Old British Haulage Firms

NMU

I received an email recently from a gentleman called John who sent me these pictures of lorries

once used by the Haulage Company  NMU (1953) Transport Ltd. He is thinking of restoring a

classic British lorry into the NMU livery. This email inspired me to insert this page dedicated to

long extinct Briish Haulage firms, starting with NMU (1953) Transport Ltd If anyone has more details

on this company I would be happy to add them to this page. I was reading Classic and Vintage Commercials

magazine (Jan 2008 edition) and came across correspondence on the letters page from Jim Beresford

regarding his late friend and work colleague Jim Clarke, both former NMU drivers. I managed to glean from

the article that NMU stood for Northern Motors Utilities Ltd but that the company ceased to exist after the

war when it was nationalised, after denationalisation it became NMU (1953) Ltd  In the magazine article there

is a picture of Jim Clarke with his new Foden S20 registration number  XVY 658  the same lorry is pictured below.

I managed to track down Jim Beresford and had an interesting conversation with him, he is a mine of information

on NMU, their lorries and their drivers. Jim also put a year to the Foden heading back from the Earls Court Commercial Motor (1958)

Many thanks Jim I enjoyed the chat, I could almost smell the diesel fumes coming down the phone.

Leyland registration number PUY 169G (is it still out there ?)

Foden was another famous marque used by NMU Transport

TDN 30B                                                                                                         Albion CDN 606C                                                                                                                   

DVY 791                                                                                                           XVY 658

Not a very good quality picture of two NMU ERF's

 Registration BVY 929 and BVY928                                                          NVY 409

The picture on the right is of an NMU Foden taken on the way back to York from the Commercial Motor Show in London

(sometime 1950's ? any one know ?)  The lorry had been used as a hospitality centre at the show with wide steps

 at the rear for easy entry. She had a white steering wheel and Red piping round the edge of the up holstery, but I am

led to believe that these had been removed before she went into service. (any more info on this lorry ???)  NVY 409

Two more NMU pictures from John  I think the reg on the Foden is MVY 35 (might be mistaken) She is climbing the

hill out  London towards Highgate Archway, looks like a London brick AEC following. The other picture at York

with the York Minster as a back drop. (After speaking to Jim Beresford he tells me the S18 Foden heading out of

London was driven by John Quinn, it was powered by a 4LW Gardner and had fleet number 46)

John thinks this is NMU's final livery       ERF ADN 730K             AVY 913K    Sam's Lorry       Noel Whincup sent me this picture of his late father's ERF

                                                                                                                     pictured at Scammonden Reservoir by the side of the M62 motorway in West Yorkshire

BDH 420C                                                                                                                 John Greig sent me this picture of C50 BUA   fleet number 5050

Pointer Group Transport

I received these pictures from Peter Pulling ref Pointer Group Transport. I remember seeing this companies lorries

on the road in the 1960's but cannot find any reference to them now. Have they been taken over and swallowed up ?

Peter informs me that they were taken over by RMC the concrete company in the early 70's possibly to gain access

to Pointers numerous quarries in East Anglia area. The only part of Pointers to survive intact was the Quinto Crane

hire service, I am working in King's Lynn at the moment and see their cranes out and about most days. Peter kindly

sent me a picture of a Pointermix LAD cabbed Leyland LCL 446H  Very few concrete mixers make it into preservation

in their original concrete mixer configuration but I did see an Albion Reiver mixer at the Pennine Transport Gathering

in Huddersfield on Sunday 27th October. I have put up an album on my picturetrail account, click on the picturetrail

camera at the bottom of my homepage to take you there.

Peter Pulling at the wheel of his new Leyland  DVG 931D

Pointer Transport AEC registration number  DCL 755 and below Pointermix Leyland LAD cab mixer LCL 446H

McKelvie  Garry Walling kindly sent me these pictures of McKelvie lorries which I posted some time ago. Since then I have had emails

from Garry  whose Father drove for McKelvie in the 50's and 60's Garry says he spent many happy hours travelling in  the

firms lorries. Garry went on to give me a brief history of the company as best he could remember. Jim McKelvie entered his father's

business in 1941 when the business comprised of two lorries and two horse and carts, there main customer at that time was Shanks

the manufacturers of sinks,baths and toilets, their factory still exists to this day. After his father retired Jim tookover the running of the

company and soon expanded rapidly. On de-nationalisation of the road transport industry Jim purchased ex BRS vehicles to

obtain the necessary A & B licences, in time these lorries would be replaced with new  Albion, Foden and Leyland marques.

McKelvie became one of Scotland's major heavy haulage contractors, they operated nightly trunk services from Paisley to Manchester,

Motherwell to Walsall & Manchester to London and vice versa. At the peak of their operations they operated over 200 vehicles.

Major customers included Motherwell Steel, B.I.C.C, Chochrans and A.E.I Trafford park to name but a few.

In 1965 Jim McKelvie sold the business to Transport Development Group  (TGD) and the demise of the company began. TDG closed

down the head office and workshops at Barrhead and moved over to Paisley. Jim McKelvie stayed on as M.D for approx 18 months

but was not happy with the way the company was headin i.e concentrating on warehouse and distribution and consequently left

the business to form a company called Fereneze Construction who repaired and serviced a variety of vehicles in the Barrhead area.

This led to Jim forming Ailsa Trucks in Barrhead who were one of the first importers of Volvo lorries  in the country. David Pratt  a

 long term employee of both McKelvie and Volvo emailed me with the information ref Jim in his post McKelvie days. He tells me Jim

toured the continent viewing all the different options ref lorry manufacturers before settling on Volvo. David and three other men were

sent to Sweden to train in the repair and maintenance of Volvo trucks. The heavy haulage section of McKelvie was sold off by TDG

to Strathclyde Transport. By the late 80's the proud McKelvie Transport name ceased to be used by TDG, the depot at Paisley lies empty.

 Sadly Jim McKelvie a great man in the annals of British transport and haulage died in 1977

MHS 477  Albion Caledonian (based at Manchester)  and signwritten

 in original livery i.e Goddard Street,Newtonheath. Manchester. The

legend above the rad cap says Manchester-Scotland where as later

vehicles said Trunk Haulage. The name of the trunk driver was

Johnny Diamond a Scotsman living in Manchester, he came to

McKelvie from BRS Trafford Park.

OHS 830 Foden pictured in Manchester  depot.  (Cheethamhill)          THS 476    Leyland Beaver

THS 694  Leyland Beaver pictured at Manchester                             2 Heavy Haulage tractors based at Motherwell  MHS 159     MHS 344

                                                                                                                         Both normally used as ballast tractors, so to see 344 as a unit is unusual

Paul Tunnicliffe emailed me this picture of a Foden lorry his Grandad drove for Bentley's Tiles of Stoke on Trent. Registration

number YMB 527, he would very much like to know if this  vehicle made it into preservation ?  Any one out there know anything ?

Peter Tossell sent me these photos from Australia where he now lives. Peter worked for Charringtons Transport (Belvedere,Kent)

The first picture shows Peter on the back of the Foden unit, the guy on the floor is one Stan Swift, they are unloading cables somewhere

in the Maidstone area. Apart from cable work they also ran glass from United Glass, paper out of Wiggins Teape, drummed chemicals

out of Shellhaven and drums of lube oil out of BP  Isle of Grain. Peter also included a picture of a restored Atki Borderer HYG 263N that

he found on the web, amazingly Peter drove this unit from new up until he got the Foden. Peter was made redundant from Charringtons

in 1982 and emigrated to Australia.                                                                 (any copyright issues please contact me)

Any one recognise this pair, the picture was emailed to me by Graywackle ?    Arthur Hubbard who drove with me At A.Brown & Sons

  taken at Newark circa 1960                                                                                              of Epworth in the 60's

Ian Pye sent me these wonderful pictures of Pye Transport Fleet circa 1968  pictured with some of the work force are Fred,Frank and Gerald.

The company started in 1956 and closed in 2001. In the early 80's they had a fleet of 50 trucks and 150 trailers. Most of the fleet were Atkinsons

with a few ERF's  Most of them had Gardner engines (6LXB's)  In later years they ran Seddon Atkinsons and ERF's fitted with 10 & 14 litre Cummins

I bought some welding shelters from Carter's of Basingstoke and got talking to their rep about lorries and he sent me these pictures, 1954 Egham Show

 

Many thanks go to Kevin Webb a lorry driver with 21 years experience who sent me this picture of A.Lee's wonderful fleet of British stalwarts.

His late father Gordon Webb drove for A.Lee Transport , I have tried to read the sign writing to see where they were based with no success .

     

A further email and more pictures from Kevin, he tells me A.Lee were based at Old Denaby and that they were a general haulage company  

but they did concentrate on steel, presumably from Rotherham and Sheffield. Sadly A.Lee is no longer trading but Simon Lee the young

feller stood on his own in front of the Albion on the left is in the transport business with two artic lorries.

 

Kevin sent me these two pictures taken in 1988, I would hazard a guess that it is the same yard as in the picture of A.Lee's line up of Albions.

The Albion is the one fifth from the left in the first picture and I am pleased to say it is now restored and in preservation. I think the registration

number is OWW 991  any one out there know where it is now ?

    

Three more pictures from Kevin of lorries he has driven, being originally from near Doncaster I recognise two of the liveries. Pawson's used

to do a bit of work for A.Brown & Sons of Epworth when I drove for them . The MAN belongs to Taylors of Worksop, it is pulling Carr's trailer,

over 50 years ago we used to go into Carr's woodyard at Bentley near  Doncaster and empty their scrap wood bins and sell them on as logs.

And last but not least  a picture of Kevin with his son Levi in front of a Scania belonging to Simpson Bros of Northumberland, Levi is presently

serving with the Royal Dragoon Guards on a tour of duty in Iraq and  I send him and all our boys and girls out there our best wishes.

Over the Christmas period Kevin sent me some more pictures ref A.Lee Transport of Old Denaby  near Doncaster

Kevin gave me some details on the 5 new Roadtrains in the picture, they were bought for a steel contract running out of Thrybergh steel mills at

Rotherham to the Midlands. They had consecutive registrations E980 CFE to E984 CFE, 2 were 4x2's with 250 Cummins engines and 3 were in

6x2 format with 320 Cummins engines. Kevin tells me they were not governed and could fly, they ran day and night out of Rotherham, he describes

a typical day. Pick up trailer loaded with steel bars ex steel mills, rope down on every hook (they did not have ratchet straps or chains)  Tip at

Wolverhampton storage yard then run empty back to Thrybergh. Pick up another trailer which would be dropped at Wincanton's yard Darleston

for their day men to tip, then back to steel mills drop the empty trailer and back to depot to fuel up for the day man to take over. The engines not

having time to cool down before the day man took over, what you might call a good nights work.

Not strictly a haulage firm, Turriff Taylor was a Pipeline Contracting Company based in Coventry, I think this magnificent International was

driven by my mate Brian West. Are you out there Brian ?

 

   

A Turriff Reo 6x6  originally used for string pipes and later converted to a Bowser    

     

Gerald P.Waters kindly sent me the following pictures with permission to use them on my site, his family operated a small haulage firm in

Wishaw, Lanarkshire, Scotland up until 1971. The first one shows Gerald's grandfather Michael Waters with a railway carriage drawn by

two horse power. I think Michael is the gentleman holding the halter of the white horse.

Picture of Gerald and the backend of a Seddon 15/10 powered by a Gardner 5LW engine. The load is a crank for a marine diesel engine

destined for Copenhagen, Denmark via Grangemouth docks.

One of James Waters Foden units reg number GGM 632D  loaded with a turbine casing destined for a Hydro electric power station.

This vehicle was fitted with a Foden FD6 2 stroke diesel engine, these engines made a glorious sound.

A Foden eight wheeler with a tidy load, Gerald tells me this lorry was fitted with a Gardner 6LW, I cannot help but

feel she would be a trifle under powered. I used to drive a 22t GVW 6 wheeler ERF fitted with the same engine on

a regular run to Baxter's of Speyside and felt she could do with a few more horses under the bonnet.

William Shiels sent me this picture of his family's 1937 Leyland lorry , he tells me he rode in it as a boy before emigrating to Canada. Shiels and Sons

were from Maghera, Co Derry in Nothern Ireland. many thanks William.

Did not know where to put this one so she ended up on the British Haulage Firms page. Bob Pott kindly sent me this picture

of a Scammell he has restored, Bob writes  that she was an ex United Dairys unit that was stretched by a showman so that

the dynamo could be driven by the lorry propshaft. Bob built the body and fitted a 4LW  powered generator, he goes on to tell

me the reason the picture is taken from the off side is that that the near side has not yet been sign written, it should be ready

for showing by this summer.

I recently moved to a new construction site at Holford Gas Storage Ltd, Byley in Cheshire, near Middlewich. Chris May of

May Electrical wired up our new offices. Whilst Chris was in my office he commented on the pictures  of my various lorries

which are up on my office wall, he told me his grandad had been a lorry driver and had some pictures of some of the lorries

he had driven in the past. So here by kind permission of John May  I have reproduced them on my web site for your enjoyment.

Gregsons Motors 4 wheel Foden with draw bar trailer  approx 1950

John Alcock of Bickerstaff  pair of Leyland Comets circa 1952    

Another shot of John Alcock's Leyland Comet  LTD 500

Tam MCALEESE retireda couple of years ago after 42 years on the road, recently Tam has joined the super highway and surfs the net.

He emailed me a picture of his Volvo  86 belonging to A & J McLellan described by Tam as one of Glasgow's oldest and best haulage firms.

The picture was taken at Scrabster Caithness in 1974 prior to boarding the St Oalu bound for the Orkney, the First truck to deliver to the Island.

Unfortunately  A & J McLennan closed their doors on the 5th of March 1976 a sad day for Tam.

Blue Dart

Steve Crewe sent me this picture given to him by his brother Barry of Chadderton.

The picture of a six wheeler outside the Elk Mill, Royton, Oldham was sent to me

by Steve enquiring if I could identify the make. My first instinct was either a Maudsley

or a Leyland, my friend Simon Longdon of The Thornycroft Register confirmed he

thought it was a Leyland Badger. I remembered taking a picture at The Leyland Rally

of A & R Ainscough's Leyland and on checking found it to be the same  as the one at Elk Mill.

Any more information would be greatly appreciated. The Elk Mill was built in 1926 and demolished

in 1999 to make way for a retail park, all this in the name of progress.

Steve also sent me these pictures that were given to him by John Harrison his workmate at Blue Dart

so my thanks go to both of you

Steve's Seddon Blue Dart pantechnicon  (copyright Steve Crewe)

AEC Mercury pictured on the opening day of Blue Dart Depot at Stakehill Ind Estate Middleton, Manchester. Steve tells me the gent in the

picture with the damaged box van trailer went by the name of Mad Mick who was a fitter at the depot. The gent below was described to me

as Jack The fuel man.