adr:
Load of cow-skins, just what you need on a hot day!
Hi ADR,I remember taking skins to Italy for Beresfords and they used to pen and ink in the Italian sun and you had a load of bo**ocks to do the vet in Aosta.Keep the memories coming.
Sir +:
relluf:
bloxotrix:
adr:
Italian with his right-■■■■■■!IIRC the Italians used a lot of right hand drive trucks. Can any one shed any light on to why they did.
Hi Bloxotrix,I believe Italy used to drive on the same side as us and like Sweden after them changed sides.I don’t know when Italy changed(just after the war I think)but Swedwen changed in 1967.I think it wasn’t worth changing the tooling to make lhds so all those stayed rhd. If I’m wrong somebody will put me right.
I was told that it was to protect the drivers in the event of a collision on narrow mountain roads??
Hi Sir,you may well be right but Italy did drive on the left pre war.
relluf:
Fergie47:
adr:
RungisAnother shot of Rungis…bit earlier though…about 1970…
Hi Fergie,great pics.Is that a Guy big j4t? Was it airlifted there? I’m pretty sure it couldn’t make it fron UK to Paris!!!
The Guy Big J managed to get all over Europe and the middle east under their power and some even made it back as well 
R.K.Crisp had some with a 335 ■■■■■■■ in and they were as good as anything at the time maybe not as comfortable though.
cheers Johnnie.
This Smiths of Eccles ERF was my truck from new and served me well/ shunter tom
truckerash:
And while i have the ERF photo shoebox out, i thought i’d put up a few pics of the Sandbach specials, just for you British truck luvers
Never mind those all singin an dancin Volvo’s and Scannyscheck out these beauties!
And its purely a coincidence that the first few all come from t’ north…
Who remembers Smiths of Eccles? Class truck with Gardner 240 and Jennings sleeper conversion
Just up the road from Smiths was Wilfred Holden who i used to see in Germany carrying paper.
West of Blackburn, Blue Charger and Bandit ran out of Haydock. Reckon they were joined at the hip, as i always saw them parked side by side in Dover.
2 filleys from the famous Brit - Carmans stable.
And one to get you Middle Easty boys ears pricked.
Euroroute from Northampton had this 320 ■■■■■■■ as a 4x2 originally.
When the Bulgy tilt work came on, it was converted to 6x2 and i reckon it looks so much meaner! It also did regular trips to Asia.
I know there are alot of pics here tonight, but i couldnt resist putting these last 3 up.
PARTricks…not to be confused with PATricks… were local to me and i spent many a happy Saturday morning at the yard.
There was a mixed bag of motors in the fleet including Scania’s, Volvo’s, a Mack and a White. The traffic was mainly Germany, Spain and Portugal with the later running out of the PARTRANS office in Southampton.
this pic shows a left hand drive export model bought direct from the Motor Show. It had a ■■■■■■■ 350 and according to its regular pilot: “went like f*****g stink”…
Enjoy
Shunter Tom:
This Smiths of Eccles ERF was my truck from new and served me well/ shunter tom
truckerash:
And while i have the ERF photo shoebox out, Who remembers Smiths of Eccles? Class truck with Gardner 240 and Jennings sleeper conversion
quote]
Hello Trunker Tom and welcome to Trucknet
.
Smiths of Eccles always had a well turned out fleet but I would like to know how many trucks did they have in the early eighties ?
My mate Eric’s daughter who was called Maria used to work at Smiths in the 80’s and I think her dad used to do continental for Allens in the 70’s.Regards Steve.
To answer the question about Italy driving on the left; many years ago in common with several other countries in europe such as Spain, Austria and Portugal they started by driving on the left but switched to driving on the right in the early twenties, however many trucks retained the right hand driving position up until the late seventies especially if they were used on narrow mountain roads, ok if you were against the side of the mountain, bummer if you were next to the sheer drop (maybe the drivers were expected to be like the ship’s captain and go down with their truck in an accident) but the driver had a better field of vision round left hand bends.
Chazzer
I worked for Smiths of Eccles from 1979 till 1984. I was at the Great Bridge (tipton) depot and started as a apprentice mechanic in the garage & when i finished my apprenicship started driving for them. My first wagon was a Atki borderer, good old days.
relluf:
Lonewolf Yorks:
I remember a coloured guy from wolverhampton who also worked for Peter Winterscheid. Can’t for the life of me remember his name though…
I also remember a black guy on the continental run, big fella, used to eat like a horse at Billy’s (Lapalme). I can’t remember his name neither but I’m pretty sure he was from Bradford.
You will be thinking of Earl,he used to do Spain.He used to work for for Ken Taylor out of Huddersfield.Bought his own Renault Magnum and the last I saw him he had an FH500 globey.The guy from Wolverhampton was Neville,the firm he worked for in Wolves went bust and he moved on to other companies.
I remember Earl, used to bump into each other all the time in the TIR Zona Franca, we had a weekend at Billys once, and I went in the following week to hear of a huge bust up involving Earl a big german driver and something to do with Billys young daughter… Dont think the German was fit for much after it all neither was his truck that was badly trashed by other drivers…
Also his mate from the East of London who like me used to pull for LEP International, young lad always well dressed can’t remember his name, had a bad accident hitting a balcony in a small town in Spain that crushed the cab as I remember, spent some time in hospital…Anybody throw some light on any of it??
Pete
relluf:
TRANSCON ANDY:
Here are a few pics of E M ROGERS trucks<a%20href=“Photo Storage”>
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Hope youj liked them
Andy
Hi Andy,I think the Beresford Daf was either Phil Coomber or Kev Pooles’.They went to Bassett’s when Beresford folded as did the DAFs.
typo
relluf:
TRANSCON ANDY:
Here are a few pics of E M ROGERS trucks
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Relluf,
Knights of Old are still operating,passed an artic on M56,tuesday night about 10.30PM heading west!
Rgds,
David
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Hope youj liked them
Andy
[/quote]
Hi Andy,nice pics.Whatever happened to Tof? they were from Flecknoe if my memory serves,also Knights of Old.Are either still going?
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relluf:
240 Gardner:
MOC:
A few of the old firms
As an extra blast from the past, the trailer number gives it away as one of the old Jess B. Woodcock trailers - Bowker bought Jess B. Woodcock (Shipping) Limited sometime in the 70s, and the trailers kept their old JBW numbers because of the carnets. This one is JBW12033.
I remember the brass plate with the Woodcock name on it used to stick out amongst all the others on the front door of the head office!
Hi 240,were Woodcock’s out of east London somewhere?I seem to recall their motors.
Yes they were. I still have JBW12037, in its Bowker livery.
relluf:
bloxotrix:
adr:
Italian with his right-■■■■■■!IIRC the Italians used a lot of right hand drive trucks. Can any one shed any light on to why they did.
Hi Bloxotrix,I believe Italy used to drive on the same side as us and like Sweden after them changed sides.I don’t know when Italy changed(just after the war I think)but Swedwen changed in 1967.I think it wasn’t worth changing the tooling to make lhds so all those stayed rhd. If I’m wrong somebody will put me right.
I drove one -it was so the driver could see the edge of the road on mountain passes.
Deffo not a Percy, they sucked air from the right side
Dieseldogsix:
Here’s another Big J, wagon & drag this time. 240 Gardner? Dennis!!!
I’ll bet this was a monster to manouvere…
It’s not very clear, but there appears to be a hitch on the front between the headlights 
No self respecting wagon and drag driver would ever admit defeat and use that 
Dead right there, i used to keep mine freshly painted as if to say “Dont use it”
I always did it the ‘proper’ way too, if it was tight enough that you need to mess around dropping the drag, trying to turn the prime mover around would’ve been a nightmare anyway 
I once reversed one for about a mile after taking a wrong turn in France somewhere and finding myself in a dead end, only needed a couple of shunts 