Past Present and in Between in Pictures (Part 1)

[parkroyal2100]

Spardo:
Not talking about wagons, but a much loved car I owned in the UK was a Granada auto. When I got it I had a lot of trouble with the gearbox. Eventually it was discovered that the pipe with the fluid in the box was fed forward to pass through the radiator and back again. Apparently a previous owner, possibly because he thought it was leaking, had by-passed the rad altogether, which meant the fluid just got hotter and hotter till it decided enough was enough.

When I first “arrived” here in Oz (Perth, 1988), I visited the town (I beg its pardon, City) centre and there I saw multiple taxis. “That’s a funny-looking Granada” I thought.

They were, of course, not Granddads at all but Falcons (Foulcans if you like). Did you ever drive one?

[parkroyal2100]

Buzzer:
Buzzer

I can imagine what Gordon Ramsay would’ve said to them (all of unprintable).

[deanb]

Buzzer:
Buzzer

Nice AEC Mogul which was introduced in 1962 for the export market powered by AEC’s AV690 engine which produced 200 bhp.

[bewick]

Buzzer:
Buzzer

This could have been a “carbon copy” of the Mods annual Christmas dinner bash !

[spardo]

ParkRoyal2100:

Spardo:
Not talking about wagons, but a much loved car I owned in the UK was a Granada auto. When I got it I had a lot of trouble with the gearbox. Eventually it was discovered that the pipe with the fluid in the box was fed forward to pass through the radiator and back again. Apparently a previous owner, possibly because he thought it was leaking, had by-passed the rad altogether, which meant the fluid just got hotter and hotter till it decided enough was enough.

When I first “arrived” here in Oz (Perth, 1988), I visited the town (I beg its pardon, City) centre and there I saw multiple taxis. “That’s a funny-looking Granada” I thought.

They were, of course, not Granddads at all but Falcons (Foulcans if you like). Did you ever drive one?

Yes I did, as a Yellow Cab Co taxi in Sydney in '69/‘70 or thereabouts. I don’t have photos but the first one was the earlier model and then the bloke who owned it, Norm Pickford, bought the newer model (the one that looked like the last Granadas) and handed it over to me 6 nights a week (he, like most owners, did the day shifts ) while he kept the old one as his personal car. I have very fond memories of that time, he was very good to me, there were several ways owners and drivers paid and were paid, but the one he, and I, favoured was called fixed money. It varied through the nights of the week with the highest payments being made for Friday and Saturday nights. One advantage of this was if I didn’t want to work, I didn’t need to, if I took a lot of money it was all mine. I had the car at my disposal and as long as I put the petrol in and paid him the money he didn’t care if I was carrying passengers or not. By arrangement one weekend 2 mates and I, all Yellow Cab drivers, drove up to my mate Denis’ parents for the weekend and stayed with them for a couple of nights. 600 miles away at Dubbo. As they were all country bumpkins to us city slickers, ‘Dubbo’ became a term of friendly abuse for anyone a bit dull in the brain department.

As I said Norm was very good to me, self interest of course, no false modesty but I was a good driver and 100% reliable so he didn’t want to lose me and so, alone amongst every mate I had, he put me on holiday pay, so much in a bank account for every day I worked. Years later, back in UK and trying with my new family to emigrate back he offered to sponsor me but it all came to nothing due to circumstances beyond my control. The father of my adopted children couldn’t be found to authorise their departure from the country. Otherwise I would be in the sea at Bondi every day now, instead of the pond in between my trees in France.

Sorry for all that, you stepped on a memory cell and I got carried away. Back to the Falcon. A great car, automatic, and a lever to open the boot from the seat , very nice, but, no heater. Not a big problem except when I wanted to demist the screen.

[buzzer]

Buzzer

[spardo]

Buzzer:
Buzzer

The Albion with tinplate from Velindre, spent many a night in there waiting for the 2 minutes it finally took to load those palettes, normally bound for Metal Box Leicester or Sutton in Ashfield, Mansfield too I think.

[buzzer]

Buzzer

[albion1938]

DEANB:

Buzzer:
Buzzer

Nice AEC Mogul which was introduced in 1962 for the export market powered by AEC’s AV690 engine which produced 200 bhp.

I’m familiar with that Mogul. In 1988 I had to move my Albion from Iver to Peterborough in a hurry with the engine in bits, due to loss of accommodation. I got a mate who did recovery to help me move it, his lorry was off the road so we borrowed the AEC which was then in preservation but still used a bit for recovery purposes. A good workhorse. Picture having just arrived outside my workplace in Peterborough.
Bernard

[lawrence_dunbar]

Spardo:

Buzzer:
Buzzer

The Albion with tinplate from Velindre, spent many a night in there waiting for the 2 minutes it finally took to load those palettes, normally bound for Metal Box Leicester or Sutton in Ashfield, Mansfield too I think.

Well I used to load there too for Westhoughton It was Gwynne Bowens traffic, It was a regular run when tipping fire bricks at Neath, The good old days, Larry.

[bewick]

Lawrence Dunbar:

Spardo:

Buzzer:
Buzzer

The Albion with tinplate from Velindre, spent many a night in there waiting for the 2 minutes it finally took to load those palettes, normally bound for Metal Box Leicester or Sutton in Ashfield, Mansfield too I think.

Well I used to load there too for Westhoughton It was Gwynne Bowens traffic, It was a regular run when tipping fire bricks at Neath, The good old days, Larry.

Compliments of the Season to you and your family larry !
I’ve great memories of when we were more or less in South wales each week with the Brady octopus and trailer. 9 times out of ten we loaded back off Gynne Bowen for mainly MB factories in Liverpool and Westhoughton and occasionally Carlisle . We were often in Bowens traffic office and sometimes the old man himself was there and sometimes his Son Vivienne ! But their transport manager was called Jack Reece so I’m sure you would have dealt with him when you were down there. On the odd occasion when Bowens couldn’t load us we loaded off Trevor Phillips another great S. Wales outfit with an immaculate fleet ! Cheers Dennis.

[lawrence_dunbar]

Aye Dennis, They were the days, Hope you & yours are keeping well, And all the best for the new year, Larry.

[stanfield]

Found this on another site Larry nicely sheeted load is this one of yours .(nmp)

[deanb]

albion1938:
“DEANB”

Nice AEC Mogul which was introduced in 1962 for the export market powered by AEC’s AV690 engine which produced 200 bhp.

I’m familiar with that Mogul. In 1988 I had to move my Albion from Iver to Peterborough in a hurry with the engine in bits, due to loss of accommodation. I got a mate who did recovery to help me move it, his lorry was off the road so we borrowed the AEC which was then in preservation but still used a bit for recovery purposes. A good workhorse. Picture having just arrived outside my workplace in Peterborough.
Bernard
0

Small world Bernard,cant be many of them in the UK possibly the only one.

[buzzer]

Buzzer

[albion1938]

DEANB:

albion1938:
“DEANB”

Nice AEC Mogul which was introduced in 1962 for the export market powered by AEC’s AV690 engine which produced 200 bhp.

I’m familiar with that Mogul. In 1988 I had to move my Albion from Iver to Peterborough in a hurry with the engine in bits, due to loss of accommodation. I got a mate who did recovery to help me move it, his lorry was off the road so we borrowed the AEC which was then in preservation but still used a bit for recovery purposes. A good workhorse. Picture having just arrived outside my workplace in Peterborough.
Bernard
0

Small world Bernard,cant be many of them in the UK possibly the only one.

In over 50 years of attending shows I’ve only seen one other in preservation, an artic pulling a low-loader. During their working days there were a few about, they were an export model but a few found their way onto UK roads, I can certainly remember Annis and Co. of Hayes having at least one.
Bernard

[parkroyal2100]

Spardo:

ParkRoyal2100:

Spardo:
Not talking about wagons, but a much loved car I owned in the UK was a Granada auto. When I got it I had a lot of trouble with the gearbox. Eventually it was discovered that the pipe with the fluid in the box was fed forward to pass through the radiator and back again. Apparently a previous owner, possibly because he thought it was leaking, had by-passed the rad altogether, which meant the fluid just got hotter and hotter till it decided enough was enough.

When I first “arrived” here in Oz (Perth, 1988), I visited the town (I beg its pardon, City) centre and there I saw multiple taxis. “That’s a funny-looking Granada” I thought.

They were, of course, not Granddads at all but Falcons (Foulcans if you like). Did you ever drive one?

Yes I did, as a Yellow Cab Co taxi in Sydney in '69/‘70 or thereabouts. I don’t have photos but the first one was the earlier model and then the bloke who owned it, Norm Pickford, bought the newer model (the one that looked like the last Granadas) and handed it over to me 6 nights a week (he, like most owners, did the day shifts ) while he kept the old one as his personal car. I have very fond memories of that time, he was very good to me, there were several ways owners and drivers paid and were paid, but the one he, and I, favoured was called fixed money. It varied through the nights of the week with the highest payments being made for Friday and Saturday nights. One advantage of this was if I didn’t want to work, I didn’t need to, if I took a lot of money it was all mine. I had the car at my disposal and as long as I put the petrol in and paid him the money he didn’t care if I was carrying passengers or not. By arrangement one weekend 2 mates and I, all Yellow Cab drivers, drove up to my mate Denis’ parents for the weekend and stayed with them for a couple of nights. 600 miles away at Dubbo. As they were all country bumpkins to us city slickers, ‘Dubbo’ became a term of friendly abuse for anyone a bit dull in the brain department.

As I said Norm was very good to me, self interest of course, no false modesty but I was a good driver and 100% reliable so he didn’t want to lose me and so, alone amongst every mate I had, he put me on holiday pay, so much in a bank account for every day I worked. Years later, back in UK and trying with my new family to emigrate back he offered to sponsor me but it all came to nothing due to circumstances beyond my control. The father of my adopted children couldn’t be found to authorise their departure from the country. Otherwise I would be in the sea at Bondi every day now, instead of the pond in between my trees in France.

Sorry for all that, you stepped on a memory cell and I got carried away. Back to the Falcon. A great car, automatic, and a lever to open the boot from the seat , very nice, but, no heater. Not a big problem except when I wanted to demist the screen.

“Sorry for all that” - not at all, I did ask. And tales like yours are what this (virtual) place is about.

I only asked because decades ago, I drove a mate’s tired XF Falcon (a slightly re-styled version of the XD, the cabs I saw in Perth). Similar styling and proportions (ish) aside, the XD—> Falcon and the Granada are quite different under the skin. A 2.8 Ghia Granada is quite a different thing to a Sydney cabbie’s XD Falcon: the former is very nice gaffer’s motor; the latter is a leaf-sprung live rear axle thing that will do the thick end of 600,000km without too much grief and will run on LPG.

[oiltreader]

albion1938:

DEANB:

albion1938:
“DEANB”

Nice AEC Mogul which was introduced in 1962 for the export market powered by AEC’s AV690 engine which produced 200 bhp.

I’m familiar with that Mogul. In 1988 I had to move my Albion from Iver to Peterborough in a hurry with the engine in bits, due to loss of accommodation. I got a mate who did recovery to help me move it, his lorry was off the road so we borrowed the AEC which was then in preservation but still used a bit for recovery purposes. A good workhorse. Picture having just arrived outside my workplace in Peterborough.
Bernard
0

Small world Bernard,cant be many of them in the UK possibly the only one.

In over 50 years of attending shows I’ve only seen one other in preservation, an artic pulling a low-loader. During their working days there were a few about, they were an export model but a few found their way onto UK roads, I can certainly remember Annis and Co. of Hayes having at least one.
Bernard

One or two bonneted AECs here Bernard
flickriver.com/photos/21437 … 873762532/
Oily

[mrsteel]

Spardo,
Hello, Re: the photo of the S.C.O.W. Caledonian I would say that it is loaded with sheet steel and not tinplate. It looks like steel because of the length of bundles, two stacks of the same length.
Tinplate would have been iirc the same height and loaded down the centre. It always was when we used to load it out of The Metal Box in Neath. The photo could well have been taken at Vauxhall in Luton but I could be wrong and stand to be corrected.
I well remember the Albions loading out of Port Talbot back in the day.
Regardso, Allan

[lawrence_dunbar]

Stanfield:
Found this on another site Larry nicely sheeted load is this one of yours .(nmp)0

Hi John, It was one of ours, My youngest son Nigel drove it, It was the first sleeper cab we had, Performed very well. Larry.