classicman:
tonyhogi:
Great pics wardg- did you ever get any of ■■■■’s Texas homecare FL7’s?
& weren’t the booker FL’s painted yellow sometime?
An old magazine cutting I was given
Another pic I took a while ago, one of ‘■■■■’s’ pulling a (now defunct) Texas trailer under the A45 in Wellingborough.
Roy Kightley is still around, lives on the Ise Lodge in kettering
the don jackson varied tractor fleet , late 70’s, Barkers Yard , wellingborough. scammell ex watney mann, atkinson ex atkins derby,scania ex n/k , but he saved it from a middle east fate, and the maggie was ex a bloke called sven in esbjerg , denmark.
The reason the prop was out of balance was because I shortened it at the engineering factory opposite New Street motors after he fitted the Leyland engine in it,I suppose your Dad thought he might get away without balancing it no such luck. Another memory of your Dad ----- I had bought an old Standard 8 cost me 40quid and I was trying to smarten it up a bit he came over and said if you nip about and mask it up I’ll spray it for you when I have finished this trailer and sure enough a couple of hours later I had a Rosebud blue car you could see your face in . good bloke your Dad
I had these photo’s on my hard drive, These are for an earlier post…
crusader 6x4 ex pickfords detriot diesel v8,
Brian Freer
Stoke Albany
Northants
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I worked with Brian in the 80’s whilst at Tarmac Corby… he was a legend 
chamossaire:
The reason the prop was out of balance was because I shortened it at the engineering factory opposite New Street motors after he fitted the Leyland engine in it,I suppose your Dad thought he might get away without balancing it no such luck. Another memory of your Dad ----- I had bought an old Standard 8 cost me 40quid and I was trying to smarten it up a bit he came over and said if you nip about and mask it up I’ll spray it for you when I have finished this trailer and sure enough oa couple of hours later I had a Rosebud blue car you could see your face in . good bloke your Dad
here’s a couple of photos of the garage in new st irtlingborough, when dad opened he wanted photos of the showroom , but had no cars, so he managed to borrow some from the blokes over the road, dads underneath 2422ur and you can see a reflection of 1 of the traders in the showroom windows
They had their moneys worth out of those Thames Traders did’nt they One was a four cylinder and one was a six cylinder reg of one of them was 1686ME I did’nt enjoy driving them never felt in control of them but I was only an amateur. I remeber going with Don and Roy to Leicester when they bought a TK tractor unit GNU299C that was before they bought the D series.Another story of your Dad I went and looked at a Morris 1000 van over a garage at Finedon they wanted 40 quid for it which for me as a 18 year old apprentice was a lot of money ,mentioned it to your Dad just in passing next day there’s the van on his forecourt ,there you go I bought it for 20 quid he said give me the money anytime .Great bloke and friend!!!
chamossaire:
They had their moneys worth out of those Thames Traders did’nt they One was a four cylinder and one was a six cylinder reg of one of them was 1686ME I did’nt enjoy driving them never felt in control of them but I was only an amateur. I remeber going with Don and Roy to Leicester when they bought a TK tractor unit GNU299C that was before they bought the D series.Another story of your Dad I went and looked at a Morris 1000 van over a garage at Finedon they wanted 40 quid for it which for me as a 18 year old apprentice was a lot of money ,mentioned it to your Dad just in passing next day there’s the van on his forecourt ,there you go I bought it for 20 quid he said give me the money anytime .Great bloke and friend!!!
1686me was his first lorry, xrp451 (6cyl)was his favourite trader, vxj746 the 3rd trader was stolen by the driver and left in london with a full load of dolls on it, he then got a lift back and reported it nicked.gnu299c , what a legend motor , I think at one time that motor went on every mot with different reg’s.
remember the infamous rushden bridging incident when he waited in the queue which one of his own lorries caused, then when he got to the rushden w/house everybody legged it cause he was so ‘upset’ shall we say. I wasnt there but he was pretty peeved when he got home.i have a photo of the trailer somewhere
I’ve added a photo of 1 of the vans with gnu just in view in the corner, forgot about the ford western mirrors that got fitted, and the top of the ex tartan arrow trailer that got bridged in rushden, apparently the tk on the front went up in the air when the trailer got stuck
Glad you remembered that second trader reg. I could’nt remember it .I remember a numberplate change when someone hit a tree with WBN995 and they had to take the cab off and heat the chassis up to straighten it .I think they went onto a Jtype bedford for a couple of days .Correct me if I’m wrong but did’nt your Dad buy a LAD cab Dodge/Leyland tractor unit for shunting trailers I vaguely remember driving something like that from New Street to Wellingborough once again it was’nt my cup of tea I felt as if I was just hanging onto it while it did the driving.I remember Roy Hockey always seemed resigned to trouble whereas your to your Dad trouble always seemed to get him up and running.
I never knew anyone hit a bridge perhaps that was after I had moved out of Irthlingborough or when they moved to Finedon which is when I lost touch with them.I remember your Dad on the roof of XRP451 fixing a leak in New Street ,there he was with a ladder leaning up the side how he got from the ladder onto the roof god only knows nor how he got back on it and he was’nt exactly very agile was he.Great Days!!!
chamossaire:
Glad you remembered that second trader reg. I could’nt remember it .I remember a numberplate change when someone hit a tree with WBN995 and they had to take the cab off and heat the chassis up to straighten it .I think they went onto a Jtype bedford for a couple of days .Correct me if I’m wrong but did’nt your Dad buy a LAD cab Dodge/Leyland tractor unit for shunting trailers I vaguely remember driving something like that from New Street to Wellingborough once again it was’nt my cup of tea I felt as if I was just hanging onto it while it did the driving.I remember Roy Hockey always seemed resigned to trouble whereas your to your Dad trouble always seemed to get him up and running.
he might have borrowed stan firms LAD cabbed dodge tractor unit for a few days , i cant remember him ever owning a dodge , didn’t like them. Roy screwed my F86 down to 45 mph , it only did 52 flat out anyway , got overtaken by an ■■■■■■ pidgeon. the only other LAD cab he had was a hydrocan crane in the 80’s. i remember that j type beford , i think i only ever went in it once.Yes my dad ,always up for a challenge, boats,buildings,mobile homes,parcels,toys,mobile cranes,anything.
He aquired the wretchedly stupid 50’ caraven trailers from new city transport, York designed them with a 3 foot overhang,couldn’t get anywhere with them , so he took one and cut 10 foot out the middle , then cut off their silly little overhang and welded the bit he cut out back on to its arse, hey presto, 45’ foot caravan trailer that worked, and worked well.
these are the same boat moved several years apart
That would be Don to a tee.Do you remember when Mattel took over Rosebud and every lorry they had went up to London one Saturday to clear a warehouse out down between some shops Christ that was a day and a half that was. I suppose that was the beginning of the end of Rosebud dolls.Another Question ----Who was that little old bloke who drove for your Dad I think he’d worked for your Dad quite a while but I can’t for the life of me remember his name.I know he thought he’d won the lottery when he was given one of those D series to drive.
chamossaire:
That would be Don to a tee.Do you remember when Mattel took over Rosebud and every lorry they had went up to London one Saturday to clear a warehouse out down between some shops Christ that was a day and a half that was. I suppose that was the beginning of the end of Rosebud dolls.Another Question ----Who was that little old bloke who drove for your Dad I think he’d worked for your Dad quite a while but I can’t for the life of me remember his name.I know he thought he’d won the lottery when he was given one of those D series to drive.
Frank ■■■■■■ springs to mind, I think I have a photo of a machinery move from westfield rd with him on it.
Your’e a genius .That was the bloke .I think he lived for driving.Here’s another memory then------Do you remember when the ministry pounced on Roydon’s log sheets and Don and Roy and all the drivers spent all of one long night in the forecourt office trying to get them in some sort of order I think Roy Hockey got through a few ■■■■ that night you could cut the smoke in there with a knife .Happy days!
STEVE OWEN:
I thought that would get attention, hope you keeping ok? tried calling Dave today but did not get an answer, did you look at my pics on the ex-pat site? do you know if Andy smith, Roy Kightley or Pete Coppenall are still about?
I saw Pete a while ago when he was running that Perkins engined O Type. Haven’t seen him lately though.
Tony, the lad cab crane you mentioned, was that Wellingborough crane hire ? and Jim Gray ended up with it?
STEVE OWEN:
Tony, the lad cab crane you mentioned, was that Wellingborough crane hire ? and Jim Gray ended up with it?
yep thats the one , i sold it to him around the time dad died , i got fed up with doing work and nobody paid. plus 20 tonne on basically an underpowered clydesdale was ‘challenging’ to drive to say the least,the crane itself was great , but the bit underneath , oh dear. if we could’ve put the crane onto the older coles chassis which had an AV760 in it ,that would’ve been a dream motor.
