Some EX Kwikasair / Comet 8 wheelers

A bit of TNT nostalgia




....................In the early 70s When i was on my first trot with Alltrans &

Zacuba,....One day i came into the office to get my loading docket. Our chief at the time ( Lloyd Glasby) had

just got off the phone to HQ & was telling every one who would listen, that a few Ghosts had taken a scenic

drive into the scrub some where.

One of their drivers was super quick in the fog...so.....if the visibility wasnt too good .any one around would

tuck in behind him & just keep the tail lights in sight, so this particular time a coupla blokes did just that.

By now you just know what was going to happen. He sorta doesnt take a corner & charges of into the paddock,

with the other blokes hot on his tail. Luckily , as the story goes , things wernt all that dramatic.

But did provide a bit of a talking point for a while................................
...................................Billy..............................

Carting Zacuba bricks wasnt what you would call super easy, simply because the packs went onto the

trucks same condition as they went into the kilns, ie, a lot of air space so the heat could cook them.

No pallets, no strapping etc. The bottom row had to be pretty spot on so the grab would pick em up.

We had wire mesh angles & every thing had to be roped down to stop any movement while traveling.

They had one 2 axle dog trailer that used to literally destroy the load making it a lousy job to unload.

When i got into 844 they got a coupla tri axle pig trailers & i had one of em. This had a swinging

draw bar, so too much weight on the rear had the nose up in the air, while too much on the front

had the nose dragging on the ground. It turned out ok as fully loaded to the rear had it slightly nose down.

This was the best position to keep the load intact . Only full loads were carried on the trailer.???????

Doin a multi drop was always a pain in the rear , as , no matter how much thought you put into it ,

you mostly ended up transferring the trailer load onto the truck some where along the line.

Now if a pack falls apart while unloading on site , you would just kick em off.....But......transferring in some

back street means you have to re stack the thing to get it onto the truck,Not good, specially in summer.

One day i goes out with 2 drops , trailer for one site ,truck for the other.....takes a punt that i can get the

trailer into the first site. Wrong guess, so leaves the trailer where i can transfer it & takes the truck to

the next site. gets there & theres a house slab on the high side of the street, the builder says i want the

load on the slab. So i say mate thats nearly impossible with the steep slope, to back up the dug up

front yard & unload with out the packs all falling over. So he gets all aireated ,rings the yard , the chief tells me

to at least give it a go. So undoes every thing, gates down, lifts the first pack off the truck,swings it around

at this point the trucks wants to lean over a fair bit ,& the crane doesnt work because of the steep slope,

any way i gets the pack onto the slab, the builder comes over saying thats all i want on the slab, you can put

the rest on the footpath. WHAT...........youve put me through all this for one pack.

Now ive got to rope every thing up because i cant move without it all falling over.

I could have unloaded easily on to the foot path, then folded every thing up with 1 pack in the grab,backed

up to the slab & popped it on there with the minimum of fuss.

Thankfully i didnt go back there again as the builder rang the yard & said he didnt appreciate a driver

giving him a big mouth full.

After that i still had to go back to the trailer, transfer the load to the truck & deliver it onto the site

Gets back to the yard where the allocator sez ......Where the hell have you been ??????????

Ive got another creamy load for you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That just about sums up a normal working day & it only took me about 18 years to throw in the towel.

.......................Billy.......................

Hey Billy, did you ever have that puckering moment when you try and slew a load uphill, and the opposite reaction pushes the truck downhill? A very scary event in a single drive 3070 with wedge maxis only on the drive and none on the trailer!

Oz,
The truck moving off was always an occupational hazard when unloading on steep slopes , especially

in the wet. If it moves with the grab close to the ground , then hitting the down handle drops it to the ground

& all is OK, just a matter of re stabilisin every thing & carrying on...BUT......

if you have the loaded grab up in the air(for what ever reason) & the thing starts to choof off, youve

gotta do some pretty quick reasoning or the truck could be on its side in no time flat.

Hittin the down lever seems to take for ever to make things happen..........So...........maybe no alternative

than to hit the grab handle & have a ton or two of bricks fall to the ground.(or through the roof or wall

of a building) The decision has to be made in a split second.

If you say dont get in that position in the first place,well, hindsight is a wonderfil thing,

But any body who has carted bricks for a length of time, will know how demanding it can be ,& if you dont

like what you are demanded to do, its time to move on...........Of corse if you realise its too gangerous

or you think you just cant do it .......say so ......there may be quite a few arguments ....(there WILL be),

in the end, Alltrans always backed our decision.

Like any thing else ,you can always say, well, it seemed like a dood idea at the time.

The old 8 wheeler Leylands we had first up had a good safety set up while unloading .... A flick switch on

the dash ( similar to a diff lock bizzo ), was plumbed up to activate the brakes on the 2 steer axles.

So, with that on, the truck never moved at all.

Another plus with that was..........you get to a dicey site where you are sure you could get bogged.,,,so

as you are backing in, at an appropiate spot you flick the switch & the truck stops with the drive spinnin,

There you are, you say to the builder,i told it wont get onto the site, have another go he sez,,,,,OK....

Thats funny ????, same result, Well, i guess they will just have to go out front on the foot path or what ever.

we wanted this system fitted to the KWs but TNT Equip said NO. may be somthin to do with regulations

i dont know.
Well thats it for a coupla weeks or so ......................Billy........................

Another bit.............

PGH Bricks ( including Zacuba) have just worn out another transport operator.

Kings Transport now have the job of delivering all the PGH bricks from the yards to building sites.

Ive lost count of the transport companies that have been involved since Alltrans / TNT bowed out....

Alltrans ( in my opinion ) did an excellent job as the preffered carrier over the years.





The bloke on the right is ....John Fletcher......the last brick transport manager for Alltrans ,based at the Zacuba
yard.



You hear about the term ,seat of the pants motoring, well i kinda wonder if it still applies nowa days....

Roads that are totally better than days of old, high horse power that flattens out a lot of hills, un heard

of comfort etc,,,, auto boxes ,, no wonder drivers go to sleep, compared to days gone by with never ending

gear changes & the physical demands of just keeping the truck on the road....
..........................Billy........................

....Back in the day, Tripple M bumper stickers were every where.





Thinking back about the job, it seemed as if we did nearly as many miles in reverse as we did in forward gears.

some of the building sites & lane ways that we had to get into wernt too good at all.

I think the steepest site we had to back into was an elevated block with house (mansion) extensions being built.

The drive way was about 200 feet long up the side of a hill, with an S bend in it.

In deep reduction & governed revs at the bottom you had to be spot on to get around the slight S bend

(no second go at it ) then by the time you got to the small level spot to unload the GM was ready to stall.

If you left the Horton fan on, it just wouldnt make the grade. Yeah that was really steep...........


The longest reversing bit i ever did ......

Was a truck & trailer load into the Megalong Valley out from Blackheath in the Blue Mountains.

The road in is pretty steep & winding, with not all that much room, then i had to drop the trailer off

to get in the last 2 kays. ..Now this was like a narrow fire trail, with the building site off to one side

where they had cleared trees etc (so i was told).

Several times i had to bulldoze some small trees with the bull bar to keep on goin.

Just on 2 kays in , the site appears..........half a dozen trees cut down & a turn around area that a ute could

just fit in ,that was it..................

With only enough room to unload in between the trees & absolutely no room to turn around, backing back

the 2 kays was the only option,..........Then i had to transfer the load off the trailer onto the truck,,

deliver that,. then back out the 2 kays again...There was a coupla spots where i could slip it into high range

soooo, it didnt really take all that long. ( if i wasnt doin that i would be doing somethin else ...that was the way

i looked at it.)


Heres another bit of nostalga




One sunday morning a few truck & trailer loads had to go to North Sydney , where a large apartment

building was going up,,, we had to park in the street , lift the brick packs onto pallets , then the site crane

would hoist them up to where they were working.

I parked the truck with the nose level with a house garage making sure there was enough room for the owners

to get their car out & turn left up the street..................Half way through unloading a car horn starts blasting

away...........a car was tryin to get out of the garage in front of the truck...........so i goes up to guide it out

in case theres a bit of traffic.................I says to the old girl theres no traffic comin so away you go.

she then sez i want to turn right......Lady you will have to turn left & go out that way, that will be ok .

Then in a high pitched voice with a large plum in it she sez..Young man ...when i leave my garage

I ALWAYS TURN RIGHT so shift your truck......Well today , lady, if you want to go driving you are goin to

have to turn left.........with that the horn started blasting away................so i just walked off & left her to it.

The horn blew for about 5 minutes then the car backed back into the garage & all was quiet again......................


An earlier thread on this forum was about drivers working on trucks ( namely adjusting brakes)

Well ,i knew a bloke who decided to do just that, He owned a truck & carted bricks up the central coast (NSW)

while waiting to get loaded one day he says i think i will just nip up the brakes. So he grabs his trusty 9/16

ringy & tapping stick..saying ill start at the front ... leaning over the front steer wheel he puts the spanner on

the adjusting nut& WHAMMO, the tyre explodes & he spends the next few months in hospital having his

arm reconstructed. So, there you go, you just dont know whats around the corner..........



Well, today sees the start of the new carriers of PGH bricks (including the old ZACUBA yard )

Kings Transport, with 13 brand new trucks (some super dogs behind crane trucks.............

some movers & tri axle trailers with those fork lift bizzos.
.................Billy......................

The demise of 1BX 819..........(formally KT 819.)

Just recently i learned that 819 had gone to that great wrecking yard in the sky.

It happened about 18 years ago ( give or take) On Stoney Creek road Bexley. (or there abouts).

819 was west bound in the wet ,on a section that had an unusually high accident rate.( not long after

this happened the road was re sheeted)

The traffic up front suddenly stopped, leaving 819 to pull up in a hurry, in doing so it drifted onto the

east bound side , collecting the rear of a trailer loaded with a 40 foot container that itself was east bound.

So now here it was , with the r/h side of the cab torn off, plus a few other things that didnt look too good

either............The result was the ins co decided to write it off.

Up to this point old 819 was in pretty good nick, as after i got out of it, it was driven & then bought by

one of the Zacuba drivers who refurbished it & then operated it as an Alltrans subby.

Any way , the old 871 & 15 speed R/R had been replaced by a 892 & 13 speed R/R

The cab had been re up holstered & every thing inside looked like new. And Oh yes, an air operated

window was fitted to both doors,with the controlsl on the dash.( handy for talking to people in the

next lane).

The old brick bodies were welded together to make a full length , but still with, the opening tray.

The chassis rear was modified & a rear mount crane fitted, that finished that part of the deal .

6 spoke spiders were fitted to the drive, in lieu of the Budd adaptors, 5 spoke spiders fitted to the

2nd steer ,( got from a bloke he knew , at the right price, of corse.)

The old Budd adaptors were left on the front steer,( may be to be replaced later on) I think at this stage

the bank balence was getting a bit thin.

A new paint job & alluminium bull bar & she was pretty right to go.

It was then re numbered 832 , this got it off the TNT books & gave it some recognition.( 2 way call sign..etc)

NOW....All this toil was down the drain ...............So he bought the wreck with the idea of may be getting it

going again..........mean while ........he bought a 2nd hand T- Line , fitted the crane & bodies , then sent it

to work still with Alltrans at Zacuba.

Now all this work he had virtually done him self. .......Not a bad effort......but thats how he was.

One day a bloke said to him, whats goin on with the KW............im in the market for the 892 & the

13 speeder...............So away they went. Some time later the rest was sold to a St Marys wreckin

yard.............So unless some one put it all back together..we assume that was the end of the

road for 819. I suppose all good things come to an end some day.

Ill post this , then put up a few pics,....................................................................

.
.Here is 819 as it looked when i was in it.........................


Here is 819 after it was sold to a Zacuba driver who rebuilt it and then subbied to Alltrans at Zacuba.........
The truck no was changed to 832 to get it off TNT books and give it some recognition for 2 way operation etc,,,etc.....





Here is the result of the little bingle..................










Got to dig up some more
.............................Billy..............................



...................Billy...................

Both doors had been fitted with air operated windows
and the interior done in those colors............










I should have mentioned that the driver got out with minimal injuries .... thankfully...........
................Billy..............

It may have gone somewhere else, but wouldn't it be funny if 819 ended up in Billy Seiders' yard in St Marys-

All-Trans Spares

Whaddya reckon?

Grant.