nows heres an old atkinson from the fleet,i know nothing about this one so i am hoping that our friend cav551 can give us some more info on this one
This is probably MKM 350F the Unit which was eventually burnt out. There was only one Silver Knight artic in the early to mid 70s. After the fire it sat in the lorry shed for a long time waiting I suppose for a decision about what to do with it. It had certainly got hot because there were holes in the rocker covers where the aluminium had melted. By the time of its death the wooden name board had gone.Whether this was replaced with an integral illuminated cab sign I donât know any longer.
Yes, that Fridge trailer is the one currently parked in coolchains depot at Teynham - still looks miles better even now than those sticker applied cool chain liveried trailers !
Yes it is really surprising how well it has weathered and with remarkably few signs of damage too. Completely different from the piles of doo-doos that they run every day. Scrapes everywhere, rearlight brackets shaking about etc.
Now now chapsâŚlets not turn this into a â lets slag off FWC â thread. I think the new Volvos with matching trailers look quite tidy.
Not meant as criticism of the operator, but remarking on the contrast of how well the bodywork of a trailer manufactured over 30 years ago stood up to use in comparison to what is now in use. Smear the side of an aluminium ribbed body and it dents it, do the same to a GRP body and it tears through the top layer exposing fibreglass strands, letting in water and often effecting the security of the side rave. Modern construction often has wings and side spray-suppression screwed into the GRP floor, making repair more difficult- certainly some of this operatorâs trailers are like this. I note that the latest batch of trailers are from a different manufacturer.
Part of this is probably due to the difference in financing the equipment used these days. It is nowhere near as common today for an operator to own his vehicles and trailers, they belong to a leasing company and are on, lets say, a three or five year contract, therefore the purchaser has not requested that the item be made to last; whereas very little of Henleyâs equipment, which was owned,was retired until it was ten years old meanwhile whatever refurbishment necessary to achieve that life was done.
A ten year old ex Henley vehicle for sale didnât hang around long.
Morning cav551âŚYes, your right what you say. Our latest batch of trailers are from Montracon. When we inherited the ex Henley trailers they were mainly Grey & Adams, superbly made but very heavy. They also had that terrible steering rear axle, which although a good idea, never really worked in practice. They worked well enough when new but once they started to wear they caused all sorts of problems, espeacially when reversing. Also, they were quite narrow inside which made loading wide pallets quite a struggle with a pump up truck!. At the time we were also using Lamberet trailers which were lighter, wider,& also had split compartments.
All our new equipment ( units & trailers ) are on lease hire nowdays unlike Jacks day. Yes, its certainly changed alot over the last 20 odd years, sadly not allways for the better.
I bought some photos at a rally many years ago. The photographer is unknown, apologies if this is your work, and if it against the rules then please remove. I have about 10 more from this series if it is ok to continue posting
Thats a great picture tyreman. Hav,nt seen that one before, i wonder where it was taken?.
The sign in the background says Henley Transport, I guess its the Northern depot. Iâm sure Chris would know.
Mark R:
Thats a great picture tyreman. Hav,nt seen that one before, i wonder where it was taken?.
I only went to the Rochdale depot the once,but that scene seems familiar. The R reg ERF on the left may possibly be the Rochdale Special. Not long after the depot opened, the cost of clutch replacements on vehicles based at Rochdale was causing concern, so rather than the usual Gardner 240 Fuller RTO 9509A spec, a complete change was tried. This was a Rolls 265 with the ZF âtransmaticâ gearbox in an attempt to overcome the difficulty caused by the gradient in the yard.
My later experience of this transmission elsewhere was that it was not particularly successful. The idea was that there was a torque converter attached to the engine flywheel and a behind that was a standard clutch and gearbox. The clutch was only used to interrupt drive when the gearlever had to be moved, therefore it was the torque converter that âtook upâ drive when pulling away from rest. This set up probably worked well for Henleyâs, but when I worked for a Seddon Atkinson dealership, we saw several in the workshop with failed clutches and other problems. This may well have been a foretaste of the later problems encountered with the Eaton TwinSplitter, when unfamiliar drivers were allocated a vehicle with a strange transmission. It was not the easiest of boxes to get in and out either, due to its size and weight. I canât recall clearly after all this time, but I think we had to take the whole lot out, torque converter included, to send it back to ZF, I certainly didnât like the job.
The photo also shows the Mack and Edwards headboard on the trailer, which was a common feature on lorries too. These were reversable, having Henley Transport on the other side.
tyreman:
I bought some photos at a rally many years ago. The photographer is unknown, apologies if this is your work, and if it against the rules then please remove. I have about 10 more from this series if it is ok to continue posting
hello thats the old original henley transport northern depot at ensor mills in rochdale.
later on a purpose built depot was constructed at queensway in castleton rochdale.
Hello Mark, Oh those dreadful self steering trailer axles which never seem to lock up in reverse, even if the vehicle is in a straight line. One of the versions now costs an absolute fortune to renew the kingpins so you were well rid of them.
the other evening the subject of hops came up , not only was the company involved in moving hops but they also grew a lot of hops on the goudhurst farms.
shown here is an early erf b series with sleeper cab, i can work out on the door it says international below henley transport co ltd so its either ykm 287s or akk 122t,its loaded with 120 pockets of hops (naturally of course by hand)
i would say looking at the way the sheet is its most probably come in from a farm as the photograph is taken in the hops marketing board premesis at paddock wood (later to become henley transports main depot)
hops were moved in large quantities by the company from farm to merchants & processors warehouses and also direct to breweries.
towards the late 80s we moved no where near the amount as before,we done a few farms into the hops marketing board at paddock wood.
the company were also designated hauliers for bass delivering into bass at sheffield and also to pinnacle storage at west hallam (now tdg i believe) and also for guinness collecting from the guinness hop farm at lewson street nr teynham in kent for delivery to the park royal brewery in north west london.
please feel free to post photos on this thread even if you have no history because no doubt one of us will most probably know some information thank you
Thats a great picture ChrisâŚam i right in thinking that some of the lorries had Bass signwritten on the front?.
Mark R:
Thats a great picture ChrisâŚam i right in thinking that some of the lorries had Bass signwritten on the front?.
hello mark,there used to be a red sign reading bass which would be bolted to the roo bar on the front of the tractor unit
Widespread tandem - not seen one for yonks. Are there any on the preservation scene?
Often loads out of the hop board would have had many more on. They would have been loaded âgunner and rollâ with pockets loaded lengthways as well and secured by long pins. The load also would have gained an extra pocket at each end as normally at least every other layer overhung the one below. Brian was kept pretty busy in season not just loading for himself, but loading for others who werenât trusted to know how to do it properly.
It was the sheeting up that took the time: one or two floor sheets, sometimes even up to four side sheets instead of just one main sheet and then a flysheet. If the platform had carried concrete (sections) before it would have to be swept before loading, because the debris could damage the pockets.
Hops was a load to be careful with, not just the height on the road, but loading and unloading. I fell off from five high, kicking off the back pocket when the one I was standing on went too. Gordon Taylor (or better known as âSootyâ, now at Norman Collett) who was one of the most experienced drivers at the game broke both wrists coming off the top of a load when loading on a farm.
Also of note in the picture is another Henley trademark: every flat lorry and every flat trailer, had both a rope box and another for the corner boards, that were needed for the dutch trays a lot of the soft fruit was packed in.
What will not be clear from the picture is that the rope used to loop over the overhangs was about one and a half inches thick.
Hi cav, I wondered what the long shallow box on the offside of RKJ 160M was for, when I acquired the vehicle in 2005 this was not fitted although the nearside one was. The off side fuel tank was still fitted. I am looking for any information on this wagon, speaking to another ex haulier collegue today who has gained access to some ERF records and has found out that RKJ was one of the first LAG 16s to be fitted with a Gardner 120 as oposed to a normal 6LW.
Cheers, Leyland 600
Hereâs another preserved vehicle, AEC Y NH5403 taken at the HCVS Rally at Brighton in 1988.
Some of this history comes from HCVS programmes, but there is an interesting AEC Society forum that can be accesssed if you google âNH5403â.
This vehicle was one of 10,000 supplied to the War Department, when it was de-mobbed in 1924 it was fitted with a charabanc body and pnuematic tyres by Beedons of Northampton. It was found derelict in the early 1960âs and restored by J Sparshatt of Portsmouth. It was photographed at Denne Park Hailsham on 2/8/69 in Sparshatts colours, although no reg number is displayed.
According to the AEC Society forum, this vehicle had chassis number 7798 and was one of 250 YAâs produced with 45hp Tylor petrol engine between February and June 1917.
DVLA records show it as being 1st registered on 26/3/24. According to Neil Fraser he spoke to Jack Henley in December 2007 to ask when he acquired the truck, Jack thought it was in the early seventies, but this may not be correct. A book on AEC says that it was restored by Jack Henley in 1970. 1988 was the first time I had seen this truck in Henleyâs ownership
It has been rallied recently in an overall red livery of R Shipley
another henley transport co ltd fleet line up,again the photograph was taken at spelmonden goudhurst.
there used to a large blown up copy of this line up looking face on in the old paddock wood office it dates from 1970.
as usual you can see aecs,erfs,atkinsons further on down the line is a ford d series and an old commer
