hiya,
Why not, why not, do you think i’m made of money, i buy the brekkie you pay for the evening meal and the digs, do you think i’m crackers or what, you don’t have to answer that.
thanks harry long retired,
Hi Chris, yes I had a couple of E.R.F.'s but I seem to remember having a Seddon/ Atkinson Stratos when I did that Nitro Benzene contract. I must admit, I didn’t do it permanently for two years only at weekends Saturday and Sunday nights, holiday relief and public holidays but the money was good 
. I never had the same motor as they were being run 24/7, 365 days a year but a lot of tanker firms ran like that as you well know.
Fishflunk, you are dead right that pin ball machine in the Cabin Cafe at Slattocks Bridge did have the five holes in a line and the owner was called Bill. Who knows, maybe we shared a table or passed a bottle of Tiger Sauce ( or was it H.P. ) to each other back in the sixties. Do you remember those fresh scones that they baked on the premises .
Big G- unit, your right there were a few good cafes on the A429 Fossway in the 60’s especially the one by the traffic lights at Northleach as it crossed the A 40. I think that one turned into a Little Thief 
.
Can somebody remind me where abouts was the Stonebridge Roundabout ? I think that it was near Coventry somewhere, I remember that there was a very big pub there but was there also a transport cafe nearby in the sixties 
.
Hi Steve Stone bridge roundabout is on the Birmingham to Coventry road, The Lincoln farm Cafe is nearby.
Dave.
Hi Dave, thanks for that but I have a feeling that there might of been a cafe near the big pub on the roundabout which I think was a Bernie Inn or a Brewers Fare or maybe it was caravan in a layby just off the roundabout .
This was in the late sixties and Lincoln Farm which I used quite often was there then but it’s not the one that I am thinking of. I seem think that the Pressed Steel Fisher and the Mortons B.R.S. drivers were often parked there.
mushroomman:
Hi Dave, thanks for that but I have a feeling that there might of been a cafe near the big pub on the roundabout which I think was a Bernie Inn or a Brewers Fare or maybe it was caravan in a layby just off the roundabout
This was in the late sixties and Lincoln Farm which I used quite often was there then but it’s not the one that I am thinking of. I seem think that the Pressed Steel Fisher and the Mortons B.R.S. drivers were often parked there.
Hi Steve, i picked up a trade plater on that roundabout in June 1964, he became a life long friend, still is to this day. regards Big Al
Hi Al, I spent several occasions stood at that rounbabout while on a 48 hour pass with my thumb in the air, can you remember if there was a cafe there or I am having a senior moment .
Regards Steve.
yes the pub up on the mound off stonebridge is called the malt shovel.
You are right Steve there was a cafe on that roundabout in the sixties, but I am not sure of the name.
Dave.
Hi Al, I picked up a lot of trade platers over the years and I met some really interesting people, a lot of them were drivers who were in between jobs or who had just come off roaming. One of the first ones that I gave a lift who was on his way back to Leylands not only bought me a cup of tea in The Coronation Cafe on the A5 but insisted that I accepted two bob when I dropped him off at Knutsford Services. He explained that if I told my mates that a trade plater had bought me a cup of tea then hopefully my mates would give other trade platers a lift. It made sense really but it was good to have an interesting conversation with somebody. This was before I had a cab radio and when Jimmy Young would read out The Recipe Of The Day on Radio One.
Another thing that I do remember in the sixties when I was hitch hiking was that when you pulled into a transport cafe, some drivers would go around to every table asking if anybody was going further in my direction and hardly anybody refused to give me a lift if asked by another driver.
Regards Steve.
You wouldn’t get lifts on dodgys now Steve,those days are long gone.I’ve travelled miles in wagons when thumbing lifts in the RAF and on dodgy nights out.I never ever went past a driver with a log book and have gone out off my way to help out,just to return favours from other drivers.
I once picked a DJ up at Dishforth one night on trunk and dropped him in Newcastle.He was a great bloke but only problem was I couldn’t tell what he was saying when we went under bridges 
OK,I’ll get me coat!
mushroomman:
Hi Al, I picked up a lot of trade platers over the years and I met some really interesting people, a lot of them were drivers who were in between jobs or who had just come off roaming. One of the first ones that I gave a lift who was on his way back to Leylands not only bought me a cup of tea in The Coronation Cafe on the A5 but insisted that I accepted two bob when I dropped him off at Knutsford Services. He explained that if I told my mates that a trade plater had bought me a cup of tea then hopefully my mates would give other trade platers a lift. It made sense really but it was good to have an interesting conversation with somebody. This was before I had a cab radio and when Jimmy Young would read out The Recipe Of The Day on Radio One.
Another thing that I do remember in the sixties when I was hitch hiking was that when you pulled into a transport cafe, some drivers would go around to every table asking if anybody was going further in my direction and hardly anybody refused to give me a lift if asked by another driver.Regards Steve.
Straying slightly off the thread I remember the platers who moved the bus chassis in the 60’s / 70’s they would come in the jungle cafe late at night or early morning heading for Glasgow. In winter they would look like snowmen, the only protection from the elements was a small ply wood screen at the front, what an awful job. I used to think they must be well paid, then in the mid eighties home from abraod and looking for work i thought i would try plating. I got a job with a company at Warrington moving new lorries ect. First days schedule pick up council lorry at Bolton and take to Ripon to Edbro for snow plough fittings.(My wife took me to Council yard for 0630 left Preston 0530) Rang in and was told to go to Immingham and pick up new Scania unit, hitched to Immingham picked up lorry filled in paper work left 1600 hours, looked at delivery address it was a garage about half a mile from Immingham docks. It was peeing down by this time and i had to hitch home, took me till 2100hrs to get to the services at Birch, half an hour in the rain and i had had enough back in the services and phoned her indoors to come and pick me up, home about 2300hrs. Rang in the next morning to try and find out how much my 17 and a half hours had earned me (Girl answered oh you need to speak to wages at 0900) Picked up new Merc at Barnsley it had the new sequential gear shift had to read the manual before i could set off delivered it someware round Manchester then had a Volvo to del to Thomas Hardie Preston, her in doors picked me up and home to ring in for wednesday work. Got through to wages and discovered i had earned about £27 for first days toil plus a few bob train fare. Will you come and pick them up I asked ? what said the girl ? These bloody plates they are too heavy for me to post them back to you, my plating career was over. regards Big Al
Hi mushroomman, I have just been up that old road (wednesday) and back down today, as I was on my own, no one to rush me! Just wondering if you were thinking of the pub on the roundabout a bit further up where the A446 meets the A38, called the Bassetts Pole. there was a cafe there right opposite (now a Mc Donalds) 
and many years ago also Eric Watt’s haulage garage and yard next door.
the happy hour cafe run by a mad irishman towards then end.grub not to bad iirc.
Anyone remember the cafe at Hunslet,Leeds next to Waddingtons on the A61 Wakefield road.
Another one I can’t remember the name of 
.
hiya,
Chris popped in there when on for Bayford’s who where then stationed at Hunslet, can’t remember the name either, but have the game on remembering half an hour ago, er whats me name.
thanks harry long retired.
Any one mentioned Ron’s at Torksey much beloved of Scunthorpe steel men (CLS and others) heading for Birmingham
pre motorway days ? Ron served a mean breakfast. regards Big Al
Big Al,: Don’t know about that one but if I can stray back to your previous post, my dad was on trade plates in the early '50s after lorry driving since the '20s, starting at the age of fifteen. (seems a lot just lied about there age back then!) He stayed on it until he died of cancer in ‘64 and in his early days used to do the chassis job in all weathers, also hitching back from all over! Later on though he got on a firm doing cars out of the Cowley works, 2 a day to London and back on the train, (lovely ol’ job) He got me a start on there, ferrying cars out of the works to the dispatch yard, half a mile up the road and that was totally different! You had a card with the make model and colour to find a matching vehicle, check everything was undamaged and complete,(spare wheel, jack etc) drive to the gate, pop the bonnet and the ‘copper’ on the gate would fill the numbers onto the paperwork, hand you all the bumph and away you’d go. Then drive half a mile to the yard, hand in the keys and papers into the office then walk back for another. Now, they paid a shilling a car, or the flat rate was £2 a day, so you had to do 40 cars before you could earn any more! That was for the small cars, minor 1000s etc. the bigger cars, Oxford’s Cambridge etc. were in a field at the top of the works, about 4 mile away, for which you got 2/6d. The trouble was it was in the bad winter of '62/'63 and you couldn’t see the cars for frozen snow, and some had flat batteries! also the doors and bonnets were frozen up solid Like you my plating days were short lived as I took a job on a domestic fuel tanker for Hartwells Oils and all the hours you could work! Looooads of money!!!
Hi This brings back memories I used to pull cars out of the factory from about 59 up to the early 70s, we used to pull them out the factory drive them round the corner under the bridge and load them direct onto the transporter for the North East, no trade plates and in my case no driving licence as I was twelve at the time. Later we had a compound in Kidlington behind Bobs Cafe, we used a four car transporter to ferry them up to Kidlington. I used to cover the job when the Oxford driver was on his holidays.
Cowley was the only plant we loaded at where you had to find a car to match your card as all othe factories allocated a chassis no which made it more difficult to find.
They used to build Morris 1000s,1100s, 1300s, Oxfords, Marina’s Princesses in Cowley, we also pulled MGs from Abington, Rolls Princesses from storage at Oakley Airfield. The Vanden Plas were finished off in Kingsbury London.
Do you remember the cafe at the factory gates cannot remember the name.
BigG-Unit:
Big Al,: Don’t know about that one but if I can stray back to your previous post, my dad was on trade plates in the early '50s after lorry driving since the '20s, starting at the age of fifteen. (seems a lot just lied about there age back then!) He stayed on it until he died of cancer in ‘64 and in his early days used to do the chassis job in all weathers, also hitching back from all over! Later on though he got on a firm doing cars out of the Cowley works, 2 a day to London and back on the train, (lovely ol’ job) He got me a start on there, ferrying cars out of the works to the dispatch yard, half a mile up the road and that was totally different! You had a card with the make model and colour to find a matching vehicle, check everything was undamaged and complete,(spare wheel, jack etc) drive to the gate, pop the bonnet and the ‘copper’ on the gate would fill the numbers onto the paperwork, hand you all the bumph and away you’d go. Then drive half a mile to the yard, hand in the keys and papers into the office then walk back for another. Now, they paid a shilling a car, or the flat rate was £2 a day, so you had to do 40 cars before you could earn any more! That was for the small cars, minor 1000s etc. the bigger cars, Oxford’s Cambridge etc. were in a field at the top of the works, about 4 mile away, for which you got 2/6d. The trouble was it was in the bad winter of '62/'63 and you couldn’t see the cars for frozen snow, and some had flat batteries! also the doors and bonnets were frozen up solid
transporter man,: do you mean ‘Johnson’s’ cafe on the right just before the railway bridge and right opposite the Pressed Steel gate? Long single story building, almost like a big shed, double doors on the front, as you walked in the counter was on the left behind you.
BigG-Unit:
transporter man,: do you mean ‘Johnson’s’ cafe on the right just before the railway bridge and right opposite the Pressed Steel gate? Long single story building, almost like a big shed, double doors on the front, as you walked in the counter was on the left behind you.
That could have been the one, we also used to go to Laings canteen about 5mins from the gate.