Hi,I’m Tony Smith who owned the left hand drive 141,i worked for Davies Turner out of Dartford and Trafford Park doing Germany Austria and Italy,Bruce Bates is a friend who i havn’t seen for a long time he now lives near the pack horse on stamford road audenshaw,The person who ran the volvos from the big house was Barry Hogan who sold the property and went to america,i did a bit of work for him at one time after i folded up,he worked for Kitchens direct from Trafford Park and Barrys are both now finished ,Alf who ran AB Haulage died about 2 years ago and kevin who ran A.Barry and son has now retired,
Hi tony, no way I can’t believe this! I used to love your 141! Have you got any pictures of it at all? Would love to see any if you have. Didn’t you live near the rugby club in audenshaw? I recall it being parked up facing the main rd!
I was going to try and contact Bruce bates to see if he had any spare pics of his merc as I’m trying to finish a scale model of it and just needed a quick reminder of how the signwriting looked.
Was your 141 originally a maroon unit? I remember I used to see one parked near john street? It had a leaky fuel tank and I’m sure the signwriting said ’ Amtrak '?
I think I also saw your truck on kershaw lane come to think about it!
Barry hogan! That’s the name I couldn’t remember! They were nice trucks he had, very similar to peter roff’s units!
There was a relative of a.barrys who posted on here a whole ago, shame they are no longer trading.
Tony, who was it who operated an F12 globie as either AB haulage or droylsden haulage? It used to park up overnight on manor rd? I’m sure they lived near st stephens church…
I grew up on lewis rd and as a shoolboy your truck and the helmark ones in particular made me very happy! I was absolutely truck mad, I did my work experience at Volvo in bredbury and was offered a job there (sadly this never came off) and somehow I ended up working in the print/graphics trade. Everyone at school got sick of me drawing trucks but a few asked me to do a picture for them too!
Really great to hear from you tony, all the best and thank you for owning such a nice truck!
Cheers, stew aka harryvr6.
hi Harry,sorry for mthe delay in replying ,i dont come on here much nowadays,i did park in between the houses near the rugby club ,i still live local but have finished now completely,just play golf now ,lol,i’ve attached a pic of my 141 which came from Holland ,that is one of my sons Mark standing in front of it he was 10 there he’s 30 now ,take care ,Tony
Didn’t see alot of scania’s like that in this country .What a wheel base is it double drive.Drove a 110 in 1970 for T Brady & Sons they where years a head of any English motor.Serviced at B & W at HYDE Frank
truckertonyuk:
hi Harry,sorry for mthe delay in replying ,i dont come on here much nowadays,i did park in between the houses near the rugby club ,i still live local but have finished now completely,just play golf now ,lol,i’ve attached a pic of my 141 which came from Holland ,that is one of my sons Mark standing in front of it he was 10 there he’s 30 now ,take care ,Tony
Hi tony, many thanks for the reply mate, and for the picture too!
I remember this! Did you not have a header board on it at one point with your name on?
I’d like to build a model of this truck, I’m still half way through a helmark merc and they would look great side by side I reckon!
The maroon one I used to see must’ve belonged to someone else? I think the address on the cab was highbank in droylsden which I think is near the police station.
Thanks for taking the time to post the pic up tony, much appreciated, it’s a long shot but do you think Bruce would have any pics of his trucks at all?
Hope you are enjoying your golf, thanks again and all the best, harry.
Hello Lads, not quite Audenshaw I know but does anybody know anything about two small companies who I think were from Mossley or Mottram back in the seventies. One was called Creda International and the other was called Red Rose International, they both did France and Italy with a D.A.F. and a Scania. I think that they were both owned by the same bloke as I went to his bungalow to meet him once but I can’t remember if it was in Mottram or Mossley 
.
Regards Steve.
Hi Steve, the names ring a bell but I don’t know anything about the companies in question. I’m sure somebody on here will know a bit more!
Thanks, harryvr6.
Hello Harry, after having a bit of a fink 
It wasn’t Creda but Cressida International who I was thinking of.
Regards Steve.
Hi Steve, I thought I’d seen ‘creda’ on a truck somewhere before! But didn’t they make household appliances!! Ha ha.
I don’t think I’ve seen or heard of Cressida before though mate, have you done a search on google at all.?
Shame all these firms have gone now.
Cheers, harry.
Bruce Bates or Master as people who did nt like him of which there are many including me called him was originally a subby for Ski International he had a 1418 Merc originally ,he was indeed Helmark and if you get in touch with John Roberts or Gary Lyons they ll tell you which hole he s skulking in it won t be the Packhorse he s had his ticket from there .Crow.
Hi geoff, thanks for the reply: I went to junior and senior schools with bruce’s nephew so as a kid I really liked the helmark trucks as they were local.
I never met Bruce but watched the Granada tv programme he was in back in the 80’s.
I believe his nephew russell’s dad died whilst driving a truck for reyners.
I don’t know much about mr bates’ career, and find it all very interesting, i’ve never heard of ski international, where were they based? I didn’t know he did the middle east until I found out on this forum. When did helmark actually begin? And how come some people didn’t take to him?
I’m just interested in all this, I’m not in contact with Russell any more so trucknet is the fount of all knowledge now!
Through posting on here I’ve managed to chat to the owner of another vert local to me truck, tony smith which is fantastic as I never thought I’d be intouch with him at all I just loved his truck when I was a kid (about 9 years old when I first saw it!).
Any more info on all of this is very much appreciated geoff, maybe a personal message might be a good idea! (if it’s not printable copy!)
thanks again geoff and everyone else in this thread, keep it coming! Cheers harryvr6.
Bruce (master)Bates,I think, although I’m not sure,(The Crow will know better than me).Did he not work for Dow Freight before starting up on his own.I seem to recall from the dim distant past that he coming home from Greece with Davy Mckrakken loaded with unsecured chipboard.The chipboard moved when Mckrakken was going round a bend and he got dragged off the road and he ran into a tree and got killed.I believe there were some questions asked of Mr.Bates about the incident.For some reason there was always bad blood between him and the Crow(Idon’t know why).Ski international, harryvr6,were based in Trafford Park,at Storage House,which was formerly the depot of Springfield Transport,who both me and the Crow worked for.S.K.I. were the initials for Steve Keller International.He also had another company in the same offices called Arabian Freight.I hope this has been of some use to you.
Correction Tony, Bates and Mc Cracken,were coming back from Austria not Greece you dont get chipboard from Greece any way it would appear that it had nt been strapped and when it slipped as it would this being veneered very slippy it took Mac off the roadand hr hit his head on the header rail of the Scania 111 he was driving. It was to some extent a double tragedy because Ski owed him so much money for previous work they had given him the 111 in lieu of cash ,it was his first trip in it and even worse had it been LHD he would have survived.Bates as far as i know mayhave done 1 trip to istanbul and i don t remember him working for Dow I ll ask Corrie. I never liked the guy and i don t know any one that did he was nt one of us. Crow.
Wow! Thanks tony for your information, very interesting read. That’s what’s great about this forum, how else could I have ever found out about all of this!
Thanks fir taking the time to reply.
Geoff: thank you too, some very interesting stories and I thank you for sharing them.
I don’t know anything but I do recall seeing a picture on the net of a DOW freight transcontinental: the livery was black with an orange horizontal band around the cab was it not?
I’m now thinking perhaps Bruce bates possibly did work for DOW and bought a truck off them (■■■■■■?) as his own company ‘Helmark’ ran a black ■■■■■■ with a gold horizontal band around the cab!
He couldve taken inspiration from the DOW livery or simply used one of their trucks as a ‘base’ for his own livery maybe?
Really interested in this connection now! As a kid I recall bruce’s ■■■■■■ parked outside his house on brooklands drive towering above the cars on road, he ran the merc at the same time and parked either of them at lumb mill literally a stones throw from his house. It turns out my mates dad kevin who was an auto electrician used to work on bruce’s trucks. When he wanted any work doing Bruce simply left the ignition keys under the front wheel arch outside lumb mill so that kevin could just turn up and get started!
Very sad story about the chap who had the accident involving the chipboard, it’s always been a dangerous job, I’ve no connections to the trade I’ve just always loved the trucks really, but that brings it home how dangerous it is/was to make a living driving these huge trucks.
Respect to everyone who has driven or drives trucks, keep it safe out there.
Thank you, harryvr6.
Hi lads,my scania in the pic was a single drive with a tag axle it came off tanker work in rotterdam the sister truck to mine was bought by a guy from trafford area called Dave Chamberlain who did Rumania Albania anywhere in that area ,he was a real character,i havnt seen or heard of him for years now,the firm called Red Rose international was run by a guy called Mick Ward who originally lived in oldham ,he had two daf 2800s i drove one for him and he drove the other one,originally Mick worked for Geoffrey Reyner from Droylsden and was one of the first guys in the country to have a scania vabis he left Reyners and started on his own then in 1977 he bought a second Daf from Comart refridgeration in Stoke i can remember that truck now GWP134N,it was painted white with a blue and red stripe we originally worked for Cadwallader from Oswestry and then we went with mcphersons from Pity ME in county durham,mcpherson had a accident in his car and suffered brain damage and there was nobody able to pay Mick eventually Total oil put a winding up order on the firm and Mick folded ,Then i was a friend of a guy called Kesterlian a car dealer from Droylsden who invested in a couple of trucks the company was called Cressida Transport and mick and his other half cath ran the trucking side with a few subbies on doing Italy France and Germany and Scandinavia, we did work for a few companies including McCulla from Drumbo in Northern Ireland .
Regarding the company from high bank road in Droylsden that was a mate of mine called Tony Massey his Scania had the name Amtrac on it ,take care lads ,great to remminiss ,lol
Tony and harry,regarding bruce bates i first knew him in the early seventies ,i can never remember him working for dow,i knew a few of the dow lads and still do cooperman from warrington tony massey roy kershaw and also their subbies Ken Corrigan and the late Howard Hughes,i knew bruce bates did work for ski with his merc,i think he did a trip to saudi in the early 70s with a guy called johnny roberts (percy)then he went working out of the container base in trafford park,regards Tony Smith
Hi again tony, thanks for the info again, great stuff!
When did you call it a draw with your scania out of interest? I remember seeing it around but then it went! Do I recall correctly that you had your name on the header board or was it just on the visor? Really smart truck and used to love spotting it.
Yes the maroon scania from highbank did have amtrac on it I remember that!
I presume it got restored eventually.
Tony do you remember a bloke who ran a Volvo f10 and parked it behind the commercial inn near droylsden baths? It was beige and had red mudguards, no name on it though? That was another favourite of mine as I used to swim for droylsden swimming club and used to spend a lot of time at the baths!
My mate Scott Evans used to work as a fitter at reyners, and his dad dave drove for them at the time too, I didn’t know any of the drivers but I’m sure there was a lad at our school named grimshaw who’s dad drove for them and got done for drink driving. His truck wad always outside the haddon hall!
Some of the Bruce bates stories are interesting, I know his lad mark drove for them too but haven’t heard anything about why they stopped. I looked on the net and it just said licence surrendered?
I saw a white 142 scania with helmark on it about 6 years ago on the mancunian way and then nothing.
I’m still going to finish building my helmark merc and container trailer model, I did plan on doing an iveco turbostar I used to see parked on the piece of land facing the shopping giant next to droylsden football clubs ground: it was a Marshall truck (the driver used to run a daf 2800 and parked it there too).
I’d like to build one of your truck tony, never done a 141 before!
Thanks for the info, been great to chat like this!
Cheers stew (harryvr6).
Hello Tony, thanks for that info on Cressida and Red Rose International, the guy who I went to see at his bungalow was indeed Mick Ward. Mick suggested that I did a double up trip with the lad who had a Scania because the D.A.F. only had one bunk in it. I don’t think that he ever got back to me but as I was offered another job doing continental work about a week later it worked out very well for me.
If you look on the Astran/Middle East thread Dave Mackie posted a photo somewhere on there of Dave Chamberlains Scania many years ago at The Mocamp.
I never realised that Anthony Massey owned AMTRAC 
although I seem to think that Tony did do continental work for Allans of Trafford Park in the early seventies before he joined Dow Freight.
Regards Steve.
The big house that Barry Hogan purchased has an intresting back story told to me by Barry himself,
he bought the house in an auction unviewed, but knew about it as he lived quite near - he mortgaged himself up to the hilt to buy it, anyway when he got into the house, it was full of antiques - it had been owned by an old dear he died with no relatives or will.
Barry then sold off the antiques and got most of the purchase price back - I don’t know if thats true or not, but thats what Barry told me at the time.
We where based on Lower Wharf St in Ashton under Lyne at the time there was quite a few one man bands in those arches
Hi hardy, great info there thanks mate!
It was or is a lovely property that Barry had, it looked even better when there were a few f10s or an f12 parked outside in the grounds! Even they looked quite small in proportion to the house!
My dad used to take ne to the chippy as a kid and we’d go past to see Barry trucks. At one point the helmark transcontinent was ‘living’ directly opposite barrys too, I think mark bates was living over the rd from Barry.
Great trucks, I’m now thinking that tony Massey may have worked for Barry as there used to be a Barry hogan Volvo parked up in droylsden near john street ( which is where masseys 141 could also be seen later on).
I also liked the two tone green dafs of a Barry and sons from clayton, but yes there were lots of onean bands or small set ups back then!
It’s great to remember them, like I’ve said previously I like to make truck models as I can replicate how I remember the old trucks from when I was a kid.
Cheers, harryvr6.