One for Spardo!
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Thank you, what a beauty, though I think Harrison was alone in fitting the 3rd axle.
Just up the road from there were several arches giving access to Steel, Peach and Tozer where we often went with Bulkliners. Above the arches were offices and one day I sailed though one with a container on, no trouble at all.
Unfortunately at the exit from the arch was a steam heating pipe, slight lower, which I shattered with the top of the box.
Nobody was injured but I pulled up a little further on to watch all those pretty office girls streaming in panic out of the mist. 
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The first brand-new wagon I drove, (blurry) photo taken in 1983
330 diesel, 5-sp Turner. I was inordinately chuffed.
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I think every truck driver got a start on either a Bedford or D Series Ford. I never got a new truck until much later than you.
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Itās a wonder that more of those Scammells didnāt receive Primrose or other tag-axles, if only because the wheelbase was so short it limited the trailers you could shunt under.
There were still a fair number of these on the road at the end of the sixties when I learnt to drive and I remember thinking then that they looked terribly dated and old fashioned! The big dairies were still using them - Unigate or United Daries. Just found another classy pic of one:
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Sid Harrison liked his 3 axle Scammells (god knows where he got his 3rd axles from) The Scammells gave him good service over many years
And for anybody whoās never used a Scammell āgate changeāā¦you havenāt lived. 
I enjoyed using one.
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This was back when you were allowed to drive anything up to 7.5T GVW on a car driverās licence. But you still had a logbook (or in this case a tacho) to fill out and there were mandatory hours of work/ breaks/ daily/ weekly hours and so on. Mad, when you think about it.
Anything up to 32 tons when I started, just had to be 21, which is why I waited to take my car test 'till I got to that age. Just a motorbike before that.
Me too, for the second time this morning Iām using the words ābeesā kneesā. 
@star_down_under My first one was a Commer, I didnāt have a licence when in 1960 I saw my first TK when one visited the place where I worked but I recognised that a new era had arrived.
@parkroyal2100 Those Highwaymen were popular with the tankermen because of that wheelbase and the lack of back of cab room caused by the long nose and I believe that most, if not all, of them were bolted to their trailers. They stayed together, faithful 'till the end, just like lovers should.
When I started early 1970ās there was a transition going on with licences and classes.
If I remember (open to correction) a non-HGV truck was under 3T unladen weight?
When I was on the coal they cut the end off a Class III D Series Ford to get under that weight. Front axle weight? Who cared?
At the same time I believe there were Class 3 driving licences given out under āgrand-father rightsā to those who were habitually driving vehicles about to be re-classified as HGVs that were not before.
Well Iāve only taken 2 tests in my life, one for the bike and one for the car. Lorries? No need. Too easy.
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This is going back a touch, but I think youāre right. For some reason (something to do with integration with the EU?) that was transmogrified into the 7.5T (tonne) GVW limit. There was also quite a lot āgrandfatheringā going on in the late 70s/ early 80s, and quite a few blind eyes were turned.
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Over the years Iāve had enough licences to wallpaper a room withā¦but Iāve only ever taken one driving test (as a 17 year old yoof 
) the rest have come via fair means or foul and by āgrandfatherā rights. And Iām proud to say I never smashed one up, never injured anybody. Oh I freely admit Iāve had my moments, exchanged paint occasionally, (bent the odd trailer push bar 
)havenāt we all .
I enjoyed my life āon the roadā, but Iāve no desire to go back
Sounds about right to me.
I passed a car test, and later drove some right ole dogs for a while, as well as some better/newer trucks.
The Bedfords and D Series were quite good as I remember, but a 1958 Albion (I think) with vacuum brakes was a noisy horrible bit of kit.
Took my HGV I at 21, and soā¦
Agreed.
I occasionally hanker after some of the more interesting jobs, but you cannot step into the same river twice.
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My first ālicense to drive a motor vehicleā was for a motorcycle, it took another 5 months before I got my car licence (failed the first time). I went on to be a lorry driver. If you can figure that out, youāre a better man than I am Gunga-din.
Thanks Grumpy, Iāve never seen one. I only ever drove one Scammell, an eight wheeled Routeman, that had a five speed epicycle box and two speed arse end with switch that worked backwards.
Before I turned 21 I drove a BMC 701 cab 4 wheeler just under 3 ton unladen. Iāve no idea what it weighed when loaded with spuds. It had vacuum assisted hydraulic brakes but I remember pulling the steering wheel into a U shape sometimes trying to stop the thing.
Yep my first real truck was a TK.
ButI first started tramping, and doing nights out in a Ford Transit pick up. It was great for learning the job,.and finding my way around, and getting to knowing routes as it was as easy to turn around as a carā¦
So by the time I progresed to a small truck I knew my way right through London for instance, from every direction ā¦pre M25 and Sat nav days.
Slept on the flat back body in a āsheet tentā in summer (can you imagine guys doing that these days?
) and TRIED to sleep across the seats any other time, or resorted to (very dodgy) transport digs a very few times.
Got the TK thought I was King of the Road , with my parcel shelf āsleeper cabāā¦Iām 6ā 1āā the cab width was about 5ā.
Then before going on artics I had a Ford D series for a whileā¦much beter sleep across the seats.
First solo run off in an artic was my owner driver mateās brand new Maggie Deutz full spec, pulling a tipper, twin bunk sleeper, a 310 with an easy range change gearbox , their own or a Fuller, I can not recall
So for that time I actually WAS King of the roadā
Then back to harsh reality when my first full time artic job was tramping on a day cab ERF āBā series 250 Cummins, where I pined for the āSuper Maggieā.
And here was me thinking you only got gated gearshifts on expensive Ferraris and Lamborghinis.
The things you learn on the interwebsā¦
The U-shape thing with the steering wheel I did do on occasion, the one that sticks in my mind was one trip I did in a TK (XMH 935T) from NW10 up north. It was one of those drop a pallet here, another one there, a handball job or two somewhere and then up north with the rest of the load (a part removal). Somewhere up the M6 (Tebay services rings a bell), the front RHS tyre on the TK gets a mood on with life and deflates itself rapidly, and the lorry lurches right like it wants to vote for Maggie Thatcher. As Iām coming (or trying) to grips with things, an elderly womanās voice says āIs everything alright?ā. Now, technically speaking, the old duck shouldnāt have been in the passenger seat of the TK, but the boss allowed it and it was her furniture soā¦ Anyway, at this point I was stood up (as much as you can stand up in a TK cab) hauling on the steering wheel with whatever might I had to stop the [zb] thing careering into the offside armco. I must have bent the wheel into a non-uniform shape and I think I put one or two boot-shaped dents in the floor. BTW the old duck didnāt seem as mithred by events as I was.
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