Classic Trucks, Wagons

[Richard A Thackeray]

'Lorries', if you prefer that term


I saw these two today, both in the same set of streets;
Pottery Street, Cross Street, Moss Street, School Street
(area known the 'Potteries' after the main industry in that part of the town)
off - Methley Road
Castleford
There's quite a few fairground families with yards in that area, so there's a lot of 80's trucks around there, but these two are the 'jewels'
As evidenced here, by the ride, in the background (map below); https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5158327



1967 Leyland Comet

Used to be a different colour
(found by searching the year/model)



This 6x6 Atkinson appears to be one of the (1960s) Ministry Of Transport contract-builds
I seem to recall seeing snow-ploughs/gritters in the late 1970s like this, on the M62 in winter
Now a generator truck?

(this is an August 2018 picture, as I didn't take one today)

And, on close inspection, the holes in the windscreen frame match the spotlamp rail on this picture, in a book about the A6, over 'Shap'

 

[raleighnut]

Aye some of those old 'showmans' wagons are pretty cool,

View: https://youtu.be/dOx1-CInfzY

 

[gbb]

Some recollections...Being a teenager in the 1970s, I was always in awe of lorries and really fancied being a lorry driver.
Scammel Crusaders were impressive looking, Routemans not so but there were plenty of tippers based on the platform. Our local village haulage contractor, Percy Shepherd had 2 stroke Commas, sounded like an absolute bag of nails, noisy as hell but they were obviously reliable, I seem to remember they were old even then.
One other memory...I was driving behind an RAF liveried Leyland Marathon or Matador, as it shifted down to approach a roundabout near Bingham Notts, I dont know if it bust a piston ring but a plume of dense grey smoke shot sideways out the exhaust for maybe 10 or 15 feet ...very unexpected and surprising .

 

[Cavalol]

Don't have an HGV licence and no rational explanation to like lorries, but love looking at pictures of the old ones. Would love to own one.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

Don't have an HGV licence and no rational explanation to like lorries, but love looking at pictures of the old ones. Would love to own one.

From the days when 170BHP (petrol, in the case of the Explorer) was considered a lot, & it still moved 100tons (combination weight; wagon, trailer & load)
Of course, some were retro-fitted with later diesels

Bar-Grips are awful tyres, I've driven a few Landies with them (a 101FC, at 65MPH on them is scary as hell!!)

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2S7-dTMzbE8


Those 'walking beam' axle-casings are almost hypnotic to watch, as they undulate

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRmbJhXKC6A



Petrol-powered

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPQAqmcsJo4

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

From my 'archives'

'Scammell Gathering' (May 2005)
Ackworth (just south of Pontefract)

Junior Constructor



S26





Nostell Priory Steam Fair (May 05)

Atkinson Borderer
Ex Mines Rescue
Plated to 50 tons!
Restored, to this condition by a friend of mine
(he sold it a few years ago

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

From my 'archives'

Scammell Super Constructor


Scammell Contractor


Scammell Mountaineer (4x4)

 

[wisdom]

Served my apprenticeship on Atkinson lorries.All with gardener engines.
I still have a full set of whitworth spanners and sockets.Thats what the gardeners used.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

My father-in-law worked on a lot of Gardner engines, as he spent quite a few years in the garages of West Riding Buses, into when it became Arriva

 

[wisdom]

My father-in-law worked on a lot of Gardner engines, as he spent quite a few years in the garages of West Riding Buses, into when it became Arriva

Thay were brilliant engines.Well engineered but smoky as hell on a frosty morning.

 

[gbb]

Bar-Grips are awful tyres, I've driven a few Landies with them (a 101FC, at 65MPH on them is scary as hell!!)

Working for a seismic surveying company in the mid 70s, we all had (IIRC) 3.5 ltr Landrovers with bargrip tyres, wed spend most of the day off road and I remember two things, noisy as heck on the road and utterly useless on wet grass. We used to use a tankfull of petrol a day
They also had a Bedford RL (I think it was a converted ex army truck) a pig to drive, 4mpg on the road....2mpg off road ...so they told us at the time. Its chassis was so flexible, off road youd see the cab lean one way, the body lean in the opposite direction, youd swear the chassis was going to snap...but all quite normal.

 

[Cycleops]

Some recollections...Being a teenager in the 1970s, I was always in awe of lorries and really fancied being a lorry driver.

Especially after watching Hell Drivers. Rather comic now as the trucks couldn't go that fast so they speeded up the film.

 

[gbb]

Hell Drivers, awesome film.

 

[Cavalol]

When I was a kid those Atkinsons seemed to be omnipresent. Somewhere, like a very sad man, I have scores of old truck photographs I bought at a lorry show. Will try and dig them out.

 

[Smudge]

In the early 80's, i took my HGV1 training and test in a 70's Ford D Series tractor unit and flat bed trailer.
My first job afterwards was driving a 1972 Scammell 8 leg tipper truck, with a fiberglass cab. A noisy, hot horrible thing to drive.
It was a POS and i dont have any fond memories of it.
There was a lot of those old 70's Scammell tippers about in the early to mid 80's. But for how crude they were, they could often handle site work offroad better than the modern stuff. More modern stuff would get bogged down and stuck more than the old Scammells did.