Past Present and in Between in Pictures (Part 1)

[dig]

Buzzer:
Buzzer

Fodens
A popular truck with Gascon Trading in there day although the bonneted unit not so.

Dig

[mushroomman]

1970commer:
I used to go to the site the Imperial War Museum now stands on with my dad in the 1970’s for loads of bagged cattle feed, back then it was BOCM (British oil & cake mills) just across the road was RHM (Rank Hovis Mcdougall) where we would fetch bran from, their mill is still there on Elevator Road, it was a pig of a job if the merchant ordered a split load as you had to leave room at BOCM to load at RHM & the bags were different sizes.

I called round there years later with my dad in my lorry & asked him if he recognised where he was, he didn’t know until we walked to the end of the road & he saw the street sign for Elevator Road, he couldn’t believe the changes that had taken place.

We always used to be up there ready for loading by 6am & if anyone was in the queue in front of my dad for loading he used to go a quarter of an hour earlier next time, he didn’t like being held up in his day’s work.

I don’t know if you have seen these before 1970 Commer, which are mainly from The Manchester Archives but I thought that they might jog your memory.

ELEVATOR ROAD, TRAFFORD PARK.

[buzzer]

Buzzer

[eddie_heaton]

So, a study in still life then.
[/quote]
Pretty much peterm

[spardo]

Buzzer:
Buzzer

ANOTHER FODEN FOR DIG

Has that bloke only got one leg? And are those his sticks just round the corner? Can’t imagine how he drives that Foden, don’t think they produced auto boxes at that time, did they?

[1970commer]

mushroomman:

1970commer:
I used to go to the site the Imperial War Museum now stands on with my dad in the 1970’s for loads of bagged cattle feed, back then it was BOCM (British oil & cake mills) just across the road was RHM (Rank Hovis Mcdougall) where we would fetch bran from, their mill is still there on Elevator Road, it was a pig of a job if the merchant ordered a split load as you had to leave room at BOCM to load at RHM & the bags were different sizes.

I called round there years later with my dad in my lorry & asked him if he recognised where he was, he didn’t know until we walked to the end of the road & he saw the street sign for Elevator Road, he couldn’t believe the changes that had taken place.

We always used to be up there ready for loading by 6am & if anyone was in the queue in front of my dad for loading he used to go a quarter of an hour earlier next time, he didn’t like being held up in his day’s work.

I don’t know if you have seen these before 1970 Commer, which are mainly from The Manchester Archives but I thought that they might jog your memory.

ELEVATOR ROAD, TRAFFORD PARK.
7

6

5

4

3

2

1

0

Thanks for those Mushroomman, they’re great pictures & even though it’s years since I was last there they do show familiar scenes, unfortunatley my dad is no longer with us to share these images with but he would have enjoyed them too.

[robthedog]

ERF-NGC-European:

robthedog:
One for RO not your first choice I’m sure

But beautifully dressed! I’d still happily long-haul in one of those, as long it was the pre-Cursor model with the Eaton Twin-Splitter in it !

Think this one needs a wash

[eddie_heaton]

Eddie Heaton:
So, a study in still life then.

Dockers at Manchester unloading a banana boat . ( photo credit M.E.N.)

Wouldn’t have fancied doing that job to be fair . I’ve loaded bananas off the Geest boats on Barry dock in the late 60s/early 70s and the loading stage was practically alive with spiders , snakes , locusts and exotic beetles .

We parked parallel to the loading stage with the wooden walkway level with the cab floor , so you could often see the buggers scuttling about . I always felt it prudent to keep the cab window firmly shut .

[spardo]

Eddie Heaton:

Eddie Heaton:
So, a study in still life then.

Dockers at Manchester unloading a banana boat . ( photo credit M.E.N.)

Wouldn’t have fancied doing that job to be fair . I’ve loaded bananas off the Geest boats on Barry dock in the late 60s/early 70s and the loading stage was practically alive with spiders , snakes , locusts and exotic beetles .

We parked parallel to the loading stage with the wooden walkway level with the cab floor , so you could often see the buggers scuttling about . I always felt it prudent to keep the cab window firmly shut .

They don’t seem too bothered though. Stout fellas, us Mancunians.

[erf-ngc-european]

robthedog:

ERF-NGC-European:

robthedog:
One for RO not your first choice I’m sure

But beautifully dressed! I’d still happily long-haul in one of those, as long it was the pre-Cursor model with the Eaton Twin-Splitter in it !

Think this one needs a wash

Must have been one of the very last ones before the Stralis, judging by the plate.

[remy]

I put on a past photo a couple of days ago now here’s the wagon I was driving when I retired. Bit of a difference from the old Atki.

[oiltreader]

Thanks to ERF-NGC-European, DIG, mushroomman, Buzzer, robthedog, Eddie Heaton and remy for the photos
Oily

Scots at Leeming Bar.

[robthedog]

Fair old outfit on 7 axles

[chris_webb]

robthedog:
Fair old outfit on 7 axles

Trailer on a dolly,looks a long drawbar outfit for 18 metres,unless it’s my eyes.

[chris_webb]

remy:
0

I put on a past photo a couple of days ago now here’s the wagon I was driving when I retired. Bit of a difference from the old Atki.

Do Wal-Mart have their own transport or are they all contractors?

[kevmac47]

Chris Webb:

robthedog:
Fair old outfit on 7 axles

Trailer on a dolly,looks a long drawbar outfit for 18 metres,unless it’s my eyes.

That motor had been known to drag a forty foot back to Newcastle on trunk from Kings Cross it was lit up like a a Xmas tree!! The driver was Angus ? either Parker or Armstrong,
I knew both, one worked for Crows, the other worked at Pickfords Birtley. The passage of time has dimmed my memory regards Kev.

[remy]

Chris Webb:

remy:
0

I put on a past photo a couple of days ago now here’s the wagon I was driving when I retired. Bit of a difference from the old Atki.

Do Wal-Mart have their own transport or are they all contractors?

They have their own drivers but use outside carriers when busy.

[buzzer]

Buzzer

[mushroomman]

Eddie Heaton:
Was your brother the driver of the low loader at the time he took the photo mushroomman ? And Greenbooth , was that company based in Oldham ?….Oldham seems to ring a bell with me , although I could well be mistaken. This tends to happen frequently of late .

Incidentally , since I posted the photo of the straddle loaders , I’ve googled the Salford docks site and found a monochrome image of those self same cranes on there , along with several other interesting photos featuring Manchester dockers back in the day .
Also , and being a former mariner yourself , you may well find the Manchester Liners website of interest .

Cheers . Eddie .

Hi Eddie, to answer your questions, yes my brother was the low loader driver and as David mentioned, they were based in Oldham.

But I am afraid that I was never in the Navy, although I am happy to say that I have been very lucky to have travelled thousands of nautical miles over the years.

My cousin worked for Manchester Liners in the sixties and travelled to places like Canada and Mombasa, Kenya.

Strangely enough, we were having a bit of banter about the Liverpool Dockers on another thread a couple of months ago when I was about to post this photo. But Dennis submitted this very interesting story about a horse and cart, so I decided to leave it for another day.

Incidentally, I used to work with an old guy called Stan Warmbold who left school at fourteen and his first job was working as a carter’s lad on horse and carts. Stan ended up driving to the Middle East until he retired, no, not with the horse and cart.
I remember him telling me that you could always tell a horse and cart which came from Liverpool. The reason being that The Scoucers always had gleaming horse brasses which they seemed to be very proud of.

And if you ever saw the ‘Who Do You Think You Are’ series with Ricky Thomlinson who came from four generations of carters. Then they showed a very interesting article about Liverpool dockers and carters. Unfortunately, this clip ends just as they start talking about the carters in the early days.

youtube.com/watch?v=pe9CI0wi6s8

As I mentioned, this photo was nothing to do with Dennis’s post.

Re: Past Present and in Between in Pictures
Postby Bewick » Sat Oct 30, 2021 6:14 am

I kicked dock deliveries into touch within the first couple of months of starting as an O/D with my first motor. I was in the queue on Dock Road one day with one small wooden case containing paper that was consigned to some far flung part of The Empire in 1969 so this was about mid day as I had tipped the 10 ton of paper during the mid morning at a printing works IIRC. So I am totally ■■■■■■ off standing in a queue with one poxy little 1 cwt case to deliver as I would have been there for the rest of the f------ day. Anyway salvation came clip clopping down the outside of the queue and it was one of the numerous horse drawn lorries that were still active at that time. So I jumped out and asked Wack if he was on his way the top of the queue that I was stuck in and quickly established that that was where he was heading and he only had a couple of small cases on board so he agreed to take the case off me ( for a ten bob note ) He went forward and spun around and came back alongside and we barred the wooden case over and he scrawled over my receipt notes something illegible and turned around again and plodded off to the front of the queue as horse drawn lorries took priority and could go to the front of any queue in those far off days. That episode was my last venture into delivering into Liverpool Docks ! [zb] that for a game of Cowboys ! Cheers Bewick.

[remy]

My beloved (again) Albion tractor unit, can’t remember what size engine but think it had a six speed overdrive gearbox and IIRC a little lever to split the gears or maybe that was for the overdrive.