We are back inthe Nostagia pictures in todays northern echo
Carl Williams:
We are back inthe Nostagia pictures in todays northern echo
Hiya,
I well remember the old bog standard paraffin road lamps, they didn’t
half make a cracking fireworks display if you caught them just right in
your rear view mirror with the trailer wheels, when the roadworks at
Castle Bromwich were on the go was a good spot to entertain your-
self and loads of other drivers most likely youngsters like myself in
those days had the same idea. Who said vandal lol.
harry_gill:
Carl Williams:
We are back inthe Nostagia pictures in todays northern echoHiya,
I well remember the old bog standard paraffin road lamps, they didn’t
half make a cracking fireworks display if you caught them just right in
your rear view mirror with the trailer wheels, when the roadworks at
Castle Bromwich were on the go was a good spot to entertain your-
self and loads of other drivers most likely youngsters like myself in
those days had the same idea. Who said vandal lol.
I worked with a fella who was well known for “borrowing” the roadworks lamps in the winter, he used them to to keep warm in the days before nightheaters or even decent cab heating. I can’t recall his name , but he was always known as “paraffin” due to the aura that surrounded him.
Regards Kev.
kevmac47:
harry_gill:
Carl Williams:
We are back inthe Nostagia pictures in todays northern echoHiya,
I well remember the old bog standard paraffin road lamps, they didn’t
half make a cracking fireworks display if you caught them just right in
your rear view mirror with the trailer wheels, when the roadworks at
Castle Bromwich were on the go was a good spot to entertain your-
self and loads of other drivers most likely youngsters like myself in
those days had the same idea. Who said vandal lol.I worked with a fella who was well known for “borrowing” the roadworks lamps in the winter, he used them to to keep warm in the days before nightheaters or even decent cab heating. I can’t recall his name , but he was always known as “paraffin” due to the aura that surrounded him.
Regards Kev.
Hiya,
Done that as well Kev but only when on the move, lamp between my legs.
and bonnet cover over my knees in an attempt to keep my legs alive, as
you say you didn’t half stink and had to get changed before you dare step
into the digs when you’d finished, I knew all the places where you could
stop to get a fresh newly filled up lamp for the return journey
Hi Kev, Your old work mate and my best mate Parkey Denham used to do the very same when running to Manchester loaded with Danish Bacon going over Standedge , We allways had one of these red metal road lamps, When we stopped for a cupppa and a sarnie we used ti light them up to keep the cab warm 
, Unless there was some nice tidy cab traffic about 
, Of course you know what Parkey was like he would get a thrill from a warm scarf If you get my drift, 
, Take care my friend & stay safe, Regards Larry.
We had quite a few trailers manufactured by Taskers of Andover
. The photo of the D series shows a Tasker trailer being collected from Marsden’s of Warrington who built the van body on the trailer chassis & the Mastiff shows one of our platform Taskers trailer collecting two more trailer frames from their Andover factory
Carl Williams:
We had quite a few trailers manufactured by Taskers of Andover. The photo of the D series shows a Tasker trailer being collected from Marsden’s of Warrington who built the van body on the trailer chassis & the Mastiff shows one of our platform Taskers trailer collecting two more trailer frames from their Andover factory
Amazingly on seeing these photos on a Facebook Group I got this reply from Marsden’s signwriter Mark Leatherbarrow
Signwriten a fair few of your Van’s at Marsden remember we took one to the motor show in the early eighties
I took the opportunity to thank him for his excellent work.
The last post I put on about Taskers trailers brought a lot of comments on other sites about the difficulty of negotiating single axle long trailers. As I explained we had to re think this and although we did not need the carrying capacity switched future orders to tandem axles which made life a little easier for drivers.
The first four we had built we had 2 by Marsden & 2 by Vanplan, painted in their respective paint shops. The one shown below pulled by one of our Leyland Super Comments was by Vanplan and shown regularly in the press advertising. The trailers were totally identical as in reality Vanplan was a total copy of Marsden.
Following these we made quite a few by our own company Coachskill Ltd and painted in our Spennymoor paint shop as the photo pulled by one of our Bedford TMs but in these cases the total trailer plus body was built by us. The final photo shows two more in our own livery rather than Thorns. As well as building several of these for ourselves we also built about 4 for other customers, and looking back I’m proud of our efforts built entirely in Spennymoor rather than part in Andover & part in Cheshire.
Hiya,
Yes Carl I think I too would I have been proud of my efforts had I achieved
what you did in your time as haulage contractors.
harry_gill:
Hiya,
Yes Carl I think I too would I have been proud of my efforts had I achieved
what you did in your time as haulage contractors.
Thanks Harry.
Look after yourself & I hope you enjoy Christmas
n November 1st 1973 when we moved from Marmaduke Street to Green Lane Industrial Estate Spennymoor, I signed a five year contract with Esso to supply our diesel Min 5,000 gallon per week & Lubrication oil and here is an advert they put on the Official Opening of the new Depot,.
Five years later our demand had increased to minimum of 8,000 gallon a week and BP agreed to supply cheaper & I think it was an 8 year contract I signed
I noticed your posts regarding having trailers built by Taskers of Andover. I seem to remember that my grandfathers removal bussiness had the bodies built by Locomotors from Andover, which would have been during the 50s/60s .I drove a nightrider sleeper conversion Tm in the 80s,also done by Locomotors.
Just wondered if you know, if they were part of the same company ?
Sorry for the ramblings.
Regards Andy
Suedehead:
I noticed your posts regarding having trailers built by Taskers of Andover. I seem to remember that my grandfathers removal bussiness had the bodies built by Locomotors from Andover, which would have been during the 50s/60s .I drove a nightrider sleeper conversion Tm in the 80s,also done by Locomotors.
Just wondered if you know, if they were part of the same company ?
Sorry for the ramblings.
Regards Andy
Hi Andy
I don’t think so, Locomotors were I think a garage group with at least 1 Bedford Agency who like so many in those days has a body shop. We had a 1957 Bedford CA 15 cwt with a luton body built by Locomotors & I remember going down to Uxbridge to collect it with my dad when I was about 9 years old. Unlike many Bedford agents Locomotors were excellent body builders building to a very high standard, If Locomotors built the bodies your Grandfather would have had some very good vans
Regards
Carl
Carl Williams:
Just found this in a book about the history of Newton Aycliffe
I am old enough to have had ‘The pleasure’ of carrying a few of those pre-war bed settees and believe me they were heavy, and if the weight wasn’t enough the springs that folded them together nearly amputated your fingers if you were unlucky enough to get trapped. Together with the pre-war built Bendix washing machines I am sure no-one doing a modern day removal will experience anything like it. In those days also many families owned a piano as well.
In about 1972 Bill Peackock, Commercial sales manager of Adams & Gibbons, Vauxhall, Bedford agents Durham, asked if we were interested in buying two Bedford KF Luton vans he had supplied new two years earlier to a Durham Company Halls who supplied Glasses & catering equipment to pubs, cafes etc in Durham County. GPT233H HUP326H.
They were Bedford KFs 330 cu in diesel engines built on standard length chassis cabs HUP326H about 1400 cu ft and GPT233H 1000 cu ft. (Being built with a much lower body to its higher sister and a totally useless luton which hadn’t any useful height) They both were built to use as more or less travelling shops with almost totally enclosed rear with just a pedestrian door into the rear which was racked either side with shelves) Halls had decided that two Bedford CF lutons would be handier as they didn’t need HGV drivers. Both vans had less than 10,000 miles on the clock
We bought them and modified the rear in our workshops with Marsden style rear frame, underslung tailboard & shutters. Thankfully they had been built with wheelboxes & drop wells. They were both used almost exclusively on small-medium removals and HUP being larger did a few long distance whereas GPT was too small to be economic. However at the time local authorities were carrying out refurbishment of their housing stock and we covered Sedgefield District, Wear Valley, City of Durham and Barnard Castle, and GPT was ideal for this work.
However it was doing very low mileage about 1974-5 we decided to remove the small body which was put up the far Western end of our warehouse and used for storage of tyres. We cut the chassis and extended the wheelbase to take 28ft body and it was fitted with demountable equipment and the photo shows the results with it spending many years carrying new furniture for New Equipment Steel Style Furniture.
Hi Carl Hope you are well. I don’t know if you have seen this photo before but I thought you may be interested.
The Thinford Inn many moons ago.
Tyneside
tyneside:
Hi Carl Hope you are well. I don’t know if you have seen this photo before but I thought you may be interested.
The Thinford Inn many moons ago.
Tyneside
Hi Tyneside, you do get the most interesting photos.
My dad told me years ago about an accident at Thinford cross roads before the roundabout was built. Apparently a wagon carrying a load of nails collided, in thick fog and turned over and it took months before all the nails disappeared from the road surface, mostly into poor motorists tyres as the number of punctures sored
Its with great sadness I have to report the death of Alan Brown.
Alan worked for us many years and was part of the furniture, a driver we could turn to when there was a problem knowing he would cope without any problems and ensure at the end of the day customer satisfaction.
Alan’s son Daren followed in his footsteps and again was with us several years.
Alan’s funeral is to be held on Tuesday 12th Jan at 1.30PM at Coundon Crematorium.
I don’t know the present rules on funerals but am led to believe mourners except family have to stand outside social distancing, however I cannot attend as once again I have to shield. So please pass my regards onto Alan’s wife, & Daren & Dawn.
Way back in about 1977 Fisher Price toys then owned by Quaker Oats opened a newly built factory in Peterlee Co.Durham. As always in those days when new factories announced they were opening I contacted them and was fortunate in securing their transport requirements.
I was a guest at the factory opening and a few years later I was again a guest at the opening of the factory extension which was opened by Princess Diana who I was fortunate to be introduced to and privileged to shake hands.
Eventually they asked us to paint a trailer in their livery, which we did, I have often asked if anyone had a photo, but to-date none has turned up, which I find strange as it was such an eye-catching vehicle, like a big toy box.
However Alvan Fryatt was an employee at Fisher Price who remembered seeing the trailer, is a keen model maker and has made for himself a model of the trailer pulled by one of our AEC Mercury tractor units. He contacted me to ask if I had a photo, which I hadn’t but by memory with a little help from myself he has created this fine model.
So although I still have no photo of the original vehicle I now have photos of Alan’s model
