Buzzer
Dennis Javelin:
Lawrence Dunbar:
Dennis Javelin:
Buzzer:
BuzzerA sizeable fleet in its day from what I can remember (F H LEE?). I think one of their contracts was delivering toilet rolls although why I remember that fact is beyond me. Could be a lot of crap though
. Well you could be very well correct, IIRC The had a factory in Trafford Park Manchester and we used to deliver reels of paper there.From The Port Of Blyth. Regards Larry.
Just checked, turns out that he started a company making kitchen and toilet rolls in the 60’s so it was their own products they were hauling. I assume they branched out into other haulage from that.
They ran 92m Scania,s in Manchester City colours.
He did have the paper company on the tautliner in bold writing was F H LEE.
This picture can be dated to probably Sep 80. The completed road was opened in Oct 80, prior to that it was only open southbound from Jul 80.
Buzzer:
Buzzer
I remember seeing these Scot F88’s leaving Bletchley in the early hours of the 1970’s when on my Newspaper Shop deliveries.
Lovely old F88’s…
Thanks to Lawrence Dunbar, mushroomman, windrush, Suedehead and Buzzer for the photos.
Oily
Dutch at Cadiz credit to Rab Lawrence for the photo.
Buzzer:
Buzzer
That’s a great pic of a couple of night trunkers of Sutton’s Buzzer,thanks for posting,always great pics coming from your desk!
David
Good to see a couple of firms from St Helens mentioned .
I got a start with Heaton’s sometime in the early 70s , I don’t recall the exact year , possibly 1971 or 72 , but it was the year of the inter - union dispute between the Liverpool dockers and Heaton’s transport .
Just in case anyone isn’t familiar with its history , it centered around whoever’s job it was to load shipping containers with rolls of fibreglass insulation manufactured at Pilkington’s factory near Thatto Heath .
At that time , the material was being delivered to Heaton’s depot in Merton Bank road , a mile distant from the producer by Heaton’s wagons , then loaded into containers by Heaton’s employees prior to being transported to Seaforth dock for shipping by Heaton’s transport .
They called it stuffing and stripping , and the dockers claimed it to be their territory , whereas Heaton’s claimed differently.
Heaton’s wagons were subsequently blacked by the dockers at Seaforth and spent many days travelling back and forth between St Helens and Liverpool carrying the same loaded box . Austin French being one of the drivers that regularly featured on the local t.v. evening news with his feet up on the dash … just chilling…. Just thought I’d mention his name in the unlikely event , given the timeline , that he still moves amongst us .
A protracted legal battle thus ensued , with Heaton’s emerging as victors , and the T&GWU finding themselves stuck in the middle .
Historically , this verdict initially indirectly sounded the death knell for the closed shop system in this country .
My original intention wasn’t to relate this piece of history , but merely to mention that at my initiation, I was allocated trust over one of these Super Comets , possibly the one in this shot , possibly not , although at that time , there were only a few of them left in the fleet , primarily used as shunt motors , as they had been superseded by 6LX powered ERFs.
Nevertheless, it’s good to see one again … This one looks relatively new , so the shot may well have been taken before my time at Heaton’s as I don’t remember the mirrors being so small . I think the old timers used to call them budgie mirrors .
We still managed to get the job done however , big mirrors or titchy mirrors , …and survived .
Now compare those with the all singing , all dancing electrically heated , remotely controlled mirrors on todays wagons … Hang on … what am I saying ? … they don’t have mirrors these days do they ? … they have bleedin’ cameras don’t they .
Jesus wept .
Bottom line … you can keep your 600 bhp fully automatic air conditioned double bunked space cabs with cameras for mirrors , frilly curtains , digicards , and all the rest of the electronic ■■■■■■■■ that they cram into these new motors nowadays , but …….and I genuinely sympathise here … driving a wagon with none of these so called “ conveniences “ is an unforgettable experience that many of today’s drivers are ever likely to realise .
Nail on head, Eddie. Unlike some, I won’t knock today’s drivers because they work with what they’re given, as we did. I think us lot probably had the best of it. Simple motors with not much to go wrong and not much in the way of traffic to get in the way.
Road rover, only 12 built eight 2wd and four 4wd using parts from the Rover P4 bin, never in production was supposed to be more comfortable with some off road traction, Buzzer
peterm:
Nail on head, Eddie. Unlike some, I won’t knock today’s drivers because they work with what they’re given, as we did. I think us lot probably had the best of it. Simple motors with not much to go wrong and not much in the way of traffic to get in the way.
The 1980’s were as good as it got.Comfortable enough cabs, air assisted clutches, light power steering still with a decent sized steering wheel, suspension seats, enough power, excellent constant mesh manual boxes with enough gears, no speed limiters.Traffic levels not much different to the 1960’s.