Brambles Long Distance

Lots of people are checking out my mad antics, so if anybody comes across these tales on another forum, please let me know who is swiping them.
[smiley=vrolijk_1.gif]

Of course - will do...

Here's another bit dredged from the deep recesses of the memory box, things that can go wrong and stupid antics I have pulled

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Had to take a CAT 235 excavator over to Pt Hedland, bit of a pickle, as there was a tropical cyclone blowing around up near Broome, so the easy way of getting to Pt Hedland was out, had to go the long way round, over the paddock and head north.

All's good as I head across the 'paddock', the 'Nullabor Plain', but my permit said turn north at a place called Northam and work my way north through all these towns that I'd never heard of before.

Started to head for the coast road about where the permit said to, as I go west, the road just kept going slightly uphill, I was down to 8th, when I came across a big sign that had all the writing blasted of it, this sign looked like the army had set-up a squad of M60 machine-guns and used it for target practice, just full of holes, big ones and small ones, but no writing could be deciphered at all.

Had my bum in gear and my 'mind in neutral' as I go passed this sign, then I grabbed 9th, followed quickly by top cog, about now I realised what that sign should have read,

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STEEP DECENT, HEAVY VEHICLES USE LOW GEAR,

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hmm, I'm in top cog,

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oh $hit.
I could see the road ahead looked like the Big Dipper at Luna Park and I'm going way too fast for where I am, hit the stoppers as hard as I can, nope, by now I've got a good head of steam up, all the stoppers are doing, is creating a huge cloud of smoke following me, better release these things before I start to cook all the wheel seals, so it's the big sloppy cog and hope like hell I can get out of this mess, that I've just got myself into.

The road went down and at the bottom of this first slide there's a bunch of trees with a corner and the road starts to go up, breath a sigh of relief at this up bit, hit the stoppers again as hard as I can, didn't even slow it down enough to be able to grab top cog. Then over this crest and down you go again. I think there were about four of these downs and up's, I'm still in the big sloppy cog, over the last rise and way down below, I can see the main highway heading north and south, boy, I still had a good turn of speed and was still trying to get the stoppers to at least take some of the sting, out of this wild ride.

Get closer to the intersection and see that the road I'm on, does not hit the highway at a right angle turn, it's in my favour, as it cuts into the highway at about a 45 degree angle. Hit this intersection and it's still in the big sloppy cog, only now there's this great big cloud of white smoke following me as I do the turn, took every bit of road that I needed to do the turn, it didn't flip and then the highway had a definite uphill to it, only then, was I able to get it back under control, just went up the road for a bit and there was a pull-over. Sure needed that stop, when it had come to stop, hit the park button and the brake pads start to smoke again, out and get a couple of big rocks to chock the drive wheels and release the poor brake shoes from the hot brake drums.

Must have stopped there for a good half hour, until my legs stopped shaking, thinking that I surely had been very fortunate, to get out of the mess, I had just put myself into. Had to tickle up the stoppers too, they had been used, just a tad too viciously, back on that hill.

Keep going north and it's starting to get really oppressive, with the temperature way up around the 40-45 degree Celsius mark, along with the very high humidity, another cyclone was making it's way towards the coast, heading for Broome again, that's two cyclones with-in a fortnight, they sure took a hiding that year.

Now above the town of Carnarvan, the countryside gets real hungry looking, there's nothing for a couple of hundred kays, except for this one Shell road-house, stuck way out in the middle of no-where, stop to get a drink, and as soon as you got out of the truck, a huge swarm of flies descended onto me, all over my back, face and even trying to get up my nose, do a bolt for the door of this joint and' bugger me', hanging of the sides of the door, here's a lot of 'T' shirts for sale, had the name of this 'hick-hole servo' and had these words following,

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friendliest place in Australia, twenty million flies can't be wrong,

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yep, they sure got that right, that's about how many came to greet me.

The road got as hot as 'Hades' with all this sun beating down on it, each time I got out to do a tyre check, I would have to run, or the heat from the ground would soon come through the sole of my boots and start to burn the flesh, $hit, it was hot.

Had to creep along in 7th, to stop those little rubber tyres from going pop with all this stifling heat, eventually got there before the next cyclone started to do any damage, got the CAT 235 off and then they give me a dead D 8 dozer, it had been used as a spare parts bitzer, now it had to get back to Perth to be rejuvenated, very bare machine, no rippers, winch, blade or even the tracks and wheels, all gone as spare parts.
It's just the chassis, motor, final drive and seat along with the engine cowl, a very bare D8, not wide, long or high, a good load.

Get it onboard and now I'm about to head away from the cyclone, the road is still as hot as 'Hades', I don't have any spare tyres left for the L/L, so I will have to do a bit 'spooking', if I don't want any more tyres going bang from all this heat.

Keep driving into the night as the road gets cooler, making good miles now, easy driving with the full moon out as well, you could see out of to the sides of the road, if there were even roos or cattle out there. So, me being a bit stupid, decided to turn the headlights out, wow, the road could be seen as easy as, this got the adrenaline flowing real fast and any sign of drowsiness is long gone, gets the blood flowing real good.

Keep going and the road had sand hills about every couple of kays you just popped over the top of a rise, then back onto the flat easy going again.

Popped over one of these sand hills and, --- what the ####, --- a glint on the left side of the road, switch the headlights on and bugger me, I go over to the other side of the road as quick as I can, this bloke on a PUSHBIKE goes left as fast as he can, turned out that this bike rider was doing exactly the same as me, trying to make a mile with-out getting his brains fried from all the heat, he had NO lights on either.

Straightened this wobbly thing up and kept going towards Perth, vowing to never again do that trick with the headlights, unloaded in Perth and sent on my home home, with out any further ado.


to be continued

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2nd instalment

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It's funny at times, how the grey matter can forget, about some things you've done before and what the following consequences can be, eh.

Heading for Brisbane again, empty and decided to keep going this night, another real bright full moon is out and you could see way out into the paddocks, seems another bit of craziness is in order.

Left Narrandera and headed for Grong Grong, when my stupid grey matter said lights out again. Yep, could see the highway as clear as, so into Grong Grong and a couple of trucks were heading south, so flipped the lights on and then out of Grong Grong and the road straightens out, with the hilltops about 2 clicks apart.

Flip the switch to park and keep going, now I think it's the second rise out of town that used to have a big wide area on the east side of the road, the Main Roads had carved it up for the soil, to build up the road when they made it, now it was a very wide pull off for trucks, caravans or who ever needed it.

Approach the top of this rise where this big wide pull of is, can clearly see the glow from a vehicle approaching me, as his headlights just about came into view, I flicked the switch on my headlights, then it all happened, this car does an immediate left turn of the highway and is braking really hard as his left arse-end starts to take over, still see this lot as clear as day, when he does this power slide way out into the dirt, OH CHRIST, I'm really in the 'poo' now, it was the Plod highway patrol car that did that sliding stop in the dirt.

Me, I just kept the peddle to the metal, looking at the mirror as hard as I could. Nope, he's still stationary, so over the next rise and still no movement from this vehicle at all, over the next rise and he's still sitting there, after that rise I lost sight of him.

Didn't stop and go back to see what's wrong with this bloke,

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would you ?

Didn't stop for another couple of hours, not until I was way beyond that blokes working area.

Never did those stupid antics, ever again, not after that fright.

regards greenie [smiley=vrolijk_1.gif]

Thanks for the memories of days just passed.....Starting this thread has brought a lot of memories back and brought a lot of enjoyment to many people...GREENIE from an old BRUMBLES man ,many thanks

Took this picture from some pictures on the wall at the Victorian old truckies reunion 2012.

Trevor

Who was the parent company of Vaughns?

Vaughans was bought by brambles 1977 approx not long after the passing of Gerard Vaughan in 1976 his family ran it for a while but they had other intrests like the portsea pub which they bought in 1969 and his son Gerry jnr sold it in the late 90.s eary 2000

Who was the parent company of Vaughns?

fairly certain Mayne Nickless Owned them, & Cubico...(among other things)...

Vaughans was never owned by mayne nicks at all cubico was brambles bought vaughans

Just another 'tid bit', dredged from the grey matter,

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Got lumbered to do a bit of A.T.C. ( around town clown ), had to pick up an excavator on the north side of Brisbane and take it over to the south side.

NO Gateway Bridge back then, so, just had to use the Story Bridge.

The load was hanging over the deck of the float, so had the rags and signs out, doing it legally for once, now that was a change, eh.

Come up the Valley using Anne St, as I approach the Story Bridge, these yellow signs are up, warning that the centre lane on the Bridge is out.
Being a tad wide, with three lanes to choose, with the centre one blocked off, I decided to use the outside lane, figured the inside lane might get a bit close to the load.

Came around the bend into Kemp Place and I just went straight for that outside lane, a bit of the load would be hanging over the double lines, so, I took a look at what was on the road.

All the way down both sides of the centre lane, were all these big bright pink witches hats, the workers must of been working down on the south side of the bridge.

Looks like the witches hats closest to me, were going to be a tad of 'collateral damage', eh ?

Yep, that's what happened, all the way up and over the bridge, about a good half kilometre, all these witches hats are getting spat out by the left steer tyre, sent dozens of these hats wildly spinning off out to the left.

When I got over the hump in the bridge, yep, the workers were way down the end of the bridge, they were even being protected by a Mr Plod, who happened to be on foot.

So as I come down toward the Plod, he's still looking at what the workers were doing, he doesn't have a clue at what I've been doing to all these witch's hats of his, so I give him a 'boop' on the big horns, he looks around and sees what I been up too, wide eyed and saying something like, oh $hit, he rips his hat of his head and starts jumping on it.

By now I'm past him, he's picked his hat up and he was walking back up the road, to go pick up and put back in place, every witches hat I've just knocked down.

Do not think he was a 'happy chappy' at all.

regards greenie [smiley=vrolijk_1.gif]

And you laughed for the rest of the day.

Many years ago a friend of mine was a surveyor for the then DMR, andoften had to use witches hats in a similar manner. He had the same problem with truckies using them for "target practice".

Now in the days before the plastic hats, they used to have flags. The base was a bit of steel about 12" square with a short length of pipe welded to centre; the flag would be dropped into this pipe.

He had a few of these left over in has truck and every so often he would place one of these bases under a random hat, and wait for the truckies to come along. The result soon put an end to the "sport".