Hargreaves at Kellingley and Adams at home.
oily
oiltreader:
Various.
oily
Second one down nice picture spoilt only by all them yellow flowers.
For Spardo, did a bit of digging and the picture was taken in 1968, and yes a Kenworth, nickname “snubnose”, build date 1960s approx. and loading for Derby, does that make any sense.
oily
oiltreader:
For Spardo, did a bit of digging and the picture was taken in 1968, and yes a Kenworth, nickname “snubnose”, build date 1960s approx. and loading for Derby, does that make any sense.
oily
It does mate, thanks for that. Depending whereabouts on the station this particular loading point was I reckon the distance to Derby, on the west coast of WA to the north of the town of Broome, would be around 450 kms. No problem at all for an overnight journey. Even on dirt roads, the lack of traffic, speed limits and desire of drivers once wound up not to slow for anything would mean that he could keep up a pretty good average.
I used to run from Wyndham, further to the north than Louisa, to Katherine NT, 620 kms, in 10 to 12 hours. And we had 3 x 40 tandems behind the rigid prime mover, considerably more weight. We did make several stops, usually after fording a river, for a drink of water but mainly to get the fallen cows back on their feet. If we didn’t do that they wouldn’t survive, being trampled by the rest. The method used was to swing from the overhead bars across the open top crates kicking the standing ones as far away as possible, then jumping down to blow up the noses of the fallers. They hated that and struggled to their feet to stick us with their massive horns. Our most important skill was the speed with which we could scramble back up the sides 
We would then walk round kicking the tyres and changing wheels.
We’d roll into Katherine meat works around breakfast time, unload, then back across the road to the base, service the motors including mending the tubed punctures (I had 13 on my first trip) then pile into a ute (pickup truck) and into town for a feed and a few beers. Then back to the bunkhouse to sleep the day before heading back the next night.
Back to the picture. 1968 you say? I am surprised at the rather dated trailers, I never saw anything less than tandems 3 years earlier, but it does explain the KW with the sleeper. I think I must have been in on the early days of the Yank revolution as I only remember Macks on the big stuff, and only one of them with a sleeper (not ours). 2 of our Macks were used on Shell trains carrying hot bitumen from Darwin to Alice Springs. No time for hanging about and, at 1500 kms, 2 drivers were carried. The resting driver slept on the catwalk behind the cab with a low rail around it to save him from rolling off and wrapping himself round the propshaft. With the narrow Mack cab and and the good footholds on the steptanks, changeovers could be made on the move. Maybe they stopped sometimes I don’t know but one time the front manhole on the tank wasn’t shut tight and red hot bitumen slurped over onto the catwalk. Fortunately both drivers were in the cab at the time but after that they made sure it was screwed down tight but even so some drivers preferred to sleep in the passenger seat.
Bizarrely, as we tend to think that sleeper cabs were a trans Atlantic thing, there were plenty of Fodens, Leylands and AEC sleepers at that time hauling general cargo on road trains. Strange, isn’t it?
Spardo:
oiltreader:
For Spardo, did a bit of digging and the picture was taken in 1968, and yes a Kenworth, nickname “snubnose”, build date 1960s approx. and loading for Derby, does that make any sense.
oilyIt does mate, thanks for that. Depending whereabouts on the station this particular loading point was I reckon the distance to Derby, on the west coast of WA to the north of the town of Broome, would be around 450 kms. No problem at all for an overnight journey. Even on dirt roads, the lack of traffic, speed limits and desire of drivers once wound up not to slow for anything would mean that he could keep up a pretty good average.
I used to run from Wyndham, further to the north than Louisa, to Katherine NT, 620 kms, in 10 to 12 hours. And we had 3 x 40 tandems behind the rigid prime mover, considerably more weight. We did make several stops, usually after fording a river, for a drink of water but mainly to get the fallen cows back on their feet. If we didn’t do that they wouldn’t survive, being trampled by the rest. The method used was to swing from the overhead bars across the open top crates kicking the standing ones as far away as possible, then jumping down to blow up the noses of the fallers. They hated that and struggled to their feet to stick us with their massive horns. Our most important skill was the speed with which we could scramble back up the sides
We would then walk round kicking the tyres and changing wheels.We’d roll into Katherine meat works around breakfast time, unload, then back across the road to the base, service the motors including mending the tubed punctures (I had 13 on my first trip) then pile into a ute (pickup truck) and into town for a feed and a few beers. Then back to the bunkhouse to sleep the day before heading back the next night.
Back to the picture. 1968 you say? I am surprised at the rather dated trailers, I never saw anything less than tandems 3 years earlier, but it does explain the KW with the sleeper. I think I must have been in on the early days of the Yank revolution as I only remember Macks on the big stuff, and only one of them with a sleeper (not ours). 2 of our Macks were used on Shell trains carrying hot bitumen from Darwin to Alice Springs. No time for hanging about and, at 1500 kms, 2 drivers were carried. The resting driver slept on the catwalk behind the cab with a low rail around it to save him from rolling off and wrapping himself round the propshaft. With the narrow Mack cab and and the good footholds on the steptanks, changeovers could be made on the move. Maybe they stopped sometimes I don’t know but one time the front manhole on the tank wasn’t shut tight and red hot bitumen slurped over onto the catwalk. Fortunately both drivers were in the cab at the time but after that they made sure it was screwed down tight but even so some drivers preferred to sleep in the passenger seat.
Bizarrely, as we tend to think that sleeper cabs were a trans Atlantic thing, there were plenty of Fodens, Leylands and AEC sleepers at that time hauling general cargo on road trains. Strange, isn’t it?
Another interesting story and with regard to Fodens, Leyland and AEC you could add Atkinson, I will post pics when I get a few together.
oily
oiltreader:
Volvo pics in the public domain
oily
The number 3 pic is certainly a French reg. 51, Marne, although until some years back many hauliers throughout France ‘flagged out’ to Marne as it had the cheapest registration rates in the country. All you needed was an office, or an accommodation address, in the Departement and you could register your vehicles there. I often wondered why, before I went to work for him, Gauthier had so many vehicles registered 100s of kms away from his base. 
Regarding the Australian Atkis, I didn’t mention them because I didn’t actually see any in the Territory. I have seen them elsewhere, locally, I think, built squarish cabs in fibreglass but by all accounts they were dusty inside and lacked any or decent air conditioning or ventilation and were unpopular. Shell had some on tanker trains.
Speaking of ventilation I was chatting to an OD in Darwin before I went to Katherine who had a Park Royal AEC Mandator artic. His aircon consisted of 2 large pieces of board fastened to the mirror arms and angled forwards. Kept him reasonably cool on the move, he said, but there was danger from large bugs scooped in to bash him in the face.
Spardo, a classic for you, the Foden. The Atkinson and Foden have what they call a “drom”(you may be familar) the short tank (it could be a box or tilt) behind the cab was devised by a haulier to get round axle weight regs and became used in Aus ,NZ, Europe and N. America.
oily
This Scammell is among NZ pics, but I see it has a british dealers “trade plate” in the windscreen, so at the bodybuilders on its way to NZ or maybe not, nice outfit anyway.
oily
oiltreader:
Spardo, a classic for you, the Foden. The Atkinson is what they call a “drom”(you may be familar) the short tank (it could be a box or tilt) behind the cab was devised by a haulier to get round axle weight regs and became used in Aus ,NZ, Europe and N. America.
The pics are courtesy of hankstruckpictures.com and within the terms of use.
oily
The Co-Ord Foden is really a classic and I saw plenty of them but with an operator of the old school called Ted Stiles. A pioneer from the 30s he ran an outfit called Outback Transport and majored on Fodens just like that. Co-Ord by the way was the foreunner of Buntine roadways, when Noel was linked up with some other operators down in The Alice.
The 2 organisations overlapped and when I was at Katherine Co-Ord Macks with 3x40 foot flush deck trailers used to bunker with us on their way from the Nullarbor Plain in WA where the rails were being replaced and the old stuff sent north to make the connection in the Territory. All the rails were longer than the trailers and overhung both ends which meant that making their way round our depot to the pump the ends all used to clank together. Strong chains required. 
I have heard of droms but not in Oz, only in N. America where I believed they were popular with removal firms requireing extra large sleeping accommodation. Didn’t ICI have some on salt transport in Cheshire? I remember seeing an Atki with a round tank on the back of the unit and a semi with a normal tank behind. I’m sure there’s a picture on TN somewhere.
The Atki Aussi cab I am of course familiar with but I have never seen the same cab used on a Foden as well.
Great photos as usual. 
