Hello

[TRUCKJOCKY]

My first memory was being under my Dads BMC 4 wheeler in the middle of the night holding the flashlight as he fixed the gear box. I passed my HGV class 1 as soon as I turned 21 in 1976 and have had a love of trucks all of my life. I learned to identify trucks from the back just by looking at their mirrors and this passed many hours sitting next to the best driver out there, My Dad.

I look forward to swopping stories on here.

[Ian]

Hello TRUCKJOCKY

A very warm welcome to Truck and Bus Forum, please join in with photos and comments.
Reading your post it looks like your a Limy!!!! (HGV BMC) yer Limy

Ian

[Western SMT]

Welcome to the forum TRUCKJOCKY and please join in anywhere.

[G6 UXU]

Hello TRUCKJOCKY welcome to the forum, enjoy and we look forward to your stories.

[coastie]

Hi TRUCKJOCKY welcome from the Sunny Isle of Anglesey!

[TRUCKJOCKY]

That was some welcome being called a Limy. On the sister web site "Ships Nostalgia" there is a thread titled "Stormy Weather" for heated discussions and being called a limy may force me to suggest a thread is started on those same lines. (*))

Any way all is said in jest.

Yes I am a "Limy" but I would prefer saying a Geordie unless a Limy means a posh Geordie, I was born and brought up in Wark, Northumberland and back in those days it was known as Dodge city thanks to all of the wagon owners, drivers or mechanics who lived there.

I do remember my dads first wagon was a BMC 4 wheeler, NJR 99, painted grey and red, flat bed and he would go off for a week at a time or longer if the loads were there. he had a piece of plywood down the back of the seats that he would lift over the seats and the engine cover to sleep on at nights.

I remember going with him to sit at the quay at Newcastle waiting for a load and then getting one and the adventure of going off to a new place. Once there and un-loading trying to find a return load. We were so poor we had canned grape fruit and potatoes from Forfar to live on for a few days until he got a load of crisps from Newcastle.

Then he had a 6 wheel Albion with a trailing rear axle that got him into alot of trouble when he went onto the building sites.

His first new truck was a 4 wheel Dodge with a Perkins engine and a long flat bed, followed by another Dodge, 6 wheeler with a first model Cummins that was so noisy it blew windows out of a bank in Cumberland.

Then he found and bought Volvo's and he stuck with them mostly except for a huge Ford which I can not remember the model name and then a couple of Mercedes.

I will have to see if I can find some photos of the old ones

any way thanks for the welcome and my dads trucks had J.O. & M.F. Elliott on the sides of the Grey & Red cabs.

[G-CPTN]

Welcome, TruckJocky - I know Wark well. As a youngster I accompanied my father on his rounds as the Man from the Pru. He did Wark to Bellingham and up to Keilder (when Plashetts was still there), often walking across the fells to reach the farms rather than driving round by the roads. We'd stop for our bait by a small steam and search for trout, though this was 1947 though to 1957 (for me) though my father continued until the mid 1970s.
You might remember him, from 1947 he drove a blue Hillman Minx registration BTY 284, then from 1951 a black Humber Hawk HXN 592 until 1956 then a two-tone green Humber Hawk KNL 202, followed in 1962 by a beige and maroon Humber Hawk RNL 369.
What took you away from the North Tyne?

[coastie]

A Humber Hawk! Crikey! My Dad had one of them then later a Super Snipe!

[G-CPTN]

The first Hawk was inherited from my Grandfather when he died.
He bought it from Sir Simon Marks (of Marks and Spencer) who had had it from new. It was a step up from the Hillman Minx (which my father had had from new in 1947) and provided suitable transport for a family of five complete with camping gear down to the south coast (Paignton).
Did you know that an old penny was just the right size to replace a cylinder block core plug?
We also 'collected' a policeman on point duty when a front spring broke and the displaced leaf jammed the steering. He was remarkably understanding about being splayed on the bonnet. That was in Bath IIRC.

[coastie]

You'd never get away with it nowadays!!