If you remember Flishflunk there were two pinball machines in the left hand corner of The Cabin Cafe at Slattocks Bridge near the counter. I.I.R.C. if you accumulated twenty game credits and had a quite word with Bill the owner behind the counter, a ten bob note was secretly passed over and the score would automatically go back to zero .
Were The Corona Men and the lads from Cowley and Richardson your rivals in those days .
Regards Steve.
[/quote]
Steve the Robin Hood on the A614 just out side Nottingham had the same system of paying for credits. It was open 365 days a year,
they had a really fierce lady on the night shift called Hilda if my memory serves me right. The cafe was a favourite with ICI boys
form Teeside they used to carry pellets of plastic in tall metal containers on flatback trailers, think the units were orange.
Stirling and Dakin Red livery from Nottingham spent time there as well. I was reminded of another old cafe as well the other day
as I had to ring John Hudsonâs of Bawtry. They are on the site of an old Cafe just out side Bawtry heading North on The Great North Road.
It went into decline with the opening of the Doncaster bypass around 1964 / 65 cannot remember the name now. Also there was another
one on the A614 between Hatfield Woodhouse and Bawtry, by the railway crossing at Blaxton, served a great dinner, only a few hundred yards from
an Old Haulage firm Earnshawâs of Blaxton, they ran old KV ERF motors kind of Duck egg blue colour. regards Big Al
mushroomman:
Cracking picture that Chris and you are dead right it was a bit before my time . My old mate Cyril Kelly R.I.P. worked for Hansons for donkeyâs years and he reckoned that the best paying tanker job was moving Tallow from Liverpool to Trafford Park. One load a day, empty to Liverpool, load and wash off, tip Trafford Park wash off, back to the yard job and finish 10 hours guaranteed. I bet that they do a bit more than that today, not as many loads but there are not as many candels .
You were right again, it was Flixborough that I was thinking of but Flishflunk was spot on about the nurse and the leaking tanker and was probably right about The Four Minute Man and the Phynol incident.
If you remember Flishflunk there were two pinball machines in the left hand corner of The Cabin Cafe at Slattocks Bridge near the counter. I.I.R.C. if you accumulated twenty game credits and had a quite word with Bill the owner behind the counter, a ten bob note was secretly passed over and the score would automatically go back to zero .
Were The Corona Men and the lads from Cowley and Richardson your rivals in those days .
Regards Steve.
I think that incident involving that nurse happened on the M6 near Thelwall and it may have been a Runcorn Transport Services vehicle carrying Oleum which I think is 98% sulphuric acid or fuming sulphuric acid.I never carried acids but I knew a bit about them especially after the hazchem course.There will be someone on here who recalls that tragic occurence.
That Liverpool-Trafford Park would have suited Harry or Norman of the BRS brigade. Who knows,the way we are going with energy in this country candles might soon be the âinâ thing.
You would have been an ERF man at Hansons then Steve?
Big Al:
If you remember Flishflunk there were two pinball machines in the left hand corner of The Cabin Cafe at Slattocks Bridge near the counter. I.I.R.C. if you accumulated twenty game credits and had a quite word with Bill the owner behind the counter, a ten bob note was secretly passed over and the score would automatically go back to zero .
Were The Corona Men and the lads from Cowley and Richardson your rivals in those days .
Regards Steve.
Also there was another
one on the A614 between Hatfield Woodhouse and Bawtry, by the railway crossing at Blaxton, served a great dinner, only a few hundred yards from
an Old Haulage firm Earnshawâs of Blaxton, they ran old KV ERF motors kind of Duck egg blue colour. regards Big Al
[/quote]
Hi Al,I remember that cafe but as always have forgotten the name and they are a blast from the past,Earnshaws of Blaxton,I can see 'em now trundling about in those ERFs
This bloody thread is scary, Great stories though.
I will start at the end and work backwards. The cafe on Blaxton common where Earnshaws ran from was where the boss met his end. I used to run from the ICI depot close by, it was a farmyard who stored PVC for IFF & ICI. Mr Earnshaw was relining the brakes on a truck when it either fell off the blocks and squished him or rolled over him. Was it J.O.B.E Earnshaw?
The Nurse and the Phenol were the scare stories used to get our undivided attention on the first day of an ADR course with Alan Walker, somewhere between the BLEVE and the second cup of coffee
So on to the Caprolactum plant in Flixborough. It was thought that the previous years miners strike and 3 day week had some bearing on the explosion, due to the erratic supply of power, some of the reactors were closed down. When the power resumed later in 1973 part of the plant was found to have severe corrosion.
On Saturday June 1st 1974 Wheelnut was laid under a mates Lotus Cortina putting a new clutch in it because my brother had burnt it out when he borrowed the car to go tarting I had driven it up and propped up on 2 railway sleepers, our pub was quite busy, my brother was watching horse racing when there was this almighty BOOM!
My Dad and his customers ran out to lift this car off me as they were convinced the bang was the Cortina squashing me We could see the smoke rising from over the river although it looked much closer. It turned out that houses in the village had windows blown out, even though we were probably 25 miles as the crow flies from the Nypro site.
This was one of the milestones of my life, like Winston Churchill JFK dead. Elvis and Princess Diana dying. we remember silly details. I forgot which horse won though to pay me for the clutch plate
mushroomman:
Cracking picture that Chris and you are dead right it was a bit before my time . My old mate Cyril Kelly R.I.P. worked for Hansons for donkeyâs years and he reckoned that the best paying tanker job was moving Tallow from Liverpool to Trafford Park. One load a day, empty to Liverpool, load and wash off, tip Trafford Park wash off, back to the yard job and finish 10 hours guaranteed.
Regards Steve.
Was this tallow moving around the time of William Brennan Bulk Liquids? There was a tankermans tale that Billâs drivers became some of the richest men in Calverley
It was no coincidence that when a driver was found with head injuries outside a pub on English Street in Hull. Police suspected foul play, however he hadnât been robbed as his pockets were still stuffed full of money, more was found hidden in the cab and the tallow work seemed to dry up soon after. It was suggested later that he had just had a few too many. Well he could afford it.
I remember the Flixborough explosion very well.It was a regular delivery for us from Staveley Chem.That saturday afternoon,I was out walking on Stanage Edge,west of Sheffield,up in tâhills and I could see the smoke about 45 miles away to the east.I didnât hear the explosion and at first I thought it was an incident at Scunthorpe BSC.It wasnât until I got home that I heard it was Nypro.
They were very particular at the gatehouse,checking for static on your tank etc. and the offloading pumps wouldnât fire up unless you were properly earthed,not like a lot of places.The final product,Caprolactum as you said Malc was taken to Courtaulds in Northern Ireland and Chris Miller from Preston was one of the hauliers.
The explosion didnât blow Fisonsâ brick chimney down next door though,although it caused no end of damage in Scunthorpe and especially Lysaghtsâ steelworks.
mushroomman:
Cracking picture that Chris and you are dead right it was a bit before my time . My old mate Cyril Kelly R.I.P. worked for Hansons for donkeyâs years and he reckoned that the best paying tanker job was moving Tallow from Liverpool to Trafford Park. One load a day, empty to Liverpool, load and wash off, tip Trafford Park wash off, back to the yard job and finish 10 hours guaranteed. I bet that they do a bit more than that today, not as many loads but there are not as many candels .
You were right again, it was Flixborough that I was thinking of but Flishflunk was spot on about the nurse and the leaking tanker and was probably right about The Four Minute Man and the Phynol incident.
If you remember Flishflunk there were two pinball machines in the left hand corner of The Cabin Cafe at Slattocks Bridge near the counter. I.I.R.C. if you accumulated twenty game credits and had a quite word with Bill the owner behind the counter, a ten bob note was secretly passed over and the score would automatically go back to zero .
Were The Corona Men and the lads from Cowley and Richardson your rivals in those days .
Regards Steve.
Hiya Steve,
I do remember the pin ball machines and getting ten bob off the owner. Would not have remembered his name though . If IIRC werenât the pin ball machines the 5 balls in a line type. Used to play for hours on that type in a cafe on the A34, somewhere near Stone. Next to the cooling towers. Would go in there on my way back home and it was daylight. Come out some time later and it was pitch black and the windscreen would be frozen solid.
Yes the Corona men were rivals. They were the dirty tricks brigade. They would go round to all the shops in an area and undercut every other soft drinks supplier. So all these shops would get there supplies from Corona, they couldnât sell anything though because at the same Corona would call at all the houses in the area to do house to house deliveries. So the shops had nobody left to sell to
Right that,s the nice bit done with
Anybody remember an incident in Worcestershire near to Kidderminster. When a tanker driver was made aware of a leak from the back of his tank, which was making holes in the road, so he drove into a field and got out of his cab just in time to stop a copper hitting the leaking valve with a hammer.
Now I was told that he said to this copper, excuse me what are you doing sir (yeah right). So he said he was going to hit the valve with his hammer to stop it leaking so get out of my way. To which the driver replied, okay, just give me a few hours to get out of the country before you hit it, because once you hit it you can say goodbye to half of England. Can anyone verify this or has it got exaggerated over the years.
Hi Chris, I think you are spot on about it being Oleum and RTS
Ray
Chaps, I can remember many cafeâs on the A5 near to Brownhills and the M6, but the last time I went up it, there was only one on the righthand side, two miles from the motorway, there must be thousands gone over the years in the UK.
Norman Ingram:
Chaps, I can remember many cafeâs on the A5 near to Brownhills and the M6, but the last time I went up it, there was only one on the righthand side, two miles from the motorway, there must be thousands gone over the years in the UK.
Hi Norm, Does Harry know you have crept off the old Red & Rust thread? He has a look around ya know!
We had a bit going about the A5 cafeâs some time back on another thread. Think the one you mentioned is probably the Hollies at Cannock. This one:
The one just before that on the other side of the road was the Coronation has now opened again as the Travellers Rest This one:
Got a few more I can post later.
Big G, they are the ones, had a few meals in all of them, it was the same one the A41 from Wolverhampton to Wrexham, in the 60âs/70âs, it seemed you had a multitude of choice where to eat, harry will never find me, I keep on the move, force of habit ha ha ha
Today was the wife,s birthday so for a treat I took her to the Motormans on Stanedge for sunday dinner. Jean the owner is married to my mate Pete hall. It as been in Jeans Family now for over 30 years, her mum and dad ran it before her, I remember in 1976 I was stuck there for three days whilst the snow cleared, happy days
Can anyone remember the cafe on the A48 somewhere between Briton Ferry and Margham.It was at the side of a roundabout and I remember one of Prossersâ old AECs MK3s losing a coil there.The bloke on the counter could slice âsee throughâ cheese.
Also another one on the road from Llantrisant to the CWM coking plant at Llantwit Fardre on the R/H side.It had sawdust on the floor but the snap was ok.
Before the M25 was built, you could come towards London from Southend, connect with A 13 to go towards the docks, and you would see so many cafes, you was spoilt for choice, then on the lefthand side was the Circus Tavern, when you got to the docks, cafeâs was everwhere, even when you went over on the ferry, there was cafes at each end.
Norman Ingram:
Big G, they are the ones, had a few meals in all of them, it was the same one the A41 from Wolverhampton to Wrexham, in the 60âs/70âs, it seemed you had a multitude of choice where to eat, harry will never find me, I keep on the move, force of habit ha ha ha
Know what you mean Norm, the road that struck me the most was the A429 from the Midlands down to Ciren, Swindon and the South. A lovely little cafe every few miles and one by one they changed into a Little Chef! Thats when I started going all day without eating kept me slim though.
hiya,
Thereâs no hiding place Norm, youâll have to get up in the morning to hide from me iâm a bit like Sherlock Holmes with the added bonus of x-ray vision, keep a lookout in your mirror old friend i might just be tailgating you ready to pounce, and if you behave youself i might remortgage and buy you a breakfast even though youâre very wealthy i donât mind spending my money.
thanks harry long retired.
Big G, I remember them on that route, also A303, A30, two years this Nov. I went to Torquay, I had breakfast in the layby just 4miles from the centre, the cafe is set in the hillside, different owners,on the way back, up the M5got off j9 and alongthe A328, then turned left at Teddington roundabout on to the A435, and the transport cafe on the righthand side, was still open, it was not to far from the pub, but has I have got older, the cafeâs have got fewer. Harry, you can buy me breakfast anytime, thats if we can find a cafe together?.
Big G, I remember them on that route, also A303, A30, two years this Nov. I went to Torquay, I had breakfast in the layby just 4miles from the centre, the cafe is set in the hillside, different owners,on the way back, up the M5got off j9 and alongthe A328, then turned left at Teddington roundabout on to the A435, and the transport cafe on the righthand side, was still open, it was not to far from the pub, but has I have got older, the cafeâs have got fewer. Harry, you can buy me breakfast anytime, thats if we can find a cafe together?.
.
.
and you are dead right it was a bit before my time 
. My old mate Cyril Kelly R.I.P. worked for Hansons for donkeyâs years and he reckoned that the best paying tanker job was moving Tallow from Liverpool to Trafford Park. One load a day, empty to Liverpool, load and wash off, tip Trafford Park wash off, back to the yard job and finish 10 hours guaranteed. I bet that they do a bit more than that today, not as many loads but there are not as many candels 
. If IIRC werenât the pin ball machines the 5 balls in a line type. Used to play for hours on that type in a cafe on the A34, somewhere near Stone. Next to the cooling towers. Would go in there on my way back home and it was daylight. Come out some time later and it was pitch black and the windscreen would be frozen solid.
Thats when I started going all day without eating