Great shot of a long gone trailer builder Dean, I got to know their former and last Sales Director who was called James Walmsley a.k.a. “Captain Pugwash” after BTC finished he was involved in the setting up of Municipal Trailers at Bamber Bridge then he went on his own flogging a make of secondary oil filters called “Filter Flow” IIRC . I did try a couple but the idea didn’t catch on and I lost touch with James but he certainly had once been right at the top of the British trailer industry as BTC were acknowledged to have been the leading make as far as 4 in lines were concerned but h 1968 Transport sunk them IIRC. Cheers Dennis.
ERF-NGC-European:
ERF made trailers for a while. Ro
0
There was an O/D in Milnthorpe called John E. Ion and he had a single bay lock up garage in the middle of the village which had been fine for the 6 & 8 wheeler rigids he had run but when he decided to buy his first ERF artic his garage limited him to a 31ft 6" trailer. As ERF were building trailers at that time in the mid 60’s IIRC they obliged by building a trailer to John’s exact requirements so the whole outfit was “ERF” and he used to run into his garage unit first and touch the wall at far end then he could close the sliding door behind the trailer. He ran into problems in the mid 70’s when his one and only Customer Cape Asbestos insisted he had to run a 40ft trailer so he duly purchased a new C/F and started to park it in the Bewick depot. He then had bags of room in his garage down in the village !!! Cheers Dennis.
ERF-NGC-European:
ERF made trailers for a while. Ro
0
There was an O/D in Milnthorpe called John E. Ion and he had a single bay lock up garage in the middle of the village which had been fine for the 6 & 8 wheeler rigids he had run but when he decided to buy his first ERF artic his garage limited him to a 31ft 6" trailer. As ERF were building trailers at that time in the mid 60’s IIRC they obliged by building a trailer to John’s exact requirements so the whole outfit was “ERF” and he used to run into his garage unit first and touch the wall at far end then he could close the sliding door behind the trailer. He ran into problems in the mid 70’s when his one and only Customer Cape Asbestos insisted he had to run a 40ft trailer so he duly purchased a new C/F and started to park it in the Bewick depot. He then had bags of room in his garage down in the village !!! Cheers Dennis.
ERF-NGC-European:
ERF made trailers for a while. Ro
0
There was an O/D in Milnthorpe called John E. Ion and he had a single bay lock up garage in the middle of the village which had been fine for the 6 & 8 wheeler rigids he had run but when he decided to buy his first ERF artic his garage limited him to a 31ft 6" trailer. As ERF were building trailers at that time in the mid 60’s IIRC they obliged by building a trailer to John’s exact requirements so the whole outfit was “ERF” and he used to run into his garage unit first and touch the wall at far end then he could close the sliding door behind the trailer. He ran into problems in the mid 70’s when his one and only Customer Cape Asbestos insisted he had to run a 40ft trailer so he duly purchased a new C/F and started to park it in the Bewick depot. He then had bags of room in his garage down in the village !!! Cheers Dennis.
A heart-warming tale!
A heart warming tale indeed…until you hear how much he charged him that is
ERF-NGC-European:
ERF made trailers for a while. Ro
0
There was an O/D in Milnthorpe called John E. Ion and he had a single bay lock up garage in the middle of the village which had been fine for the 6 & 8 wheeler rigids he had run but when he decided to buy his first ERF artic his garage limited him to a 31ft 6" trailer. As ERF were building trailers at that time in the mid 60’s IIRC they obliged by building a trailer to John’s exact requirements so the whole outfit was “ERF” and he used to run into his garage unit first and touch the wall at far end then he could close the sliding door behind the trailer. He ran into problems in the mid 70’s when his one and only Customer Cape Asbestos insisted he had to run a 40ft trailer so he duly purchased a new C/F and started to park it in the Bewick depot. He then had bags of room in his garage down in the village !!! Cheers Dennis.
A heart-warming tale!
A heart warming tale indeed…until you hear how much he charged him that is
David
Very remiss of me not to include detail of the very hard won financial arrangements ! Well it was £20 per month payable in arrears( on a bill not readies! for a designated space with access 24/7 x 365 ! And believe me it was a hard negotiated deal as “Big John” was as tight as a crabs bum at 100 fathoms ! The negotiation ended when I advised him he could always park at Carnforth and pay at the time, probably £ 20 per week. Not only that but when Cape at Uxbridge could only load him for Lancashire our Shunters would load his trailer in Libbys for ■■■■■■■■■■■ so as to get him to Glasgow on a Thursday for him to reload for London ready to kick off South on the Sunday ! Other than let the big greedy ■■■■ park for nowt there was no pleasing him !!
windrush:
I said earlier about Foden making trailers, they used the same hubs etc as the trucks, but did they sell them to anyone as just a single trailer or only as part of a Foden articulated or Twin Load outfit? I can’t imagine there would be many takers as they had no intention of competing in that market anyway, but I suppose buying a complete outfit from the same maker (as Scammell used to do) would be attractive to some purchasers?
Did any other truck manufactures make both the unit and trailer, I can’t think of any off hand apart from Bristol although I believe Leyland and Atkinson may have done? I suppose it probably happened a lot in the early days of road transport with drawbar trailers though?
Pete.
Atkinson built some trailers in he late 1920s, when the steam business was dying on its feet. I wonder also if this was their first association with W & J Riding? The Riding/Atkinson relationship was well known in the 1960s and 70s, but this rather pre-dates it!
I did Rich do you know where it had been ? It was a bison / cannon trailer from new only 10 trailer numbers between it and the one that moose has got ,cheers Dan
Great shot of a long gone trailer builder Dean, I got to know their former and last Sales Director who was called James Walmsley a.k.a. “Captain Pugwash” after BTC finished he was involved in the setting up of Municipal Trailers at Bamber Bridge then he went on his own flogging a make of secondary oil filters called “Filter Flow” IIRC . I did try a couple but the idea didn’t catch on and I lost touch with James but he certainly had once been right at the top of the British trailer industry as BTC were acknowledged to have been the leading make as far as 4 in lines were concerned but h 1968 Transport sunk them IIRC. Cheers Dennis.
Morning Dennis,
Cracking name “Captain Pugwash”
Out of intrest what did those flat beds cost back in 1983 can you remember ■■?
Great shot of a long gone trailer builder Dean, I got to know their former and last Sales Director who was called James Walmsley a.k.a. “Captain Pugwash” after BTC finished he was involved in the setting up of Municipal Trailers at Bamber Bridge then he went on his own flogging a make of secondary oil filters called “Filter Flow” IIRC . I did try a couple but the idea didn’t catch on and I lost touch with James but he certainly had once been right at the top of the British trailer industry as BTC were acknowledged to have been the leading make as far as 4 in lines were concerned but h 1968 Transport sunk them IIRC. Cheers Dennis.
Morning Dennis,
Cracking name “Captain Pugwash”
Out of intrest what did those flat beds cost back in 1983 can you remember ■■?
Hiya Dean, I hope you and yours are staying safe and keeping away from this F------ virus ! Ah! Tri axle flats the first three I bought along with a new P112 to run at 38 ton in March 1983 were Crane Fruehaufs and they cost £ 6,345 plus VAT each and the first Task’s were a bit cheaper at £6,250 plus VAT… However the third one of the C/F’s was built on Propar running gear on the pretence that ROR gear had been unavailable ! I had specifically ordered the trailers to be built using ROR running gear which was my preferred axles. So that was it as far as C/F were concerned and I did a deal for TASK tri axles via my dealer Pal the late Malc Woodhouse Snr. who been trying to convince me to try TASK chassis as he had gone off Crane Fruehauf tipper chassis and onto TASK a while previous. So my follow up order in around May '83 was for 12 TASK tri axles built to my exact spec ( which Cranes never offered !) The shot of the three brown primer TASK’s would have been 3 of the first order placed and as you can see it was prior to spray suppression becoming law. I have attached some shots of the first 38 tonner we put into operation UEC 600Y a 280bhp P112. One shot has it loaded with 25 ton of woodpulp, the second loaded with 25 ton of reels and the third shot is one of the new C/F’s standing at the Mill loaded with reels.
Great shot of a long gone trailer builder Dean, I got to know their former and last Sales Director who was called James Walmsley a.k.a. “Captain Pugwash” after BTC finished he was involved in the setting up of Municipal Trailers at Bamber Bridge then he went on his own flogging a make of secondary oil filters called “Filter Flow” IIRC . I did try a couple but the idea didn’t catch on and I lost touch with James but he certainly had once been right at the top of the British trailer industry as BTC were acknowledged to have been the leading make as far as 4 in lines were concerned but h 1968 Transport sunk them IIRC. Cheers Dennis.
Morning Dennis,
Cracking name “Captain Pugwash”
Out of intrest what did those flat beds cost back in 1983 can you remember ■■?
I kid you not Dean but he really was a “dead ringer” for that cartoon character ! Cheers Dennis.
DEANB:
Dont think Doughty Trailers have been menioned.
0
This advert for Doughty Trailers reminded me when I was searching around in late '69 for a suitable trailer for the Mastiff unit I had ordered and I did enquire at Doughty’s but IIRC they had nothing suitable to offer. Cheers Dennis.
jmc jnr:
Crane Freuhauf flats. Spent hours welding the cracks on the outriggers for MOT. The Bensley brothers and Aubrey taylor built Wyatts from Aec bogies with Norwich coachwork bodies and home-built fridges (“Thumpers”). Jim.
Funny how old names turn up, sometime about 1984, I bought an old drawbar trailer with a cattle box on it, this was listed on the plate as a Wyatt, and was indeed made from old AEC hubs, it still exists to this day, serving as a bale trailer on a farm. It was certainly built to last. I can remember an article in Commercial Motor in the early seventies, where the Traffic Commissioner ( then refered to as the L.A.) criticised John Wyatt for building his own trailers, as they were too long and too heavy, well he certainly did not want them to wear out!
Peter
Bowyer Brothers were touched upon but Boalloy went through some tumultuous times with this chap not far away!
Gerald Broadbent started working for Boalloy in 1958 and was probably the foremost figure in post war British bodybuilding. He combined a wealth of engineering skills with a knack of knowing what the market wanted. He was singularly responsible for the concepts behind of most of Boalloy’s products. A colleague once described him as a “fine designer and eloquent communicator”. Gerald was very well thought of amongst the Boalloy staff, Mick (current workshop manager) said “Gerald walked through the workshops every morning at 7.30am and always had the time to speak to the staff – he knew everyone by name. He was one of a kind, a true gentleman.”
He won 3 design council awards during his time at Boalloy and eventually became one of the judging panel.
Gerald left the company in 1992 and started his own consultancy firm. He died on 19th December, 2014, aged 86.
Apart from the ERF LV and A series ERF Gerald was responsible for:
Out of intrest what did those flat beds cost back in 1983 can you remember ■■?
Hiya Dean, I hope you and yours are staying safe and keeping away from this F------ virus ! Ah! Tri axle flats the first three I bought along with a new P112 to run at 38 ton in March 1983 were Crane Fruehaufs and they cost £ 6,345 plus VAT each and the first Task’s were a bit cheaper at £6,250 plus VAT… However the third one of the C/F’s was built on Propar running gear on the pretence that ROR gear had been unavailable ! I had specifically ordered the trailers to be built using ROR running gear which was my preferred axles. So that was it as far as C/F were concerned and I did a deal for TASK tri axles via my dealer Pal the late Malc Woodhouse Snr. who been trying to convince me to try TASK chassis as he had gone off Crane Fruehauf tipper chassis and onto TASK a while previous. So my follow up order in around May '83 was for 12 TASK tri axles built to my exact spec ( which Cranes never offered !) The shot of the three brown primer TASK’s would have been 3 of the first order placed and as you can see it was prior to spray suppression becoming law. I have attached some shots of the first 38 tonner we put into operation UEC 600Y a 280bhp P112. One shot has it loaded with 25 ton of woodpulp, the second loaded with 25 ton of reels and the third shot is one of the new C/F’s standing at the Mill loaded with reels.
Thanks for the reply and pics Dennis. I like the way you and Paul “moomooland” come up with the figures for trucks and trailers purchased and sold.
for a designated space with access 24/7 x 365 ! And believe me it was a hard negotiated deal as “Big John” was as tight as a crabs bum at 100 fathoms ! The negotiation ended when I advised him he could always park at Carnforth and pay at the time, probably £ 20 per week. Not only that but when Cape at Uxbridge could only load him for Lancashire our Shunters would load his trailer in Libbys for ■■■■■■■■■■■ so as to get him to Glasgow on a Thursday for him to reload for London ready to kick off South on the Sunday ! Other than let the big greedy ■■■■ park for nowt there was no pleasing him !!
