Leyland Octopus 8 wheel fuel oil tanker , i remember sitting in one very similar with my father Jack Williams i would have been about 10 years old , happy days they sounded great !.
Here’s a Scammell Trunker in the livery of National Benzole…Seen here at the Shell-Mex and BP terminal Dunball…Cheers…Bryan
Some of those Castrol tankers had me reminiscing.
I drove for Castrol at Rotherhithe from 1965 until 1985.
I much preferred the four wheeled 1000 gallon trucks that we used for deliveries of lub oil to garages in the South East, roughly from the north Norfolk coast and all East Anglia down to Bournemouth in the South West and anywhere in between and in London and the Home Counties.
They knew that I had driven eight wheelers and artics for Gulf Oil at Dagenham Dock though, and eventually I was press-ganged into running polymerising solvent to Marchon Products in Whitehaven, ■■■■■■■■■■■
It was exactly 333 miles each way and they allowed us three and a half days to do the round trip which obviously meant three nights out.
I was doing these runs before the introduction of tachographs and I’d got the pox of pushing trucks around by now and had decided to do The Knowledge and become a black cab driver, so I wasn’t too bothered if I got caught and fired, so I used to leave around 06.00, drive straight there and tip, then go into digs in Whitehaven.
Next day I’d drive straight back and park up in a truck park at Aldgate, then I’d have a day and a half to go out on my moped doing the knowledge before running back to the depot and handing in my log sheets.
I was lucky and never got caught, I got my green badge in 1986 and drove my own cab until February this year when I decided that I’d had my fill of driving anything by now, sold the cab, handed my licence back to TFL and now I drive the vacuum cleaner for her indoors occasionally.
I toyed with keeping my licence in case I felt like topping up my two pensions by doing a day or two in a rented cab, but by now I really disliked driving, my wife has a four year old Audi Q7, and if we go out anywhere in it I claim shotgun and sit in the nearside reading the paper.
We still have one or two vacations in the US every year, I’ll drive the rental car from the airport to wherever we have rented a house, but after that it’s down to her, I just sit there and say “take exit 99, then left at the lights, right at the Hess gas station and the place we want is along on the right.”
Another picture from the Shell=Mex and BP era…this one is of a Scammell Highwayman with a spirit trailer…no landing gear on these …we had to use a trolley jack to raise the tank off the turntable as the cargo pump pipe went trough the centre of the turntable…great fun trying to connect up…
I do weekend work on this tanker delivering fuel from Grangemouth to the kintyre peninsula for D…Mcnair of campbeltown.
A couple of recent photo’s in Lakelands Yard
Sniffy:
Another mix of fuel oil rigids
This tanker, or 1 exactly like it is now in Co Louth Ireland, a single potter.
Great thread, a few of mine.
I took these pics at G. D. Jones of Gaerwen’s depot, Anglesey.
tankerian:
Sniffy:
JK Commercials… Jan just sold out to WG Davies last FridayJan such a happy chap he just could not contain his excitement when talking to you.
Sniffy, i feel i know you ■■?
Hi all,
Just discovered this amazing website. I worked in that cold and eerie workshop from 1979 - 1985 for AMOCO (no pictures on here, that I can see, apart from an AD). I had the pleasure of working for Jan from 1990-1993…he did have a sunny side…every leap year. It was still a well paid job. Still in contact with his son. On the photo there is se an West’s van…an amazing electrician and a good egg.
These photo’s certainly jog the grey matter, still got the scars from working on alot of shoehorn fire screens…keep up the good work…some brilliant threads on here.
Never thought I’d leave Bristol…but here I am, very happy in East Yorkshire… 
CartersRest:
tankerian:
Sniffy:
JK Commercials… Jan just sold out to WG Davies last FridayJan such a happy chap he just could not contain his excitement when talking to you.
Sniffy, i feel i know you ■■?
Hi all,
Just discovered this amazing website. I worked in that cold and eerie workshop from 1979 - 1985 for AMOCO (no pictures on here, that I can see, apart from an AD). I had the pleasure of working for Jan from 1990-1993…he did have a sunny side…every leap year. It was still a well paid job. Still in contact with his son. On the photo there is se an West’s van…an amazing electrician and a good egg.
These photo’s certainly jog the grey matter, still got the scars from working on alot of shoehorn fire screens…keep up the good work…some brilliant threads on here.
Never thought I’d leave Bristol…but here I am, very happy in East Yorkshire…
Hi Carters rest, hope you can share some more stories, or even some photos
Not the best of quality but some of the Amoco fleet at the end of life
Sniffy:
Not the best of quality but some of the Amoco fleet at the end of life
Cheers,that brings back some memories (my hair being all the same colour for one).
You even got one of the recovery truck,they bought 6 wheel tractor units expecting the weight limit to be increased to 40 Tonnes,when this didnt happen they made 6 into recovery trucks & cut the rest down to 4 wheel tractor units.
Even before H&S went into overdrive & just the common sense rules applied, a driver presented a written defect of “Can you retrieve my lighter from No 4 pot”. When asked does he really want this defect processed, his reply was ‘It was an expensive lighter’. He was reminded how expensive it would be, ie he would have lost his job. He took the defect with him & we fished the lighter out with 2 dipsticks like chopsticks.
Here is a photo of a GULL PETROLEUM tanker i caught last week in whangerei new zealand, Like most fuel companies in nz it has a nice livery.
A few nice liveries from the FPS show last year
An IVECO Stralis fuel tanker delivering heating oil ready for the winter.
Not the best location to take a photograph -under a tree !
Cheers, cattle wagon man.
A few from over the border
A few more from around Grangemouth refinery last month
Just been looking through the oil and fuel companies and noticed the photos i posted seem to have disappeared so i will try and post them again. this is the company i am working for now D Mcnair, We run from Grangemouth to campbeltown daily.
matt watson:
Heres another one from north of the border, this one goes to campbeltown daily from grangemouth for D MCNAIR & SON.this was me the 2 weeks ago enjoying the view.
Were you on last Sunday training up a new driver Matt