been a Saturday around mid-morning break time. Lorries on the wash but no drivers in sight.
So I was wrong, yet again!
I had forgotten about the ex-James Smith Atki. I think it had a 150 Gardner, while the ERF tipper behind it was powered by the same 205 ■■■■■■■ that was in the Big Js. All the ERF 8-wheelers that we had new were similarly engined, with the exception of one which, for some reason was powered (!) by a 150 Gardner.
My Guy and the ERF driven by our shop steward were “fiddled with” by the superb fitters at Guy Motors at Silvertown. If I remember correctly, it cost us ten shillings each and we were told to have a cup of tea and come back in half an hour, take the lorries from the kerbside outside the workshop and say nothing!
Well done Tidderson, yet another excellent shot of Merrin End pulled from obscurity. It still amazes me as to the photo’s people took and then forgot. It must be getting on for 50 years since these were taken…
10 speed Spicer box 
, by then I was being used as holiday relief and was still in the workshops , every time I had the Scania I had to clean the inside of the cab and was the outside of it and the trailer ,oh and repair the cab curtains as the hooks kept breaking .
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