Brambles Long Distance

Greenie, that is a great story, pity old Cyril didn't conk out when he did, he put together a great truck.

Cam, put together a good truck,

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nope, you got that wrong

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they were a #uckin' good truck.

Happened to be in the yard when the first one appeared on the scene, it was getting decked out with the winch, chain tray, extra toolboxes and all that stuff, it goes off down to the weighbridge that used to be at Hamilton, to be weighed for registration purposes.
Comes back home and we have to strip it down, to one fuel tank on a bare chassis, as it was a tad heavy to register at over 16 ton bob tail, rego would have cost a fortune with that sort of weight.
Got it down to about 11.5 ton second time over the weigh bridge.

My horse was in the workshop getting something done to it, so Eric Collier, workshop supervisor, lived down my way, so he used to give me a lift home at times.

This time, we have to go to the old transport sheds on Ipswich Rd first, where these BWL Leaders were being put together by Cyril Anderson.
Eric had already told Cyril about how heavy that first one was, so Cyril had got hold of these special aluminium rivets and the rivet gun to attach these special rivets.
Eric had to go and see what Cyril was so excited about, me, I'm dragged along as baggage.

Get to the old transport sheds and in to see Cyril, he leads us out to where he's a assembling the second of these BWL's, only had the double chassis rails laid out on some carpenters wooden horses, real flash gear, eh.

Anyway he gets the fella to fit three big bolts to the double rails, leaving a hole empty each side of the bolts, think five holes in a row, end ones have bolts as well as the centre one. Torque these three bolts up with about a ten foot bar, with four big blokes hanging of the bar, before the torque wrench does it's 'click' thing. By three times, so now those two rails to me, were a one piece unit, don't think welding would have got them any tighter.

Now out comes these alloy rivets, two are placed into the empty holes, this jack hammer type of arrangement is now bought into play, it's hanging of a rope that's attached to the open rafters, heavy as, one man, could not hold this jack hammer thingy upright without that rope, took two of them to steady it and start it working.

Attach this thingy to the first rivet and hit the switch, it sounded like one of those air rattle guns you use for tightening up the wheels nuts. Only when everything was tight and firm with the rivet, it breaks the long end off the rivet, this sounds like a shotgun blast when it happens, followed by this heavy thingy, taking off backwards at an alarming rate. The two blokes who were hanging onto this thing, now have to catch this wild bit -o-gear, as it swings back in towards them.
Can now see, why this thingy was attached to the rope, without it, those two blokes would have been bound for hospital.

They did this as though they had done it a hundred times, both holes now have rivets in them, Cyril then walks over to the chassis and grabs the nut on the middle bolt.
With only his fingers, he just started to twist that nut of the bolt, as though no tension had ever been applied to it at all, eh.

The two outer ones needed the spanner, but they were only wrist tight, you only needed the spanner, as your fingers couldn't quite undo them.

This was how the last two chassis were put together and the reduced weight was about two ton, just unbelievable, at how much weight, was in all them big bolts, eh.

regards greenie [smiley=vrolijk_1.gif]

Huck Rivets Greenie, pretty expensive machine too.

I remember reading in Rob Laurent's book about the same episode and how much weight it saved as I was surprised, I wouldn't have thought there would have been as much weight as that in the bolts.

A couple of years ago, a few of us from the club went for a drive and saw 2 of the old Brambles Leaders in one day, just by co-incidence. One was for sale and in Jeff Marharge's yard at the Big Orange, and the other one was in a yard the other side of Warwick. We were all in my old man's Kombi, and by another co-incidence, Fred De Jong was with us, the engineer from Leader. I've got a picture of him standing in front of the one that is now in the Gatton Museum (the one that was at the Big Orange), I'll dig it out.

A couple of years ago, a few of us from the club went for a drive and saw 2 of the old Brambles Leaders in one day, just by co-incidence. One was for sale and in Jeff Marharge's yard at the Big Orange, and the other one was in a yard the other side of Warwick. We were all in my old man's Kombi, and by another co-incidence, Fred De Jong was with us, the engineer from Leader. I've got a picture of him standing in front of the one that is now in the Gatton Museum (the one that was at the Big Orange), I'll dig it out.

Yes, please do Cam.

If you can still get in contact with Fred, any chance of finding out which one of the Leaders at Gatton is, 2nd or 3rd ?

Do you know where the first one, with all the bolts is hiding now ?



regards greenie

I worked with Murray at JNN, I was driving an 8 ton Cranvel crane then (1964) and unloaded most of the curved plate for the storage tanks at Lytton refinery. Normally about 4 trailers a day, unload one then just quick hitch, we stayed on site all day ploughing through the mud.....all the bund walls were built (with an opening for access) and it was like a series of dams, I had to push the trailers in and out of some of them. I found Murray a good bloke to work with, tough and wirey, but I only ever drank with him once, that was enough, little bugger wanted to fight, and he didn't really care who. :

Hi Greenie, the 1 at Gatton was one of a pair that were in McNae's yard, I Ray brought one to the show at Mt Gravatt a very long time ago, both of them were for sale at the same time. We actually went for a drive to look at some old Macks and lo and behold, this one was in the same yard, someone has stuck a Road Ranger in it though, it might also have been the one with the Mack backend after the Berliet one was swapped into the Super Liner-

This is the one that is now at Gatton-

I'm not sure of which one was which. Should be able to get Fred`s number, he used to have all the moulds for the cabs and bonnets and all sorts of stuff under his house, all gone now I think. Here he is in front of the Gatton one-

Gotta say a big thank you to Greenie for some great stories.
Interesting that you did alot of overnight work but no bunk.
Would be stuggling to get a guy to do that these days.

Hi Cam, if you could find out, it would be appreciated.

regards greenie [smiley=vrolijk_1.gif]

Hi BK, he was a tad 'out of the ordinary', eh.

regards greenie [smiley=vrolijk_1.gif]

Interesting that you did alot of overnight work but no bunk.
Would be stuggling to get a guy to do that these days.

Nope, overnight "spooking" was a definite NO-NO with any big ones.

The only time I drove into the night, was if I wanted too and the load would have to be legal regards width, or if I was empty heading for home.

As for sleeping in the truck at night, well Brambles used to pay us an overnight allowance, for hotel/motel accommodation if we wanted too.

Now that spare coin came in very handy after hours, around at the bar, if you get my drift.

So you soon learnt to sleep like curled up crook dog, with a gear stick poking you in the ribs or the middle of the back.

All part of the territory back in them days.

regards greenie [smiley=vrolijk_1.gif]