South Wales Hauliers sixties and seventies onwards (Part 1)

one of joint’s nortech coilers,loaded with 26 tonne of coil for nissan’s @ washington,my old erf bucked a bit pulling that!

ex middle east j&m driver sid evans later became an owner driver,this centurion number 14 was his from 1998-2004,seen here pulling for t.d. williams

Wow what a site this is my first post and seeing all the old pics brought back some great memories, i started out in 89’ when most of the firms pictured were still operating. I worked for Hazells Haulage for many years i also had a stint recently with his son. Can anyone name any of the cardiff transport shunters in Llanwern Steelworks from about 1990 onwards or, any shunters or drivers who worked for the many hauliers who worked from there.

hi mike,
welcome aboard! the steel was a big job in those days.these days that has all changed,llanwern is all but over,and i don’t think things are too clever at the abbey.i was driving for joint motorways around about the time you refer too.
regards andrew

in the early 90,s sid evans had this ex-a.s. griffiths 112 scania and was pulling for gap european,seen here in southern germany in dec.1994.

pete 359:
hi mike,
welcome aboard! the steel was a big job in those days.these days that has all changed,llanwern is all but over,and i don’t think things are too clever at the abbey.i was driving for joint motorways around about the time you refer too.
regards andrew

Yep, pound a ton to west wales and coal back from the Abbey to Llanwern, there were some real characters around then and you could smoke as many ■■■■ as you bloody well liked, it,s all gps tracking and health and safety now. I still enjoy the job an probably look back with rose tinted specs at the days gone by I certainly don’t miss roping and sheeting in the pouring rain no night heater and the tiny little cabs and even tinier power output of the engines.A great era in which to start i learned a lot, most of it the hard way.

hiya,
You are correct Bewick i had a BRS F88 and had same until mid 70s and yes you are correct it was a sleeper but the bunk was only used for my chains lenses and ropes and flysheet like i’ve said before i was a driver not a driver/nightwatchman and chose not to sleep in the cab after all i’d been in the thing all day preferred to go into digs and have a shower, and we on the BRS did’nt have spare wheels in the 70s there was nobody strong enough to put them in the cab,sleeping in the cab was against the rules anyway.
thanks harry long retired.

Hi great pictures. I will send some pictures I have got from when I worked for Joint Motorways. When I work out how to put them on here !

pete 359:
hi mike,
welcome aboard! the steel was a big job in those days.these days that has all changed,llanwern is all but over,and i don’t think things are too clever at the abbey.i was driving for joint motorways around about the time you refer too.
regards andrew

Hi do you remember my dad Roger Gardiner ? He worked nights from Shrewsbury?

He usually was the night man that was taking the loads down to Port Talbot from Warick

Hi all. Really liked the old J & M photos. Am i right in thinking J & M also had Transcontinentals, im sure ive got a photo of one somewhere, i,ll try and dig it out if you like, think it was about an S or T reg.

hi all,
yes i remember roger very well,i knew him mick glover,john addy ,ken allman and all of the other shrewsbury day and night men well.please post some pictures if you have any,thanks.yes j&m did run transconti’s they finished in 1985.
regards andrew

this was j&m’s only double drive transcon.they bought it like this from fords,it had been a demonstrator and as were many of their transcon’s ex ford demo’s they were at that time often high spec.

here is the 6 wheeler,loaded with coil for germany,now painted in j&m’s later livery.

here we have f126 ath,loaded with scrap.parked in the yard at leeton near shrewsbury and driven by dayman roger grafton and nightman ken allman.this truck driven by roger was the first joint’s truck to go abroad in september 1989.

sorry all,i got it wrong!the caption above relates to this image.

january 1989 and three of us are parked outside a very famous central london landmark.loaded with crane ends for grayston,white and sparrow.i doubt if we would be allowed to stop there these days!

the following three images were sent to me by an ex-joint motorways driver,tony gardiner.i had left by the time tony worked for joints,though i remember his dad roger very well,a good man sadly missed.i recognise these images as joints last “shrewsbury yard” as we welshmen called it.hanwood near minsterley just off the a5,joints used this yard to the end of trading in january 1999.thanks tony,good to contact you as a result of the thread,that’s what this, to me is all about.

pete 359:
the following three images were sent to me by an ex-joint motorways driver,tony gardiner.i had left by the time tony worked for joints,though i remember his dad roger very well,a good man sadly missed.i recognise these images as joints last “shrewsbury yard” as we welshmen called it.hanwood near minsterley just off the a5,joints used this yard to the end of trading in january 1999.thanks tony,good to contact you as a result of the thread,that’s what this, to me is all about.

Hi Andrew,
Roughly how many vehicles did Joint Moterways have in their fleet,they appeared to be quite a big outfit.
Cheers Dave.

hi dave,
i would have said that at their peak,joint motorways could have had 40-45 running out of port talbot,10-15 running out of shrewsbury and around 25-30 shunting tractors based at the abbey,shotton,llanwern and bryngwyn steelworks.they had around 150 trailers.
regards andrew