robert1952:
Talking of military roads, the climb north out of Damascus in Syria was a fair old pull. You were supposed to stick to the motorway but many of us took the (forbidden but not enforced) military road that ran alongside it (picture below). I’ve found a couple more hill pics too. Robert
Hi Folks,
Boceguillas north end of somosiera spain 1981
Cheers Malc.
malc step:
robert1952:
Talking of military roads, the climb north out of Damascus in Syria was a fair old pull. You were supposed to stick to the motorway but many of us took the (forbidden but not enforced) military road that ran alongside it (picture below). I’ve found a couple more hill pics too. Robert5432
Hi Folks,
Boceguillas north end of somosiera spain 19811
0
Cheers Malc.
Malc,
Would that be the “flags” ? Not right at the top of the somosierra but near enough… Very nice food as I remember…
In fact a Geordie driver once told me “canny drop o soup at the flags mind” and her weren’t far wrong.
Who remembers a very short but steep one warmington hill on way to oxford?
regards dave
dafdave:
Who remembers a very short but steep one warmington hill on way to oxford?
regards dave
Was that on old A41 with a church on top of hill? Also there was sunrise hill? on A422 from banbury to stratford road,ta,Pete
Changed many a half shaft on Warmington hill in my fitting days and also on the short steep climb in Longbridge Austin works. We used to use a 10ft long bar to knock the broken piece out of the axle, in Longbridge works one day outside the canteen at the top of the steep bank my young assistant managed to put the bar through the canteen window and hit a worker having his breakfast 
made me laugh I thought they were going to lynch him 
Trev_H:
Changed many a half shaft on Warmington hill in my fitting days and also on the short steep climb in Longbridge Austin works. We used to use a 10ft long bar to knock the broken piece out of the axle, in Longbridge works one day outside the canteen at the top of the steep bank my young assistant managed to put the bar through the canteen window and hit a worker having his breakfast
Trev please watch your language,you mentioned longbridge and worker!ta,Pete
pete smith:
Trev_H:
Changed many a half shaft on Warmington hill in my fitting days and also on the short steep climb in Longbridge Austin works. We used to use a 10ft long bar to knock the broken piece out of the axle, in Longbridge works one day outside the canteen at the top of the steep bank my young assistant managed to put the bar through the canteen window and hit a worker having his breakfastTrev please watch your language,you mentioned longbridge and worker!ta,Pete
Sorry Pete I never thought that out did I , in later years I went in there often for BRS carrying mini subframes, it took 3hrs to do a trailer swap
2 mins swap over the rest waiting for the notes to be “processed” !
Of course the other steep hill in that works was by the steel bays, my mate left his Foden at the top during lunch break unfortunately he’d parked it on the deadman and came out to see it rolling down the hill and hit a car transport train on the level crossing. I think it damaged 9 minis on the train and took the cab off his Foden 
Longbridge! I pulled a load of computer wiring down there when drawing off of the Barber Greene, ironically I had only been warned about them an hour before. Never left a site so rapidly before or since! 
The steep pinch above The Mermaid between Waterhouses and Royal Cottage in Staffordshire was the scene of many broken propshaft’s on our Fodens. Then again there are plenty of steep banks locally that caught folk out both going up and coming down, Sydnope, Lime Tree and Cromford Hill’s have seen a few casualties in the Matlock/Cromford area over the years.
Pete.
that was a good hill Trev,done a few loads of scrap out of there,down hill over crossing and turn left,i could get up cos got tag axle unit mid lifts was leaving few thousand mile of rubber behind,got a pic of roadtrain you may have seen goilg past your front door a few times,will post it on past and present thread,ta,Pete
I’ve done plenty of passes in the alps but the N85 north bound the road from Gap to Grenoble has a hill going down in to Vizille which is very nasty your going down hill for a long time ,not Many bends just long and quite steep,there are warning signs before it for miles and miles .
Hi,Dan,are you the lad what ran out of Coopers/EMR yards smethwick/darlaston with blue ERF and could knock a tune out on a banjo?!ta,Pete
Lol that’s me Dad ,so you’ve suffered his tunes too?
Tubbysboy:
tiptop495:
Tubbysboy:
tiptop495:
hey, but like the HP 's are Climbing in the future there will be no montains any more
Cheers Eric,
Bet that big one coming out of Liege heading south will never be flattened… Used be in 3rd gear dragging up that in an extremely tired and very gutless FH380 . Loaded with kappa paper in a fridge box. Can’t remember the name of the hill…?
hey Tubb, It’s Tillf but the worst way is from Verviers to German Prüm,that has dangerous decents.
Cheers Eric,
Eric,
Isn’t called Bastogne … Come out of liege ring and then head up and over tones of hills until Lux ?
hey Tubb, Tilff is the way coming out of Liège to Bastogne with the Fraiture in it, but the worse is from Verviers to Germany along the francorchamps circuit.
Belgian has no high montains, but it was really enjoing to drive in the Ardennes loaded with about 220 280hp’s.
And specially if you come out of quarries.
Cheers Eric,
Been over most of the heavy drags in Europe, but don’t laugh us Londoners had The Kings head hill to cope with going up Chingford Mount….no. no stop laughing, you try it in an overloaded petrol engine O type Bedford fair made your pooper go a bit,….ok I’ll go and take me tablets.
Ossie
Hi,Dan,had a few tunes on the didgeridoo an all! ta,Pete
Heads of the valleys was a tricky one that I remember,regular with ERF and King Low loader to Cross Hands,Seven Sisters with Caterpillar dozers from Lancashire or Cheshire,brakes glowing on most occasions on the return journey with a D9 and Kelly Ripper on board,but the trusty ERF with 220 ■■■■■■■ took them all in its stride,although a 240 Gardner powered Big J would have been preferred,but not manufactured in those days,days remembered with glee!
David
Heads of the valleys road,on your return journey worst bit was descending blackrock? old road or 3 lane?
pete smith:
Heads of the valleys road,on your return journey worst bit was descending blackrock? old road or 3 lane?
I remember Blackrock being fun!!! Even though I was under Police ■■■■■■ most of the the time due to the blade width being oversized.
David
Its due to be bypassed again,how they gonna do that god knows,they be going past govilon 80mph+!!
Several enjoyable ones that come to mind, like Viehla and Somport (the old road before the tunnel was built) on the Spanish/French border. Used both of those regularly enough and toddled over Somport and back during several strikes while the masses sat in Irun 
A particular favorite of mine though being Peurto de la Bonaigua
In the mid 90’s I did a few trips up and over it taking the anti soil erosion mesh to the eastern side.
Heading up from Viehla…
Heading back down the other side…
The top is just about the same height as Cenis but thankfully we did this in the summer, so the only traffic was the suicidal 6 legger Spanish quarry tippers and caravans. Who were highly surprised and confused at being passed by a foreign 450 Scania and 45’ tilt on the “straights” as I was only carrying about 5 tons 
Most of the corners saw the inside trailer axles airborne in some way
and from memory where I tipped which involved getting “turned around” here then blocking the road as it was handballed off
IIRC I did 4 or 5 loads up there over a month, usually nipping through the tunnel de Viehla to load in Llieda or Zaragoza. Now that is not a big deal but those who have ever been through that tunnel know it used to be a nasty tight bugger and had a strict 4m height limit on it. Just 2 lanes wide and with an arched ceiling that was just a layer of concrete sprayed onto rock. So uneven with the odd jutting out bit making passing oncoming wagons a real seat muncher Anyhoo a friend of mine had been up there the day before with the same load and headed south through the tunnel. Unfortunately the stepframe box he had on was 4.2 metres . He managed to make it through the tunnel slowly and with great care and then as he exited into the bright sun he hit the gas. Unfortunately he did not know that about 800 metres after the tunnel was a solid girder set at 4 metres to prevent anything higher entering entering from that side
Cue an awkward phone call and long trip home with just the remains of the roof inside the trailer
