I worked there from 1987 to 1994, good job and a great bunch of people, i was lucky as i did most of the jobs we had and i even got to drive the strato that was wally peaches until he went bust, happy days.
At the time of Brown’s purchasing of the Seddon Atkinsons around '85 to '87, I was working for the local dealer. This was a major sale of several units over a period of time and we had to jump to attention many times in order to keep the customer happy. All the 401s were ■■■■■■■ E 320 powered and although I was not involved in every aspect of the preparation of each one, I think the spec included Jacob’s engine brakes which we were fitting. I was mainly detailed to fit Econocruise speed limiters, substituting a predominance valve for the factory fitted relay valve and carrying the PDIs.
Some incidents stand out in my memory, mainly because of the management’s displeasure about my actions. A 2 week old Trebor Sharp’s E 320 401 had come in with a fuel problem which I had diagnosed as requiring a new non-return valve elbow for the fuel pump. As this was nil stock, I had robbed a new chassis in the yard of the part, to get the Sharp’s on its way. This turned out to be a Brown’s chassis and all hell let loose because it was due to go to the paint shop the following day.
A new vehicle was returned from Brown’s with a complaint about the rear wings I had fitted, which turned out to be 3/8 inch higher one side than the other. A new set had to be fitted.
For the fourth time I had picked up on PDI that the second-steer wheel alignment of a new chassis, was not parallel to the front axle. This reflected badly on the factory so of course I must be wrong and not Oldham. (Actually i think it was Bamber Bridge by then).
Although not a Brown’s but an AEI cables vehicle, the driver had requested air horns be fitted. This I had done with the cutomary length of bog chain hanging down through the headlining. The vehicle had to be road tested so accompanied by the foreman we went onto the M20. When a car dived in front of me the ideal opportunity came to test the air horns… the chain stuck in the headlining with the horns going full blast , not easy to push back in again and drive!
Calibrating the speed limiters was quite fun because we didn’t have a rolling road, so it had to be done on the M20 and surrounding roads, with the driving fitter shouting out when it was safe to carry out adjustments.
When we had units returned for lack of power on hills, with no loaded trailer available, and a set warranty test procedure to follow, we were fortunate that Wrotham, Bluebell and Detling hills were so close and each put just sufficient load on the engine, to be able to interpret whether the readings on the workshop turbo boost-pressure gauge were similar to a known satisfactory performer.
Like later main dealers I worked for, it was embarrassing to find that the operator’s fitters knew more about a recently introduced model than we did. This was because we had no day-to-day operating experience of the minor problems and had to wait for the very limited number of customer’s vehicles which we serviced to come in. Unfortunately in those days, Leyland, DAF, Seddon Atkinson, MAN and Foden dealers mainly seemed to sell to operators with their own workshops, unlike Volvo and Mercedes.
Apologies for rambling.
Interesting stuff…did you have any dealings with Hammond in Sittingbourne?, they had a lot of Seddon Atkinsons.
Hello Mark,
Short answer is no, at least not on the workshop side anyway. As Hammonds had their own workshop, I don’t recall seeing any of their vehicles in our’s. We may have sold them some, but I am pretty sure Nightingale engineering in Clapham were still in business then and they may well have dealt with Hammonds. Francis Commercials was a fairly short lived operation unfortunately. Our biggest contracts were with the MOD for RAF units, and AEI cables at Gravesend. We occasionally saw: BP, Fine Fare,Trebor Sharp, Redland,G&L Baker, S&S Clarke, Bowater Scott and ?Lytag. Many others obviously came in for parts, but as far as the haulage operators were concerned, we only saw them for initial sales, warranty work or quite often some job they really didn’t feel like doing, because it was a pig.
Evening all, cav551, you are not rambling on at all, many many people in our industry have no idea just how tough the retail side of the lorry job was! The lack of communication between the “factory”, and the retail side was enormous, but the “factory” was always right!! Swamps, and alligators comes to mind! Cheerio for now.
Was this the same company as the side says Sevonoaks? Browns did run some R & S reg Berliets, and in the 90’s switched to Volvo.
MOC:
Heres an old cutting i had
tyreman:
Was this the same company as the side says Sevonoaks? Browns did run some R & S reg Berliets, and in the 90’s switched to Volvo.MOC:
Heres an old cutting i had
Yes Tyreman i belive it to be the same company only earlier in there life 
yes that is the same company,
i worked there, the addresss was new ash green ,near seven oaks
Yeah. I used to work for Browns about 15 years ago. Geoffrey Brown was the owner. I found him a decent bloke to work for. Never had any problems with him. Mainly French work but I did a couple of Germany’s and Italy’s while I was there.
witty:
Yeah. I used to work for Browns about 15 years ago. Geoffrey Brown was the owner. I found him a decent bloke to work for. Never had any problems with him. Mainly French work but I did a couple of Germany’s and Italy’s while I was there. “That’s my opinion and you’re all entitled to it”
I work with 2 of their ex staff; Alan Albury who was a driver for them on international work, and the other was Steve Ponse, who was the workshop manager.
bloody hell alan allbury ,
god can that man drink, I’m surprised his liver is still working.
Colin Honey and Bob Mills left Browns just after me. They worked for Allied Bakeries near Erith delivering bread all over the place. Both decent blokes. Wayne was the trailer fitter. Another decent bloke. I used to play Golf with them on Sundays when we didn’t have to ship out. Poult Wood near Tonbridge was where we played.
Brownies Son in Law was in the throws of taking over when I left. Called him ‘Crackers’… Kevin PERCY Shaftoe was another driver I remember who also lived just up the road from me. Whoosher Keith was a nice feller too.
I have to mention Oddball Adam too. Had a few laughs with him. We were in competition as to who would be back in the yard first to wash the motors and get home on Saturdays. A really nice bloke.
Sad to here Bob Mills passed away. That’s a shock. A nice bloke too.
witty you must have been working at browns around the same time as me,
I got out just before those basic fh12s turned up.
Might have done. I live in West Kingsdown. About 2 miles from Brownies yard. Colin Honey’s old flat is 2 minutes dog walk from my house.
I live in West Kingsdown just about 2 miles from Brownies yard. I’m 2 minutes dog walk from Colin Honey’s old Flat. If you are Gary then I remember your Dad… Bernard …■■