FKE 580Y (fleet no 58) was the last Seddon Atkinson 300 bought by the company,it went on the road febuary 1983 and was allocayed to the late Bryan Goldsmith,the company ran a total of 6 of this type and all were double drive.
During the 80s there was a bad lot of snow and virtually most of Kent was at a stand still (in Kent the authorities never seem to be prepared or like paying out).
The companies bread and butter was fresh produce distribution and the likes of Sainsburys and Tesco were always insistent that all produce had to be delivered under the normal termperature controlled conditions,but one day during the bad weather we took all call from Waitrose asking us if there was any way we can get produce to them,naturally we gave it a go as they were so desperate and FKE 58OY and a similar Seddon Atkinson 300 BKO 520Y were used to get produce to waitrose at bracknell,each vehicle was doing 2 loads during the day and two loads at night as well.
We took many a phone call from other hauliers and fruit merchants/importers as to how and why we were the only ones who seemed to be getting out and about,just a shame we still had over 60 other vehicles parked up !
Two of the original ERF E series artics in the livery of our main customer Mack multiples (formerly Mack and Edwards),both these were coupled to tandem axle Boalloy insuliner trailers on a Pacton chassis.
When the increased weight limit came in the company first went for 2 axle tractor units and tri axle trailers but with the weight of the refridgeration unit on the bulkhead of the trailer and also with some work involving multidrops and a diminishing load situation, the company switched to tri axle units and tandem axle trailers,then after a few years went over to 6 axles overall.
The two units here were both Padock Wood based D150 PKR being new to Martin Kemp and E45 TKJ new to Roger Jenner.
Does the name John Mayo ring a bell with anyone?
cav551:
Does the name John Mayo ring a bell with anyone?
I can remember john,I know he worked for the company in the 70s but I knew him when he was on tomkinsons with my father
A typical saturday afternoon shot of the lorries parked up in the hops marketing board yard,nearest the camera is RKL 370W th second Leyland Roadtrain to join the fleet further on down the line of vehicles KKM 688V stands the first Leyland Roadtrain.
At this time there would have only been 1 foreign vehicle in the fleet that being the Man 16.280 unit FYJ 870V,the rest of the fleet would have been made up with ERF B series units with a couple of A series floating about and also Seddon Atkinsons with perhaps the odd Atkinson Borderer or two,and of course a handful of Ford D series 7.5 tonners
Fleet no 54 TKR 540X parked under the Hops Marketing Board canopy sheets rolled up on the back of the trailer so i guess its done a back load and the original outbound load would have been hops,as the the trailer isnt prepared for loading of hops ie the bed of the trailer isnt covered fully.
Loading hops was very hard work up to 135 pockets being loaded onto a 40ft flat,then once all that hard work had been done they had to be very carefully fully sheeted.
MOW 302Y was the last Seddon Atkinson 401 tractor unit the company purchased,in all the company only ran 6 of this model as ERF was always favoured.
On the subject of ERF Jack was a very good friend of Peter Foden and i can remember Peter coming to visit us at Paddock Wood.
I ran the traffic office and Jack was giving Peter Foden a guided tour of the operation at Paddock Wood one afternoon,they both stood beside me watching the team in action and Jack was trying to explain what was going on (sorry to say Jack knew very little of how the traffic operation ran).All of a sudden Foden came out and said if a vehicle turns up at sandbach with a delivery for us after 3pm we dont accept it,i replied we have vehicles on the road working from 2am sunday morning right through to 10pm saturday night so its most probably quite good that we dont deliver to Sandbach!Jacks face lit up and couldnt stop grinning he soon ushered Foden away.
Hello Chris,
I am very sorry to report that the latest January issue of Classic and Vintage Commercials has some news of HKR 260 D.
There are two pictures of it looking rather sad, in a breakers yard, and said to be off the A 27 in Sussex. What is not mentioned however is when the pictures were taken and whether it was in the process of being cut up or not. It does mention that another Atkinson was being destroyed at the time.
Hopefully someone may be able to give an update on location etc.
I will be emailing the editor of cvc and see if a photo can be found either on the motor show stand or even better in service with henley transport co ltd
Happy new year to all the followers of this thread
Likewise mate.
lawrence2765:
0
Doorway of Spelmonden lorry shed. It must be quite late in the afternoon or be early evening since the door at the other end is shut. Another ERF can be seen behind ready for a slightly later early start. It was not often that a lorry had to be moved out of the way in order to get out, but the normal practice if not reversing it back in again, was to tuck the keys in with the correct driver’s clock card in the rack, which is to the immediate nearside of AKJ along with a pallet of spare sheets.The engine oil barrel would be on the other side of the shed.
CKP 250K was on of the few vehicles fitted with a PTO and spent much of its time on the cider run to Shepton Mallet with bulk apples. It was written off in an accident on the M27 while being driven by a driver whose name eludes me. About 30, 5’ 7" with ginger hair and a beard.
XKO 150J an AEC Mercury tractor unit coupled to an early Boalloy Tautliner trailer,sorry but I don’t know too much info on these,by the time I joined the company all of the Aecs had gone with the exception of the workshop shunter,although I do have recollections of them from when I used to ride shotgun with my father in his Atkinson Borderer.
I hope our good friend cav551 will be able to give more info as this would have been his era,so its over to you cav551.
The AEC Mercury units, of which there were I think fewer than half a dozen, were used mainly on paper bag deliveries for Dempsons of Barming using single axle Tautliners. Being plated for 26 tons they were useful for those loads which were just too heavy for the six wheel Marshalls, nearly all of which were only 22 tons gross. Occasionally one would be seen pulling a 33 ft tandem, which would usually be hops. In earlier days there had been a couple of four-in-line flats, but by the mid 1970s these had been retired. There were several single axle flats and surprisingly it was not at all uncommon for them to be carrying a Charcon or Atcost building (or at least part of it!). When the Luis Gordon contract started these Mercuries were a common sight, since they released a six wheeler for more appropriate Charcon work.
One of these was involved in an incident at Luis Gordon. It was common for drivers to be asked to pull out of the yard in Hart street to sheet up. There was a parked car in the way which required a rather sharper turn than normal. As the vehicle pulled round so the weight transferred and most of the first pallet on the trailer ended up in the road. There was then a frantic search by drivers for some sort of container which would hold liquid, and an equally frantic search by Luis Gordon supervisors for bottle tops so that the duty paid could be reclaimed.
The drivers I remember who at some time piloted one of these as a progression to something larger were John Mayo, Charlie Leadbetter and the previously mentioned guy with the ginger hair and beard. For a time there were at least two if not three of them at Spelmonden. For the technically minded at least one Mercury had the AEC/Guy hub reduction axle.
Edit : fewer than, not less than.
a very worn and hard worked looking Aec Mercury 4 wheeler,jkl210l was the first rigid on the fleet to be fitted with a Boalloy Tautliner body.
It was spruced up before it was sold as there is a photo on flickr of it in the back streets of Faversham in Kent with the name all painted out and it looked half presentable, I know in my years with the company Jack would not have allowed a vehicle to be in this state to be on the road, there would have been no excuse with a fully automated lorry wash and our own resident paint sprayer.
JKL 210L was the long term steed of Robin Parr, one of the Paddock Wood night drivers. Night markets did not mean just the London ones, Gateshead among others was a common destination. The three regular night men were Robin, and Charlie Creasey at Paddock Wood and Dennis Mills with the lorry and trailer from Chartham. They all started work around 6pm although quite often earlier; even up to 2pm. Day men on the other hand could quite easily find them selves starting as early as 10 pm, so in reality there wasn’t a lot of difference.
Another shot of the mercury along with what I may think be a mandator but I will have to rely on cav551 for his input again