Those were the day’s “H” I know what you mean though about “getting a start” you had to get stuck in and prove you could do the job PDQ. I re-call at Brady’s that there was always a steady stream of here to-day gone to-morrow drivers,then there was the “backbone of the fleet” men ! Good lads,long gone now the calibre of which has never been replaced.We started to see top drivers at Bewick Transport get to retiring age in the early/mid 80’s onwards and we just had to accept they could never be replaced.Reading some of the bollox on these threads now “H” you know that these modern day “steering” jockey’s couldn’t hold a candle to lads from yesteryear and thats for sure !! That shot of the Southworth Octopus is an older model than the ex J. B. Hudson 8 wheeler which would have been one of the last prior to the LAD cabbed model launch in '61.I well re-call Southworths 8 wheelers and trailers running in and out of Liverpool with the Guiness tanks, happy days eh! “H” Cheers Dennis.
Nice photo of this earley 50s Octopuss, I drove a 1958 Albion Caladonion from time to time Albion chassis Leyland cab., sound motor but a rattely cab, but the heater was spot on, But mind you I didnt realley need a heater, it was standard fitting, Regards Larry
Lawrence Dunbar:
Nice photo of this earley 50s Octopuss, I drove a 1958 Albion Caladonion from time to time Albion chassis Leyland cab., sound motor but a rattely cab, but the heater was spot on, But mind you I didnt realley need a heater, it was standard fitting, Regards Larry
hiya,
Larry used to see those Albion Caledonian’s knocking about, I fancied trying one pulling a drag but never got the chance sort of for comparison sake, one driver told me they was a better motor for pulling a trailer, true he was a Scot’s laddie so he would say that, from my observation’s the only difference was the badge.
thanks harry long retired.
Hi robroy,
I am unsure if this is the same E R F , because the reg. no. plate on the shunter appears to have been affixed on the bumper , not below . V 38 DHN had its `plate on the bumper , but the photograph of it is Copyrighted .
Hope this meet your request , though.
Cheers , cattle wagon man.
i remember loading with one of southworths in avonmouth about 1965 . he had an old octopus and drag , with a great stack of 40x8s on the back . he said he had had 11 punctures on the way down , and had to take all the casings back in case some of them could be repaired . he had to chuck them all off , and when he was loaded , a couple of us gave him a hand to get them on top of the load . cheers , dave
The 40x8s weren’t the only stacks of wheels that Southworths carried around with them. They used to ‘acquire’ tyres from Ribble at Preston and for a time they felt the pain of using the wrong tyres on the wrong wheels fastened to the wrong vehicles.
They used to roll through Burscough returning to Rufford loaded with Guinness kits out of Liverpool and could regularly be seen on the incline from the Bull & Dog to Bruce Smiths (Superwoods) at Square Lane corner - swapping wheels as the tyres succumbed under braking down that bit of a hill.
A driver from back then momentarily upset William Hunter when his (original) Southworth Octopus was unveiled following it’s excellent restoration. “That’s not right, that wagon - it didn’t look like that when owd Walt ran it” he said in typical West Lancashire fashion. Upon enquiring why, the wag replied “because none of the tyres ever had any tread on um back in the day…” Never a truer word spoken in jest…
Don’t know how I managed to leave this interesting link out of my last post.Most will have seen it but then again.
ruffordvillage.com/history/s … worth.html
Here are some ■■■■■■■■■ that I’d on before.(most of them were shot at dawn 
)
rigsby:
i remember loading with one of southworths in avonmouth about 1965 . he had an old octopus and drag , with a great stack of 40x8s on the back . he said he had had 11 punctures on the way down , and had to take all the casings back in case some of them could be repaired . he had to chuck them all off , and when he was loaded , a couple of us gave him a hand to get them on top of the load . cheers , dave
hiya,
Dave 1965 that would have been a few years after I did my little, spell come to think of it there was always piles of old casings lying around the yard although I can’t re-call having any puncture problems, the old tub I was driving only rolled on at around 30 mph so wouldn’t generate enough heat to blow a tyre off.
thanks harry long retired.
Hello
Can anyone Help? I resently found this photo (see below) on Facebook and I can’t remember the company in which the lorry is liveried in, Grearson’s of Workington??
Can anyone give me any infomation on them, fleet number & operational years■■?
Regards
■■■■■■■■ Gill
Hello
Can anyone tell me about this company too■■?
■■■■■■■■ Gill
Bewick:
■■■■■■■■ gill:
Hello everyone,
Thanks yungnad for those interesting photos, but who’s I & VJ Fisher■■? I’ve have never seen any of their lorries about. Are they a TB Subbie■■?
Eddie Stobart fan, Yes your right about Stobarts Fleet (I would have to agree because I am a spotter), but when Stobart’s had there Bedford TK flatbeds and ERF’s up at Caldbeck, Browns, Brady’s, Bewick Transport, Robson’s and many more where in there prime time. Stobart’s only started to get big after the move to Carlisle in 1976 and the move to Kingstown, which saw them get the MB transport & warehousing contract from Robsons, who wouldn’t invest in drawbars or new warehousing, beacuse at that time, they where under UG management.
Long Live Stobarts, a True ■■■■■■■■ Haulier!
■■■■■■■ GillThree cheers for CG,go on my son tell 'em how it really was !!! Little do you know CG is that ESF might probably be an ESL main board member but obviously dosen’t know his arse from his elbow about past history,but a good marra like CG will put them straight eh! Cheers Bewick.
I & V J Fisher is me! we are a single truck company and we are an owner driver for Tyson Burridge 
.
Some good stuff on here about Pickthalls, but my memories of them go back even further!
I left school in '58 and went to work for a local garage in Cleator Moor. The man who owned the garage had worked for JA Pickthall before the war, and on demob, I believe he used his gratuity to set up on his own, although apparently retaining a good relationship with “old JA”.In fact, so good was the relationship that in 1958,when Austins brought out the Gypsy, Pickthalls bought two from my boss to replace their series 1 Land Rovers.One of my first jobs was to repaint the LRs green, as they were in Pickthalls brown and red!
All that is by the way, cos what I meant to say was, that I can remember them running O type Bedford tippers with 28 hp petrol motors.When these were knackered ( and I mean Knackered), some of them were sold off to smaller local tipper firms, some of whom we did the (very little) maintenance for. I can well remember bolting lumps of angle iron to the cracked chassis to keep them going. And drilling out and re-tapping half-shaft studs cos they kept stripping the threads.
Anyway, when Pickthalls got rid of the Bedfords, they replaced them with TS3 Commers, (one of them was OAO 584). The sound of those lorries leaving the yard in the mornings was fantastic!
They were also into cattle haulage, with what were probably Atkis, but I can’t really remember them.
Just as an aside to these tales, another tipper operator, can’t remember who, but it may have been Eskett Quarries, ran some Bedfords with Perkins P6s, and the story was that when you went for a job as driver, they asked what paper you read!
Nothing to do with politics, but those old Perkies didn’t like waking up in the mornings, and the trick was to put flame down the air intake.To do this, and press the starter from the cab, you needed a long piece of paper, so tabloids like the Daily Mirror were too short, so you had to read the Daily Express!
Just a few memories from a long, long time ago.
Hello Mr Fish,
So you run I & V J Fisher of Cockermouth (well turned out lorry in the photo). Whats the company history and where do you keep the smart lorry■■?
Kindest Regards ( and welcome to Trucknet UK).
■■■■■■■■ Gill
Stampers Penrith.
Stobbies have a new Magnum and Volvos (non artics) in the fleet.
EDDIE STOBART FAN:
Stobbies have a new Magnum and Volvos (non artics) in the fleet.
Have they!!!
Hello Eddie Stobart Fan,
Since when and what do they look like■■? Do you mean the Magnum artic or a Magnum rigid■■?
Regards
■■■■■■■■ Gill
EDDIE STOBART FAN:
Stobbies have a new Magnum and Volvos (non artics) in the fleet.