H Fellows Transport Ltd

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Jeremy Rowland
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Re: H Fellows Transport Ltd

Post #11 by Jeremy Rowland » Sun Jun 29, 2008 10:20 am

RichardJW~ wrote:Seddon Atkinson or Sudden Accident??? :lol: :lol:


Yes and there was too......

Watch this post for more installments :lol:


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Re: H Fellows Transport Ltd

Post #12 by Jeremy Rowland » Sun Jun 29, 2008 4:47 pm

Well I did say I'd post some more pics 'n' stories so here goes ;) .

During the mid eighties my then employer Ellis Fellows (for whom I have regard) got involved with a chap called Chris Kelly (horrid man) who owns and runs Keltruck the Scania dealership.
Between them they purchased several small haulage companies amongst whom were; Genner tpt, Thomas Ingles, Pontefract bros and S W Everitts.
Everitts were probably the biggest of these companies and they used to run out of Garringtons foundry at Bromsgrove where they had a depot.
Garringtons used to produce among other things conrods for Gardner engines and the unions there had forced Everitts to use a British made truck with a Gardner engine for its power unit.
Now Seddon Atkinsons used to fit three makes of engine in their 400 series, these were Cummins, Gardner and Rolls Rubbish (sorry Royce) :lol:
The main problem for Ellis was that Everitts lorries were all day cab models, and I think that the plan was to make these trucks do general haulage too, so the following motor SNP752V was converted to a sleeper cab model and other older trucks were retired like DUY in the other pic and replaced with sleeper cab trucks.
Of note here the sleeper cab that was fitted to SNP752V came from an old Adam Jones haulage motor (SFD473R) that had itself been converted to a sleeper cab at the company where I served my apprenticeship.
If I remember the date correctly it would be October 1985 when SNP752V was involved in a serious incident.
The vehicle was on a jack in Everitts garage parked behind a Scania 111 and one of Everitts mechanics leaned into the cab to start the engine to build up the air pressure before adjusting the brakes. Unfortunately SNP had been left in gear and the engine started and it lurched forward and crushed Ellis Fellows who was stood behind the Scania talking to another mechanic.
This was a serious incident, Ellis had his ribs pushed into his lungs and his pelvis crushed because he had been bent over talking to the other mechanic who was under the Scania his ribs were crushed by the Scania chassis :shock: :shock:
He was rushed to the local hospital where he actually died and was bought back by the expertise of the hospital staff who fought to resusitate him, I can tell you now I've never seen a man age so quickly he was never the same again :(
Approximately 6 months down the Line SNP was in more serious trouble as you can see from the pictures it took a heavy hit if you look carefully you can see that the o/s front wheel looks further back than it should be this was because the spring hanger bracket had been ripped clean off the chassis (not uncommon on 400's).
So your wondering what happened? the driver who's real name escapes me his nickname was "the elephant man" was happily driving along a strech of single track road, coming the other way was an RAF lowloader with some aircraft wings on it behind that was a guy in a Sherpa van who was too impatient and pulled out to overtake the lowloader he hit SNP head on.
If memory serves me correctly the guy ended up with fractured legs and a squashed Sherpa (best thing for them bangers).
The elephant man was okay he sustained no injury but SNP was a right off.
Of interest here I have known Ellis rebuild trucks in a far worse state than SNP but the key here was SNP's most valuable asset its
Garner 8LXB straight eight engine (beutiful piece of kit) and these engines second hand were fetching around £2500 at that time (kerching) whereas a used Cummins would fetch about £600 and nobody wanted a second hand Roller!
I took these pics in me dinner hour they were taken in Fellows transport garage, and I can tell you that Lorna Fellows (Ellis's mom) didn't miss a trick, she came out to see what was going on when she saw the flash from my camera :dizzy:
I had just started to strip SNP in these pics and had removed the front grills already, when I got the cab door open the driver foot plate was bent in a vee shape.
By the end of the following day SNP was no more I had stripped her completely.
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Re: H Fellows Transport Ltd

Post #13 by Jeremy Rowland » Tue Jul 01, 2008 12:18 am

Well I must say I can't give you the story of what happened to this Seddon Atkinson 411 (E48PNX), what I can tell you is that it was a former Roy S Ely motor powered by a 320bhp Cummins and it had taken a very severe knock on the n/s second steer axle.
To my knowledge this was the only 411 that was operated by Ellis Fellows, the old company of H Fellows transport had been wound up (long story) and Ellis decided to set up again in his name so the company started as Ellis J Fellows transport, at this time I no longer worked for Ellis but I had come to have a look at this vehicle and collect a second hand axle that required modification to fit :) .
Anyway I took a few pics the first pic is just a general view of the truck, the second pic shows the ruptured fuel tank and second steer wheel lying on its side :shock:
The third pic shows;
1) The bend in the upper parabolic spring.
2) The smashed lower air suspension bag mounting.
3) The bent axle beam just follow it along to the kingpin mounting of the stub axle.
4) The wheel rim.
There was also a considerable bend in the chassis, this vehicle was rebuilt and went on to give good service (gotta give you one with a happy ending :lol: ).
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Re: H Fellows Transport Ltd

Post #14 by Lars-Gunnar » Tue Jul 01, 2008 12:20 am

Nice story but very sad. It seems as that Atkinson lorry were unlucky or its driver very bad. I think it went better when Volvo and Scania come out and replaced all old English makes or perhaps am is wrong?
I know many assidents happen when drivers fell aslep regardless whish make they drove.

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Re: H Fellows Transport Ltd

Post #15 by Jeremy Rowland » Tue Jul 01, 2008 12:32 am

Lars-Gunnar wrote:Nice story but very sad. It seems as that Atkinson lorry were unlucky or its driver very bad. I think it went better when Volvo and Scania come out and replaced all old English makes or perhaps am is wrong?
I know many assidents happen when drivers fell aslep regardless whish make they drove.

Lars-Gunnar


Lars I worked for over ten years on Seddon Atkinsons and they aren't anymore unlucky than any other truck on the road, except when it came to quality thats why we now have Scania's and Volvo's and not Sed Atkis anymore.
Also over here our roads are overloaded with traffic and truck drivers have always been treated badly and made to work all the hours God sends so it comes as no surprise to me that such incidents occur.
And lets not forget that some of the drivers are "cowboys" who will falsify tachograph charts by putting somebody elses name on them and generally flout the law, one ironic fact I forgot to mention was that Ellis Fellows used to have the drivers nicknames signwritten on the front grill, the nickname which was put on COP921V the day before the accident was "gunslinger" :!: :!:


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Re: H Fellows Transport Ltd

Post #16 by Jeremy Rowland » Sat Jul 12, 2008 11:46 pm

Seddon Atkinson 401's with different fortunes. The first picture shows a 401 that was rebuilt at Fellows transport (VRE325X) it had taken a severe knock on the O/S/F which had sheared the kingpin into three seperate pieces :shock: I can't tell you how this happened because that info was not available to me.
What I can tell you is that it was powered by a Gardner 8LXCT engine and it was rebuilt for use at Gauden Shepherd transport as you can see from the pic a nice job was made of it :thumbs_up:
The 401 in the second pic is OLM522W which was an early 401 and was powered by a Rolls 265L engine, it had been bought for breaking.
That was for me one good advantage of working for a haulier who used to buy old trucks to break, you were never short of any spare parts albeit second hand ones :lol:

Jeremy
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Re: H Fellows Transport Ltd

Post #17 by Funky-Chicken » Wed Apr 27, 2011 8:21 pm

I knew most of the drivers at Fellows, I used to give them lots of cheek as a kid. Ellis was a classic boss,no job was too big and then there was Ma the big boss.
I used to love the Seddy, My oldman used to drive a 400 for H Welch transport. I remember spending a holiday with him fitting the 401 front. I worked for TCH when I left school which took on the name Thomas Ingles and Gordon Sheppards at Halesowen. I always liked Chris Kelly, very tough but fair. My dad was the transport manager looking after Garringtons and Triplex.

I liked the pictures, they brought back a few memories. I have a nice one of My dads 400 in the Westbrom carnival. I will have to dig it out.


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Re: H Fellows Transport Ltd

Post #18 by Jeremy Rowland » Wed Apr 27, 2011 11:13 pm

Funky-Chicken wrote:I knew most of the drivers at Fellows, I used to give them lots of cheek as a kid. Ellis was a classic boss,no job was too big and then there was Ma the big boss.
I used to love the Seddy, My oldman used to drive a 400 for H Welch transport. I remember spending a holiday with him fitting the 401 front. I worked for TCH when I left school which took on the name Thomas Ingles and Gordon Sheppards at Halesowen. I always liked Chris Kelly, very tough but fair. My dad was the transport manager looking after Garringtons and Triplex.

I liked the pictures, they brought back a few memories. I have a nice one of My dads 400 in the Westbrom carnival. I will have to dig it out.


Your dad must know Paul Turner who worked in the garage at Everitts who's trucks ran out of Garringtons?
I only did a couple of jobs for Gauden Shepherds and that was after Ellis and Kelly had taken them over; I towed one of their Leyland Feighters back to their yard at Mucklow Hill all the way from Ross on Wye with Fellows old mk1 Atki wrecker.
I also set up the injectors on a Cummins NTCE290 in a 401 that one of Shepherds fitters had rebuilt, only to find that when he cranked the engine over to start it, fuel p*ssed out from between the rear and middle cylinder heads, I knew instantly that he had failed to fit the blanking plugs in between the heads for the fuel crossover................ I left em taking the middle head back off.

Jeremy


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Re: H Fellows Transport Ltd

Post #19 by Funky-Chicken » Wed Apr 27, 2011 11:44 pm

I don't think there was a lot left of Everitts when he got there, all had been changed for Scania with the exception of a couple of 7.5t merc's. He still looks after Triplex part and still keeps in touch with John Gaunt from Fellows. I learned to drive in an Atkinson Borderer,I think it had a 180 Gardner, not sure because there were 2. I couldn't drive one because it had no power steering, I was only 6


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Re: H Fellows Transport Ltd

Post #20 by Jeremy Rowland » Thu Apr 28, 2011 7:43 am

Funky-Chicken wrote:I don't think there was a lot left of Everitts when he got there, all had been changed for Scania with the exception of a couple of 7.5t merc's. He still looks after Triplex part and still keeps in touch with John Gaunt from Fellows. I learned to drive in an Atkinson Borderer,I think it had a 180 Gardner, not sure because there were 2. I couldn't drive one because it had no power steering, I was only 6


How is John Gaunt does he still live in Wolverhampton? I got on great with John and rebuilt the engine of his Kawasaki Z650 for him that was many moons ago now. Do you know EB (Eddie Baglin)? He is Kellys foreman at Keltruck West Bromwich, Eddie did a bit on the spanners whilst I worked at HFT before he became a driver.
I often wonder if Len Smith is still alive he was a great bloke, loved his drink too!

Jeremy


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