Hell drivers movie Dodge truck

[gah1950]

hello fred.
i think you are correct with the jcb comment,county diggers were big users of the ford 13/6 which was a direct competitor of the jcb 3.i drove a a b100 for them in the late sixties mostly in baglan bay and bp llandarcy.at that time they had a new 5c which was then a big step forward,they also ran some mf450s which were fitted with a perkins engine,i might be wrong ?i remember a fitter from the mount area and his name was john davies he worked for glyn john.Glyn john ran a wide variety of trucks i remember a scammell with the four in line btc trailer and it was used primarily for the bigger reels of aberdare cables and for some of the taller switchgear loads from treforest/blackwood and pontllanfraith factories in those days the livery was green and red.
graham.

[MGI]

The Massey 450 did have a Perkins engine, we used to run one and the engine was really quiet, the tracks were cream crackered but the engine was superb. When we were down Rhymney reinstating a 48" pipeline for MacAlpine/Wales Gas we got Kellands to retrack her! It tramped right up over Fochriw & back by the time we finished! Does anyone remember the White Horse at Fochriw, it was a great Boozer in those days - there was a private coal mine just below it run by a bloke called Terry Rowe and his brother & father! There was a huge open cast mine there then as well but there is no sign of it now, Pub has probably gone as well!

[v64paul]

I know of a couple of kew dodges in preservation. Sadly, and it's something i personally don't agree with they are'nt for display to the general public. The same group of preservationists lost an old daf 1700 loaded with a very nice austin K6 radio van, never to be seen again, also sadly so i concede they might have a point. MF450's had a Perkins alright, the good old bad old 6.354 ! At Morgan's when i were a lad we worked ours to death. Eventually it was replaced with an early cat 215. in comparison to the Massey it sounded terrible on start-up. Cat also used the 3304 in the 951 drott, you thought they would never stop knocking but once you opened the throttle they settled down and ran sweet. I can still hear them now, almost thirty years on ( sniff )... Trucks just don't do it the same and now i'm senior i spend more time in the office anyway. Looking forward to Tom Athertons this summer for a fix of un catalysed, ad blue additive free diesel smoke, hopefully he can once again help us re-live the days before a hi vis jacket was invented and you wore a hard hat to keep your hair dry.

[FOWLER MAN]

[quote="MGI"]The Massey 450 did have a Perkins engine, we used to run one and the engine was really quiet, the tracks were cream crackered but the engine was superb. When we were down Rhymney reinstating a 48" pipeline for MacAlpine/Wales Gas we got Kellands to retrack her! It tramped right up over Fochriw & back by the time we finished! Does anyone remember the White Horse at Fochriw, it was a great Boozer in those days - there was a private coal mine just below it run by a bloke called Terry Rowe and his brother & father! There was a huge open cast mine there then as well but there is no sign of it now, Pub has probably gone as well![/quote

Hi MGI
Small world I remember the pipeline going in, and The White Horse.
Terry Rowe is a very good friend of mine.I remeber his father too, he ran a fleet of bonneted Dodge trucks, (later type than the Hell Drivers), back in the 1960's.
Fred

[gah1950]

hello mgi & fred.
i know terry rowe i drove a navvy alongside him at ryans inthe late 60s,i was until recently moving a 22-rb of his but it is parked up now.talking of the 48 ins pipeline from dowlais to nelson i was on that job driving an akerman h12 for barry cosslett,there was lots of interesting tackle on that job.the coal site you refered to was trecatty and it was run by taylor woodrow ltd it is now a refuse tip.
regards graham.

[MGI]

Still the largest welded steel high pressure gas main in the British Isles. Apparently used for storing gas these days!

Give Terry my regards when you see him next, we were very friendly at that time although we only ever met in the White Horse! Bill from Worcester is how he would probably remember me!

I always remember reporting a suspected gas leak (strong smell of gas) at a gas compound on the hill above the pub and the 'El Supremo' of Wales Gas, a guy called Wynn Cornelius, raced down to some gas fitters working in a small trench in Rymney and asked them if they had a radio (no mobile phones in those days) and the one fitter said he had but it wouldn't get radio luxembourg, El Supremo blew a gasket, didn't see the funny side of it at all!

[brian crowther]

About the time of the hell drivers film coming out I was working for T Suckling who were based in West Thurrock I had
just finished my national service as a driver in the R A S C and fancied having a go at driving for a living. I first drove
Bedford tippers in the Tunnel cement works quarry that was pretty boring plus the money was crap so I went on the road driving bulk a cement tipper namely a dodge with a perkins P 6 engine. I used take bulk cement all over the
southern counties if they were quick drops we had to go back to the tunnel cement for a second load and that was
normally bags cement to be delivered to building sites that was a filthy job unloading 6 or 7 tons of 100 weight bags
After about a year of that plus a couple of accidents as the brakes were useless because cement used to get in the
brake drums I turned the the job in and tried something else. Coming back to the dodge trucks Sucklings had 2 of
them as I said mine had a P6 and seemed under powered but the other one had a R6 and bigger wheels and appeared
to be far better all round. We thought We were jack the lads driving those trucks when the Hell Drivers film was all
the rage. B Crowther.