240 Gardner:
DEANB:
Thanks for your comments Dennis, we will have to put some stuff on about Atkinsons soon.Splendid
I will pop it on and then you can put all the correct names to the various models Chris. 
By the way Paul Gee sent me a message the other day asking me to thank you about explaining the different models in that post the other day !
DEANB:
I will pop it on and then you can put all the correct names to the various models Chris.
DEANB:
By the way Paul Gee sent me a message the other day asking me to thank you about explaining the different models in that post the other day !
He’s most welcome. Thank you to Paul and yourself (and Mark too!) for the countless hours taken to photograph, scan and post so that we can all enjoy and reminisce. And delve into our anorak pockets 
Top chaps, all of you.
I reckon there are a few Leyland fans on here. Did a bit about the Roadtrain on page 200.
Heres some more about them.
Viridor Mercedes.
Gullivers MAN
William T Eden Plc Mercedes. Dont think we have had one of these before. Anyone know where they were from ■■
These little Volvo artics were popular with Breweries.
Owner driver Foden Tarmac.
Some Welsh motors.
Hicks Volvo.
Cardiff Container Link.
TGB Transport Man.
Owens MAN.
HRT Transport Scania.
John Breslin Hino.
New Foden.
What make chaps ■■
Foden factory yard.
McGregor Cory Maggie loaded with scrap. Anyone know where they were based,its seen here in Parkstone.
Shears Transport from Wimborne on traction work from Poole docks. They are now situated at Hurn Airport.
Anyone recognise the Merc heading for the ferry at Poole docks ■■?
Texaco Marathon heading back to its Poole depot at the docks. All gone now !
RHM -Christopher Hill Roadtrain at there Poole mill. All gone now built flats and a Asda store on it.
Rank Xerox Ford D series. Bit of weight on the front axle with that crane.
Hi Dean.It’s a Leyland Comet with an Isle of Man reg,photo taken on Ramsey harbour.
240 Gardner:
DEANB:
hello DEAN ,and thank you for the Caddy pictures and clippings ,like the old Atkinsons some had sleeper cab extensions or pigeon lofts as they were known as .
The Seddon artic with sleeper cab was second hand from the Southampton area ,and some thought it to be a converted dust cart ! .Dont know who the former owner was .
NAW 500G famous as the first F88 in this country ,thank you DEAN a very enjoyable read ,TrevorI thought you might like that Trevor.
I believe it was new to Jamesons, with the rare factory spec, not only of a sleeper (yes the dustcart pressings were similar!) but also an 8LXB Gardner. Ask Dennis about the merits of blending an expensive engine with a cheap lorry
Here is a photo from t’interweb, suitably copyright marked:
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Hello DEAN ,that Caddys NAW 500G was recabbed with them after it crashed i think somewhere in Spain ,it finished its days on shunt work at Cadburys Chirk
Other early F88s in this area was one with B&C haulage over at Rednall a few miles from Oswestry it too was on a G plate they were steel hauliers ,and Dee Valley at Llangollen had a daycab version .
Thank you for those who have supplied the pictures of the Seddon with its original owner ,DEAN ,i have forgot to mention that Caddys also had a F86 but did not last very long ! thank you Trevor
Thank you Deanb/Paul ,yes love the T45 Roadtrain , not the best wagon in the world but was a good wagon to have on BRS . I got loads of photos of the ones we had .
JAKEY:
Thank you Deanb/Paul ,yes love the T45 Roadtrain , not the best wagon in the world but was a good wagon to have on BRS . I got loads of photos of the ones we had .
The quote from Donald Malcolm was quite ironic , if Leyland dont get it right this time they may as well close the doors its their last chance.
240 Gardner:
he spec’d David Brown gearboxes for the double-shifted motors because some of the night men weren’t smart enough to tell the difference between a splitter and a range-change, nor indeed between their own botty and elbow, and kept doing damage by going down a range when they thought they were going down half a gear.His illustration of the intellect of some of them was the example of one known as Catweazle: one night, Geoff takes a call from the West Midlands Police, to say that they have stopped one of the northbound trunk men on the M6 because his lights aren’t working. Geoff jumps in his car and drives down at speed from his home near Chorley, finds the motor on the hard shoulder and reaches inside the cab to try the light switches so as to decide where to start his troubleshooting. He switches on the master switch for the lights (on the back panel of the cab, because its an older Mk.1) and all the lights come on.
Nothing whatsoever wrong with the wagon - Catweazle just didn’t know where the switch was, and simply kept driving into the ever darker night! Of course, motorways were not usually lit in that day and age either. Now, Dennis, would you trust Catweazle with a range-change??
To be fair a light switch on the back of the cab says as much about the thing’s designers as the driver.Although not knowing the difference between a splitter v range change is something else.Although to be fair I did get caught out by the Merc starter switch being where an exhaust brake should be on the floor and the lights on,what would be,the ‘ignition’ switch where the starter should be and the Volvo’s splitter control stuck as an after thought on the bleedin dashboard.Not while working nights.So look on the bright side he probably would have got the lights on but he wouldn’t have been able to start the motor if it had been a Merc. 
240 Gardner:
Bewick:
Your spot on Chris as I could never see the reasoning for Seddons to fit the 8LXB de-rated to 200BHP in the 32/4 chassis. I believe the main reason was because they were using the DB 6:600 box which was patently useless behind anything more powerful than the 6LXB. I can painfully confirm this fact as we ran 3 220Cu Borderers with the DB box and they all suffered failures where as fitted with the Fuller RTO 610 box they performed faultlessly !
Cheers Dennis.If I remember rightly, Dennis, they shoehorned it into a 9’6" chassis too!
I think everyone pretty much said the same about that engine/gearbox combination. Bowker’s fleet engineer used to tell me about the bearing problems with them behind the 220 ■■■■■■■ (and, to a degree, the 6LXB too), but he spec’d David Brown gearboxes for the double-shifted motors because some of the night men weren’t smart enough to tell the difference between a splitter and a range-change, nor indeed between their own botty and elbow, and kept doing damage by going down a range when they thought they were going down half a gear.
His illustration of the intellect of some of them was the example of one known as Catweazle: one night, Geoff takes a call from the West Midlands Police, to say that they have stopped one of the northbound trunk men on the M6 because his lights aren’t working. Geoff jumps in his car and drives down at speed from his home near Chorley, finds the motor on the hard shoulder and reaches inside the cab to try the light switches so as to decide where to start his troubleshooting. He switches on the master switch for the lights (on the back panel of the cab, because its an older Mk.1) and all the lights come on.
Nothing whatsoever wrong with the wagon - Catweazle just didn’t know where the switch was, and simply kept driving into the ever darker night! Of course, motorways were not usually lit in that day and age either. Now, Dennis, would you trust Catweazle with a range-change??
Come to think of it, you’d probably met him on the A5 or the A34 when you were nobbut a Brady’s trailer lad, eh
Hi Chris, Just read this post regarding splitter box and range change box, and it brought back a few memories. Like many, but not all drivers,
I had quite a few driving jobs when I was in my 20s. In 1973, I did just short of a year with Reed Transport at Wigan. For the first 6 months, I
was a spare driver. During the summer, I was on nights for about 6 weeks, on night trunk changeover, Wigan to Newport Pagnell on the M1.
Leave Wigan at 8pm, park up on Newport Pagnell southbound, walk over the bridge and meet the night man from Reeds at Maidstone and swap
keys, have 45 minutes rest and drive back to Wigan. Usually, if the southbound lorry was a H reg Scania 110 with a 5 speed splitter box, the
northbound lorry was a new L reg Scania 110 with a 10 speed range box, so you needed to be on the ball and remember which lorry you were in at
all times. The 5 speed box gear stick had a round knob and the splitter switch, and the 10 speed range box had a square knob on the gear stick
with a gap through it, and the range switch. I would drive with my left hand on the gear knob for most of the journeys, so at least I knew which
lorry I was driving. Not long after I started at Reeds, Les the Foreman called me in to the office and asked," Ray, Have you ever driven a Foden ?"
I said “Yes Les, I have driven a few”, I hadn’t drove a Foden, I was lying. Les told me that my work for tomorrow was a double deck load
of Corrugated for Kelloggs at Trafford Park which was arriving overnight from Reeds at Thatcham. Following morning, I got in an almost new
Foden, and had a look at the gear stick, 4 plus reverse on the knob, and a lever below the knob with 3 positions. 12 speed splitter box I thought.
I set off to Trafford Park and played many a tune on the gearbox, nothing seemed right. As I pulled into Kelloggs yard, I spotted an similar Foden
artic tanker of Tate & Lyle, so I spoke to the driver, an elderly chap from Liverpool, and told him of my gearbox problems. He asked “Is you gear
stick and switch like this one in my cab”, I said “Yes, its exactly the same”. He said, “We call it an 8 speed range box with an overdrive 9th gear”
The Foden drove like a good`un on the way back to Wigan. 
Kind Regards, Ray.
I’ll hazard a guess that the white Mercedes pulling the fridge is A D Forsey from the Bristol area
Dean,
McGregor Cory was part of,or very closely aligned to Transflash McGregor(Bradford area H.O. if I recall).The name on the door, Ocean,was part of the Ocean group.
Strange that a freight forwarder had a tipper,but there ya go.
The whole lot was merged eventually into MSAS,which,once again if I recall, stood for "McGregor Sea and Air Services.
Cassin Road Transport in Ireland was also bought out.
As happened with most freight forwarders,the world getting smaller etc.,P & O Nedloyd,Excel Logistics, and eventually DHL were merged.
Think that`s very roughly the story there! 
Ray Smyth:
(snip) Following morning, I got in an almost new
Foden, and had a look at the gear stick, 4 plus reverse on the knob, and a lever below the knob with 3 positions. 12 speed splitter box I thought.
I set off to Trafford Park and played many a tune on the gearbox, nothing seemed right. As I pulled into Kelloggs yard, I spotted an similar Foden
artic tanker of Tate & Lyle, so I spoke to the driver, an elderly chap from Liverpool, and told him of my gearbox problems. He asked “Is you gear
stick and switch like this one in my cab”, I said “Yes, its exactly the same”. He said, “We call it an 8 speed range box with an overdrive 9th gear”
The Foden drove like a good`un on the way back to Wigan.
It was also a splitter Ray, all 12 gears were in there and you could split every gear in direct and overdrive ranges exactly the same as the early ‘proper’ 12 speed 'box. Foden marketed it as a 9 speed range change (in their words) “to make it easier for drivers to operate it” but every gear was still in there. I was talking to an ex driver only last week at a show (our vintage club secretary actually) and he mentioned about the Foden '9 speed gearbox as he drove a Haulmaster for Severn Trent with one fitted. The company asked for a Foden works driver to come out to instruct him but what the company didn’t know was that he had previously thumbed a lift from a Derbyshire Stone driver and watched him using it as a splitter so drove his the same. When the Foden chap came out and rode with him he was amazed that he drove it as a splitter box, even he hadn’t realised that it could be driven like that!
Pete.
