Trucking 1950's Australia

About 1955,my old man built himself a bogie tipper out of bits ......the chassis and diffs were WW2 Albion,we went down to the Cribb Island Bus Service where they had wrecked the Albion for a bus motor,then he had to find a diesel motor.....he wanted a Gardner,but had to settle for a Thornycroft.....the gearbox was a WW2 EH mack,and the truck chassis came withthe Albion 2 speed joey box clamped to the round crossmember.....within 6 months it was complete,and on the road registered as a FJ ute.......later on he found a WW2 GM 6/71 tank motor,and it got that put in it ...sold about 1960 for enough money to buy a house...........you wont do that today.

Lang wrote:

Overnite when did the Yellow, Purple and Grey overnight periods happen or did they overlap?

All the TNT owned 6 wheel ghosts were German Racing Silver ( Comet, Hawthorn and Kwikasair), IPEC were yellow, Bats were black, Canterallas were various metallic colours,?( all ex TNT trucks). When the original ghosts were converted to trailers they were done in peaches and cream, and when Kwika went to trailers they were purple and white.

As you fellas have said- the first time I drove an N10 Volvo, I simply couldn't believe how quiet and comfortable it was. I thought "why didn't someone tell me about these before??"And mine was a worn out shitbox that had been to Perth and back forty million times...
Then I had an FL10 a few years later, that was the same, just such a comfortable truck to drive.



But Lang I reckon the reason the american stuff gained such a huge following was just the amount of punishment they could take, and then be put back together and keep going. You can fix a Kenworth without a great deal of knowhow, when the whole thing has shaken to bits, a few bolts and rivets, and they are nearly back to square one for another few years of abuse. And I think the Australian way is to abuse the hell out of everything, and if it takes it, it's ok.
John k- thats the way to build a truck eh? Ronhorse, who used to be member here (dunno where he's gone) has lots of stories on bookface of similar sorts of truck building exercises in the territory, a really great read.
Re the Gardner's, the 6LXB in my old Atkinson, was the worlds most gutless, smokey, underpowered, worn out oil leaking heap of junk to ever turn a mile. But it never ceased to amaze me- it never ever broke down, it purred like a kitten, you could flog it mercilessly all day and night (you had to, it was so slow) and when you pulled up for the night after a mind knumbingly cold/hard /hot/ day, I'd sit there and listen in wonder to this beautiful old motor idling away lock a clock. Bloody amazing it was. Shame it was so gutless tho...
And Mammoth, how good is Ray Gilleland's book "my way on the highway"? My favorite book I think.
Cheers
Rich

Yep Rich, I was forgetting My Way - how could I, maybe because Nullabor kid is on the post office shelves. The power of marketing

Lang wrote:

Paul

Nobody has EVER forgotten their regimental number.

Lang

No so Lang, I bloody well have forgotten mine, is 60 years later an excuse?

Nobody has ever forgotten their regimental number.

I don't think you are claiming to be in SAS so more likely this is a wake up call for Alzheimer's testing - I would get on it right away.

Lang

Lang wrote:

You occasionally meet bull-artists who claim to have been in the Army (mostly in SAS) but they can not remember their regimental number. Nobody has EVER forgotten their regimental number.

Lang From What I've seen & heard of those KNOBS.. The more they talk about It the less they Actually Did...

There were probably blokes who would like to have forgotten!

Ive often been told that SAS soldiers are like Phase 3 Falcons, of the 300 originally made only 35000 survive.

PaulFH wrote:

There were probably blokes who would like to have forgotten!

I had one of them for a Grandfather(WW1 Digger).. & He'll tell you NOTHING