Hello does anyone know what happened to Ken Sturt, we had a lot of dealings with him and OHS early 80’s they used to back load confectionery out of Zargreb for us.
Ken was after my time. In the early 80’s I was sales manager for F.G. Hammond Intl.
Anyone remember or know of the whereabouts of Bill Kitt? He used to have a couple of trucks running for us. I think he came from the Swindon area.
Jazzandy:
Ken was after my time. In the early 80’s I was sales manager for F.G. Hammond Intl.Anyone remember or know of the whereabouts of Bill Kitt? He used to have a couple of trucks running for us. I think he came from the Swindon area.
Hullo Jazzandy,
I do remember very well a Bill Kitt, although he came from Maistone in Kent. The last time that I saw him though was about 18 years ago, at the Customs in Como. He was driving for a Dutch company and told me he was living permanently in Holland. I know it’s a long time ago and I can’t be more specific.
Cheers, Archie
Thanks Archie,
I’d love to catch up with him. He used to work with us at Hammond on the Tehran and Baghdad trade fairs.
Jazzandy:
Ken was after my time. In the early 80’s I was sales manager for F.G. Hammond Intl.Anyone remember or know of the whereabouts of Bill Kitt? He used to have a couple of trucks running for us. I think he came from the Swindon area.
Would that be this F.G. Hammond International Ltd by any chance Jazzandy■■?
(Photo courtesy of N Jarrold, EuroWheels).
Regards, Pete
Absolutely. That tilt was around for years after F.G. Hammond folded.
Could have been one of Bill’s.
Back to the cargoes we were carrying.
Outward bound the largest customer was BMC Sanayi in Izmir who built basic Tonkas based on the old English Ausrin and Morris WF long nose rigids. Later they started building the Leyland Laird type trucks.in my time almost everything went CKD From the UK with the cabs being built locally.
Next was Genoto Istanbul who built Bedford TK rigids and on top of these we’re all the component suppliers.
It was big business at the time.
Later we took on loads for Tehran, Kuwait and the Gulf when Turkish business declined.
Jazzandy:
Ken was after my time. In the early 80’s I was sales manager for F.G. Hammond Intl.Anyone remember or know of the whereabouts of Bill Kitt? He used to have a couple of trucning for us. I think he came from the Swindon area.
I last saw Bill Kitt when I was subbing for John Mann, I do remember Him being ill & im fairly sure I heard He passed away, good bloke Bill was too…
fly sheet:
Jazzandy:
Ken was after my time. In the early 80’s I was sales manager for F.G. Hammond Intl.Anyone remember or know of the whereabouts of Bill Kitt? He used to have a couple of trucning for us. I think he came from the Swindon area.
I last saw Bill Kitt when I was subbing for John Mann, I do remember Him being ill & im fairly sure I heard He passed away, good bloke Bill was too…
Hullo Flysheet,
I’m very sorry to hear about that, if it’s true. I first met Bill when we were young lads around town, I had just moved to Maidstone aged 17, he was about the same age, just about a year older I think. As you say he was a great bloke.
Cheers, Archie.
I’m also sad that Bill’s no longer with us. I’d have loved a chat with him about the old days!
He was a great guy but in some ways a fool to himself in that he was an owner driver but would spend aeons of his time helping others out.
I remember him taking kegs of beer out to the guys on the Kkark water treatment site in Baghdad amongst the favours he used to do for the expats.
Lovely guy with a heart of gold!
I can remember running with a couple of OHS Macks in the early eighties. A couple of old British drivers in their sixties. One wore a seafarers cap and told endless stories about the Navy. The other one called him" “Captain.” They raved about the spec of the Sed-Atkis and said they were the best British truck ever built.
Those guys were after my time at OHS.
I’d love to know how those Seddon Atki’s worked out.
We bought them because the boss was an American truck fanatic and the ■■■■■■■■ Fuller, Eaton drivetrain was the closest you could get on a UK built truck.
Hi Jazzandy
only when Sed/Atk came out with the 400 model, ■■■■■■■ E290, 9509A, Eaton axle in a sleeper did they come close to the spec of the OHS vehicle. We had probably one of the first made at Rylands London, Fleet Hire, XLD 751T, it was exhibited at the Birmingham Commercial Vehicle show in late 79? or was it early 80? with the new FH livery of blue chassis and all white cab with blue arrowhead diagonal stripe (which we copied from the White Road Commander 2 brochure as the parent company was now a dealer). In order to snazz it up I put airhorns on the roof, pretty new in those days, well, everyone wanted to try them until the shop manager banned the vehicle from the building.
I have a photo stolen from the internet just haven’t figured the art of transfering it yet… 
yvrbrit
If you email me the photo at jazzandy@btinternet.com, I’ll post it for you.
yvy Brit asked me to post these two photos, one of a Seddon Atki 400 and the other of a Mack he saw in Canada and asks to apologise to whoever may have posted the Seddon Atki photo previously!!
With reference to the above photo of the Mack I must apologise for not crediting the owner of the truck, John Anderson . The pic was taken in the Mojave Valley in Arizona.
The truck is a Mack F773LST Weightsaver with aluminium body parts and is pretty rare.
It has a Detroit 8V71 engine with a Fuller RT09513 13 speed gearbox and an unusual grill.
It’s a western Mack in fact, built in California.
Many thanks to yvr brit for passing this information on
There’s a lot of discussion on the Iran Container thread about the hard ride experienced on the R600’s. My Astro on the other hand had a Hendrickson suspension setup on the four driving wheels and it worked very well apart from that infamous corrugated autoput between Zagreb and Belgrade. That was always a nightmare and shook up everything in the cab that wasn’t tied down. I understand that it’s all dual carriageway with smooth Tarmac now!
Must add to that last post that the Autoput paled into insignificance with the corrugations and pot holes on the back road around Tahir especially between Igdir and Dogubayazit! That would have shaken my GMC to bits but the Macks handled it OK.
YVR Brit:
Hi Jazzandyonly when Sed/Atk came out with the 400 model, ■■■■■■■ E290, 9509A, Eaton axle in a sleeper did they come close to the spec of the OHS vehicle. We had probably one of the first made at Rylands London, Fleet Hire, XLD 751T, it was exhibited at the Birmingham Commercial Vehicle show in late 79? or was it early 80?
I remember seeing that motor in Rylands adverts - the Atkinson step rings improve it no end!
But the E290 first appeared before that - I think it was '77. The first one I encountered was on an S-plate.
Hiya Chris,does this shot help any? This was a Sed/Atk demo we ran for a month or so in either late '76 or possibly early '77 and it had the ■■■■■■■ E290 engine,9509 Fuller/Group axle.You needed a fuel tanker following it so needless to say we “passed” on it,we had also got rid of a thirsty 250 P reg Sed/Atk that we inherited from K. Fells.Cheers Dennis.