Trucks, tracks, tall tales and true from all over the world

[spardo]

With the luck they are having, I just feel blessed that I never ran with either of them. Gripping.

I am very surprised that the German police did not stop them towing like that altogther though. It is effectively 2 trailers. I remember the days when I did banger racing. We towed our cars to the stadium, only 5 miles away, using ambulance wheels but, because with the towing hitch on the back of the towing car and the turntable where the front axle of the banger was attached, that made 2 articulation points ie 2 trailers and we were often stopped and admonished but never fined.

[mushroomman]

Postby petecud » Sun Mar 03, 2013 3:30 pm

CUTTING IT FINE FOR CHRISTMAS.

Part 6

Merry Xmas…

Having no other choice, we set off again, back on the autobahn, stopping at every service area, and topping up with water. It was a slow job, but a lot quicker than being towed on the national roads, and a lot easier. Besides, what more damage could we do to the engine?
Believe it or not, the Scania never missed a beat all the way through Germany, with two massive cracks in the block an no water to cool it down, obviously it must have been hot, but you would never have guessed it! At least I had all my glass intact on my unit, poor John had no widows on either side of his, he was freezing! I gave him my Turkish leather jacket to put over his, I would be cold but at least I
could close my windows! Eventually, we reached Belgium. For some strange reason, John decided to tow me again “To save doing any more damage to the engine” as if that was possible, “Besides, the Belgian police are OK, you never see them” he reasoned.

Famous last words, we hadn’t done 50k’s when we were pulled by them, we must have looked a right sorry state to them, a truck with no windows towing one with a knackered engine 2 days before Christmas. Unfortunately, they were not at all impressed with our sorry tale, it cut no ice with these boys, they fined us both about £50 each and told us to get off their motorway!

So that was that, I was off the tow bar again, and driving the knackered engined motor to the port of Zeebrugge.
We got to the Total garage just outside the port where John decides to leave both trucks there, his plan being to go back to pick up the trailer we left behind at the German/Czech border, after Christmas.
We were lucky enough to find two lads shipping over who were willing to take us across as 2nd men, John got in one a few trucks ahead of the one that I was going with, when loading started, he was on the ferry…and I had to wait for the next one, 4hrs later. Not to worry, I thought, I’ll see him at Dover.

We disembarked at Dover at around 5pm, straight to the Wheelhouse (a drivers cafe on Dover Port), need to find John, I’ve got no money ‘cause I gave it all to him at the Log Cabin, and I wanted my leather coat back, it was freezing just in a light jumper! Searched high and low for him, nowhere to be seen. Coming out of the Clearing agents block, was the driver of the wagon John had shipped across with, “ Do you know where John, the lad you brought across, is?” I asked, “He’s gone, mate, soon as we reached the water guard he was off! He got a
lift almost straight away!” he replied.
That’s just great, I thought…stranded in Dover…no money…no coat…on the day before Christmas Eve!

Back in the Wheelhouse, the driver that had brought me across saw me come in and called me over, “Not found him yet then?” he asked,I told him what had happened when John reached the water guard and that basically, I was stranded! “No problem” he said “I should be cleared in a few minutes, I’m going to Manchester and I’ll drop you at home, if you drive some of the way!” How could I refuse that!
Took a turn at driving, he gave me a thick woollen sweater, told me to keep it, and by about 9.30pm I was jumping out by my local Railway station. I thanked the driver for all his help and said my goodbyes and before long I was getting off the bus at the stop
outside our front door!

10pm on the day before Christmas Eve, now that’s what I call CUTTING IT FINE!!
END
petecud
SENIOR MEMBER

There was a bit more to this story.

Re: ‘Cutting it Fine’
Postby hutpik » Sun Mar 03, 2013 4:01 pm

Hi Pete.You can’t leave us hanging like that.What happened with the truck,your job,your mate,did you earn well Mike

‘Cutting it Fine’
Postby cliffystephens » Sun Mar 03, 2013 4:18 pm

after all that crap i would imagine he jacked…

‘Cutting it Fine’
Postby hutpik » Sun Mar 03, 2013 4:29 pm

I thought it seemed quite a normal trip for the times. Mike

Re: Inspired by Jazzandy ‘Cutting it Fine’
Postby petecud » Sun Mar 03, 2013 6:17 pm

John (RIP) was a rough diamond, a down to earth, straight talking guy, most importantly, he was my best friend for over 30 years!
After the debacle of that trip, we had a little falling out. In his way of thinking he kind of blamed me for the wagon freezing up, and I,
of course, put the blame back on him, after all, he did the servicing! We didn’t speak to each other for 6 months.

I was on trip money, and for that trip I didn’t get, or expect to get, paid, after all, John had lost enough that trip. I know that he managed
to retrieve both units and trailers after Cristmas, but he did it without my help.

On the day after Boxing day, I was invited for a drink at the local pub by the owner of the lorry workshop where I got John to sevice his
motors, and he told me that he was in the workshop when John was preparing my unit just before that last trip, he’d said to John to help
himself to the antifreeze, and that John had replied “F**k that, I’ll do it next time!” (?!? this was December!)

All’s well that ends well, as they say, the workshop owner had a couple of trucks working for Richmonds doing Spain, and gave me a
job. That lasted for over 2 years and although I didn’t expect to, I thoroughly enjoyed it! Especially as met quite a few lads that had done
middle east work about the same time as I’d done my 10 or so trips to Baghdad.

John and I made up eventually, and we did go on to have further escapades with trucks, though I NEVER worked for him again.
Pete
petecud
SENIOR MEMBER

[mushroomman]

Ref CUTTING IT FINE FOR CHRISTMAS.

I could never remember having so much bad luck on one trip and credit to Pete for not ‘dumping’ the truck, as some drivers did back then.

I don’t know if anybody else enjoyed that story from petecud and it was great to see Dave Chamberlain’s name mentioned. I am sure he would have had quite a few very interesting tales to tell, about travelling down to the middle east.

I first met Dave in the Les Routiers at the Dutch/West German border at Aachen Nord in 1980. He was quite excited telling me about the latest B.M.W. motorbike engines, that he had just loaded somewhere in Bavaria. I didn’t know at the time just how enthusiastic Dave was about his motorbikes, until I read about it on Trucknet. Dave was one of those characters that if you had met him, then you wouldn’t forget him.

I think it was in 1991 I.I.R.C. when I was coming out of Nottingham on the A610 heading towards the M1. It was about 4.30 p.m. on a Friday afternoon and the rush hour traffic was already building up. As I passed a tilt parked up in a layby, I just happened to see a pair of legs sticking out from underneath the trailer. When I passed the unit, I suddenly noticed that it was Dave’s red Scania 141. It was now too late for me to stop, as I had already passed the layby, but it looked like Dave obviously had a problem. As Dave was also from Manchester, I thought that we could both run home together.

I decided to carry on and go around the roundabout at the junction of the M1 and head back towards Nottingham, knowing that there was another roundabout about two miles away, and then head back towards where Dave was parked up.

I pulled in behind “Chaimbo” who was now standing on the catwalk in a pair of dirty overalls, working on the electrical suzie. As I had not seen him for over four years, I think that it took Dave a few minutes to remember me, which was understandable because Dave must have met hundreds of drivers over the years.

He told me that he had just loaded for Croatia and that he was hoping to try and get across Germany before 10 p.m. on Saturday night. Weekending at Gieselwind was going to be his Plan B, that didn’t sound like a bad idea to me. It didn’t take him another twenty minutes to sort his electrical problem out and after we had checked that all his lights were working, it was time to say, ‘Drum Bun’.

[star_down_under]

A mate and I are currently travelling the outback, in our four wheel drives. We pulled up at an unmanned service station in far north South Australia, for fuel. The only diesel bowser is close to the road, to give trucks access.
I pulled up behind a refuelling Land Cruiser, with every conceivable bit of gear available, aftermarket, on the side away from the road. My mate pulled up next to the browser.
Old mate, who had all the gear but no idea, with the nozzle in his car, had a go at my mate, telling him he was stopped in the truck area. My mate promptly replied that there were no trucks today (a Tuesday), which predictably drew the response “Why?”
He was told it was too windy for trucks.
Owen, my mate, came smirking, to my car window and told me about the exchange. When old mate had finished fueling his overweight behemoth, he approached us, asking if it was true, it’s too windy for trucks.

[spardo]

I think it was in 1991 I.I.R.C. when I was coming out of Nottingham on the A610 heading towards the M1. It was about 4.30 p.m. on a Friday afternoon and the rush hour traffic was already building up. As I passed a tilt parked up in a layby, I just happened to see a pair of legs sticking out from underneath the trailer. When I passed the unit, I suddenly noticed that it was Dave’s red Scania 141. It was now too late for me to stop, as I had already passed the layby, but it looked like Dave obviously had a problem. As Dave was also from Manchester, I thought that we could both run home together.

I decided to carry on and go around the roundabout at the junction of the M1 and head back towards Nottingham, knowing that there was another roundabout about two miles away, and then head back towards where Dave was parked up.

Interesting coincidence. In 1991 I was still transport manager at Toray, just a few hundred yards from that spot and shortly after that time of day I would have passed you on my way home. I came off at that junction a few weeks ago on my re-union trip back to Nottingham and it seemed so much more complex now that I had to carefully follow all the signs to be in the right lane for home. In addition to that I was counting all the exits, no. 5 or 6 I think it was. Stressful.

[dig]

mushroomman:
Ref CUTTING IT FINE FOR CHRISTMAS.

I could never remember having so much bad luck on one trip and credit to Pete for not ‘dumping’ the truck, as some drivers did back then.

I don’t know if anybody else enjoyed that story from petecud and it was great to see Dave Chamberlain’s name mentioned. I am sure he would have had quite a few very interesting tales to tell, about travelling down to the middle east.

I first met Dave in the Les Routiers at the Dutch/West German border at Aachen Nord in 1980. He was quite excited telling me about the latest B.M.W. motorbike engines, that he had just loaded somewhere in Bavaria. I didn’t know at the time just how enthusiastic Dave was about his motorbikes, until I read about it on Trucknet. Dave was one of those characters that if you had met him, then you wouldn’t forget him.

I think it was in 1991 I.I.R.C. when I was coming out of Nottingham on the A610 heading towards the M1. It was about 4.30 p.m. on a Friday afternoon and the rush hour traffic was already building up. As I passed a tilt parked up in a layby, I just happened to see a pair of legs sticking out from underneath the trailer. When I passed the unit, I suddenly noticed that it was Dave’s red Scania 141. It was now too late for me to stop, as I had already passed the layby, but it looked like Dave obviously had a problem. As Dave was also from Manchester, I thought that we could both run home together.

I decided to carry on and go around the roundabout at the junction of the M1 and head back towards Nottingham, knowing that there was another roundabout about two miles away, and then head back towards where Dave was parked up.

I pulled in behind “Chaimbo” who was now standing on the catwalk in a pair of dirty overalls, working on the electrical suzie. As I had not seen him for over four years, I think that it took Dave a few minutes to remember me, which was understandable because Dave must have met hundreds of drivers over the years.

He told me that he had just loaded for Croatia and that he was hoping to try and get across Germany before 10 p.m. on Saturday night. Weekending at Gieselwind was going to be his Plan B, that didn’t sound like a bad idea to me. It didn’t take him another twenty minutes to sort his electrical problem out and after we had checked that all his lights were working, it was time to say, ‘Drum Bun’.

The legs sticking out from under reminded me of incident or almost when the mermaids pulled me up to do a permit check as I had an oversize toad train ,the paper work in order the scaly who had checked the paperwork said thanks for the cooperation your clear to go I put the truck in gear then checked the mirrors before moving off and low and behold I have some legs sticking out for under my dog trailer triaxle group I said to the scaly who was still waiting for me to move shall I run over your mate or do you like him enough to tell him to get out from under he chose the latter but as I pulled away I could see there was a quite heated alternation going on at the rear end.

Dig

[spardo]

I had an oversize toad train

Was that a typo Dig, or were you really part of a Queensland relocation programme?

[star_down_under]

Spardo:

I had an oversize toad train

Was that a typo Dig, or were you really part of a Queensland relocation programme?

[attachment=0]images (41).jpeg[/attachment]

[mushroomman]

There could be a great business opportunity right there S.D.U.
If we send Spardo the frog’s leg’s, then he just might have the right cordon blue contacts.

[spardo]

mushroomman:
There could be a great business opportunity right there S.D.U.
If we send Spardo the frog’s leg’s, then he just might have the right cordon blue contacts.

'Fraid not mate, I wouldn’t have anything to do with it even if the French were to take a liking to toad’s legs, I know too much about the horrible business to take part. I read somewhere that long ago French frogs were not considered fit for eating and they were imported from the Far East where the peasants ripped the legs off and threw the live frogs back in the water. So, never partaken myself and I don’t know anyone who has, or ever seen them on sale. Urban myth maybe.

[dipster]

Spardo:

mushroomman:
There could be a great business opportunity right there S.D.U.
If we send Spardo the frog’s leg’s, then he just might have the right cordon blue contacts.

'Fraid not mate, I wouldn’t have anything to do with it even if the French were to take a liking to toad’s legs, I know too much about the horrible business to take part. I read somewhere that long ago French frogs were not considered fit for eating and they were imported from the Far East where the peasants ripped the legs off and threw the live frogs back in the water. So, never partaken myself and I don’t know anyone who has, or ever seen them on sale. Urban myth maybe.

Urban myth? Afraid not Spardo. I have, on occasion, eaten frog’s legs in France. Not found in every restaurant, only in the more expensive, gastronomic, establishments. To anticipate questions they taste and look similar to chicken.

[dig]

Spardo:

I had an oversize toad train

Was that a typo Dig, or were you really part of a Queensland relocation programme?

I.m afraid my grammar isn’t what it was as my load was oversize and I.m banned from Queensland as I failed the entrance exam apparently you have to bend the banana not eat them.
RE the froggy frogs perhaps we could start a suppy company for Cane Toads they are well and truly here in WA now apparently shown the door in Queensland and now here for us to dispose of as we see fit.

Dig

[mushroomman]

Another interesting post from the archives.

Re: Nostalgia!!
Postby Suttons Tony » Sat Feb 21, 2009 8:14 am

As this is about Nostalgia and I was only in Transport for the first ten years of my working life perhaps this is the place to put some of my memories, i.e. 1958 to 1968, I started work at Inter City Transport of ■■■■■■■■■■■ at their London Depot in 1958 which was situated opposite Holloway Womens Prison and occasionaly a released prisoner would come to look fror a lift home up north were some funny tales were heard including female prisoners who had been behind bars for at least 2 years were all of a sudden pregnant, this was a bit of an eye opener for a youyng 15 year old as I had been taught that “ladies” were pregnant for 9 months, also we had a sub contractor on local work who used to have some Bedfords on rag work that used to visit both Pentonville and Holloway Prisons and they told us of a young plumbing apprentice working in Holloway who had been raped by some of the Women inmates, well I thought I’m in the wrong job, where’s the Stillsons, but in truth the young 16 year old boy was in quite a bad way after his ordeal.

Inter City ran mostly Leyland 8 wheelers with load of Albions of various sorts including some 8 wheelers that had been built for the aborted Ground Nut Scheme in Kenya, Some AEC 8 wheelers, my favorites, and some old Atkinsons including one or two having the accelerator in the centre between the clutch and footbrake,

I moved from Inter City to Sutton & Son (St Helens) London Depot which was situated funnilly enough behind Pentonville Prison, where I worked as a trailer mate until I was 21 in 1964 when I took my Driving Test on one of Suttons old Atkinson 8 wheelers which was a good 7 years older than I was and when I arrived at the Wood Green Test Centre the examiner said that he had never taken a test in such a big Lorry before, I told him nor had I, but it turned out ok, that was the only time I had ever had "L"plates on. I should point out that Alfie Suttons old Atkis may have been old but they were in fine Mechanical condition as all his vehicles normally were and also most of the oild Atkis which had come off BRS where a bit like Triggers Broom in that they had been heavy 6 wheelers but Sutton had new light weight chassis fitted and turned into 8 wheelers with single drive and new cabs but would not need new LW Gardners. Shunting for Suttons included all sorts of work including flats of allsorts, occasional Tankers including a rubber tank that could also be a flat, not entirely a success.

I left Suttons to go on to the BRS at their Cressy Road, Hampstead Depot which was the London Depot for the North West and our Depot code was CJ, I trunked and/shunted mainly Bristols but this did include a right load of rubbish from some of the North Western Depots like Greenhays, Manchester and Preston to name just two. I was very surprised at the condition of BRS motors in comparison with Suttons motors and this includes the new Guy Big J’s with the ■■■■■■■ 220, crap motor, good engine, and AEC Ergonomic Mandaters which were the first crap AEC’s I had come across and I had driven Mk3’s and Mk5’s which were good motors.
I really don’t know anything about M&E work, in fact the nearest I got to Continental work was picking up a tank trailor of the ferry at Tilbury, but I have driven some real old beasts including Scammels etc, most of which were older than I was, and an old ERF with the accelerater in the middle and after reading some of the comments about the old British Lorry I think there is a lot of missunderstandings and ill informed oppinion.

I got married in 1968 and decided being jack the lad on the lorries would have to change and I left Transport and ended up in Television (behind the camera) and worked for Thames Television for over 23 years and also as a freelance, I am now retired and live at least half of my life on the Costa Blanca, Spain.

Tony
Suttons Tony
SENIOR MEMBER

Posts: 167
Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2009 10:23 pm
Location: Spain

[star_down_under]

I hope this works in your part of the world.
bigrigs.com.au/2023/09/07/four- … le-carter/

[mushroomman]

Thanks to skipvitesse for sharing this.

Re: simon international
Postby skipvitesse » Sat Dec 12, 2015 6:24 am

My longest trip for Jeff, around 3 months door to door, Pity i opted for Trip Money not wages, Simple enough looking load, A bit for Damascus, half a load for Amman, rest for Doha. No probs, This was when i used the Volos-Tartous ferry as often as i could to avoid Turkey,

But politics got in the way just before i got to Volos, Syria would not let me in to unload in Damascus with a Jordanian load on board!! something kicked off between countries way after i left London,
A couple of days kicking my heels in beautiful downtown Volos (remember when you had to park a mile or so inside docks and walk for an hour or so back to Shipping Office in town?) it finally dawned on me i wasnt going anywhere, and back to UK was totally out of the question, paperwork got me trapped,

Communication to Simon office was a hit or miss affair back then, but comments were ‘see what you can do, thought you had been there, done that, and let us know’.
I knew a guy in a shipping office in Athens that had helped me when delivering to Greek Islands the year before, and he spoke excellent English, So, off to Athens for a chat, after numerous phone calls he figured he could get me a Ferry to Cyprus and another one onto Beirut in the Lebanon, He could arrange a local Lebanese Tonka to load Syrian stuff in Beirut and leave me to make my merry way into Jordan, apparently it was fine to ‘Transit’ Syria from the Lebenon (try making sense of that?) i had to drive through Damascus!!!

All he needed was ‘Money’, ferries are not free,
That took the best part of a week to get hold of Jeff and get money transferred,
He was quite happy i found a solution, and the cream on the cake was ferry was cheaper than Volos-Tartous,
All looked good until agent mentioned a Lebanese Visa, bugger No way to get one in Greece for some reason, But i ‘Could’ get one in Cyprus, maybe,

So in at the deep end, destination unknown, got onto an almost deserted ferry in Pireus bound for Larnaca, I thought i was going to Limassol■■?, Get off Ferry and park on docks, i was not allowed to drive in Cyprus, Taxi up to Lefkosa and Lebanese Embassy, dead easy i thought, nobody mentioned the ‘Peace Line’ to me (Turkey/Greece, not best of friends) Embassy closed when i arrived,

Shabby (Cheap) Hotel for night, On doorstep of Embassy at sparrowsfart, they opened door at 10, zillion papers to fill out, have photo taken, come back tomorrow (whats new?)

Next day, wait and wait, come back tomorrow FFS

3rd day hooray, VISA, worried about truck parked in dodgy docks, mad taxi back to docks and book on next ferry to Beirut, luckily next day. I thought it odd that great big ferry had about 10 trucks onboard, 8 Tonka’s, a Frenchman and me, frog was tipping in Beirut and had been there many times.

From about 20 miles out i saw lots of smoke, must be a big fire somewhere, as we got closer the ‘Big Fire’ appeared to be most of the docks!!
Ferry Captain didnt mess about, straight upto dock wall with ramp halfway down, when close enough he just dropped it, no tying up or any nonsense, all 10 trucks off in 2 mins and he was away at a vast rate of knots,
Total devastation, not a building standing, Not a fire at all, it was a WAR, we were shuffled to corner and parked under curfew for 3 days, docks had been mortared only a few hours before we docked,
Being young and stupid i thought this was all very exciting,

On 4th day it was thought safe enough to let us wander out of docks, but be back by 6pm curfew,
Frog and i walked for hours amongst ruins, loads of guys with guns, everyone staring at us, they must have thought we must belong there, no trouble at all ( act innocent, look innocent and no one notices)
Try that today in Middle East, we wouldnt have lasted 2 mins,

is wasnt Disneyland, but i was wandering streets looking like a tramp, and got away with it,

Took a day or so to get Damascus load onto a Tonka, and i was ready to go, but low on fuel, guess what? virtually no diesel left in whole city, max you could buy was 50Ltrs,
I looked at map and figured Syrian border was no more than 50 miles away, till Tonka driver (spoke French) told me i needed Full tanks to reach border, Beirut surrounded by mountains, Tonka man pointed up at top of nearest mountain and said thats where road go’s, 10 Hrs minimum, about 10 miles away on map,

I scraped up about 400Ltrs from here there and everywhere and set off, sure enough it was 10hrs of low range hairpin after hairpin to top.
At top of range i came across loads of British Squaddies dug in both sides of road looking down on city, got a cuppa from them but no way could i have any diesel, what they were doing there is beyond me, very very covert methinks,

Rolled into the most shambolic customs i have ever seen, on fumes, park anywhere you want, no barriers, one bloke for each side if you could find them and their magic stamps, if only all ME borders were like this! Tonka Tanker parked on side of road more than happy to fill tanks for US Dollars.

2 or 3 hrs later into Damascus and back to reality,
A month and a bit and i hadnt yet reached my tip in Amman,

skipvitesse
SENIOR MEMBER

Posts: 81
Joined: Mon Nov 30, 2015 5:27 am

Unfortunately, Skips photos can’t be transferred from his original post to here so if you would like to see them, then click on the link.

trucknetuk.com/phpBB/viewto … &start=270

[mushroomman]

A great little story from Ron Davies.

Postby rondavies » Thu Nov 12, 2009 7:20 pm

OK, this is the story that I wasn’t sure whether to relate but it’s a long time ago, so what the h…!!

I’ve mentioned different parts of this particular trip in previous postings. Such as getting the letter from the Brit Consulate in Istanbul and the getting rid of our French & Italian permits on the Calais /Dover ferry.

Anyway, having tipped our loads in Baghdad, Alvin and I reloaded hazelnuts from Giresun (on the Black Sea coast). It should be said that our route back to the UK was via Italy and France which was unusual for us to go that way.

We were parked up having a cuppa in northern Yugoslavia when a lad in his late teens/early twenties approached us. It turned out that he was from Poland and he told us that he was trying to escape to the west. In his fair command of english he told us that he had been planning to do this for some time. He had eventually managed to get on an organised trip from his country to Yugoslavia, knowing that Yugo had a milder communist regime than the other commie bloc countries and thought that his chances to defect were greater there. He had got away from the rest of his group and he had tried to get over the border into Austria on foot but he had given up on that idea as he was confused as to where the border lay. He had come back down from the mountains and he had spotted our vehicles sporting ‘GB’ stickers and wondered if we could help him.

We gave him a meal as he hadn’t eaten for some time and Alvin and I discussed the possibilities of smuggling him across into Italy in one of our trailers. We eventually decided to give it a go.

I pulled my vehicle closely alongside Alvin’s to shield what we were about to do from any passers-by . Using a razor blade we carefully cut the middle down strap where the ‘D’ hook went through it and just where the TIR cord crossed over. We managed to unthread the strap all the way to the top of the trailer which left us with a small gap in the side for the lad to slide through and into the trailer. The gap was so small that it was a real effort with him standing on our shoulders to get him through but he eventually managed it. He was now in Alvin’s trailer and on top of the sacks of nuts.

We re-threaded the down strap and my girlfriend Annie used a needle and thread to sew up where we had cut through the down strap.

We drove to the border at Trieste only to find that they closed it at night time to trucks. It was our second time through that border (first time being on the outward leg) and we hadn’t taken that into consideration as we were hoping to transit it at night rather than in the daylight. There was nothing for it but to wait until the following morning.

Alvin said that I should go first because if there was any trouble, I would already be into Italy. I went through and it was a very tense wait for Alvin to arrive but he got through with no probs.

We drove for a couple of hours and found a parking area where we went through the whole procedure in reverse and got the lad out. We had a bit of a celebration! He asked if we could take him to England. No,no we couldn’t do that. We advised him to give himself up to the authorities now that he was in the west or to get to an Embassy of a western power and to claim political asylum.

It was a very foolhardy thing to have done. I shudder to think what the consequences would have been had we got caught, especially for Alvin. Locked up, vehicle impounded And just think what Jeffrey’s reaction would have been! We didn’t do it for any financial gain but what a BUZZ!!! And not a welding rod to be seen!

As a footnote, sometime later Alvin received a letter from the lad. He was living in California so we assumed he must have gone to the American Embassy.

If you’re out there Alvin, I hope you don’t mind me relating this story.
rondavies
SENIOR MEMBER

Posts: 386
Joined: Fri Oct 02, 2009 11:06 pm
Location: Thailand

[mushroomman]

Re: Past Present and in Between in Pictures.

Spardo wrote:
Rings a bell with me, Peterm,

We had to take a double robe apart and hoist it up through a window for one at Sheperd’s Bush. We put it back together for them and ended up being given a huge tip of 50P.

I came here to live in September '99 and got started with Gauthier at the end of December. In between I did several long distance, and international, journeys for a bloke who had a couple of Transit box vans working mainly with English antique dealers to transport their purchases back to Blighty.

One such involved an armoire, a very heavy French wardrobe which was so large and heavy that it had to be taken apart to get into the van. We delivered it to a London address, thankfully not upstairs but it was very hard work. Upside was that the tip was a full English breakfast. Downside was that my brand new body belt, essential to keep everything inside in order, got left at the place. I must have taken it off to eat. I rang them later but they denied all knowledge.

Postby Dipster » Tue Aug 15, 2023 8:28 pm

This wardrobe story reminded me of an evening years ago when I was working in Paris. Another bloke I worked with, a Cockney married to a local French girl, turned up for work one evening totally knackered. When asked why he said that his mother-in-law had died recently and his wife had him clearing out her 3rd floor flat without lift. He said the day had mostly been spent taking the ancient wardrobe downstairs. When asked if it was that big he replied "Big? Big?! It was like the f’ing Arc de Triomphe with a mirror in the middle!

I think that whenever I see a photo of the Arc de Triomphe in the future, I shall always be reminded of Dipster’s last post.

Re: Blood, Sweat and Broken China (the Removals thread)

Postby Moonraker » Wed Feb 27, 2013 6:37 am

I somehow missed this thread until yesterday and I must admit some of the stories gave me a good laugh and I can empathise with a lot of the tales!

I’m still doing removals and have posted a couple of topics on removals to Greece recently.

Removals are generally good fun to be involved in - with varying destinations (both home and abroad) and meeting a wide range of clients who are mainly pleasant and welcoming. I know that there is more to haulage than just backing onto a loading bay and driving but removals is one of the hardest and most rewarding jobs to be involved in. You can have some good laughs with your colleagues and customers and most removers will have tales to tell.

One of my favourite “incidents” was when I was moving a young couple in their twenties and they had an upright piano. The young man had had an accident at some point in his life and had lost most of his fingers. When we had finished unloading everything bar the piano, I had to move the van to another part of the property so that we could unload through the French windows. Whilst tieing up the blankets and securing the piano for it’s short journey round the driveway, my porter (I shan’t name him!!), in all innocence asked the customer (who had come out for a chat) whether it was he or his wife who played the piano!!! I just buried my head in the pile of blankets trying to suppress the laughter and embarrassment!! Eventually the chap said “I hardly think it’s me is it!”

Re: Blood, Sweat and Broken China (the Removals thread)

Postby bullitt » Wed Nov 02, 2011 2:49 am

I did removals for a few years,bloody hard work and poorly paid. The only way I ever made any money from the job was in Europe. being young and single I was living off my night out money which was £20 a night in the 80`s, and saving my wages (and being creative with the running money!! )

Paris was always a total nightmare.Loved the city, loved the vibe, just hated lumping peoples furniture up narrow stair cases or trying to avoid the concierge and use the two person cage lift! No houses in Paris Loved the Peripherique, and driving an 18 metre A-Frame draw bar around the Arc de Triumph at rush hour is great fun

If anyone wants to get into European driving then starting with a removal company that covers mainland Europe is not a bad idea. you will get some valuable experience, actually get into the towns and cities, meet the people and generally see alot more than the depot to depot, warehouse to warehouse runs that you may find yourself doing in general.

As for likes and dislikes, agree with the previous posts. You forgot…likes…fit lady customers, fit daughters , finding “marital aids” underneath beds or rolling around inside bedroom drawers (was carrying a large chest of drawers out once and a strange buzzing sound started to come from one of them, much to our amusement and delight and much to the extreme embarrassment of the lady of the house!! ), getting weekended around the Mediterranean coastline, expecting a long hard few days graft (2000+ cube) that turns out to be half that. Being (zb)ed around by customs officials in whatever country you are in / trying to get into (more time out means more money in!)

Dislikes…dirty houses, skanky people, long walks, rude customers, no parking space reserved outside the house so either double park and block the road or a long walk, non tippers, those weird blokes (usually semi retired) who have a complete fitted workshop in their sheds / garage with every little draw labeled and numbered, every poxy little widget, screw, nut and bolt accounted for. Lofts that wernt viewed by the guess-timator (“cos there`s only a few bits in there”) and turn out to be full of crap. Having to unload stuff on your own around Europe cos the boss is to tight to (A) send someone with you and (B) to tight to hire labour in what ever city or town you are in (so I used to HIRE my own, that always cost him out of the running money!! ) Being (zb)ed around by UK customs at Dover / Folkestone / what ever your port of entry maybe, getting a full turn by the previously mentioned UK customs bods.

Im sure there is more but overall, despite being hard graft it was a good crack.

[spardo]

Entertaining, but I think you need to brush up a bit on your quoting skills MRM.

This, is fine

Spardo wrote:
Rings a bell with me, Peterm,

We had to take a double robe apart and hoist it up through a window for one at Sheperd’s Bush. We put it back together for them and ended up being given a huge tip of 50P.

I came here to live in September '99 and got started with Gauthier at the end of December. In between I did several long distance, and international, journeys for a bloke who had a couple of Transit box vans working mainly with English antique dealers to transport their purchases back to Blighty.

One such involved an armoire, a very heavy French wardrobe which was so large and heavy that it had to be taken apart to get into the van. We delivered it to a London address, thankfully not upstairs but it was very hard work. Upside was that the tip was a full English breakfast. Downside was that my brand new body belt, essential to keep everything inside in order, got left at the place. I must have taken it off to eat. I rang them later but they denied all knowledge.

except for this

We had to take a double robe apart and hoist it up through a window for one at Sheperd’s Bush. We put it back together for them and ended up being given a huge tip of 50P.

which was not me but, presumably, Peterm.

Don’t worry mate, took me a while to work it out, but one thing I was certain about, I had never hauled a double robe up to a window in Sheperd’s Bush.

[mushroomman]

Spardo:
Entertaining, but I think you need to brush up a bit on your quoting skills MRM.

Don’t worry mate, took me a while to work it out, but one thing I was certain about, I had never hauled a double robe up to a window in Sheperd’s Bush.

And to think that it took me over half an hour to post that.
Serious question, how do you transfer a quote from a different thread onto another thread without having to ‘copy and paste’.
Entertaining, that’s what this thread is all about but ‘you can’t teach an old dog new tricks’, or can you.

[spardo]

Dunno mate, cut or copy and paste is the only way I know, and at the moment you need lots of time.