Who remembers Transfesa at Paddock Wood and the ridiculous practice of handballing fruit and veg off their pallets and onto your own?
In the oldern days…Normal work on the markets, handballing 10t of sprouts, cabbage, onions.
Would be the same if you collected fertiliser from the NE, if you had the right oversize pallets with you, they would put your pallets on top, then clamp and twist the pallet so the load ended up on yours.
No oversize pallets? all handball both ends.
Same at the bloody salt works, they had full time loaders but you’d be expected to go up on top and help them, back breaking work for those lads all day long handballing bloody great bags of salt.
This was the problem with not knowing where or what your next load was on general haulage, by the time you’d carried enough dunnage and goal posts for steel, and however many of whichever size pallet you might need (that’s if they would consider swapping at all) you’d take up a good portion of the deck already, no belly frames like the foreign lads had for such things.
And the youngsters wonder why we old uns bloody ache and creak when we get up 
Of course we remember the lovely slightly curved Transfesa building. Loaded out of there many times for Mitchell & Robertson usually through Henley’s. Transfesa rail operation was going to break the mold but unfortunately for them the Spanish road hauliers fought back and won the day.
sandway:
Of course we remember the lovely slightly curved Transfesa building. Loaded out of there many times for Mitchell & Robertson usually through Henley’s. Transfesa rail operation was going to break the mold but unfortunately for them the Spanish road hauliers fought back and won the day.
I think I recall they closed one ■■■■ hole at Hither Green and opened another at Paddock Wood. 
regards Kev.
I never loaded out of Transfesa but loaded out of Hither Green late 60s,just the once. I’m sure National Carriers ran the place,I went in at night and loaded myself with a pallet barrow,14 pallets of grapes on a TK 6-wheeler - left them 14 empty pallets.Was Transfesa run by NCL?
now hears a story, when first built in the 70s i used to do a bit of loading for Alan Firmin I remember being one of the very first to to load at transfesa all brand new, i drove a ERF with a Gardener 240 engine inside the building and loaded fruit from the train as it was the very first loads coming out of there.
Now roll on to 2005 Whirlpool used site for years i would help unload trains ( washing machines ect ) at about 1600 on a July day I came out the the building from the far end , within 5 min i noticed small trail on smoke coming out of building about halfway in less than 30 min the whole transfesa was burnt to ground gone, so i was one of the first in and last out to use transfesa,
karl weiss:
now hears a story, when first built in the 70s i used to do a bit of loading for Alan Firmin I remember being one of the very first to to load at transfesa all brand new, i drove a ERF with a Gardener 240 engine inside the building and loaded fruit from the train as it was the very first loads coming out of there.
Now roll on to 2005 Whirlpool used site for years i would help unload trains ( washing machines ect ) at about 1600 on a July day I came out the the building from the far end , within 5 min i noticed small trail on smoke coming out of building about halfway in less than 30 min the whole transfesa was burnt to ground gone, so i was one of the first in and last out to use transfesa,
Great little anecdote there Karl. I didn’t know it had burnt down. Many thanks.
sandway:
karl weiss:
now hears a story, when first built in the 70s i used to do a bit of loading for Alan Firmin I remember being one of the very first to to load at transfesa all brand new, i drove a ERF with a Gardener 240 engine inside the building and loaded fruit from the train as it was the very first loads coming out of there.
Now roll on to 2005 Whirlpool used site for years i would help unload trains ( washing machines ect ) at about 1600 on a July day I came out the the building from the far end , within 5 min i noticed small trail on smoke coming out of building about halfway in less than 30 min the whole transfesa was burnt to ground gone, so i was one of the first in and last out to use transfesa,Great little anecdote there Karl. I didn’t know it had burnt down. Many thanks.
yes no one knows what caused fire but the building want completely burnt down in less than 30 min