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