bubbleman:
Hi lads,heres todays stuff,Cheers Bubbs,
Looking at the MAT container on the Bowker trailer, “the container is 30’ long” - what you can’t see on the cropped photo in that editorial piece is that the trailer wasn’t
And the Mandator might well have been the pride of the fleet when it was new in 1966 (and it was the first vehicle to carry that new livery) but the honeymoon period was very short: and it was sold on when less than a year old and no AEC ever darkened the Bowker doors again
Hey Harry
You were lucky to be able to load out Mucia i was always unlucky to get the furthest Backloads,Actually i remember once i rang and Peter in office said to me Yo!! Whiteshoes ! good to hear from you how are you ?,now as you know when anyone in transport office asks of your Health you know they are after something,heres me hoping for a nice backload after Algeria.Milan ? maybe
ok somewhere in Italy Nope ! Can i go to Pizza drop trailor at this packing stn pick up one of our Tauts and JUST POP UP TO ROMANIA ! .(remember when they looked at maps it was only 10 inches away which cant be that far can it ■■?.So of to good old Romania pick up a load of Repro Furniture for Abbeycraft of Waltham Abbey.Trouble was it was furniture made in Romania so bloody cheaply with No Doors or Glass so when it gets back to England they would put glass and doors in and they were entitled to put a made in England sticker on it!! im not Joking ! and what made it worse,they used to export there furniture to bloody Germany !! and we all know how they felt about the Romanians in the Seventies/Eighties dont we? if they had had found out im sure there would have been a World War 3, but they didnt cos what Abbeycraft were doing was Legal ha ha ha good luck to them.
Hope you enjoyed that
Johnny Whiteshoes
More Memorys
(If your interested that is) i went to work for a company called Dovaston Repro Furniture,actually it was a stop gap,ok ? i was waiting for a new start for another company and they reckoned it would be about 4 weeks ok i said, and saw this advert from Dovastons to drive there Mobile Showroom around Europe,why not ? i thought something different wasnt it ■■? hmmm well i took on this job they were based at Wood St Walthamstow, but had opened up a Depot at Bishops Stortford which is where i had the Interview which went realy well and we both liked each other he liked my Experience and i liked his money which was Bloody Good !!.So this was the Tuesday,Can i start the Thursday ■■ ok yep no prob the Mobile Showroom was in some Garage having a top service done on it,but he said you have all your living Quarters in it, plus Kitchen etc,Kin ell i thought this is Paradise.So i start on the thursday oh ! ang on i forgot to mention he rang me on Wed to tell me where i would be going for this Tour,Ready ■■ ok here i go, Belgium, Luxumboug,Northern Germany,Southern Germany,Sweden,Finland !! i thought oh my God !! . Still i thought at least ill be going in Style nice Coach,own sleeping quarters Kitchen great money £20 night out money (this is is 1986 by the way) what more could a driver ask for ■■?.Thursday morning i turn up with wife and a loaded car sleeping stuff, more tins of food than Tesco could store in there Warehouse ! Maps Suitcase etc.Boss says drive round back and Coach is there,well we did and i wanted to go Home !! there and then,IT WAS A BLOODY OLD GREENLINE COACH would you believe?? my Wife was in Tears with Laughter. As i said it was a Luxury Coach Converted,mind you it wasnt Green they had it sprayed in there colours and nicely signwritten .I couldnt wait for er indoors to go cos she was realy getting on my nerves with all that Laughing.I thought to myself John you got to make the best of this so lets rock & roll !! ok packed everything into Luxury Coach whoops sorry Bus. Into the office with my head held up high. I dont know why but i kept thinking about Candid Camera and hoping someone was going to jump out in front of me ,nope ! fraid not.So sorted out paperwork (whole tashi case full ! im not joking)lots and lots of money contact names for each country,(no mobiles or Satnavs then )and of to Felixstowe we go.Ever tried to drive an old Greenline Coach with Pre select Gearbox ■■ no me neither.Still i got to Dortmound in Germany rang the Agent sorted out all the stopping points (30 !!!) nope im not Joking i had 30 stops to make and thats just for Germany.Was this Bus Luxury ?nope did it have Kitchen ? well,yes in a way it was behind the drivers seat it would take to long to explain so try to use your own imagination.Oh !! the Bed well yes there was a Bed but it was behind the Sink and stove and you had to unfold it 3 times and it was smaller than a lorry bunk,Even Arthur Daley would have been proud of this.Ok i know what your all thinking,how far did this heap of old ■■■■ sorry, Bus get me ?. Well i done the whole of Germany 4 days Sweden 3days 1st day (out of 5) in Finland Broke down sat morning ring office ok stay there (Cafe) we will call back.3hrs later i ring them.Sorry John we couldnt get through to your Number,anyway cant find anyone who can help you at the moment so find a Hotel and ring me on Monday.Happy Days i thought Hotel and food and drink lovely jubbly.Ring on Monday nope call us back on Tues. Ring on Tues nope! ring on Wed,seems they cant find any garage that can deal with an old Bloody! RT ex London Transport/Country Bus surprise surprise.So come Friday and Agent comes to me at Hotel and says we have arranged for you to be towed to docks on SUNDAY !!! to be put on Container Ship you as well for Felixstowe.Nice i thought two more days at this wonderfull luxury Hotel and then onto Container ship whats that going to be like i wondered.Get to Docks leave all on bus except money (of course) and Passport and the took me onto Boat.Wow !! its a massive Container Ship and im expected to live as a Crew Member,the Food was Fantastic ! the Booze was free ! and Cigs were a £1 a box.And ■■■■ iwas on the ship for 3 days !!! oh Dear.It had to go to hull First then back to Felixstowe. Did i want to get of at Hull ■■,Ha Ha not on you Nellie im enjoying this, so Felixstowe it was.What a Journey that turned out to be i felt so Guilty (NOT!!!) all that Hotel Food/Drink and then the Ships Food and Drink and all that cheap Duty Free which was massivley cheaper than we got it on the Ferrys ! which goes to show how much we are or was being conned!! that wasnt Duty free it was Discount price,what i got on Ship was Duty Free.Hope you enjoyed my story got lots more like that.
Regards to you all
Johnny Whiteshoes
PS sorry about spelling but at 63 you do tend to forget.
hi bubbs great pictures especially the one of the 2 beavers of john summers shotton ; the front one ndm 846e brings back great memories of when as a kid i worked for derek griffiths of alltami ; washing lorrys on a saturday; this lorry came to derek from summers with its sister sdm 899f both were 2 pedal beavers ; ndm had power steering and was swb whilst sdm had no power steering and was lwb; they worked hard them old girls usually 3 loads a day from tilcon hendre to quickmix; jackson st st helens; or on bagged lime from trimm rock cilcain; kenny peers [snicker] drove sdm and big norman jones drove ndm.
HI ,Bubbleman , Fine photos of sealand transport Leylands not many around ,Iirc ,they had 4 EGRO cab artics, the drivers had to do 6 months on the GUYS ,and the couple of older bEAVERS ,manuals to claim Grandfarther rights at 2 days a week ,for there class 1s ,yours Barry Waddy
