Saviem:
Hello all, wheelnut, Atkins of Derby, I understand that towards the end Ken, Arthur, and Ian really did not see eye to eye. Like so many “family businesses” it just came to the end of the road. Great shame, a lot of really good blokes worked for them. I can remember how when things became a little fractious Ken would go and spend some time with his Donkey, got more sense from the creature. I think that the Cafe was run by the sister, but my memory fails me on name. I remember that Atkins were big Fiat users, 619 and 170.26, and did they not have a big Scania on that mega mileage Pirelli job? The fleet man from Fiat, Anthoney G Neath, (Tony). joined Renault, and bought the Atkins business with him. Their first Renault was a TR305, LOY469V,I`ve a nice picture of it coupled to a Trailor Savoyard, on the green at Findern.She was painted in Yellow and black, not brown, looks quite a handsome outfit, must have gone well for them judging by the number they ended up running. Ken was fanatical about fuel consumption, as was Arthur about football!! , and did not Ian do well in the Three Peaks Challenge? My friend the late Pat Kennet always used Atkins Cafe as part of his road tests, when Editor in Chief of Truck magazine. This thread does tickle the “little grey cells” (even if mine are becoming less powerful)!! Cheerio for now.
Pat Kennett taught me a lot of what I learned. I would have loved to have known the man like you did. I saw him at Tipcon in Harrogate once and was in awe of him, grilling a dealer. My only contact was through the printed page.
A friend who I met since I moved to Derby did a night trunk from Burton to Carlisle for Pirelli, he has not driven a lorry since Atkins packed up, but still reminisces about the great job he had.
It wasn’t unusual for a good truck salesman to keep his customers if he changed allegiance to another marque. Our local DAF garage lost out to LEX and then took on Renault. East Yorkshire was quite a strong area for the DAF 2800 / 3600 range, with the 95 and LEX, the Renault quickly became the strongest seller until Arnold, the salesman died suddenly.
Superior from Great Yarmouth are a blast from the past,they used to run up to Woodhouse,Sheffield every night with produce for Lancs markets.I think their livery used to be dark green though in the early 60s,that Commer is a 67 reg.
Superior from Great Yarmouth are a blast from the past,they used to run up to Woodhouse,Sheffield every night with produce for Lancs markets.I think their livery used to be dark green though in the early 60s,that Commer is a 67 reg.
Look how neat that sheet is rolled, Dennis would be proud.
Superior from Great Yarmouth are a blast from the past,they used to run up to Woodhouse,Sheffield every night with produce for Lancs markets.I think their livery used to be dark green though in the early 60s,that Commer is a 67 reg.
Look how neat that sheet is rolled, Dennis would be proud.
And all the corner-boards straight too - what a perfectionist.
Superior from Great Yarmouth are a blast from the past,they used to run up to Woodhouse,Sheffield every night with produce for Lancs markets.I think their livery used to be dark green though in the early 60s,that Commer is a 67 reg.
Look how neat that sheet is rolled, Dennis would be proud.
And all the corner-boards straight too - what a perfectionist.
hiya,
Dennis will need to see the the finished product before he will give marks out of ten, but full marks from me so far nice spot of loading, but rather him than me
thanks harry long retired.
Superior from Great Yarmouth are a blast from the past,they used to run up to Woodhouse,Sheffield every night with produce for Lancs markets.I think their livery used to be dark green though in the early 60s,that Commer is a 67 reg.
Look how neat that sheet is rolled, Dennis would be proud.
And all the corner-boards straight too - what a perfectionist.
hiya,
Dennis will need to see the the finished product before he will give marks out of ten, but full marks from me so far nice spot of loading, but rather him than me
thanks harry long retired.
Hiya “H”,hows tricks? Has he just pulled his sheet off the load ready to tip? or is he just gonna start to sheet and rope? If he’s just gonna start I hope there’s an FLT handy! or he should have had his sheet on top during loading! Cheers Dennis.
Hiya Marcus,class shots as always mate!! But the “Borderman” comments are a very sore point with me!!(nowt to do with you of course!) but if Man and Borderman were the only motor/dealer from which to buy a motorI’d go back to using horses mate!! Borderman Trucks were owned by Barnett and Graham a tipper operator in Penrith.It was always said that if you became a full time subbie you had to buy an MAN and I quite believe this was true 'cause they didn’t sell many to anyone else but themselves and their subbies!! I’ll not bore you with my unfortunate experience with them save to say that it involved a long term factory demo into a 100 vehicle mainly Scania fleet which at the time did not have any MAN’s in it.Having said this I never reckoned an MAN but i was willing to run a Demo which we only had to insure and put derv into!!Cheers Dennis.
Bewick:
Hiya Marcus,class shots as always mate!! But the “Borderman” comments are a very sore point with me!!(nowt to do with you of course!) but it Man and Borderman were the only motor/dealer from which to buy a motorI’d go back to using horses mate!! Borderman Trucks were owned by Barnett and Graham a tipper operator in Penrith.It was always said that if you became a full time subbie you had to buy an MAN and I quite believe this was true 'cause they didn’t sell many to anyone else but themselves and their subbies!! I’ll not bore you with my unfortunate experience with them save to say that it involved a long term factory demo into a 100 vehicle mainly Scania fleet which at the time did not have any MAN’s in it.Having said this I never reckoned an MAN but i was willing to run a Demo which we only had to insure and put derv into!!Cheers Dennis.
Hi Dennis,
I see in thee comic that VW now own M A N and Scania,so if you should fire up again,you could get one from your local Scania dealer.
Cheers Dave.
Superior from Great Yarmouth are a blast from the past,they used to run up to Woodhouse,Sheffield every night with produce for Lancs markets.I think their livery used to be dark green though in the early 60s,that Commer is a 67 reg.
Look how neat that sheet is rolled, Dennis would be proud.
And all the corner-boards straight too - what a perfectionist.
hiya,
Dennis will need to see the the finished product before he will give marks out of ten, but full marks from me so far nice spot of loading, but rather him than me
thanks harry long retired.
Hiya “H”,hows tricks? Has he just pulled his sheet off the load ready to tip? or is he just gonna start to sheet and rope? If he’s just gonna start I hope there’s an FLT handy! or he should have had his sheet on top during loading! Cheers Dennis.
hiya,
Yes Dennis it looks like he’s ready to tip as you say the normal procedure was to put the sheet up as you built your load up just in case the FLT driver had gone for his bacon butty just when you needed him, the load has a look of tomato’s i did a few similar loads from Shoreham when Bowkers did the fruit job light years ago.
thanks harry long retired.
Dennis you are wrong about the MAN as I thought they were superior to the Scania from a driving point of view though I only drove the early ones 16.232, 16.240. 16.280 and the 19.320 V10 all column change they were more comfortable to drive, more room in the cab, better across cab access. I found them a good reliable wagon and the V10 would beat anything at the time. I always found the few Scania’s which I had the misfortune to drive had niggley little problems and I was never a fan of them but it is just a personal opinion as I preferred the SCAMMELL CRUSADER to a Scania 110 or 111 and I have never had anything to do with the V8 Scania’s. This is just from the view of the NUT behind the wheel,
cheers Johnnie
P S was it just the dealer or the wagons as well you weren’t to keen on
sammyopisite:
Dennis you are wrong about the MAN as I thought they were superior to the Scania from a driving point of view though I only drove the early ones 16.232, 16.240. 16.280 and the 19.320 V10 all column change they were more comfortable to drive, more room in the cab, better across cab access. I found them a good reliable wagon and the V10 would beat anything at the time. I always found the few Scania’s which I had the misfortune to drive had niggley little problems and I was never a fan of them but it is just a personal opinion as I preferred the SCAMMELL CRUSADER to a Scania 110 or 111 and I have never had anything to do with the V8 Scania’s. This is just from the view of the NUT behind the wheel,
cheers Johnnie
P S was it just the dealer or the wagons as well you weren’t to keen on
Hiya Johnnie,there are always conflicting opinions as to which particular motors were “the best” but all I can say that during my time in the game and on a scale of 1 to 10 the MAN dealer at Penrith was 1 and the Scania dealer at Carlisle was 10!! Whenever we had demos on the fleet we did swap the drivers about and with one exception( Renault Magnum) they always wanted their Scanias back so their reaction used to tell me that our vehicle policy was more or less right for our operation.Cheers Dennis.
sammyopisite:
Dennis you are wrong about the MAN as I thought they were superior to the Scania from a driving point of view though I only drove the early ones 16.232, 16.240. 16.280 and the 19.320 V10 all column change they were more comfortable to drive, more room in the cab, better across cab access. I found them a good reliable wagon and the V10 would beat anything at the time. I always found the few Scania’s which I had the misfortune to drive had niggley little problems and I was never a fan of them but it is just a personal opinion as I preferred the SCAMMELL CRUSADER to a Scania 110 or 111 and I have never had anything to do with the V8 Scania’s. This is just from the view of the NUT behind the wheel,
cheers Johnnie
P S was it just the dealer or the wagons as well you weren’t to keen on
Hiya Johnnie,there are always conflicting opinions as to which particular motors were “the best” but all I can say that during my time in the game and on a scale of 1 to 10 the MAN dealer at Penrith was 1 and the Scania dealer at Carlisle was 10!! Whenever we had demos on the fleet we did swap the drivers about and with one exception( Renault Magnum) they always wanted their Scanias back so their reaction used to tell me that our vehicle policy was more or less right for our operation.Cheers Dennis.
Eyup Dennis,did Barnett and Graham have their MAN dealership in that disused quarry on the A66 just west of Penrith? I hope they flattened the trailer park,it was one of the worst changeover places I ever went in,what a shi****,like the moon - dark side as well.
Bewick:
Hiya Marcus,class shots as always mate!! But the “Borderman” comments are a very sore point with me!!(nowt to do with you of course!) but it Man and Borderman were the only motor/dealer from which to buy a motorI’d go back to using horses mate!! Borderman Trucks were owned by Barnett and Graham a tipper operator in Penrith.It was always said that if you became a full time subbie you had to buy an MAN and I quite believe this was true 'cause they didn’t sell many to anyone else but themselves and their subbies!! I’ll not bore you with my unfortunate experience with them save to say that it involved a long term factory demo into a 100 vehicle mainly Scania fleet which at the time did not have any MAN’s in it.Having said this I never reckoned an MAN but i was willing to run a Demo which we only had to insure and put derv into!!Cheers Dennis.
Hi Dennis,
I see in thee comic that VW now own M A N and Scania,so if you should fire up again,you could get one from your local Scania dealer.
Cheers Dave.
Hiya Dave,hope your keeping well! It’s a different world now,I wouldn’t know where to start now as regards a motor,maybe a new D1000 eh! It did OK for me.All the motors are “high tech” now and there probably is’nt much to choose between them! Cheers Dennis.
sammyopisite:
Dennis you are wrong about the MAN as I thought they were superior to the Scania from a driving point of view though I only drove the early ones 16.232, 16.240. 16.280 and the 19.320 V10 all column change they were more comfortable to drive, more room in the cab, better across cab access. I found them a good reliable wagon and the V10 would beat anything at the time. I always found the few Scania’s which I had the misfortune to drive had niggley little problems and I was never a fan of them but it is just a personal opinion as I preferred the SCAMMELL CRUSADER to a Scania 110 or 111 and I have never had anything to do with the V8 Scania’s. This is just from the view of the NUT behind the wheel,
cheers Johnnie
P S was it just the dealer or the wagons as well you weren’t to keen on
Hiya Johnnie,there are always conflicting opinions as to which particular motors were “the best” but all I can say that during my time in the game and on a scale of 1 to 10 the MAN dealer at Penrith was 1 and the Scania dealer at Carlisle was 10!! Whenever we had demos on the fleet we did swap the drivers about and with one exception( Renault Magnum) they always wanted their Scanias back so their reaction used to tell me that our vehicle policy was more or less right for our operation.Cheers Dennis.
Eyup Dennis,did Barnett and Graham have their MAN dealership in that disused quarry on the A66 just west of Penrith? I hope they flattened the trailer park,it was one of the worst changeover places I ever went in,what a shi****,like the moon - dark side as well.
The very place Chris,so you get the general idea of what the firm was like!!! Cheers Dennis.
as I thought they were superior to the Scania from a driving point of view though I only drove the early ones 16.232, 16.240. 16.280 and the 19.320 V10 all column change they were more comfortable to drive, more room in the cab, better across cab access. I found them a good reliable wagon and the V10 would beat anything at the time. I always found the few Scania’s which I had the misfortune to drive had niggley little problems and I was never a fan of them but it is just a personal opinion as I preferred the SCAMMELL CRUSADER to a Scania 110 or 111 and I have never had anything to do with the V8 Scania’s. This is just from the view of the NUT behind the wheel, 
you weren’t to keen on