You are quite right mate it was a JPR motor I bought it when it was about 2 years old did me well. A very under rated machine.regards
Great stories and nice pictures Noel, the 141 looks beautiful as do the Volvo’s.
Noel, fantastic tales there, I also started a bit before my time, at 18yrs old I was piloting a 2800 Daf around, at 19 I did my first trip to Germany in a Seddon Atki, I got captured on the M6 though, well I got away with it at the side of the road, but the inevitable failure to produce any documents and a bit of detective work led them to my door and I got banned from driving for a month, which didn’t change much in my working life if you get my drift. I did have to beg the commissioner in Kensington for a provisional license when I came of age, my pleas tugged at his heart strings and I was granted the magic ticket.
Now that Renault you pictured, I bought a Scania 143 in those colours, it was a flat top 420 reg P761 HUX, was it anything to do with you?
Just a quick hello Noel hope ur ok , some good tales ur telling always amazed me ur memory of old trucks and regs as to where they went and who for ,any way keep the stories coming .
Regard Pete.
ps Work with you down at Will Gilders before I lost my legs.
newmercman:
Noel, fantastic tales there, I also started a bit before my time, at 18yrs old I was piloting a 2800 Daf around, at 19 I did my first trip to Germany in a Seddon Atki, I got captured on the M6 though, well I got away with it at the side of the road, but the inevitable failure to produce any documents and a bit of detective work led them to my door and I got banned from driving for a month, which didn’t change much in my working life if you get my drift. I did have to beg the commissioner in Kensington for a provisional license when I came of age, my pleas tugged at his heart strings and I was granted the magic ticket.Now that Renault you pictured, I bought a Scania 143 in those colours, it was a flat top 420 reg P761 HUX, was it anything to do with you?
Probably came from the same stable JPR Haulage in Mid Wales it’s got a Shropshire Reg . More tales to come soon Regards Noel
pete62:
Just a quick hello Noel hope ur ok , some good tales ur telling always amazed me ur memory of old trucks and regs as to where they went and who for ,any way keep the stories coming .Regard Pete.
ps Work with you down at Will Gilders before I lost my legs.
Hi Pete how are you? Glad you’re enjoying the tales ,lots more to come soon. I’m back at Will’s but in the office doing compliance sort of poacher turned gamekeeper! Take care Regards Noel
Hi Noel all is well with me but not doing anything much. Good to hear you back at Wills he is a top bloke, cant believe how far he as come only had the 3 when I started still you no the Gilders.
Regards
Pete
A similar scenario but in reverse YKX 859M as it was when I owned it and how it ended up in Trevor Pye’s yard at Wem in Shropshire
Can’t find the other pic will post it later
come on noel waiting for more exellant reading makes my day and johhny sends his regards with a smile regards rowly
I must confess that being thrust headlong back into the road haulage industry after such a long absence came as quite a shock to the system. After a fairly uneventful trip to Middlesbrough in a Seddon 13/4 DDD 375C I was given charge of what can only be described as a duck egg, It was a Commer artic unit JAB 871C which Warners had bought from Spiers & Hartwell it had a straight 5 speed box and no 2 speed axle. It was coupled to a 4 in line trailer with a demountable tipping body made by Tamplin of Birdham near Chichester.A regular job for me wasto go at night to J W French & Co, Flour millers of St Leonards Road ,Bromley by Bow E16 to load bulk wheatfeed for W J Oldacre animal feeds.If I got in the tank and trod it in I could just about get 9 tons on. At that time the M40 started at Beaconsfield and ended at Stokenchurch and I can remember ascending the bank from High Wycombe in 2nd gear cursing to myself “I’ll be glad when I’ve had enough of this!” I soon tired of the job and particularly the wagon so I asked for a change. I got a change alright, the chance to go up the road with the big boys on long distance! KWD 937E what an anomoly! A 1967 AEC Mandator but with a Park Royal cab which is strange because when it was built the Ergomatic cab had been in production for almost two years. The story I heard was that Wimpey ordered two 6x4 Mammoth Majors and specified Park Royal cabs and somehow KWD 937E just"happened" . However it was supplied new to Compton Sectional Buildings of Long Compton in Warwickshire and Warners bought it when it was about 3 years old. One of my first jobs was to go to Stockers Transport in Maidstone to collect a 33’ York tandem axle trailer which I was going to use on my foray into long distance haulage. Warners had always had a close working relationship with R H Goulding & Son in Newent so a lot of our traffic came from Gouldings. Sunday morning would see a load of us in Cardiff Dock at 7 am waiting to load 1200 boxes of oranges (all handball) If you could get started at 7am the aim was to get 900 on before breakfast at 0930. There were blokes on Gouldings twice my age who could load them quicker than me, in particular Geoff James although not quite twice as old, very quick but also a wizard at the art of sheeting and roping. There was an owner driver from Worcester Frank ( F H Mucklow) RIP who ran a Guy big J unit who WAS more than twice my age and I couldn’t keep up with him at all. After loading, sheeting and roping it was back to Aston on Carrant for fuel then over the railway bridge to my mothers for Sunday lunch bearing in mind that after dinner I had it all to do. I recall that I asked Raymond Griffiths, a real gentleman of the road who was close to retirement, how long it would take me to get to Glasgow. Nineteen Woodbines he replied. For the benefit of the younger members Woodbines were once a very popular brand of cigarette. To be continued
Another name I’m ashamed to admit I had forgotten, Frank Mucklow. Lovely old chap.
My orange duties were confined to Newport Docks to Wye Fruits, Ledbury. My Glasgow trips were at that time made with outbound apples from Ledbury on the S-type Bedford. Quite some time later, oranges and coconuts were cadged as a backload from Liverpool Docks after pioneering the Wilderness GRQ Scheme!
Many thanks for stirring even more memories of my mis-spent youth!
Retired Old ■■■■:
Another name I’m ashamed to admit I had forgotten, Frank Mucklow. Lovely old chap.
My orange duties were confined to Newport Docks to Wye Fruits, Ledbury. My Glasgow trips were at that time made with outbound apples from Ledbury on the S-type Bedford. Quite some time later, oranges and coconuts were cadged as a backload from Liverpool Docks after pioneering the Wilderness GRQ Scheme!
Many thanks for stirring even more memories of my mis-spent youth!
That’s reminded me of the only time I ever loaded at Hull docks. About 1973. (Although I shipped out of there for Rotterdam a few times later). A load of boxed oranges for London. First problem was at the gate. The Mastiff was not sign written. ‘Cant come in here without the company name on the lorry’. - this was apparently so that if they didn’t like you they could ban you out.
I managed to get some plastic letters and put J West Haulage on the door. The gate man wasn’t happy, but he let me in.
I parked up and a fork lift put a pallet of oranges on the back of the 40’ van. It was a freezing day and there was a 45 gallon drum being used as a brazier near the back door of the van. Each time the pallet was empty, the forklift driver would put a new one on. While I handballed 18 tons of oranges on my own, never less than 5 dockers and sometimes 10 or 12 stood around the fire warming themselves.
I waited till I was loaded before I mentioned to them that if they’d helped me load, they wouldn’t have got cold. There might have been the odd swear word thrown in. Not a popular statement!
Back at the gate I told him not to worry about banning me, I had no intention of ever loading there again.
John
Hi
In my opinion Hull docks was as bad as any London or Liverpool dock.
I,ve queued at Hull and if you didn’t have your union card every one with a card got tipped first
Last time there was in the mid 80,s and it was still like that then.
Bassman
Mid afternoon sees me leaving the yard Glasgow bound.KWD was not really a motorway wagon as it only did about 55 mph flat out, but it pulled well. Also I dont think the decibels in the cab would have been acceptable in todays H&S regime. Just as an aside when I took my medical to get a job at Sun Valley after the hearing test the company doctor asked me if I had ever been subjected to loud noises like pop concerts or blasting in quarries etc because the hearing was impaired in my left ear. I said no but try Rolls Royce Eagle 220, ■■■■■■■ 220, Gardner 180 or AEC AV691, they could have something to do with it! Any way back to the trip to Glasgow which was a first for me ,northbound on the M5 then M6 then a cup of tea at Charnock Richard after about 2 hours and 50 minutes. Then it was on again to the end of the M6 which was at Carnforth then it was on to the A6 through Milnthorpe ( home of Houghtons Parkhouse the famous livestock bodies manufacturer ) and on to Kendal. Through Kendal and on towards the infamous Shap stopping at the Jungle cafe for tea and a sandwich. It was worth stopping there just to be able to say all these years later that I had been there where all those pioneers had stopped for decades. About 16 years ago when I worked for Sun Valley we did a regular delivery of MRM ( mechanically recovered meat ) to Shap Foods in Shap village and after one particular delivery I had plenty of time to spare and as I wasn’t loading until the next day in Liverpool, I decided to take the old A6 back just for a trip down memory lane .Firstly it was one of the few ocasions that I had seen that part of the journey in daylight and secondly just to reminisce over those glorious days of yesteryear. It would have been no use stopping at the Jungle unless I had wanted to buy a caravan but nevertheless it was a nice trip down memory lane. Any way onward and upward it was out of the jungle up past the famous Leyland clock which bore the legend “Leyland vehicles for all time” following the A6 through Shap village and eventually rejoining the M6 just before Penrith . The M6 finished again before Carlisle then it was back on to the A6 through the town which I think had some of the roughest road surfaces in the British Isles that coupled to the fact that the Mandator had a very short wheelbase made for a very rough ride indeed ! After Carlisle it was on to the A74 over the Metal Bridge and on past Gretna Green. A steady ride then to the cafe before the ascent to Beattock Summit. IIRC the cafe was called Cotesgate or the Quarry ? Not sure but after a stop there it was the climb to Beattock then on to the start of the M74 at Lesmahagow I think? Dawn is breaking as we descend the gentle slope of the M74 towards the Metropolis. Leaving the Motorway behind on to London Road towards Gallowgate then final bit from there to the fruit market in Blochairn Road. Journey’s end maybe but only as far as the driving was concerned ,the actual work was just beginning because now after removing the sheets and ropes the load had to be unloaded by hand just as it had been loaded!
i suffer from impaired hearing in my left ear as well , but i’ve always put it down to the wife always sitting on my left at home or in the car .
hi there laurie dryver
the reg on your AEC started my old brain working,back in mists of time we had KWD 639E in our yard.this was a old pig of a ERF 8 wheeler 150 gardner,5 speed david brown box and a top speed of 39MPH on the flat down hills loaded the speedo went round the clock,the old truck was days and nights for 12years.
thanks for the memory jerker.
regards
sm1
P.S.love the storys of your time on the road. 
Hi Noel,
did you get the pms I sent you
Ade