OK, so someone in here mentioned “Stodge” at Wharf Way. Weird request, but can you message me about that one please? As I believe that you’re referring to my Granddad. Secondly, my Dad has a load of old Pickfords photo’s at home. So if you’re interested, I’ll dig them out.
Cheers, Deano
Hellow deano Moreno, welcome to truck net, go for it with the pics, ime shure they will be of a lot of interest to the “heavey men” me included,
cheers trunker 08
DeanoMoreno:
OK, so someone in here mentioned “Stodge” at Wharf Way. Weird request, but can you message me about that one please? As I believe that you’re referring to my Granddad. Secondly, my Dad has a load of old Pickfords photo’s at home. So if you’re interested, I’ll dig them out.Cheers, Deano
Hi Deano welcome to the site and it would be appreciated if you could post the old Pickfords photos
cheers Johnnie
Hi all. Taking a leaf out of my son’s book, (see DeanoMoreno above) I thought I’d give this a go. I worked at Pickfords in Leicester for about 6 years in the 70’s. Not as a driver but in the packing shop. My dad , Stodge, worked there for considerably longer - about 30 years. I will get round to posting pictures, but I wonder how many of you ex Pickfords men will remember some of these names.
No particular order.
Eddie Male - manager
John Potts - manager
“Stodge” Edwards - driver / senior foreman
Bill “Geordie” Jefferies
Geoff Jones
Jimmy Rice
Charlie Martin
Tony Martin
Bill Pratt
Roly Gardener
Rod Hart
John Dear - garage
Ted Woods - garage
I’ll leave you trying to put faces to these names. Will post again soon, hopefully with pictures.
Cheers for now,
Dave
My late Grandad Tommy Smiles from Wideopen just north of Newcastle on Tyne worked for Pickfords when the firm he worked for Currie & Co Ltd was nationalised & became part of the Pickford Group. He was Curries Road Forman& worked well over his retirement as he was a dedicated haulage man , His younger brother Issac Smiles had a large fleet of tippers in the early days, Whom Had the Smiles for Miles Logo on all there motors, Long live the mems of these dedicated men who paved the way to what haulage is to-day, Without all the HAS CRAP, Eh Regards Larry. PS Proud Grandson of the late Tommy Smiles from Wideopen.
eddie55:
Hi all. Taking a leaf out of my son’s book, (see DeanoMoreno above) I thought I’d give this a go. I worked at Pickfords in Leicester for about 6 years in the 70’s. Not as a driver but in the packing shop. My dad , Stodge, worked there for considerably longer - about 30 years. I will get round to posting pictures, but I wonder how many of you ex Pickfords men will remember some of these names.No particular order.
Eddie Male - manager
John Potts - manager
“Stodge” Edwards - driver / senior foreman
Bill “Geordie” Jefferies
Geoff Jones
Jimmy Rice
Charlie Martin
Tony Martin
Bill Pratt
Roly Gardener
Rod Hart
John Dear - garage
Ted Woods - garageI’ll leave you trying to put faces to these names. Will post again soon, hopefully with pictures.
Cheers for now,
Dave
Hi Dave John Potts was a routing clerk at Sheffield when I started and he then got the under managers job before leaving for Leicester and I am sure he went to ALE later on. I only went into your depot a couple of times and I have trouble remembering my own name never mind other peoples name from nearly 40 years ago 
cheers Johnnie 
Sammyopposite
Can I ask a question about an aspect of your Pickfords days ?
When you went somewhere to load a heavy load, one that maybe required a pusher as well ,something that was really heavy, who worked out where on the trailer that the load was placed. was any regard given to axle weights or was it a case of it fits where it touches sort of thing. Was there some one whose job it was to workout where a load was positioned on the trailer or was it down to the driver and crew
Surely a driver wasn’t responsible for the technicalitys like axle weights on multi axle trailers when running at abnormal weights.
I’d be very interested in your reply,
Cheers Bassman
Bassman. it was the drivers job to to position the load on the trailer but there was " outside reps " who would go and see something unusual and they would often take a driver with them if available ( the drivers mostly kept to their own vehicle and trailers at the heavy end because of wages ) regarding axle weights if you look at the picture with the digger on that is a 60 ton payload float " two axles " and it was not unusual for the customer to tell you it was 58 tons and it could be 65-68 tons the biggest discrepancy I had personally was a load on the samson which was supposed to be 62 tons and when it was lifted off the crane driver said it was around 85 tons. The 32 wheeler solid tyre trailer at Sheffield was rated at 130 tons payload and it had four rows of four wheels on each bogie which were around 10 tons each and with the table top on another 10 tons so you had 160 tons on eight axles 
The Scammell highwayman was rated a 25 tonner but often carried 32-33 ton payload which would gross out at 45 tons gross on 3 axles but there was no weigh bridges big enough to worry about in those days 
cheers Johnnie
P S The reps were very good but not perfect as one job we did in Naas just out side Dublin the rep had been over and said we could not get into the factory as the entrance was too narrow but when we got there I had a look and there was two small lugs on the bottom of the gate posts so we put some timbers down so the tyres would would go over them and took the wing mirrors off annd we were in this saved off loading in the road and pulling the machine nearly 200yards through the yard and knocked nearly a day off the job which was spent sight seeing in Dublin and the pubs
Sammyopposite
Thanks for the reply.
I always had a passing interest in what I call “proper heavy haulage”. I remember trailers being put into Ruston Bucyrus at Lincoln and being left there whilst the machine was built on the trailer amongst other things. i made a couple of go’s at getting with heavy haulage firms but , at that time the money didn,t live up to expectations so I stayed where I was.
From what I’ve seen of it it was teamwork and there were more hard days than easy so I can understand your unexpected bonus touring Dublin’s pubs!
Cheers Bassman