Classic British Flight Sim

I came across a photograph of an Eastern British Road Scammel Crusader and looking at the registration number suddenly realised that I had actually driven it during the mid seventies!!

I was at that time employed at BRS Lincoln on Monks Road and my manager came across to me and asked if I would go to Newark BRS Depot as they were a driver short so when I got down there on Monday morning I was shown to the tractor unit I would be driving for the week.

This was the first time I was to drive the Scammel though not the last but was not too pleased to find that it only had a 220 engine whereas the others were classed as having 240's which were more powerful but at least it had the David brown gearbox and not the 'gatechange' ones that were present in the early models.

So off I went south on the A1 to Grantham to load up with 20 tons of concrete pillars to deliver across Lincolnshire, Derbyshire as well as Nottinghamshire to farms who were in the process of building new barns.

It was rather sad to see it still in Eastern livery, sad in the sense that those days are now long gone and British Engineering is no longer producing Heavy Goods Vehicles as they did in the Fifties onwards.

I finished my time behind the wheel of a Mercedes 38 ton artic late 1980's but even then I always liked the ERF's which we sadly gave up and replacing
them with the Mercs.

This is it, only spent a week behind the wheel. Found it underpowered but reliable.





Nigel.

Thanks Nigel, very interesting. This is solid 'bloke' stuff.

I had a few Scammel Matchbox Superkings when I was a kid. These ones I remember well…

Thanks Paul, from the picture it looks really old and rather worn down, much the same as when I drove it!! Ben, if you still have those models and the boxes they came in should be worth quite a bit now. When young I had a few lorries though nothing like those shown.

Always looked forward to the day when I could drive but in the meantime I used to enjoy being out with my father when on school holidays and went with him on business trips. He was also instrumental as to my future approach in driving panned out, always explained the art of cornering, use of gears and many times at my request - driving without using the clutch of all things!!

Happy memories.

Nigel.

Nigel, did you ever 'do' Shap ? I've heard it was an HGV graveyard back in the day. Going back further, as a boy, we used to drive from the east of England up to see relatives in the Lake District, and my dad dreaded Shap. The way he used to talk about it, it was like we were going to attempt the north face of the Eiger. Our heavily-laden Ford Anglia barely made it at times.

Hi Paul, fortunately for me that route was taken over by the M6 and A66 as I believe. I used to drive the A66 regularly where it was basically a single carriageway until road improvements were made by dualling it in some areas however, it was a bugger to drive during winter especially in snow!!

It is the A6 which goes to Shap and can still cause problems during the winter.

Found this documentary telling the story of that route. Going to watch it my self over the next few days as this is what I really call the "Golden Age of Road Transport" though the drivers of that day would have other words for it!!!!



Hopefully it will also bring back happy memories for you when travelled that route.

Nigel.