Maybe this was the one that I drove, I don’t really remember. Vehicle registrations are not really my strong point. But it’s certainly not the one that you mean Dave.
While I’m on fire, here’s a couple of photos of my regular motors from about 1978. The S40 was an absolute blinder. I believe it came from the Scunthorpe area originally. ■■■■■■■ 210 engine rebuilt by Joe Pilling, it was the best Foden I ever drove.
Here’s a photo of Pennington’s yard, taken in the early to mid 70’s at a guess. I don’t remember that wrecker. Old road is in the foreground of the picture. Access to the yard was, and still is, via Adamson St., 200 yards to the right and out of shot. The prominent red brick building is the former police station. The green parcel of land behind is where Silcock’s, the showmen store some of their equipment, and the stream running adjacent is Millingford brook, which rises near Billinge and ends up in the Mersey at Sankey Bridges, just outside Warrington.
Eddie.
Yes Eddie I was originally from Haydock but moved away many,many years ago. I will put the feelers out for someone to build a commission for you and get back to you
The yard at Adamson Street is the one i remember. sometime between 1978 and 1981 I went to school with a lad who use to help out at Pennington’s and we would often get our babies yed and pea wet from the chippy on Wigan rd then spend the rest of the afternoon hanging round Pennington’s yard. I suppose its Dickie’s fault I have a poor education, over weight and drive wagons for a living 
Jack Case was mentioned earlier on in this thread. If it’s of any interest to anyone, here’s a photo of his yard at Ashton Cross shortly after it was cleared to make room for even more houses. Eddie.
marky:
This Borderer turned up at the Atkinson Gathering in 1998, then again in 1999 and promptly vanished again. I then spotted it in Ian Longson’s yard at Whitestake near Preston a couple of years later, where it sat for quite a while before disappearing again. I’m glad someone has finally rediscovered it again because I often wondered where it went…
It went to Hampshire for a cab rebuild, I believe - I recall seeing it at Whitestake afterwards, and a certain coachbuilder was not impressed with the misalignment of certain bits…
Ah… You’ve awoken a memory I’d forgotten I had there Chris. I remember those ‘misalignments’ being heavily debated with a certain Mr Tattershall after the green Borderer re-appeared at Whitestake some time afterwards. If I recall rightly, I asked you if it’d been a NIT motor, which it wasn’t, is that right?
Just to keep the thread ticking over more than anything else, here’s a photo of a couple of Pennington’s motors taken at Rossington colliery near Doncaster, sometime in the 80’s I would imagine. Loaded out of Gullick Dobson at Ince, through Clarington coach and haulage in Hindley.
I had the Volvo, the E.R.F was driven by Arthur Rac.
I don’t consider myself to be an accomplished photographer by any means, but I’m quite pleased with this one.
Eddie.
dave penn 54, this wouldn’t be WHN 330 M would it ? It’s barely possible to make out the reg., but the first digit looks like a 3 to me. A bit of a long shot I know, but the timescale’s about right. You would know better than me though. Ignore the bunch of little ■■■■■ on the left. ( sorry Warren ).
Cheers. Eddie.
Eddie Heaton:
0I can’t say that I do if I’m being honest Barry. Did you buy it off Bill, or directly from Pandoro? If you bought it from Rac’s then I must have come into contact with it at some point. I’m assuming it was a standard Mk II Atki painted blue, as opposed to one of those yellow dock spotters, as I don’t remember any of those coming onto the yard. They were good motors though Barry. Here’s a photo of another one out of the batch that I used for quite some. I went all over the place with this one with the recovery trailer. I’ve lost count of the number of times I got pulled by the plod as I was running on trade plates and they couldn’t see the winch mounted up front. I’ve got a number of photos taken in Rac’s yard. I’ll be putting them on here now that I’ve finally learned how to do it. This particular photo was taken at some dealer’s place in Clayton le Moors. Bill had been buying another load of crap. Cheers. Eddie.
That looks like one of the earlier Borderer disposals from Pandoro - I can’t make out the reg, but could it be ATC 758L? A number of Atkis were converted for yard use, starting with some H-reg Gardner-engined Silver Knight tractors around 1978/9. They had a lot of money spent on them, with hydraulic lift plates fitted by Lyka Cranes in Preston, and a full repaint in the new P&O corporate colours. The one I remember were JRN 29 & 35H, and KCK 63H, all new to Northern Ireland Trailers and they still carried N.I.T. colours until conversion. They’d spent their last years on the road, based at Larne.
Some Borderers were similarly converted around 1981 but, cunningly, the conversions were of ones with manual steering, whilst the power-steered ones were sold! these were L & M reg motors with ■■■■■■■ 220 engines. I know that some more were converted after I left in 1982.
There were purpose built tug units for loading and unloading the ships, but the Atkis were used for shunting in the compounds at Fleetwood and Larne
marky:
Ah… You’ve awoken a memory I’d forgotten I had there Chris. I remember those ‘misalignments’ being heavily debated with a certain Mr Tattershall after the green Borderer re-appeared at Whitestake some time afterwards. If I recall rightly, I asked you if it’d been a NIT motor, which it wasn’t, is that right?
Sorry Mark, I’d missed this one. No, not an NIT motor
Can’t help with the reg I’m afraid, but the timescale’s about right, 78/79. Memory fades, but I seem to recall making several trips up to Fleetwood to collect them. I think we drove them all back on trade plates. At a guess I would say we took in the region of 6 or thereabouts.
I could be mistaken, but I think they were all fitted with 220 ■■■■■■■ engines, the one in the previous photo certainly was. I used it for quite some time and it was a good motor.
If you’ve seen the red and white wrecker pulling the Harold Wood’s tanker on the ‘wreckers’ thread, that motor was another one out of the Pandoro batch that was stretched at Primrose in Blackburn before having the wrecker body fitted. All the rest were sold on.
Cheers. Eddie.
Eddie Heaton:
If you’ve seen the red and white wrecker pulling the Harold Wood’s tanker on the ‘wreckers’ thread, that motor was another one out of the Pandoro batch that was stretched at Primrose in Blackburn before having the wrecker body fitted. All the rest were sold on.Sorry 240 G, getting a bit confused there, the motor in question is actually on page 3 of this thread, so you’ve probably seen it already.
The photo was taken on the westbound A 580, East lancs road, almost opposite The Greyhound. Year, about 1978.
Cheers. Eddie.
Is that a P&O ERF backed up to the wall? Didn’t they used to run in that shade of blue with the flag painted on a white door or is my brain totally cooked?
That paint colour looks like a glass firm - but I can’t remember which one (Rockware, perhaps??)
I know for certain that ■■■■ Penn used to get tractor units from Pilks via Bob Cheetham who worked at Moss Bank. He would tip-off ■■■■ when there were upcoming disposals and they would get stored at Bob’s place before going off to their new home. Bob also got eight-wheelers from Pilks for a chap called Harry McGrath who operated out of Appley Bridge. Bob had AEC Mandators, ERF A Series, & B Series and Seddon Atkinson 400 series. The ERFs and SAs usually had Rolls 220s in them.
Thanks for the info Marky. We carried a lot of bottles out of Rockware when I drove for Heaton’s in the 70’s, but I just can’t visualise a Rockware wagon. The photo was taken in J.W.Ratcliffe’s yard, that’s his grandson, Andrew on the bike. I just had this idea that P&O Ferrymasters ran in those colours in the early days but I’m probably mistaken.
Cheers. Eddie.
Eddie Heaton:
Thanks for the info Marky. We carried a lot of bottles out of Rockware when I drove for Heaton’s in the 70’s, but I just can’t visualise a Rockware wagon. The photo was taken in J.W.Ratcliffe’s yard, that’s his grandson, Andrew on the bike. I just had this idea that P&O Ferrymasters ran in those colours in the early days but I’m probably mistaken.Cheers. Eddie.
Interesting that you’ve identified the location as Ratcliffe’s, because they broke-up the very first Atkinson Mk1 built, when Hagues Transport scrapped it in 1967 after nobody wanted to buy it.
With regard to the ERF in the picture, the blue is just a bit different to the P&O livery, unless the colour values of the photograph don’t do it proper justice. I’ve tried deciphering the registration number on it, but it doesn’t make much sense.
And now, as they say, for something completely different. Does anyone remember seeing these going up and down the road? I’ll wager a certain gentleman from Flintshire does. Bananas featured prominently in the goods carried. Preston docks for the small boats, Barry and Barrow for the larger ones, Liverpool if Geest felt lucky and it wasn’t raining.
Sorry about that Marky…That’s a bit of information that I wasn’t aware of. If it was 1967 the lads that cut it up would have been Ted Lindsay and Jacky Fairhurst. As Mr. Wadsworth would say, ’ just a useless bit of info '.
The Gardner engines were crated up and stacked behind the weighbridge in the centre of what is now the car park of The Pit Pony.
A Chinese gentleman would show up occasionally and would ship them all out to Hong Kong.
It’s perfectly feasible that the engine out of the first mk1 Atki is still pushing a Junk around Hong Kong harbour.
Ratcliffe’s went on to cut up a lot more Atkis and a lot of other wagons as well. There was a lot of stuff destroyed that needn’t have been and I played a part.
If I’d only had a modicum of foresight, I could have been living the dream in the Seychelles now.
History.
Cheers. Eddie.
As an afterthought, I believe the registration OO on the ERF was Essex.
You probably knew that.
Cheers Eddie.