Eddie Heaton:
I remember David Pickup from when we used to run the insulated Geest banana containers out of the port of Preston back in about 1970 .
I recall he’d acquired a new trailer from Booths at about that time and he presented me with a couple of Booth trailer lapel badges , one of which I still have among my modest collection 50 odd years later .
The last time that I saw David was at a Leyland gathering several years ago , when he was in his 4x2
S21 Foden tipper in the livery of Sam Longston .
I hope he’s still around to see the lapel badge that he gave to me all those years ago .
Is that a Maggie badge that’s upside down Eddie left of the photo?
Great value the plane ride MRM we drove out to the Head of the Bite one trip and turned back when we saw the price to walk out on the pier on the off chance a whale has a frolic, we have seen plenty of whales when out fishing from Two Rocks here in Perth .
WE traveled on and started looking for somewhere quite to camp and on the 120km peg from the border there wa a track to the cliffs less than a km off the highway found a spot out of the wind went for a walk towards the cliff edge and there was half a dozen whales having a play.
We have used that spot 3 times now only had company once they were already in there and were camped right on the cliff edge fishing with balloons, we didnt get to chat as by the time we set up camp it was dark.
I havent seen one of those MANs in the flesh so to speak but I have seen other photos of them who could forget the style.lol .
I had a Consul, bought 2nd hand and I went with my mate to collect it. Travelling back a jangling metallic noise started to occur. We stopped to investigate and eventually tracked it down to one particular wheel. Under the hubcap we discovered that only one of the wheelnuts was still in place, the rest were rattling around loose.
The Royal Mail Foden might have to be driven carefully round corners, especially on a rough surface, if the front overhang of those bales isn’t to remove the rabbit hutch sleeper.
Fortunately there are not many corners in the outback, but there are plenty of rough roads.
Eddie Heaton:
Here’s a better shot of them David .
there are a few t here I,ve worn in my time but 2 especially the Dodge drivers club and the MN badge
The merchant navy badge belonged to my late uncle backsplice . He served as a wireless operator on the PQ convoys to Murmansk and Archangel during WW2 . I understand he ended up in the water on a number of occasions , but survived the war fortunately .
The last time I saw him would have been around 1957 when I was 9 or 10 years old . None of the family ever heard from him from that day on , although we received a letter from his estranged wife living in Winterthur to say that he’d written to her from somewhere in the Northern Territories .
Many years later , I heard from his son , who had been attempting to track his whereabouts for a long time that he’d discovered his father had purchased a ticket on a steamship bound for South America, but for some unknown reason , his name was never recorded on the ship’s passenger list .
The only tangible reminders of him that I possess are his MN badge and a glass bottle containing a model sailing ship that he brought home from somewhere on one of his trips .
Spardo:
I had a Consul, bought 2nd hand and I went with my mate to collect it. Travelling back a jangling metallic noise started to occur. We stopped to investigate and eventually tracked it down to one particular wheel. Under the hubcap we discovered that only one of the wheelnuts was still in place, the rest were rattling around loose.
The Royal Mail Foden might have to be driven carefully round corners, especially on a rough surface, if the front overhang of those bales isn’t to remove the rabbit hutch sleeper.
Fortunately there are not many corners in the outback, but there are plenty of rough roads.
David we put a ball bearing in the fleet enginers front hub cap on his Triumph Herald.It was hard not to smile when he went on the prowl.
Buzzer has been busy again with the wool carters here in WA,
The Royal Mail truck was another of Gascoyn Traders from their Canarvon Depot David they had a bit of a manopoly on the wool from the stations in the Gascoyn region so i.m guessing the driver was an old hand at loading I know short sections of barbed wire was layed between the bales to atop them sliding but I see on the road train they have side gates fitted difficult to get the numbers on but possible if a machine was there to load instead of that mexican bloke Manual Labour.
Dig
Spardo:
The sight of the Bowman’s driver making the most of his greedy boards brings back yet more memories of the dangerous ways we used to operate. At Bulkliner we had open top 20 foot containers and loaded at Coalite, Bolsover. The coke lumps were large and very light so it was necessary to pile it as high as possible, never getting near max weight. The ideal was to get it high in the middle and sloped down to the top of the box, by that time there was just enough room on the box side to stand while shifting and patting down with a shovel.
In the late 60s , the outfit that I drove for, frequently loaded out of the Coalite plant at Bolsover , or
“ Bowser “ , as I believe the locals like to pronounce the name of the place . It was situated almost directly opposite to that colliery which was adjacent to the M1 motorway, ( was it called Manvers ? )
where many lives were lost when the cage plummeted to the bottom of the shaft . I forget the exact year , 1972 possibly . We loaded out of there as well on occasions, but a few years before the tragic incident.
We also loaded coal from Oxcroft colliery , a few miles up the road . Oxcroft doubles were relatively light as well I seem to recall .
Bentinck was another one . The lumps of coal used to drop off the belt at a rate of one every ten minutes at that place , or at least that’s the way that I remember it . It could take hours to load an eight legger to capacity on occasions , or maybe I was just unlucky and loaded there on the wrong days .
Another pit was Pye Hill. I’m sure you’ll be familiar with all these places Spardo .
The list of pits in that area is almost endless , but in the words of the Rolling Stones , it’s all over now.
We also loaded Coalite from their plant at Grimethorpe , and their other one at Askern . I have no doubt that you’ll have visited all of these sites David .
On leaving the Askern plant , and in order to get back onto the A1 , I seem to recall that it was necessary to transit the village of Askern itself , which involved passing under a railway bridge which had a tendency to blade the top of the load dead level .
Buzzer’s photo evoked memories of many of the pits and coking plants both in Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire that I loaded out of during my tipper days ….Worksop…Warsop…Manton…Orgreave…Glasshoughton… Moor Green ,and quite a few more that I just can’t remember the names of . Plus that godawful Dickensian coking plant just off the A61 a few miles south of Barnsley .
I’d like to wager no one remembers that sht hle .
And the odd thing about it was the fact that we were running it all over the hump , back into Lancashire .
The words “ coals “ and “ Newcastle “ spring to my mind . Never did manage to figure that one out .
Spardo:
The sight of the Bowman’s driver making the most of his greedy boards brings back yet more memories of the dangerous ways we used to operate. At Bulkliner we had open top 20 foot containers and loaded at Coalite, Bolsover. The coke lumps were large and very light so it was necessary to pile it as high as possible, never getting near max weight. The ideal was to get it high in the middle and sloped down to the top of the box, by that time there was just enough room on the box side to stand while shifting and patting down with a shovel.
In the late 60s , the outfit that I drove for, frequently loaded out of the Coalite plant at Bolsover , or
“ Bowser “ , as I believe the locals like to pronounce the name of the place . It was situated almost directly opposite to that colliery which was adjacent to the M1 motorway, ( was it called Manvers ? )
where many lives were lost when the cage plummeted to the bottom of the shaft . I forget the exact year , 1972 possibly . We loaded out of there as well on occasions, but a few years before the tragic incident.
We also loaded coal from Oxcroft colliery , a few miles up the road . Oxcroft doubles were relatively light as well I seem to recall .
Bentinck was another one . The lumps of coal used to drop off the belt at a rate of one every ten minutes at that place , or at least that’s the way that I remember it . It could take hours to load an eight legger to capacity on occasions , or maybe I was just unlucky and loaded there on the wrong days .
Another pit was Pye Hill. I’m sure you’ll be familiar with all these places Spardo .
The list of pits in that area is almost endless , but in the words of the Rolling Stones , it’s all over now.
We also loaded Coalite from their plant at Grimethorpe , and their other one at Askern . I have no doubt that you’ll have visited all of these sites David .
On leaving the Askern plant , and in order to get back onto the A1 , I seem to recall that it was necessary to transit the village of Askern itself , which involved passing under a railway bridge which had a tendency to blade the top of the load dead level .
Buzzer’s photo evoked memories of many of the pits and coking plants both in Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire that I loaded out of during my tipper days ….Worksop…Warsop…Manton…Orgreave…Glasshoughton… Moor Green ,and quite a few more that I just can’t remember the names of . Plus that godawful Dickensian coking plant just off the A61 a few miles south of Barnsley .
I’d like to wager no one remembers that sht hle .
And the odd thing about it was the fact that we were running it all over the hump , back into Lancashire .
The words “ coals “ and “ Newcastle “ spring to my mind . Never did manage to figure that one out .
Eddie .
Eddie,“Bowser” is correct and pit opposite were Shuttlewood I think.Manvers was at Wath on Dearne.
That coking plant sounds like Smithywood at Ecclesfield,I loaded crude benzene out of there on a regular basis.Other sh*tholes like it were one at Worsborough Barnsley,Glasshoughton Castleford,Monkton at Royston,Brookhouse and Orgreave Sheffield and loads of others either NCB or BSC ,they were all mucky bloody holes.I think I’ve been in nearly every one int UK over the years.
I got it wrong Chris . The pit I mentioned opposite the Coalite plant at Bolsover was Markham . Of course it was , but we are going back half a century here .
I’ve just looked it up , and the tragic accident occurred in 1973 evidently , with a total of 18 men losing their lives as a result .
Thirteen of them at the scene and another 5 later in hospital by all accounts , with a further 11 sustaining serious injuries .
Eddie .
Oh ! and incidentally Chris , I think you may be correct in identifying that dump near Barnsley as Worsborough.
Several things that I recall about the place are number one , the fact that it had to be accessed via an unsurfaced dirt road . Number two , the top end of the site was adjacent to a railway track , and number three , on the other side of the railway track there was a site ram full of old double decked buses belonging to , I was led to believe, Paul Sykes , whose name you may be familiar with .
And another thing I remember is the spectacular sight , especially early in the morning before it became daylight , of the flames and the steam against the dark sky when they discharged the red hot coke into the line of waiting railway wagons . I should have taken some photos of that .
Do they call it “ charging the retorts “ ? or something of the kind ? ……I’m no expert .
Nice pics any of his F88 290 which he sold to Stuart Taylor The 240 f88 was bought by Harry Gornall then sold to Johnny Gornall from Longridge I did 25 loads aweek from Bolsover to Dublin of coalite HAPPY DAYS
