Oh my cod indeed......

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Nigel H-J
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Re: Oh my cod indeed......

Post by Nigel H-J »

Waht an interesting "collection" Nigel
Thanks Graham, the likes of which will not be seen again regularly on our roads thank goodness, the smell of diesel after refuelling used to stick to you and the clothes for quite some time, if you refuelled too quickly then it would froth to the top and would have to wait for it to subside before continuing!! Some trucks used to black smoke badly up hills even though at that time there were supposedly not allowed to!
I don't know, as I've never had a pickled egg. The onion vinegar gives a mild onion flavour so I guess you'd get a slight eggy flavour from the pickled egg vinegar. There's only one way to find out.

Kevin
Thanks Kevin, I'll wait until you have tried a pickled egg vinegar then! :hide:
Thanks very much for sharing your stories and the pics, Nigel. :thumbsup: I've only been behind the wheel of a truck once...back in the 80's. A friend and I were hauling pig feed to a farm. The truck had a high and low speed for each gear.
That would be the splitter Brian, it gives an extra half gear the same as in the Volvo 88 which gave it 16 gears. I never used the splitter much just elected to keep it in high for the 1-4th gear although 1st was rarely used and just went from second to fourth then as soon as I slipped into 5th gear it would already be selected down (low gear) and only selected high once in top gear. With the Merc and because it was a V engine when reaching 1500 RPM I used to press the function button which would automatically miss a gear say from 5th to 7th made for really easy driving and my fuel economy doing that was between 7-8 MPG which was considered good!! :lol:

Stopping a fully loaded HGV at 38 tonnes is much improved over the 1970 and 80's period, I used to hate it when a motorist pulled out of a junction when I was not far off and just accelerate slowly, more so to the drivers who try to move into the 1st lane of the motorway when it is not clear or safe to do so but yet still pull in front of fast moving traffic!! :rant:

I have hijacked this thread long enough so please carry on with.........what was it about? :dunno:

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Nigel.
I used to be an optimist but with age I am now a grumpy old pessimist.

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Nigel H-J
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Re: Oh my cod indeed......

Post by Nigel H-J »

Something has been nagging me since yesterday when I posted the pictures of trucks I used to drive and that is the ERF in Eastern BRS paint scheme that we had, Registration WRC 476M.

I am absolutely sure that I have driven that one, the registration is very familiar for some reason that I cannot explain but feel as though it was at our depot in Lincoln. I drove all the ERF's there.

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Nigel.
I used to be an optimist but with age I am now a grumpy old pessimist.

Filonian
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Re: Oh my cod indeed......

Post by Filonian »

Nigel H-J wrote:
12 Jun 2021, 14:03
Waht an interesting "collection" Nigel
Thanks Graham, the likes of which will not be seen again regularly on our roads thank goodness, the smell of diesel after refuelling used to stick to you and the clothes for quite some time, if you refuelled too quickly then it would froth to the top and would have to wait for it to subside before continuing!! Some trucks used to black smoke badly up hills even though at that time there were supposedly not allowed to!


Know about that Nigel. At RAF Catterick when duty storeman, if the guard room rang up and said we had a diesel to fill - it was straight back to the billet to change into PT shorts, plimsoles and denims. All we had for diesel was a hand pump with supposedly 1stoke=1gallon. In practice probably 1stroke=2pints in the tank and the rest over you.

Further to that, I had a reguler lift from Catterick to Leeds in a BRS truck. Can't remermber the chaps name, but I believe he was based in Huddersfeld?

I have hijacked this thread long enough so please carry on with.........what was it about? :dunno:

No problem Nigel, I am amazed at the mileage and the lengthy journey we have travelled from a simple snippet about fish and derks :thumbsup: :lol:

Regards
Nigel.
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Vc Ten
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Re: Oh my cod indeed......

Post by Vc Ten »

Not far from me when to stopped for a fish supper in Holt, Nigel. Which way did you get back to Lincoln? Cross the A 41 at Malpas and head to Nantwich, picking the A500 to Stoke and onto Derby??
Beats me what happened to our Road transport manufacturers. They went the same way as our motor industry. Were they really that bad compared with their foreign counterparts??
or was it just cheaper / easier to buy elsewhere and to hell with our manufacturing base :dunno:
Dale
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Nigel H-J
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Re: Oh my cod indeed......

Post by Nigel H-J »

Know about that Nigel. At RAF Catterick when duty storeman, if the guard room rang up and said we had a diesel to fill - it was straight back to the billet to change into PT shorts, plimsoles and denims. All we had for diesel was a hand pump with supposedly 1stoke=1gallon. In practice probably 1stroke=2pints in the tank and the rest over you.
Graham, that really made me laugh :lol: :lol: :lol:
Further to that, I had a reguler lift from Catterick to Leeds in a BRS truck. Can't remermber the chaps name, but I believe he was based in Huddersfeld?
There was a BRS depot in Huddersfield Graham though I never went to it.
No problem Nigel, I am amazed at the mileage and the lengthy journey we have travelled from a simple snippet about fish and derks :thumbsup: :lol:
Never ceases to amaze me how one subject can turn into half a dozen all on the same thread but all good fun and nobody ever complains either! :lol:

So, 44 years ago there is no sign that this was once BRS Lincoln housing 4 Grimsby Fish 40ft artics, 8-10 Bulk Sugar Tankers 2 artics the rest rigids and six 40ft artics for general haulage. Over Christmas period we had 2 weeks holiday on Grimsby Fish so had to park the trailers on land owned by British Rail as there was no more room to accommodate all the vehicles, space was tight!!
Where the grey building is was once an office and garage drivers rest room was on the left and vehicle wash on the right past the grey building which now houses a college.
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Nigel.
I used to be an optimist but with age I am now a grumpy old pessimist.

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Nigel H-J
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Re: Oh my cod indeed......

Post by Nigel H-J »

Hi Dale, the drops were Stoke-on-Trent then Wrexham. Leaving Wrexham drive through Holt where I believe there were traffic lights at the bridge then to Nantwich and Stoke-on-Trent and along the Uttoxeter bypass to Derby and Nottingham where I would stop at an all night cafe for a drink and straight back to Lincoln.
I often wonder whether that chip shop is still there in Holt, it was on the left hand side heading towards Nantwich and before the bridge with traffic lights.

As for British manufacturing, my personal belief is that foreign trucks were, in the late 1970's to early eighties designed so much better than their British counterparts. As for building heavy goods vehicles I just think that we were too slow in modernising trucks to compete with foreign manufacturers, when you go back to the pictures of the Volvo trucks they were operating late 70's to mid 80's and all apart from the first picture had sleeper cabs which began to catch on as being more driver friendly instead of having to rely on transport cafes for overnight stops which meant that you would park up at five or six in the evening and then after breakfast the next day start back on the road by 7.30 onwards. With the sleeper cab you could park up at whatever time suits yourself then start again early in the morning after taking at least 9 hours rest so therefore it was more productive having a sleeper cab for the company than relying on overnight stops away from the truck. That is my theory anyway but in reality I guess it was down to production costs as well as demand, and certainly there was a period whereby demand for trucks dropped due to recession and other factors.

British Industry was too slow in competing with foreign truck manufactures, they did not improve their trucks and build better cabs, better engines or gearboxes, where the Volvos were synchro meshed we were still building them with crash gear boxes, day cabs were uncomfortable and the ride quality
matching that of a soap box cart on cobbles whereas Volvo's were quieter and more comfortable. Lack of hindsight as well as investment and one by one, British truck manufacturers went out of business or were bought out by foreign companies such as ERF went to Mans who eventually shut ERF down and continued making their own vehicles.

Regards
Nigel.
I used to be an optimist but with age I am now a grumpy old pessimist.

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