Artic test 1960 STYLE!!!!!!!!!

[ceylon220]

Worked for a bloke who operated 3 four wheelers and a 6 wheeler Albion trucks which I drove for him, now this employer got matey with a guy who was mad at cutting HGVs down and converting them into artic units, anyway I arrived at the yard after the weekend off and went looking for the Revier, it was nowhere to be seen. I went to the bosses house and asked about the where abouts of the truck , he took me to the mad guys yard and there it was, down to a 6 wheel artic unit, "Can`t drive that boss, never driven an artic before"---"never mind Dave, I`ll hook the trailer and all you have to do is take it to Marchon,Whitehaven load up with soap flakes and take her to L`pool docks, by the time you get to the roundabout at Cockermouth you`ll be an expert"--- Got to Marchon , loaded and sheeted and got to L`pool without inccidents, unsheeted and the load slid off onto the warehouse floor, I was`nt the Dockie`s favourite person that day.
After that the boss borrowed a farm tractor and trailer and anyone he employed had to learn how to reverse and park up the farmtrailer before he let them loose on the other vehicles he converted to articulated units,
just as well we have the proper driving test for HGVs these days.

[Mandator]

It was 1968 when I came out of the RAF and went driving,starting on an Albion Riever.I was keen to get on artics but you had to wait your turn in them days.I was in the Tree cafe on the A38 between Lichfield and Burton when the gaffers son pulled in with his Super Clydesdale loaded with steel bars.He walked in the cafe,chucked the wagon keys at me and said "It's time tha drove an artic". It had the splitter lever at the back of the cab and took a bit of getting used to,but I was like a dog with two bloody tails taking it back to Sheffield.
After that I got more and more artic experience,the older 8-wheeler drivers didn't want to know them and I eventually got a Leyland Badger 9902 FZ ex Northern Ireland Trailers and loved it to bits.

And didn't 40ft trailers look long when you first got one.

I was driving tractors and trailers on my local Derbyshire village farm when I was about 11 or 12 and that's where I first got a taste of artics and drawbars come to think of it.

You managed to get down that hill from Marchon in one piece then Dave?


Chris.

[G-CPTN]

I learned 'on the job' - never had a moment's instruction in my life.
This is not a boast, merely fact. I started driving trucks in 1966. My job was as a test engineer for experimental vehicles. I had a log book (though I drove on trade plates). No motorway stuff either, all B roads (and some A roads on long 'field trips' - such as when we drove down to the bottom of Italy . . . ).
You just had to do it (like ceylon220). Reversing an artic or a drawbar trailer got easier the more times that you did it (trial and error). Never ever hit anything either (though I did get a fright after reversing a coach into a gap using the mirrors and found how close I ended up to the other coaches).
Mind you, I never had to sheet a load (we carried crates of concrete blocks that were 'battened' to stop them sliding).

[Mandator]

I don't recall any drivers that I knew getting any artic instruction either,as you say you just got on with it like I had to when the keys were chucked at me and the 6-legger keys taken off me.
It was the same with drawbars,they were a bugger to reverse for a start but perseverance paid off and I made it look easy - only because I was used to handling them - not because I was owt special.Most of the drivers at MFS just didn't want to know about drawbars as apart from reversing they didn't want to be arsed swapping dollies/trailers etc.

Chris.

[G-CPTN]

I'd forgotten about dollies.
Are they still used (apart from heavy haulage)?

[Mandator]

Originally Posted by G-CPTN

I'd forgotten about dollies.
Are they still used (apart from heavy haulage)?

I don't honestly know.Glass Glover Distribution (MFS) disposed of their drawbars in 1986.I think the dollies were made by York and somebody bought them not long after they were parked up.

[G-CPTN]

We started off using dollies and short semi-trailers as drawbars around 1967, but gradually bought purpose-built drawbar trailers.

[ceylon220]

Originally Posted by G-CPTN

I learned 'on the job' - never had a moment's instruction in my life.
This is not a boast, merely fact. I started driving trucks in 1966. My job was as a test engineer for experimental vehicles. I had a log book (though I drove on trade plates). No motorway stuff either, all B roads (and some A roads on long 'field trips' - such as when we drove down to the bottom of Italy . . . ).
You just had to do it (like ceylon220). Reversing an artic or a drawbar trailer got easier the more times that you did it (trial and error). Never ever hit anything either (though I did get a fright after reversing a coach into a gap using the mirrors and found how close I ended up to the other coaches).
Mind you, I never had to sheet a load (we carried crates of concrete blocks that were 'battened' to stop them sliding).

One job that I had was for the Sealy Bed Co delivering beds nation wide with a 42ft twin axle box trailer which had an overhang at the rear of 15ft which was a ***** if to had tight corners to turn in the towns and cities especially London central, anyway after a while they gave me all the shop/stores deliveries for all London until the shop keepers complained that the artic was blocking their street or to big to get near their doors,so they got around that and gave me a wagon and a twin wheeled drag, this meant going to the last services(Forgot the name) on the MI drop the drag, deliver the front box in the N.London area, come back and change over boxes for the Central areas , I began to like the wagon/drag and soon preferred it to my old artic only thing that I had against it was the sleeping pod on top of the cab , not very comfy, hot in summer cold in winter even with the night heater going full blast all night, will say that the wagon/drag was a doddle to reverse down tight lanes, was`nt too keen on the transfer to them at
first.