RTH- international one of ronnies finest pescara italy 1997
I here that f short are going to be a clearing house just 3 wagons left as they sub more out they get rid of wagons 
Aye, A great bloke was the late Tommy Dodds, This MK 5, AEC, Was a great motor, 6 speed box, I had the same model when I drove for Smiles for Miles,RJR.349 It only had a 5 speed box 37.MPH, Tommy used to sail past me on the way down to London, In those good old days, He was great crack when we used to stop for a cuppa, Regards Larry.
Heatherjumper are we not due a night out ■■
DCRTH-international near kavala Greece 1997-98
Great Photos, Whats Norman Irvine doing now ? the last I heard he was driving for Richard Aynsley at Alnwick, Regards Larry.
bumper:
Hi, took this photo of f.short motor’s heading south on A1 yesterday, um! are they still working from the felling, bumper
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Jim, I was talking to an Anderson driver at the Derry on thursday, he told me they are all on 90 days notice at Green Lane, he said some had left already as they had found jobs. Regards Kev.
yes we are i will give every body a ring let you know
hi franky , great pictures , the old merc looks canny , probably the only one that used to sit quite proud at the sunderland depot , the others although 4x2,s allways looked absolutley buggered, i got irish andys merc a b reg 1626 (when andy got a mighty fl7 ,poor s*d, ) that had the perfomance of an F1 racing car without the engine in , did have a distinctive spitting rattling noise they made,never actually driven a merc until i started with fungersons back in 1990, the lad your on about with the crane at newbury was jon stubbs , never knew the lad but got told when i started ,their kid worked their aswell remember keith, come to think just started remembering most of them , ge0rdie warwrick , jon hannon , dougy (the max walls lookalike ) good evening , kenny coat-hanger ,stevey brown banksy, bob wallah remember another guy by the name of george god he was hard work never stopped bleating about stuff ,to name a few . god ive just gon back 20 years,was it really that long ago. time flys. where did the merc end up know it went onto containers at tyne dock to nissan then it got took off and replaced with g101 sty another poxy fl7, mmm the grey matter has really gone to work now , excellent pics of days gone by , regards jon (
Frankydobo:
F Troop wrote ; Six wheel Merc just had sign writing done by Billy Slaughter in Blyth Warehouse.
Waiting to go to work at Sunderland Depot.
In the early days Billy Slaughter olso hand painted the lorries.
Great pic of the Merc F Troop, I drove this motor until it went at Sunderland and unfortunately was given it after the previous driver got killed when he was moving the Coles crane on the trailer near Newbury, I’d only been at Fergusons a couple of weeks and didn’t know the lad and wasn’t even told he had died when given the wagon. It wasn’t the fastest or best puller I’ve driven and didn’t have the full sleeper but I liked it, despite the double H shift and splitter that had your arms and legs going like a one man band. It went through exhaust systems every year or so and apart from coming to a halt when a relay came loose I had no trouble with it. A blow out on the second steer coming past the Angel one day but it never wavered, sound old machine. Cheers Franky, I’ll add that one to my folder. Here she is below taken at Hartlepool and me loading at Sunderland when building the new Business Park.
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hi davey hope ya keeping , well ive given myself a bad heed with one , the driver been jon hannon a possibilty but looks a bit to butch for jon was just a wee canny lad , any advances on peter burnicle although he did have a beard but did take his youngens quite a bit , mmmmmm or helpis its deein me heed in . . keep hold young man look forward to seeing u around the car plant sometime , regards jon
ddrbsn:
jonnyA:
hi franky, i ya reet about the mans and whos whos , but ive looked a and tried to work out whoS drivin it , thought it wasnt albert cos the driver hasnt got that CHEESEY GRIN AS ALBERT ALWAYS SEEMED TO HAVE , AND THERES NO MASS OF STRAWBERRY BLOND HAIR. BOB GOT RULED OUT COS THERES NEE TRAFFIC TO DIRECT ABOUT, WHICH LEFT DAVEY AS THE OBVIOUS LOOKALIKE DRIVER. JUST THOUGHT ALBERT WAS OFF DEEIN A FLYER WI THE MERC VAN AND DAVEYS MAN WAS IN FOR SERVICE SO HE WAS GIVEN ALS , THERE NOW THATS MY C.S.I CONCLUSION . MAYBE YOU GOT AN IDEA WHOS ACTUALLY DRIVIN , MAYBE THE KID IN THE PASSENGER SEAT MIGHT HELP , ?.EXCELLENT READING FRANKY AND BOYS , KEEP UP THE GUD WORK , PLEASED TO HEAR YOU CAN MAKE A WOMAN SCREAM STILL WHILE DRIVIN, NOW THATS MULTI TASKIN, PS NOWT WRONG WI A BIT OF NECK OIL, HIC . REGARDS JON pictureFrankydobo:
Ha ha, aye John that FL7 was a nightmare, I once crawled away onto a roundabout on the 1231 and it was so slow a bird in a sports job came flying around giving it six nowt and bounced off the trailer wheels, she wasn’t hurt but her squeels were even lowder than the radio station she had on. That pic of the MAN is Alberts by the way, Davie’s was G105 TNL and Bob had G104 with the Isle of Man TT racing sticker above the screen. The old King Low Loader was a swine sometimes to break depending on the ground. Here’s a model of Dave’s motor I made at the time. Franky.
0Hi John…wasn
t me driving Alberts, in fact I dont think I ever drove his. As the driver has dark hair it seems to rule out both Albert and Bob. As for Albert doing a flyer !! no way, steady away was Albert. He once got a lift to Volvos with the store lad. Lad told him the van was a flyer, Albert told him it had a new speed limiter on board namely Alberts right hand if he went above 50. My pics of same load are on page 19. Have been looking for a photo I think I have of John Hannon and me at Blyth harbour with the Man I had before 105, will post if I find it…Dave
JonnyA Wrote;
hi franky , great pictures , the old merc looks canny , probably the only one that used to sit quite proud at the sunderland depot , the others although 4x2,s allways looked absolutley buggered, i got irish andys merc a b reg 1626 (when andy got a mighty fl7 ,poor s*d, ) that had the perfomance of an F1 racing car without the engine in , did have a distinctive spitting rattling noise they made,never actually driven a merc until i started with fungersons back in 1990, the lad your on about with the crane at newbury was jon stubbs , never knew the lad but got told when i started ,their kid worked their aswell remember keith, come to think just started remembering most of them , ge0rdie warwrick , jon hannon , dougy (the max walls lookalike ) good evening , kenny coat-hanger ,stevey brown banksy, bob wallah remember another guy by the name of george god he was hard work never stopped bleating about stuff ,to name a few . god ive just gon back 20 years,was it really that long ago. time flys. where did the merc end up know it went onto containers at tyne dock to nissan then it got took off and replaced with g101 sty another poxy fl7, mmm the grey matter has really gone to work now , excellent pics of days gone by , regards jon
Hi Jon, aye John Stubbs, thanks for that, Keith was a smashing lad, he done well to keep going after his Brothers death, wonder where he is now. Bob Halliday was another name, bit of a character. I know the George (Knuckle head) your on about and yeah he was always wingeing. Poor Bob Waller died in 2005, a few days after my Mother actually and he’s buried next to both my parents grave in Washington Cemetery, I believe his Wife joined him recently too. There were some nice lads at Sunderland and like you a lot of the names I can’t recall. I never did find out what happened to C118 ORG, done some good traffic with that old machine though. Cheers Franky.
Lawrence Dunbar:
Springwellorganist:
Hi, I am not a driver but am really hoping someone on here might be able to help.
My grandfather, Edward John Jennings, ran a haulage company in Gateshead for many years prior to his death in 1956 - six years before I was born. I am currently compiling some Family Tree information for great nephews and nieces and would love to add a photo of one of his wagons, but there are none in our immediate family and no one knows of any in extended family. Can any of you guys help?
Furthermore, if anyone has any information about Granda Teddy’s business, I would love to hear from them too.
Many thanks
Richard Jennings
[/quote Well If its the Tommy Jennings that had a yard at Gateshead Garden Street , They sold out to Jakey Adams 1960ish, I new some of their drivers Albert Morrison, Jock McNiell, Joe Drummond, Tommy Gray, Little Joe, Their wagons were mostley Albions painted red, they did work out of Armstrong Witworths foundry loads of Pig Iron etc, another Driver Bobby Brown, He went to Crows Transport along with little Joe in later years, Regards Larry.
Hi Larry, thanks for this. Tommy Jennings was my dad, Gilbert’s, brother. I cannot ever remember meeting him and understand from my brother Edward that Tommy and Gilbert fell out when they were young lads and never spoke again. I know that Billy Lakey (another uncle of mine) also worked for my grandad.
Sadly my dad died in 1971 and I was too young then really to ask questions about who people were or about my grandad. Now that I am getting old(er) there’s not many people left to ask. Richard
Glad to been of some help, I think perhaps Crowbar can shed some light on Jennings , as Crows were based just around the corner in Abbots Road, Regards Larry.
Hello Postal. I remember a few of those names,Kenny Hood passed away about 2 years ago, him and my dad lived next to each other and used to park their motors in the same street, the anti lorry brigade would be up in arms these days. I remember when me dad got that Leyland Buffalo he was over the moon to get rid of his Big J. I spent many a happy day in them motors, it was nearly always the same runs to Nottingham, Glasgow and Stirling, i remember John Player’s at Nottingham was always hard to turn them wagon and drags around. If you have any old photos of them i would love to see them. Regards Darren
Postal:
TYNEXDAZ:
Apart from my dad, Bob Casey the only other 2 names i can remember from Archbolds were Kenny Hudd and Newton Tweddle. They were bloody high loads those cigarette filters, it was a long way to throw a rope for a 12 year olds arms. I have seen some Bells photos on here somewhere.greek:
I remember Archbold wagon & drags mainly Big Js always high loads could remember a couple of their drivers by face but cant remember names.
On another note nobody stuck any pics of Bells of Ashington on here yet always looked well ERF`s & 1418 mercs with their van trailers, used to park regular at Sheperds Bush & were all members of Mecca bingo (cheap beer & a chance to win something)Sorry for reviving this so long after the original posting, but I’ve only just found this fascinating piece of the electronic world. I must own up to cheating, because I used to work in the office at Archie’s in those days rather than being a driver - I hope I can be forgiven for that particular sin. In those days we had 8 wagon-and-drags employed full time on the filters. Speaking from memory (and in no particular order) we had Tony Brown, Ralphie Langlands, Ronnie Farrell, Kenny Dyke, Willie Walker, Alan Robinson, Tommy Dunn, Bob Casey, Frankie Dowdall, Newton Tweddle, Tommy Moore, Jeff Potts, Norman Duddy, Stan Black, Kenny Hood and Bobby Hodgson at various times on the wagons-and-drags. We started on Big Js but Bobby Casey had JAT 256L which was a Leyland for a number of years and we got a couple of Seddon Atkinson 400s towards the back end. Some of those on that list are sadly no longer with us and there are others whose names I have missed but it was a lot of years ago and I have been out of the haulage game for nearly 25 years. Maybe those names will revive a memory or two.
PS I keep editing as more facts come crawling out of the deeper recesses of my memory!
Hi F/T, remember Jock Thompson Bells/Fergies is he still walking about ■■, Regards Larry.