hiya,
mac/d don’t know much about curtainsiders never pulled them in my career the nearest i got to those things were tilts when on for bowker in blackburn and they were nearly always strip down jobs i found them hard work when having to use the trailer as a flat rope and sheet job trying to find somwhere to keep all the bits just in case your’e next was a load for abroad (not me taking it) i did all sorts of work from abnormal indivisable, the odd car transporter but mainly ropes and sheets latterly in my worktime it was tippers and tankers, used lister st many times when on the red and rust for return loads but used just about every BRS depot in scotland at one time or another, they was happy days sadly never to return the motors were hard work but mostly reliable there was exceptions some stuff lived on the end of a rope mainly the noddy’s (BMCs) and the mercury’s (AECs) spent a lot of time being towed but the stuff i drove octopus’s, bristols both 8 legged and benders always got you there and back without hassle they was slow and no power steering and hard work when a drawbar attached but if i was to choose my era it would be the BRS period and you could stuff all the fancy stuff of today, and yes iv’e driven modern stuff it’s nice but drivers are only numbers now there is no comeradrie like of yesteryear, slept in the odd fleapit myself but for the most part had a good list of spotless digs mainly private places which i aquirred over a lot of years,oh happy days.
thanks harry long retired.
Mac glad you like our group of old BRS codgers, curtainside to my knowledge did not come in until the 80s, we had tilts in the 70s, on a few of the smaller wagons, they had sliding doors, but in the 50s & 60s it was the old sheets & ropes, you brought back memories with the name of Lister street, I was in there quit a few times, it was gone from my head, until I saw your comment. Another tale in the 70s, I was on contract with Camping gaz, and a power strike was on, loads of cartridges, was store in mission huts, on a old airfield in the Bury-st-Edmund area, and we had pantechnicons, but was changed to artic’s, there was a driver arthur french, but he had never roped or sheeted, so I was in the depot at Sywell, showing him how to do the sheeting, then the roping, dollies etc, he was a bit slow on the up take, but he went to fetch a load of cartridges. A few days later I went, the man on the weighbridge said, you are good at rope & sheeting, not like the bloke before you, why do you say that, I asked, well you see those concrete blocks guiding you on to the weighbridge, yes, well he borrowed about a dozen of them to hold his sheet down, please tell him , we want them back. Some drivers never did learn their trade ha ha ha. Sandman Norman
hiya,
old codgers indeed, mac/d you young whippersnapper show respect to us aged warriors, where would the industry be without us, hands up who shouted thriving one, two, three,million and one OK i’m going for a lie down now i’m very upset, norm, frenchy nobody likes us i’m going to go back in time and resurrect the old red and rust in the knowledge i’ll be appreciated and the happiest guy in the world, enough twaddle for know ta ta folks.
thanks harry long retired.
Haha Harry - I think you’ll find it was your old mate Norman who called you ‘old codgers’ 
Nope, I’ve got nothing but respect for you guys and by the way I’m usually described as an old codger myself these days (not as old as some though!)
Bring back the red and rust and I’ll be at the door looking for a job - I can tie a dolly you know, and I’ve got a couple of old army blankets ready to go over the engine cover.
Red and rust had it easy though - pretty much all Mandators in my day. Dead posh compared to old ex-BR Seddons with holes in the floor (and the roof sometimes!).
Keep 'em coming lads.
Happy trails
MacD
hiya,
sorry mac/d didn’t realise it was norm who referred to us as old codgers i’ll have to have a word with him put him in his place after all he’s younger than me ,tell you what mac/d if the old red and rust ever resurfaced i’d be first in the queue or try to be but more than likely would get trampled underfoot in the rush, after working for them, getting made reduntant having to move to the private sector was horrible had to work one and a half times more hours to get the same money i know which side my bread was buttered, mac/d maybe you can enlighten me you are a lot more up to date than me, whats the youngest a person can drive class one stuff the reason i ask is when i started the age was 21 although was driving wagons and drags in the forces from 18 to 20 when i left the army i had to do other work (down the mines) for a year before i could work driving an 8 legger and drawbar for a local haulier although the pitwork was no real hardship it was what i did prior to national service i didn’t need to go in the forces miners where exempt, i wouldn’t have missed it for the world though.by the way am thinking of opening a university for students to study roping and sheeting just in case it comes back into fashion, is there any point? hands up all in favour, ah well back to the drawing board.
thanks harry long retired.
Hi All
Old Codgers indeed , we`re all old grumpy Codgers and proud of it , bring it on.
My litle BRS tale was around 1970 , The Mandator was in dock , again , so traffic gave my a run to High Wycomb with 10 tons of Copper ready loaded on an Albion 4 wheeler which meant running to the Wycome BRS depot to park up overnight and deliver in the morning , so off I went and as I was heading into Marlow I came up to THE BRIDGE , a 5 ton weight limit , look left look right , go for it , blast , Mr plod waiting the other side of the Bridge , he was a young rookie and was appologising and said the Sarge had spotted me so he had to book me , taking down my paticulars he said how heavy was the lorry I said 5 ton , he just wrote it down in his note pad and said I would be hearing from them , do you know this rookie Copper sent me the pages outa his note pad and I never heard another thing . true story .
Regards Frenchy
hiya,
tell you what frenchy if you fell off the co-op roof you’d land in the divi, me on the other hand if i fell in a barrel of ■■■■ i’d come out sucking my thumb,
thanks harry long retired.
Well Harry, maybe I’m not as up to date as you think - it was 21 in my day too, and I didn’t know anything had changed, just kind of assumed if you’re responsible for 32 tons (or 38 tons or whatever it is now) the authorities would want to be sure you’d started shaving. Is it younger than 21 now?
Sheeting and roping school sounds more fun than the bowls though. Maybe you could throw in proper use of sylvesters too! I showed my son how to tie a dolly with a length of rope thrown over a door and fixed to the handle on one side. Managed to pull the handle off with over-enthusiastic demonstration, really pleased Mrs MacD that day 
Hello Mac/D, roping and sheeting, was a work of art, when it was done correctly, dollies, double dollies, even tripple, this was desirable, when you had a unstable load, that must be tight, and ropes not to loosen off, I have seen loads stay on, even when the lorry turned over. Sandman Norman
As long as you didnt come up sucking something else Harry lad , that made me laugh. as a lad it took a while to be able to undo my own dollies then I had one of them ropey dreams and next morning I could do em and undo em . The semi lows we carried on BRS for Pirrellis had no hooks but chain rings so we learned to ring dolly , sounds crude dont it , can still do it all now , when I moved house I had fun roping and sheeting a car trailer , sad eh , remember it peeing with rain , blowing a gale or frozen solid youd curse the ropes and sheets but now we go misty eyed , how things change .
I once changed a car engine with rope and tripple dollies Norm .
Regards frenchy
Hi frenchy
I bet you also remember the taultliner boys sitting in their cabs while you tried to wrap up your sheets in the wind. Or un rolled your sheets and just climbed down just in time to see the wind taking them of the load and over the nearest fence. I did 10 years with a flat over the water and you soon learn’t to fastern things down well or when you got off the ferries the load would be hanging off, especily chip board 
Regards Keith.
frenchy:
As long as you didnt come up sucking something else Harry lad , that made me laugh. as a lad it took a while to be able to undo my own dollies then I had one of them ropey dreams and next morning I could do em and undo em . The semi lows we carried on BRS for Pirrellis had no hooks but chain rings so we learned to ring dolly , sounds crude dont it , can still do it all now , when I moved house I had fun roping and sheeting a car trailer , sad eh , remember it peeing with rain , blowing a gale or frozen solid youd curse the ropes and sheets but now we go misty eyed , how things change .
I once changed a car engine with rope and tripple dollies Norm .
Regards frenchy
“Ring dollies” - i remember a driver trying to explain to me how to do them years ago, couldnt get me head round it . . still cant 
How do you do them?, mind you , probably easier to explain the offside rule 
frenchy:
As long as you didnt come up sucking something else Harry lad , that made me laugh. as a lad it took a while to be able to undo my own dollies then I had one of them ropey dreams and next morning I could do em and undo em . The semi lows we carried on BRS for Pirrellis had no hooks but chain rings so we learned to ring dolly , sounds crude dont it , can still do it all now , when I moved house I had fun roping and sheeting a car trailer , sad eh , remember it peeing with rain , blowing a gale or frozen solid youd curse the ropes and sheets but now we go misty eyed , how things change .
I once changed a car engine with rope and tripple dollies Norm .
Regards frenchy
“Ring dollies” - i remember a driver trying to explain to me how to do them years ago,(it was in a pub) couldnt get me head round it . . still cant How do you do them?, mind you , probably easier to explain the offside rule 
Is it me or is this site playing up ?
Well lads, the navy boys, were wizards with ropes, I learnt a lot from my brother who was in the navy, sheep shanks, granny knots, reef knots, chain link plaiting, you could take a rope, and do this method several times, and almost have a hawser, that would tow a ship, let alone a lorry, and lift load, like frenchy with his engine, I am sure the old haulagers, owe their skills to the navy, and suedehead, I have had problems recently. Sandman Norman
Norman Ingram:
Hello Mac/D, roping and sheeting, was a work of art, when it was done correctly, dollies, double dollies, even tripple, this was desirable, when you had a unstable load, that must be tight, and ropes not to loosen off, I have seen loads stay on, even when the lorry turned over. Sandman Norman
Tell me about it Sandman, still got the grooves on my hands
Remember following a load of empty bottles up the road, tilted to 45 degrees but solid as a rock. When we got back to the yard we straightened it all up by reversing another wagon into the side of it.
I just meant Harry might enjoy teaching the sheeting and roping more than the bowls. Ring dollys though, that’s a new one on me.
Live and learn huh?
hi Mac/d, ring dollies, came about, so you put pressure on from different points to different directions, like a spiders web, again from the navy, this is the only one I have heard about. Sandman Norman
hiya,
have pulled trailers no rings no hooks a bar ran from front to back it was fixed just below the chock rail ( ok north westerners ) rave and joined to the trailer at intervals of about two feet i quite liked the idea and became quite a dab hand at roping them if my memory is still working killingbecks had a couple of four in liners using that idea way back n the sixties.
thanks harry long retired.
Hi
A chap named Stan taught me how to tie a ring dolly when I was loading in Liverpool docks in the early seventies. It is a knot that I often still us today on a lowloader that I drive. It saves loads of time by not having to keep threading the rope through the ring. “A Stanley Special”
Regards Keith.
Hello Keith,Just want clarification, Dessert Driver, is that refering to the sandy type, or dessert the sweet, like apple pie or strawberry & cream, you see I am in a mischievous mood at this moment. Tony (wink) Cockrill and me, when on the M/E runs, used to play up Joe 90, because he was a sprog ( new), and wink used to say to me, when we stopped for a drink, Norman, I thought you had nearly hit that telecost, down the road, no I replied, I missed it by miles, any way, it would have damaged the telecost, more than it would have the truck, Joe90 would jump in, and say whats a telecost, there way silence for a moment, wink & me looked at each other, and shout out together £385 if it is a colour one. Sandman Norman
Hi Norm
your right you are in a mischievous mood, not just on this thread…The wife says I am sweet sometimes and sometimes a pudding but that could be something to do with sitting in a truck for too long.no the “dessert” comes from sitting in the sand waiting to clear customs just outside Bagdad in the mid seventies. I kept it as my handle on the CB when they first came about. I can just imagine what you lot got up to 
Regards Keith