A friend put the line drawing of a Ford D Series on another site. and . I suppose its a good excuse to tell of our Ford Experience and how if anything the D series redeemed them.
My Grandfather’s first vehicle was a 1920 Ford T 1 tonner Left hand drive with solid tyres Reg No J9629. It was exported from America and came just in chassis form. Herbert Raine founder of H. Raine & sons Spennymoor, built the cab (If that’s what you can describe it with half doors & no windows) and a platform body & painted & signwrote it.
I don’t know how many Model Ts he had but I think there might have been quite a few which is not surprising as they only seemed to last 3 or 4 years. However they were evolving quite quickly as in 1921 his second was Right hand drive with what were described as balloon tyres & I suspect by that time it was probably built in England. His 3rd 1922 had regular tyres more like we have today. He never would have anything said about the T models. However eventually along came (I think it was) the A model, which was a bit bigger and it was troublesome. He may have had one or two of these ad one or two Morris Commercials which again were very troublesome till he got his first Chev, and things then changed.
He and his drivers fell in love with these pre Bedford imports and then it was Chev & Bedford all the way.
In 1956 diesel was becoming popular in the smaller commercials and Ford introduced their Thames 4D 5 tonner, and with fuel consumption of around 24 mpg against 10mpg we were achieving with our Bedfords & such a cheap vehicle to buy who could resist. There is a photo of our 4D below (Not a very good one but all that has survived. I think most removal contractors jumped onto the diesel band wagon with the Ford 4D I do know that Hoults Newcastle, Hayward & Robertson Darlington and Tom Liddle at Stanley all succumbed like my dad. I know on many occasions when they met up they exchanged notes on the problems these vehicles gave. The biggest problem was head gaskets with some lasting less than 100 miles. So we decided NEVER AGAIN FORD.
We broke the mould to buy a Ford Thames 15cwt panel van but that wasn’t really a commercial vehicle.
In 1969 Courtaulds opened their Spennymoor factory & we got the transport and we needed lots of extra vehicles and at that time we never used finance and were looking for good used vehicles as well as saving costs we could not get new delivered quick enough. We saw advertised a 6 months old Ford D series Box van with just 4,000 miles on the clock so we bought our 1st Ford D800. FPT721G and it was driven for several years by one of our drivers Brian Sheldon, who certainly gave it no mercy and it stood the test of time
Shortly afterwards we were told regulations demanded with the number of drivers we employed we had to have a Driver assessor so it was decided I should take the course at MOTEC High Ercall & so I took a holiday & spent most of the 2 weeks sitting in & driving a Ford D series & I was converted. When I came back we bought a new D series 20 ton Gross Tractor unit, We bought a new Ford Passenger chassis pantechnicon but inherited a lot of D Series Tractor units which certainly were better than the Bedford TK.
I don’t know how many D Series we operated but quite a few. In rigid form they were not as good as Bedford TKs in our use but as tractors they certainly were better
Carl,you will have Dennis on your case now after mentioning high ercall
Saw this on a Facebook page so as many say NOT MY PICTURE
leylandlover:
Carl,you will have Dennis on your case now after mentioning high ercall
I learnt to drive a Scammel with the famous GATE box at Motec. Little did I know at the time we would buy one a few years later as a breakdown and thanks to Motec I could drive it. (Top speed 19 mph)
367MPT Bedford SB with 330 cu in diesel engine photo taken Inverness 1963. Frightening 60 years ago & I remember just like yesterday going with my dad & collecting it, new from Marsden (Coachbuilders) Ltd Warrington in grey primer, helping paint it in our livery & watching Temp. Newton from Spennymoor sign-write it identical to its 2 slightly older sisters. Life passes by far too fast
One of our Bedford-Marsden pantechnicons built on the SB passenger chassis with 330 cu in diesel engine, first registered 1966. As at that time we had applied and been granted a few extra vans on our A licence, we decided not to push our luck and added this one on Contact A licence, which meant that we could only deliver goods manufactured by that company. After about 12 months we applied to the Northern Traffic Commissioners to add it to our normal A licence arguing that it was returning to Spennymoor empty & being on the A licence it could carry items back to North East for other manu=ufacturers & household removals. Our original A licence number was A2215 meaning it was the 2,215 licence issued in UK. MPT was repainted into our cream/brown livery when it was about 4 years old. Way back in the 1960s A licences were selling for £250 per ton (Unladen weight of all vehicles specified on it) so the value of the licence on that van would be £1000. This showed in haulage companies accounts as good will. When the Operators licence replaced the A licences they were no transferable & had no value so the value of haulage business’ were greatly reduced
Photo of an old friend JPT833H 2 days ago in a farmer’s field near Stanley. New in 1970 Bedford KF with Marsden fibreglass Luton van body. When new painted in Courtaulds Two tone green livery and repainted in our livery when Courtaulds closed Just shows fibreglass bodies will last forever. This is its second repaint in our livery as you can see the previous version becoming visible. If it stays there another 20 years I wonder if Courtaulds livery is starting to emerge
How many today remember Telex? Long before fax machines or Emails
Hiya,
I too Carl am of an age where telex was the forerunner ot the
transport industry communications system.
Back in the mid seventies when mobile phones were in there infancy one of our plant hire / earthmoving customers had one of the first systems in the area. He virtually ran the job from his van around the various building sites and the base unit was installed in the vehicle.
To contact him you had to first dial 100 for the operator and ask to be put through to Tyne Wear Radiophone, once through to that operator you asked to be put through to our customers number which I’d I remember was four or five digits long.
Once through to him two way conversation was not possible so it was like talking via a walk-in talkie, one person spoke said over then the other replied and said over.
Sounds archaic now but was cutting edge at the time
Tyneside
Found a couple of old Telex messages - great when it worked !!
Having connection problems at the Harum Hotel in Istanbul
Getting Agents contact details at The International Hotel Tabriz
whisperingsmith:
Found a couple of old Telex messages - great when it worked !!
Having connection problems at the Harum Hotel in Istanbul
1
Getting Agents contact details at The International Hotel Tabriz
0
WH Williams did Middle East? 
Suedehead:
ERF-NGC-European:
whisperingsmith:
Found a couple of old Telex messages - great when it worked !!
Having connection problems at the Harum Hotel in Istanbul
1
Getting Agents contact details at The International Hotel Tabriz
0
WH Williams did Middle East?
In a Leyland FG 
I once drove a ‘thruppeny-bit’ FG from Kent to the Midlands and back. Not sure I’d want to do TIR with it 
We had three trailer like that. We used them for running between Spennymoor and our depots in London, Sheffield Wellingborough and a sub-contractor near Bristol. We could get lots of new 3 piece suites & beds on each load, which obviously cut our costs, as we were paid by each item.
I had only gone away one day seeing customers and calling in at our London depot and here was one unloading. Mono Containers Durham had bought them new about 6 months earlier and had closed down and Dad had heard about them, bought the & put them into use. They were painted plain cream and so busy we never got them painted. Unfortunately up till now no photos have turned up.
The problem was small wheels which were needed to get height and capacity scrubbed tyres off quickly but using them depot to depot on long motorway work wasn’t such a problem.
Just found this that I had prepare 3 years ago but never posted,
So here goes now
They say every photo tells a story & this one quite a long story. For those wanting me to write a book, this would be a good start. Excuse the length but recovering from a heart attack I’ve had plenty of time to think.
At the beginning of January this year looking through Ebay I saw a old Negative photo for sale. I thought it was just another one of our 1937 Bedford 2 tonner, then looking closer this was something different which will be revealed later in the tale. It was titled ‘Bedford EUG702 Trans-Pennine Run 6/8/78’ and was just a negative.
I put a bid in which I won and paid for it 10/1/2020 The next day I had a heart attack & was rushed by Ambulance to James Cook Hospital (Blue light & Siren. Where they carried at emergency ‘Key- hole’ Operation within about 4 hours. Fortunately I am now at home, hopefully recovering and on a visit to the Doctors dropped it into George Teesdale’s Spennymoor & had it developed.
They say you see your life flash before you before you die, and hopefully this was the first episode of a long box sets with lots of new episodes, one a year with many to follow.
I blame it all on my Grandmother, who one day when I was about 17 came back from a day out with my grandfather saying I nearly bought you a car today which turned out to be a veteran but she had not bought it. Also not so many years before I had seen the film Genevieve. In those pre internet days it was much more difficult to locate but I saw a 1934 Morris 8 in Exchange & Mart and went off to Huddersfield to view & possibly buy, but when I got there they had put flashing indicators on the front & rear wings which would have to be removed & repaired and so I made an offer, the chap declined and as I walked back to the station to catch the train home, he never chased after me & so I never bought.
After the disappointment that the chap didn’t accept my offer & I thought to myself. ‘Why would I want to ride round in an old Morris and then I thought,’ What would I like?’
When I was about 10-11 years old walking into my Grandfather’s House 14 Marmaduke Street Spennymoor (Next to the Garage) & was introduced to a Frenchman. (Or more correct a French born man who had probably about 1910-18 emigrated into England, Spennymoor to be specific) & my Grandfather & he were talking about Ford Model T The Frenchman (I cannot remember his name) sounded exactly like Maurice Chevalier with his French accent & until about 1930 had a shop on King Street Spennymoor (For Spennymoor people opposite Bella Dents) I think he probably sold vehicle spares but at the back of the shop he had a workshop where he had conducted his business as a mechanic specialising on repairing Ford model Ts . Which I suppose was quite profitable but had a time limit. He had however repaired my Grandfathers first vehicles. They were talking about that if My Grandfather bought an old Model T 1ton truck he would make it like new as he could make the engines run like a clock. I wish they had but he died a few months later. However talking to my dad about it. He said ‘The two stupid idiots, one couldn’t repair & the other certainly could not drive, referring to my Grandfather’s driving ability.
It reminded me of a story I was told, first hand going back to about 1921.My Grandfather had been travelling in one of his Ford Ts He and a young farmer were travelling from Bishop Auckland back to Spennymoor up Park Head bank and my grandfather was crashing the gearbox to try to change down & above the sound of grating the farmer said, ‘Willie you are supposed to pause before putting it in a lower gear’. ‘Pause, pause’ came back my Grandfather’s reply ‘I haven’t got time to pause’
In any event when young I remember seeing the log book for J9629 1920 Ford T in my dad’s desk drawer. J9629 had been my grandfather’s first Model T 1 ton truck exported from America left hand drive on solid wheels. ‘J’ registration had been the first registered vehicles from Durham County, which in those days took in Darlington to Stockton on Tees right through to Sunderland & Gateshead & had been 9,629th vehicle registered & I presume he had scrapped it & kept the log book. My dad with no nostalgia thoughts, believing the past has gone, lets live for the future had eventually burnt it with other ‘rubbish’, but goodness knows how much would it have been worth today?
So my mind went to could I buy a 1920 Ford model T. Asking my dad what he thought, he told me that he was just about 6 when my Grandfather got rid of his last and that there was nothing to them & certainly no fun in driving. In the pre internet days the only hope of seeing ad advert for one would be in ‘Exchange & Mart’ & each week I bought but never saw one advertised.
Then one day in early 1975 I saw in Exchange and Mart a 1938 Bedford 30cwt van for sale in Kidsgrove, Staffordshire. Now although all of our Bedfords pre war that ran thoughout the war were 2 tonners we did have one 1938 30 cwt which had been bought by my Grandfather to replace a Morris Commercial removal van that had been commandeered by the Army So it was authentic.
I took my Grandfather for a ride out with me and saw it & bought it in a field where it had been left to deteriorate. When I got home in the evening & watched the news I recognised where I had been because I saw the road vey near where it was as it was near the Telephone box where Lesley Whittle’s brother had been meant to leave the ransom money for his sister who had been kidnapped & murdered by ‘The Black Panther’.
In any event we sent our breakdown down & towed it back to Spennymoor the next day. Remarkably although the body & cab needed rebuilding the chassis engine & mechanical bits were in good order.
I had thought it would be repairable in our workshop but we never had time. It would be nice to say I did it all myself, but my mechanical abilities a zero & in fact had I tried to do anything I would have done more damage.
After a couple of years we were fortunate enough to meet someone who offered to rebuild the thirty cwt but it took to about 1980 & I was getting impatient.
Then one Sunday I was passing a garage in Harrogate in about May 1978 & I saw parked up a 1937 Bedford 2 tonner with ‘For sale’ in the windscreen I enquired at the petrol station & the owner came from his nearby home we agreed a price & fortunately I had plenty of cash in my inside pocket so I paid for it, got a receipt, arranged with the garage to leave it there overnight & next day sent our breakdown down t Leeds & brought it home.
EUG702 was checked over & oil changed etc and painted in our paint-shop & lettered by Peter Butler and entered into the 1978 Trans-Pennine rally. I along with my then Girl-friend (Later Fiance, wife, then to be divorced) left to travel down to Belle Vue Manchester which was the starting point of the rally those days. The van had overheating problems so I nursed it down to Manchester and parked up as can be seen in the photograph.
Now we switch on to the year 2020 almost 42 years on & I see the photo on Ebay & hardly recognise it. I paid for the photo & it arrived in the post a day before I as rushed into hospital suffering from a heart attack & its then part of my life rushed through brain again.
I parked the van at Belle-Vue & we went over to the Piccadilly Hotel Manchester where we had booked for the night. In those days a very nice hotel, very modern & in the room there was a plaque that a Saudi Arabian prince had stayed in that room. On the night we had gone out for a meal in a particularly nice French restaurant in Princess Street Manchester. (When coming home from hospital I looked though my old photos and show from anyone remembering the brochure which I have scanned .To celebrate making it successfully to Manchester with a sick then 40 year old Bedford we had a bottle of champagne.& after the meal took a taxi ride over to Belle Vue to see the Bedford was OK. We just got out of the taxi & got to where the van was parked & the heavens opened & we took shelter in the Ghost Train which although closed & deserted offered us shelter till the rain stopped & we were able to get a taxi back to the Piccadilly
Next day was the rally back to Harrogate & by taking it easy we made it & I don’t know how many remember the Character ‘Dolly’ from Emerdale Farm but the actress was walking round and came over for a chat telling me how she often saw our vans whilst out driving. In Emmerdale she looked normal but in real life she was particularly attractive. Then the journey home just 60 mile but by the time we got to Leaming Motel on the A! the sign displaying ‘Water Beds’ an attraction in those days seemed too much to miss so we pulled in got a room & got back to Spennymoor for about 10 o’clock on the Monday Morning.
The cylinder head was removed & sent to Cleasby’s of Durham to be teste & found to be OK. The Block was examined & found to have a hairline crack. We couldn’t locate a 26HP block but remakably got a new 28 HP (The engine Bedford replaced 26hp with in 1938) short motor, which dad said the original cylinder head would fit as all our 26 hp had over the years they were operated had changed. It is hard to imagine but Edmonds Walker Newcastle had a complete gasket set boxed & unopened on the shelves & so the engine was rebuilt & fitted ready for 1979 rally season. It was parked up in a newly built garage on the west side of our warehouse at Green Lane Ind Est and when revered out in Spring 1979 we were shocked to see due to the porous original panels on the body the paintwork had blebbed.We repanelled in Plymax sheeting which might have been a little cheat as I’m not sure plymax had been invented in 1937 and it was decided that we would instead of painting ourselves take it to Peter Butler and Bob Harold who had just gone into partnership in a new Commercial Paint shop. Bob we had known from his days as an apprentice Painter at Antony Carrimore’s factory when he used to come after work to help Peter do our sign writing and was as excellent Brush coach-painter as you ever could find and Peter’s sign writing was a legion
We had originally painted the van in our paint-shop and my dad had tried to remember the sign writing of 1937. In particular the monogram on the cab doors had been done in several colours which Peter, without seeing & by description had tried to re-create but as you can see from photo was not right. My dad had travelled down to Harrogate & was not satisfied & wanted Motor Show finnish which Peter & Bob achieved. But this time Peter was given carte blanche over the writing & although not technically accurate to Professor Norton who would have written it in 1937 & who ad designed the monogram in 1925 it was excellent piece of work. Peter & Bob had an encore when they eventually painted 1938 30 cwt when it was finished.
The photo therefore was quite rare because it showed how the van was originally written & even I couldn’t remember what it was like as it only was seen like that for such a short time
I hope you forgive me my excess of writing, but as I said part of my life flashed before my eyes when I was ill & I’ve had time putting this together whilst I recover from my heart attack
No apologies needed Carl, yet another interesting article from you as always.
This might remind you of your night in The Hotel Piccadilly.
I was out with my son, daughter in law and grandson on Saturday for lunch and he took this photo. I never thought i would see myself looking so old. Made a misake dying my hair white, I think
