there was some big cars there larry,i never won anything, mostly never finished a race, every week little ronnie heathcote from gateshead usually won, in his mini cooper,nobody could catch him to post him i raced i think 1971 till it finished,big al.
bigal20:
there was some big cars there larry,i never won anything, mostly never finished a race, every week little ronnie heathcote from gateshead usually won, in his mini cooper,nobody could catch him to post him i raced i think 1971 till it finished,big al.
Can you remember Alan Stephenson from Pegswood & The Hardy Boys from Crawcrook with their Big Rovers, Plus Gerry Balmbrer from Alnwick, And the bloke with the old London Taxi, & Lowdons from Seaton Burn with their Humber Super Snipe they had a 17 leaf wagon spring in the boot for ballast, Those were the days Eh, Regards Larry.
Lawrence Dunbar:
bigal20:
there was some big cars there larry,i never won anything, mostly never finished a race, every week little ronnie heathcote from gateshead usually won, in his mini cooper,nobody could catch him to post him i raced i think 1971 till it finished,big al.Can you remember Alan Stephenson from Pegswood & The Hardy Boys from Crawcrook with their Big Rovers, Plus Gerry Balmbrer from Alnwick, And the bloke with the old London Taxi, & Lowdons from Seaton Burn with their Humber Super Snipe they had a 17 leaf wagon spring in the boot for ballast, Those were the days Eh, Regards Larry.
Jimmy hardy still runs a humber super estate see him most days as fitt as a lop also has a triumph mayflower malcom still works with him as well dont know about richard never seen him since crawcrook quarry closed . i remember when jimmy had a ford transit mk1 caravanet with a jag 4.2 engine in it ■■■■ of a stick also had axle to match john
r
Hi Lawrence Where were these Armstrong cattle wagons based? and were they painted red ? I just have a vague recollection of them, they certainly liked their Guys, the two Otters at the far end of the line up would probably have had 4LK Gardners, 4 speed boxes with two speed axles. Two livestock men over here in ■■■■■■■ had one each, Stanley Well from nr Wigton and Joe Irving from Beacon Lough near Dalston supplied by Eden Commercials, Carlisle.
I think Dennis may remember Stan Fell’s Guy he also had a Willenhall cabbed ERF 54G four wheeler LAO 651.
Cheers, Leyland 600.
Leyland600:
Hi Lawrence Where were these Armstrong cattle wagons based? and were they painted red ? I just have a vague recollection of them, they certainly liked their Guys, the two Otters at the far end of the line up would probably have had 4LK Gardners, 4 speed boxes with two speed axles. Two livestock men over here in ■■■■■■■ had one each, Stanley Well from nr Wigton and Joe Irving from Beacon Lough near Dalston supplied by Eden Commercials, Carlisle.
I think Dennis may remember Stan Fell’s Guy he also had a Willenhall cabbed ERF 54G four wheeler LAO 651.
Cheers, Leyland 600.
Hi Leyland 600, There are based at Prestwick Village Nr Ponteland just behind the airport, Regards Larry.
Thanks Lawrence, I used to deliver to a farm occassionaly in Prestwick village but cannot remember the name but saw the farmer interviewed on TV after the outbreak of foot and mouth at Heddon on the Wall in 2001, he was devastated as I recall on having his very tidy farm infected.
Cheers, Leyland 600
Leyland600:
Hi Lawrence Where were these Armstrong cattle wagons based? and were they painted red ? I just have a vague recollection of them, they certainly liked their Guys, the two Otters at the far end of the line up would probably have had 4LK Gardners, 4 speed boxes with two speed axles. Two livestock men over here in ■■■■■■■ had one each, Stanley Well from nr Wigton and Joe Irving from Beacon Lough near Dalston supplied by Eden Commercials, Carlisle.
I think Dennis may remember Stan Fell’s Guy he also had a Willenhall cabbed ERF 54G four wheeler LAO 651.
Cheers, Leyland 600.
Can’t recall that far back Gerald but I remember Stan Fell had a Reiver ( I think),Coward Bros from Sedbergh (Tommy Coward) had a couple of Guy Otters one parked up in the corner of the garage,life expired, with a Meadows engine and they were running another one with the 4LK engine.I got two “A” licences from Tommy to get my start in the business .Cattle Waggon Man would be able to tell us more of the Cattle removing job around our way and especially around Sedbergh, Dent and Garsdale but he seems to be keeping a somewhat “low profile” at the moment 
Cheers Dennis.
Leyland600:
Thanks Lawrence, I used to deliver to a farm occassionaly in Prestwick village but cannot remember the name but saw the farmer interviewed on TV after the outbreak of foot and mouth at Heddon on the Wall in 2001, he was devastated as I recall on having his very tidy farm infected.
Cheers, Leyland 600
Hi “Leyland600” I can remember a farmer called Arthur Dixon from Prestwick, Plus Andersons fro Westerhope the tipper firm had a farm there also, Regards Larry.
Lawrence Dunbar:
Leyland600:
Hi Lawrence Where were these Armstrong cattle wagons based? and were they painted red ? I just have a vague recollection of them, they certainly liked their Guys, the two Otters at the far end of the line up would probably have had 4LK Gardners, 4 speed boxes with two speed axles. Two livestock men over here in ■■■■■■■ had one each, Stanley Well from nr Wigton and Joe Irving from Beacon Lough near Dalston supplied by Eden Commercials, Carlisle.
I think Dennis may remember Stan Fell’s Guy he also had a Willenhall cabbed ERF 54G four wheeler LAO 651.
Cheers, Leyland 600.Hi Leyland 600, There are based at Prestwick Village Nr Ponteland just behind the airport, Regards Larry.
Armstrongs Ponteland
There was Joe (Father) Alan (son) John (son) and Ian Robson (son in law) all involved in the business, as well as various drivers including Joe Smith (Joe Ninety) mentioned in other parts of this thread. When father Joe died in the late seventies the lads seemed to go in their own directions, Alan kept the garage going, John had a Volvo unit and trailer doing general and Ian (also known as Wicksey) had an eight wheeler on livestock. Ian packed in in the eighties when one of his main customers (Dodds & Bedford meat wholesalers ) closed, he then had a pub and then a concrete mixer. Last I saw of John, more than 20 years ago he was driving a car transporter for Brian Olds who was buying insurance write offs and stripping them for spares export, he had a yard at Newburn. As far as I know the garage is still going but not sure if Alan has anything to do with it. Perhaps Larry can put me right.
Tyne side
servo88:
That’s a cracking photo “servo88”, Most likely a Stroker, This one my cousin had was an ex Corbet Motor from Weardale, Keep them coming, Regards Larry.
It had the 150 LX Gardner in & 12 speed box Larry, here,s a snap of the inside of a S21, HAPPY DAY,S
Hi Servo, Happy memories of my Mickey Mouse Foden cab interior which felt like a greenhouse in summer and a fridge in winter with more ice on the inside of the windscreen than the outside .
Cheers Leyland 600.
Leyland600:
Hi Servo, Happy memories of my Mickey Mouse Foden cab interior which felt like a greenhouse in summer and a fridge in winter with more ice on the inside of the windscreen than the outside .
Cheers Leyland 600.
True words spoken there Leyland600, fry an egg on the bonnet in the summer, winter time freeze your bollock,s off. Cab heater what was that?? 
Leyland600:
Hi Servo, Happy memories of my Mickey Mouse Foden cab interior which felt like a greenhouse in summer and a fridge in winter with more ice on the inside of the windscreen than the outside .
Cheers Leyland 600.
yes remember well starting 0300 hours driving to asken colliery to load colitte back to northeast blankets around knees to keep warm trying to keep windscreen clean and iceicals building up on mousestash this was for ken Allison Lawrence new well happy days john
the heed:
Leyland600:
Hi Servo, Happy memories of my Mickey Mouse Foden cab interior which felt like a greenhouse in summer and a fridge in winter with more ice on the inside of the windscreen than the outside .
Cheers Leyland 600.yes remember well starting 0300 hours driving to asken colliery to load colitte back to northeast blankets around knees to keep warm trying to keep windscreen clean and iceicals building up on mousestash this was for ken Allison Lawrence new well happy days john
Aye John, As you say happy days, I used to run Spratts down to Hull & Grimsby along with Ken, Can you remember when Jungle Jim drove for him in the 70s, He had a Foden Stroker, He used to load out of Tilcons Quarry at Blaydon, The days when Bob Balmer was the W/B,Man, One of the good ones in those good old days when you could make a good living, Regards Larry.
Lawrence Dunbar:
the heed:
Leyland600:
Hi Servo, Happy memories of my Mickey Mouse Foden cab interior which felt like a greenhouse in summer and a fridge in winter with more ice on the inside of the windscreen than the outside .
Cheers Leyland 600.yes remember well starting 0300 hours driving to asken colliery to load colitte back to northeast blankets around knees to keep warm trying to keep windscreen clean and iceicals building up on mousestash this was for ken Allison Lawrence new well happy days john
Aye John, As you say happy days, I used to run Spratts down to Hull & Grimsby along with Ken, Can you remember when Jungle Jim drove for him in the 70s, He had a Foden Stroker, He used to load out of Tilcons Quarry at Blaydon, The days when Bob Balmer was the W/B,Man, One of the good ones in those good old days when you could make a good living, Regards Larry.
hi larry its the same truck i told you once before some one drove it when i was sick with pneumonia and wrecked the engine by not keeping water checked used to do run to askern and a load out of blaydon and your right about bob first class guy . it was at the time of spratts i took bad and after foden got nacked ken got saviem to do spratts as you say good money and a return load out of scunny steel works with fertilizer cannot remember its name but it was total dust could not walk on it as you would sink had to roll sheet and walk on that john
the heed:
Lawrence Dunbar:
the heed:
Leyland600:
Hi Servo, Happy memories of my Mickey Mouse Foden cab interior which felt like a greenhouse in summer and a fridge in winter with more ice on the inside of the windscreen than the outside .
Cheers Leyland 600.yes remember well starting 0300 hours driving to asken colliery to load colitte back to northeast blankets around knees to keep warm trying to keep windscreen clean and iceicals building up on mousestash this was for ken Allison Lawrence new well happy days john
Aye John, As you say happy days, I used to run Spratts down to Hull & Grimsby along with Ken, Can you remember when Jungle Jim drove for him in the 70s, He had a Foden Stroker, He used to load out of Tilcons Quarry at Blaydon, The days when Bob Balmer was the W/B,Man, One of the good ones in those good old days when you could make a good living, Regards Larry.
hi larry its the same truck i told you once before some one drove it when i was sick with pneumonia and wrecked the engine by not keeping water checked used to do run to askern and a load out of blaydon and your right about bob first class guy . it was at the time of spratts i took bad and after foden got nacked ken got saviem to do spratts as you say good money and a return load out of scunny steel works with fertilizer cannot remember its name but it was total dust could not walk on it as you would sink had to roll sheet and walk on that john
Aye John, That would have been Basic Slag from Appleby & Frodinghams At Scunthorpe, A right mucky bloody job that was too, Regards Larry.
Hi John, IIRC The slag used to go to Blaydon Burn, Taylor Plant comes to mind Im sure they used to store it there, Also a firm in Burn Lane Hexham called Bell ■■, used to store It, This was an awkward tip because it was a low building it took ages to get the load off,Regards Larry.
Lawrence Dunbar:
Hi John, IIRC The slag used to go to Blaydon Burn, Taylor Plant comes to mind Im sure they used to store it there, Also a firm in Burn Lane Hexham called Bell ■■, used to store It, This was an awkward tip because it was a low building it took ages to get the load off,Regards Larry.
yes larry when i did it it went to taylors and the fitters had to work doing repairs beside it must of been a nightmare for them also lad who knackered foden for ken worked for taylors cannot remember his name it was not long after that that i went to d&a on the dafs what a difference proper sleeper cab and two bunks john