Brambles Long Distance

A bit off topic - but - I laugh every time I read/see/hear anyone complaining about the current Bruce Highway.

And - the same when politicans talk about how much money is being (or about to be spent) spent on upgrading it.

Anyone who drove it pre 1980ish would do the same. Almost EVERY bridge north of Gympie was single lane and the road a max of 18 feet wide.

8 feet of truck plus mirrors didnt leave much room each and every time you passed another truck. Armstrong steering and a 1 foot drop off the shoulder of the tar made it a tad more interesting.

Every 2nd vehicle had a broken windscreen.

And the narrow bridges went thru the creeks not over them - making for some wild jump-up at either end.

What SteveB experienced was happening by the minute. The Johnstone River north of Innisfail comes to mind. South bound trucks (had right of way) would hit the southern approach and bounce across on to the bonnets of waiting cars - or head on into other trucks.
Splitters creek north of Bowen was another bad one. 2 single lane bridges with a 20 mtr gap between. Every one wanted to cross on that piece in the middle.

Heavy loads going to the new Cent QLD mines had to detour via rough detours pushed thru the creeks because the bridge either wasnt wide enough on not strong enough.

No CB/UHF radios - so the push pull loads signaled using the air horn. I cant recall the codes but it went something like this. Long blast if you wanted the rear truck to push harder, short single blast to assist with stopping, and 2 short blasts told the back bloke to have a spell - to knock her into the woobley cog for a while.

And Murder alley - the old Marlbrough stretch. There was 7 or 8 muders on that piece of road over a 2-3 year period.

Then - over a few short years all those bridge were widened, and the tar extended to 22 feet.

Oldfulla

As oldfulla said, that Brute highway was no easy Sunday drive, you had to be on your toes all the time.

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Heading North just out of Bororen, I was following Ken George, we both had on a "cake slice ", a section of the tub for a dragline being erected at Oakey Creek. The road was as 'oldfulla' described it, narrow and a crap surface, there were a lot of single lane wooden bridges back then.

Ken goes down this slight hill and there's a left curve, along with one of these single lane wooden bridges, me, I'm travelling behind at a good easy distance when Ken hits this wooden structure, WOW, my eyes opened and I hit the stoppers as hard as I could.

When Ken hit this 'little bunch of loose twigs', he was going at a good clip, nothing out of the ordinary or unusual, well these twigs went and sagged downward, OK, they all did that, then when the sag was reversed, the whole complete lot of this structure sprang up into the air, I could see right in under that bridge to the bank on the other side, this bridge surface would have been about 2 foot up in the air,

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EH.

By the time I got to it, I was still going at a good speed even under hard braking, I thought I was going to wear the end of this wooden bridge, dead straight on into the radiator.

I was very lucky, that the bridge had dropped down just enough, so my front tyres smashed this back down onto the wooden beams at the approach side of the bridges groundwork.

Next stop Benaraby and a quick call to the local Plod shop, by the time we had delivered those 'cake slices' and returned to this bridge.
Now there was a dirt track detour around this lot and the road gang was trying to fix this loose bridge.

Bloody scary watching a bridge top suddenly pop up, then being able to see the bank on the other side, right in underneath it.

Nearly 'nappy changing time' that one.


regards greenie [smiley=vrolijk_1.gif]

Greenie,was that John Kane the same bloke that used to drive a float for Kingston's in Sydney,and lived around Blacktown somewhere. I remember a bloke by that name when I was with them in the late 60s. Real nice bloke too,and his brother also worked for them.His name was Kevin,both top operators.

Not that I would be aware of, the John Kane I knew was a nice enough bloke, until he started to get into the grog, then, turned into a very nasty drunk.

Up at Brambles Heavy Haulage country resort / weekend residence at Dingo, when I happened to be around at the pub with him. Well he eventually got to the point where he's got a good load onboard and getting rowdy, so the barman say's enough enough, or, he's going to ring the local Mr Plod and have him ejected.

Now all Brumbles steering wheel attendants had a pretty good knowledge, of where ALL the local Plods hide out, 'cause we needed them all the time.

John being a tad mean and nasty by now, knew just where the local was, ( way of at Blackwater, a long way away ) so he looks right at this barman and snarls to him, - " do you realise, just how much damage I can do, before they arrive ?"

Bloke behind the bar backs down real fast, then offers John a slab of FREE barbed wire to just go away, John made sure it was cold one, the party then continued around at the country residence.


regards greenie [smiley=vrolijk_1.gif]

Mate if you have trouble putting the pictures up you are welcome to Email them to me and I'll post them for you.

Hi Greenie, great hearing your stories about your days on the road, really a good read. Putting them in a book sounds like a good idea.

The story about the Walking Dragline cam wheel at Bellata sounded very familiar as I was the crane driver that reloaded it back onto the float. I have a couple photos of the job and when I work our to post pics I will post them.

Thanks Greenie
You might have told me that before some time ago-CRAFT kicking in.
Don't know why I remember this though -I worked at Bandags at Rocklea for a while and remember a loaded Brambles Road Boss and float backed in one day looking for some wind in the float tyres. Of course the compressors couldn't quite do it.

And what about that Chocs? Always thought he had some class, although a bit must have washed off in the move south.
Cheers

How good is that folks, got a couple more piccies of the exact same spilt item, unbelievable, eh

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Thanks for those pictures Bruehawk, I see that my memory is fading fast, thought the crane used was an old Lima, nope ,sure aint an old Lima, so you had to come across from Gunnedah, just to do that one lift then ?

How did you get it out, from under those live wires, before you put it back on the float ?

That bottom photo looks like you got NO spare sheaves up at the top of the stick, eh.


regards greenie [smiley=vrolijk_1.gif]

Had another job where it only needed a Mr Plod, Brisbane to the Tarong power station, so out through Ipswich is the easiest way to get there, everything was going along real good, until we get to where I pulled up, to do a tyre check, just before the Blackbutt range.

We go to depart and Mr Plods vehicle just dies, he's not sure of what's gone wrong, so I'm asked to have a look too.

This Plod vehicle was a Ford and it had all the old glass fuses in the fuse box, lot's of them are black, not a good sign at all.

Now you can't walk over to the nearest gum tree out there and buy an assortment of fuses, about now Mr Plod is looking all dejected.

I used to smoke back then, soon had these dud fuses wrapped in a good quantity of the silver paper from the smoke packet, a 10 watt fuse now becomes a 210 watt fuse, lets see you pop these little suckers now.

Job done at the Tarong Power site and before Mr Plod departed, I told him when he got the vehicle back to the Plod garage, to let the mechanic know, just what I did in that fuse box.

Yep, he sure did, when I get back to the depot later in the day and over handing my paperwork in at the office, it transpired that 'a' phone call had been received earlier.

The fella on the front desk who took the call, doesn't know what this bloke is talking about at all, asks a couple of questions to the person on the phone and then he started to write a few things down, turns out it's the head honcho of Plods car garage and he was a tad hostile.

Did not take long to work out it was me, that did this foul deed.

The head mechanic reckoned that what I had done, could have burnt this vehicle to the ground, yep, sure might off, but I weren't driving it, I only needed him to get to the job site, eh.

We all got a stern lecture, about Qld Mr Plods cars, with a big DO - NOT - TOUCH proviso added.

regards greenie [smiley=vrolijk_1.gif]

Greenie, its really a small world after all, you never know who's looking over your shoulder do you!

Yeah that was the biggest crane in the area in those days and used to do a lot of travelling to get to the jobs back then. I recall a job I did at a school at Lightening Ridge, 10 hours to get there, half hour lifting and 10 hrs home.

I'm also suffering from a bit of craft's but think that cam wheel lift must be about early 1981?

I think I got it out from under the lines the same it went in, just put a chain over and rolled it back out enough to get some clearance. Also had to roll it back onto its side to lift it, so rolled it away from the lines as well.

Your right about using all the sheaves to lift it, the crane was 25t Hitachi and you know how heavy the cam is so I couldn't do any thing fancy with it.

You know what is really fantastic about this forum is you do never know who's watching.

Great to see Greenies story being written down 32 years after the event and then Bruehawk comes on and produces the story and pictures to complete it.

?????? Wonder how many other stories are sitting waiting to be told.

Trevor