Welcome to the modern world! And turn your cap lock off, you’re shouting!
Hello Roger H, I am afriad that Ken Corrigan has not been to well recently, he is on Skype but appears to be struggling a bit with all this computer technology just like a lot of us on here. Geoff “The Crow” Taylor links up with him now and again and Dave Mackie and myself have sent him a request to link up but he hasn’t contacted us yet. It seems strange that a lot of blokes who could take bits off a lorry at the side of a road in the pouring rain or in six inches of snow in the dark and then put them all back together in the right order years ago forget which buttons to press in the right order on a keyboard 
. Hopefully Geoff will keep us all up to date with Ken’s progress. 
and if Ken is reading this then we wish you all the best Ken.
Thanks Roger for that info on Frank he certainly had a can do attitude and of course being a Scouser he also had a great sense of humour. I remember meeting him once at The Windmill in Hungary, I was on my way home and he was on his way down and he told me this little story which I shall always remember him by. How true this is I now sometimes wonder if it did happen or was he pulling my leg and if it’s an old joke then please accept my apology but as Frank told me and I have never heard it before or since I still think it’s worth repeating.
Frank was home one night and Brenda asked if he would mind if she went to the cinema with their next door neighbour, Frank said he didn’t mind so that evening the two girls went off to the local Roxy. On their way home later that night they had just reached the end of their street when a man wearing a raincoat walked towards them. He stopped, opened the coat and gave then a flash as he wasn’t wearing any clothes underneath. He then ran away from them, got into a car and drove off, the two girls were a bit shaken and ran to their house where they phoned the police.
Shortly afterwards a police car arrived and the young policeman was told that he had to take a statement. Frank said the young copper looked a bit embarresed when he said “I am sorry but I have got to ask you this, did you notice if the man had an erection”.
Franks neighbour said “no it was definitely a Ford ■■■■■■”.
Here is a photo of Frank sat in his M.A.N. 361 which had an electric window on the passenger side and at the time we all thought whatever will they think of next.
Regards Steve.
Hello Roger H, Foden 46 has just sent me some more photos and this one of your Volvo F88 appear to be a bit clearer. Can you tell us who the driver is as it doesn’t look like Frank Andrews to me.
By the way Roger, if you haven’t already bought a copy of the book The Long Haul Pioneers by Ashley Coghill then I think that you should put it on your Christmas list, it’s a brilliant read and I am sure that it will bring back at least one or two good memories for you.
Regards Steve.
Another bad day at the office. 
It looks like Roy The Boy isn’t going anywhere with his snow chains on so he will have to walk down the hill and borrow the shovel off Terry Smailes. I bet that it was late by the time that they arrived at Mama’s that night, maybe they should of cancelled at Pauline’s.
I can’t remember if this photo was from Dave Shawcross or Jimmy Walker 
Regards Steve.
Hello Tony Taylor, I have no idea why those saddle tanks were fitted, they were already there when I started working for them in April 1980. I seem to remember that they had at least two trailers fitted with them and for some reason the trailer numbers D24, D26 and D34 rings an old rusty bell. It certainly wasn’t this one D44 which had a round belly tank fitted. I am sorry but at the moment I can’t remember how much each of those four side tanks carried, were they about sixty gallons each or were they more than that ?
Anyway getting back to Chris’s trailer which I think was D34, he certainly used it the most and he always looked after it. Any loose eyelet or broken tilt boards were replaced immediately as soon as he got back to the yard. I can only remember using that trailer while Chris was on his holidays and as you have mentioned it had an electric fuel pump fitted. Most of the other trailers with belly tanks had to have the red airline connected to the tank and short blasts of air were then fed through making sure that you didn’t overfill your running tanks. Some drivers did appear to lose more that a couple of gallons of diesel while carrying out this procedure as most of the laybys along the T.I.R. routes throughout Europe would testify.
I.I.R.C. on D34 each tank had a stop valve so that they could all be isolated. The front tank on the right hand side was marked in big letters WATER ONLY and that’s all that tank was ever used for.
One year, after flying home from Budapest with Alan Morrey one snowy Christmas Eve after leaving our lorries at The Taurus Tyre factory, I was told to get a lift back on the second of January with Lennie Frost. Len had done a couple of trips to Russia in the summer as Dow had the contract for Lada cars and they had a depot in Bridlington which was run by another old Middle East driver called Brian Cobb a.k.a. Petal or Cobby.
Now Len told me that when he first went to the Lada factory in Moscow he asked the interpreter where he could get some diesel from, he was told no problem and he was taken to a fuel station inside the factory where he filled up his running tanks. When he asked how much they said have you got any English whiskey and Len just happened to have a bottle of Johnny Walker Red Label with him which cost about two pound fifty duty free on the boat. As Lada cars were state owned nobody seemed bothered about how much diesel was used as all the trucks belonged to the state anyway.
A couple of months later Len had to do a trip with I.I.R.C. The Royal Ballet or The National Opera to Moscow and Leningrad and called into the Lada factory to say hello and see if he could scrounge some fuel. There was no problem and Len said that another bottle of Johnny Walker was exchanged.
On a later trip to Russia that year Len told me that he took D34 and filled up all the tanks with water, including the one marked WATER ONLY just before he reached the West / East German border at Helmstadt. He then put about a gallon of diesel in all the tanks and put in a Tankshine for over 1000 litres. Because it was late at night the West German customs man dipped a couple of the tanks and with the diesel floating on the top, his ruler showed that the tanks were full. In a quite East German layby on the Berlin Ring Road Len pumped all the water in the tanks out into a nearby field.
When he arrived at the Lada factory in Moscow all the tanks were filled up with diesel for the price of four bottles of Johnny Walker Red Label.
As I said before this is a story that Len told me years ago and I am only repeating what he told me. At the back of my mind something is telling me that you didn’t need a Tankshein when you were entering West Germany from East Germany at Helmstadt or did we ?
What I do remember is that Chris Turnbull had a few words to say to Len as the tank that was marked WATER ONLY was never used for water again and I bet that Len didn’t book down the cost price of his cheap Russian diesel when he was doing his exe’s.
D44 taken somewhere between Arad and Deva in Rumania.
Regards Steve.
Hiya Steve,we used all 3 tanks for diesel,you are right each tank did have a stop valve to isolate it from the others.The story of Lennie Frost and his Russian escapade does not suprise me at all,it’s just the sort of thing that he would do.I got to know him quite well when he worked for SKI(Steve Keller) and then for Dawnyard(Keith Rayner),we did some trips together on the British Rail to Romania job.My eldest brother Dennis was a director at Dawnyard for a while and unfortunately he and Lennie never saw eye to eye about anything,but me and Geoff never had any problems with him,we all got on well enough.I seem to remember that there were no tankscheins between East and West Germany,but I’m not sure(getting older plays tricks with the memory),no doubt the Crow and his elephantine memory will know all.
Hi,
I saw my dad the other night and he has given me some photos to scan and put on here, as soon as my scanner is up and running again I will do it. I can’t make out the name on the front of his unit but the reg number was: BED 727T and in one of the photos he is pulling trailer number D32. He does also remember some old names and some good stories that as he doesn’t have a PC he will write down for me and I will post them on here. He did however mention a pretty funny story to me the other night and it involveda driver with a nick name of ‘Scatter The Cash’ (Obviously a payday millionaire). One of the wagons broke down somewhere in Europe and he was sent to tow it back to the UK on a drawbar and as he didn’t like towing he opted to be the towee (In a Ford Transcon), as the tow was under way, the bloke who was doing the pulling looked in his mirror and saw what he thought was smoke coming from the poorly Transcon. When he stopped to investigate it became apparant that ‘Scatter The Cash’ was feeling a little chilly and due to the wagon not working he couldn’t put the heater on so decided to make himself a little fire in the cab, this soon became a larger fire and I think burnt the whole truck out. My dad has a lot of good stories and fond memories of Dow, and I also have some good photos when we were on a ‘Family Holiday’ accros Europe in good old ‘BED 727T’ He also seems to remember that Roger Dowset was the best bloke he has ever worked for, if he is still about and someone has his number would you please message it to me so that I can pass it on. Relations with my dad have been a little strained since my mum died (Brenda for those of you who remember her), but when I started chatting about Dow Freight and showing him the photos on here he seemed to have a slight glint in his eye again.
Take care.
Darren - (Tommy’s youngest son)
The tilt trailers with the Four, Four hundred litre interconnected saddle tanks that had individual taps, which enabled you to transfer fuel from one tank to the other, or direct by electric pump to the unit were made by NRK trailers, which I think were in Oldham or Rochdale. Frank White had a few and also Falcongate. The customs loved them in Dover When you told them that you needed Eight Seals for the diesel tanks plus two for the TIR plates and One for the cord. The key’s to switch on the pump were alway’s getting lost and ended up with bared wires that were connected to the trailer front marker light cables. Those were the days.
Regards jamie.
A Scot Lost in the Valley’s.
M&C Jamie:
The tilt trailers with the Four, Four hundred litre interconnected saddle tanks that had individual taps, which enabled you to transfer fuel from one tank to the other, or direct by electric pump to the unit were made by NRK trailers, which I think were in Oldham or Rochdale. Frank White had a few and also Falcongate. The customs loved them in Dover When you told them that you needed Eight Seals for the diesel tanks plus two for the TIR plates and One for the cord. The key’s to switch on the pump were alway’s getting lost and ended up with bared wires that were connected to the trailer front marker light cables. Those were the days.
Regards jamie.A Scot Lost in the Valley’s.
Hiya Jamie, you have just reminded me that the cables on one of those trailers had a couple of crocodile clips on the end of them which you just put straight onto your battery terminals. I wasn’t sure if those tanks were sixty gallons or eighty but now you have mentioned it they were in fact one hundred gallons each and as Tony or Geoff might remember those tanks didn’t have a high ground clearance and they must of been a real pain going across soft sand.
I never had any problems with Len, he liked to keep himself to himself and ran mainly on his own as far as I can remember. He did leave Dow for a couple of years and went working for A.C.H. in fact Len introduced me to George Ginn once in Dover but I can’t remember who George was working for at the time. When Dow finished Len had only been back for about five years and somebody told me that he passed away about ten years ago.
Regards Steve.
mushroomman:
Another bad day at the office.
It looks like Roy The Boy isn’t going anywhere with his snow chains on so he will have to walk down the hill and borrow the shovel off Terry Smailes. I bet that it was late by the time that they arrived at Mama’s that night, maybe they should of cancelled at Pauline’s.
I can’t remember if this photo was from Dave Shawcross or Jimmy Walker
Regards Steve.
I remember this episode, it was Dave Shawcross(Nellie) who took the pic and he had a never ending brew going…
Hello Darren, I did hear of something happening like that way before I started although I seem to think that it was actually the wiring on the Transcon that set on fire as it was being towed along. “Scatter The Cash” was one of the most proffesional drivers that I have ever had the pleasure of working with and he was a great lad to run with.
There was another Transcon which set on fire in the middle of a very cold winters night in the car park of the Saint Valentine Hotel between Salzburg and Vienna. Tony Macloud was sleeping in it at the time and it was alleged that Tony had put on his gas cooker to try and keep warm and he had then fallen back to sleep, he was lucky to be alive but from that day on he was known as Tony Burnout.
Several years later Tony parked his loaded trailer up at Carrisio with a full load of cloth which he had brought out from the U.K. and went in for a meal. When he came out the unit which was only a couple of months old and the loaded trailer had gone and the old bloke who used to walk around with the gun knew nothing about it. The vehicle was never found and a couple of years later Tony received a bill from the Italian customs saying that he had to personally pay the duty on the load which amounted to zillions of lire. Tony gave in his notice and went working for A1 transport working on the Kelloggs contract out of Trafford Park.
R.I.P. Tony who died when he was only in his forties.
Sorry Darren, I don’t think that I have a photo of BED 727 T but here is one of it’s sister BED 726 T which I think might of been driven by Roy The Boy.
Regards Steve.
mushroomman:
Hello mads065, I first met Ken Singleton on the 6th June 1973 on my second night of roaming in the Vitafoam factory in Maesteg. We, along with another five drivers were sleeping in the back of a thirty six foot trailer and I remember that Ken took me into the factory and asked one of the girls if she would cut me up a bed roll from one of the foam off cuts. We were all driving for Blue Dart Transport at the time and how I remember that day so well was because it was my 23rd birthday and it was also my demob day from the air force and the last day of my demobilisation leave. Ken took me under his wing so to speak and two years later when I was planning a trip overland through Africa Ken gave me his old machetti which he was issued with when he was in The Parachute Regiment. At that time Ken was driving for Portwood Drums in Oldham and he supplied me with all the Jerry cans that I needed for the trip.
I always kept in touch with Ken over the years and when I returned back to the U.K. some four and a half years later he was working for Dow and took me on a trip with him to Vienna. When we arrived back at Stockport he had a word with Roger and after an interview with Roger and then Carl I was offered a job with Dow.
I did write down the story about that trip to Vienna about three years ago and I sent a copy of it to Roy The Boy who said “it was a bit mundane” so I never bothered to put it on Trucknet, (after 43,000 words I realised that I wasn’t a good story teller).
As everybody knew Ken was a bit of a chain smoker and would often buy 400 cigarettes on the boat on the way out, 200 in Bucherest and 200 on the boat back into the U.K. It was very sad for me to see him with his oxygen mask on sat next to his oxygen bottle whenever I went round to see him. His daughter Jackie managed to get hold of me the night before Ken’s funeral and I remember that I was loaded for M.A.T. in M.I.F.T. in Trafford Park the following morning and then I had to reload at I.C.I. Macclesfield.
The funeral was at 9.30 a.m. at Wilmslow Cemetry so as soon as I was tipped I shot off down the A34 but I got stuck behind some slow moving traffic about three miles from the cemetry, much to my surprise it was Kens funeral cortege and I tagged on behind in my E.R.F. and forty foot empty flat trailer with my sheets over the back axles. I could see the hearse a couple of cars in front I had a strange feeling that Ken was smiling up at me.
It was great to see some of the other Dow lads who were there even though it was a working day and Dow had finished some seven years before although I can remember Alan Moss and Brian Ryder from the Air Freight office and young Hector Heathcote from the warehouse and I am not sure if Eric Etchells and Dave Shawcross were also there . Unfortunatly I couldn’t go to Kens wake which I think was in The Blue Bell Inn as I really did have to get back to work.
Good on yer Singo, R.I.P. Mate.
Just for the record, Singo was supposed to be the youngest Para to jump at Nijmegen, I ran with him a few times at dow and he was always good for a story or two, RIP Ken.
Tony looking at the pic of you having those waste of time side tanks being repaired at Aksaray,the tractor pulling the trailer is SVT953N and if you look carefully you ll see it still has the original 300 litre fuel tank we changed it for the later 400 litre tank some time after. I can t remember what the capacity of the side tanks were but if you work on the premise that 100 litres equals roughly 22 gallons then it s reasonably safe to assume that those tanks were 500 litres but they don t look that big. MC Jamie is right about them operating of the marker light wires and for Christ sake don t forget to disconnect them once you ve finished pumping. Regards Crow.
I worked with a guy who was driving for CERT and i was in the warehouse , His name was John Wrench and he worked for a guy that subbed for DOW,s does anyone remember him i don,t know what year ■■?
Boatchaser:
I worked with a guy who was driving for CERT and i was in the warehouse , His name was John Wrench and he worked for a guy that subbed for DOW,s does anyone remember him i don,t know what year ■■?[/quoteHullo Boatchaser,
I know that name, but not from Dow Freight though
I remember on one trip on the way home, having left the Londra mocamp and going down the first steep hill. It had started raining and the visibility was getting bad so i switched on my side lights. As I braked going down the hill on looking in the mirror my trailer was going sideways and also there was this shower of diesel coming out of the hose wrapped through the tilt cord, Holy crumbs I thought (or words to that Effect) I had forgotten to disconect the pump from the trailer side lights. I often wondered how many poor souls that came after me managed to get down the hill in one piece as the roads were slippy enough in the wet, never mind covered in diesel.
Regard Jamie.
PS who was the big lad on Dows in the late seventies, Drove a Transcon, wore Glasses and used to say “I got Sweeties in my Car” and “So yuh Wannah be a truck driver huh” in an American Accent.
A Scot Lost in the Valley’s
M&C Jamie:
I remember on one trip on the way home, having left the Londra mocamp and going down the first steep hill. It had started raining and the visibility was getting bad so i switched on my side lights. As I braked going down the hill on looking in the mirror my trailer was going sideways and also there was this shower of diesel coming out of the hose wrapped through the tilt cord, Holy crumbs I thought (or words to that Effect) I had forgotten to disconect the pump from the trailer side lights. I often wondered how many poor souls that came after me managed to get down the hill in one piece as the roads were slippy enough in the wet, never mind covered in diesel.
Regard Jamie.
PS who was the big lad on Dows in the late seventies, Drove a Transcon, wore Glasses and used to say “I got Sweeties in my Car” and “So yuh Wannah be a truck driver huh” in an American Accent.A Scot Lost in the Valley’s
That was BigT Tony Gibbins, he got killed near newport pagnell about 20 years ago driving for Transarabia.
rocky 7:
M&C Jamie:
I remember on one trip on the way home, having left the Londra mocamp and going down the first steep hill. It had started raining and the visibility was getting bad so i switched on my side lights. As I braked going down the hill on looking in the mirror my trailer was going sideways and also there was this shower of diesel coming out of the hose wrapped through the tilt cord, Holy crumbs I thought (or words to that Effect) I had forgotten to disconect the pump from the trailer side lights. I often wondered how many poor souls that came after me managed to get down the hill in one piece as the roads were slippy enough in the wet, never mind covered in diesel.
Regard Jamie.
PS who was the big lad on Dows in the late seventies, Drove a Transcon, wore Glasses and used to say “I got Sweeties in my Car” and “So yuh Wannah be a truck driver huh” in an American Accent.A Scot Lost in the Valley’s
That was BigT Tony Gibbins, he got killed near newport pagnell about 20 years ago driving for Transarabia.
Really, was that 20 years ago. I am getting bloody old. 
Hi rocky7, I became good friend’s with Big T in the eighties when he worked for Lawrabian freight.
So I dont think it was him that I was asking about. RIP Tony.
Regards Jamie.
a Scot Lost in the Valley’s
Hi Jamie, it wouldn’t of been Brian Carter would it .
Did he say it like John Wayne who said “So you wanna be a Marine huh” in . Name that film .
Regards Steve.