Loading cars

Is this the way to load cars.
Port Augusta 1974
Photo Terry

That's the way I would have to load them. I don't think I could ever back a car up ramps to the top deck. If I drove 'em up, I could not back them down.

You ask "am I a man or a mouse?" Squeek up.

Yes. Once upon a time when cars had "Chassis", it was quite common to fork a vehicle up on top of a load. Just some wooden
blocks between forks and chassis. This allowed clearance to avoid crushing the exhaust .
Probably wouldn't go down to well with the powers that be these days. Dave.

I think it might be a loading system jointly developed by Drive Line Services and Midas Exhausts.

My memory also says it was a very common sight.

I can remember an episode of the Leyland Bros where their Kombi was forked onto the train in Kalgoolie for the trip over to SA.

It seemed the way it was done.

I had a car on the train Kal to Syd in 1991 and they had ramps and you drove along the double deck train.

Unfortunately I was the second car and the front car lost it's roof rack going under a bridge and my car sustained some pretty ugly damage.

Forking cars on and off really isn't a drama, if you are careful.
Thats my ute off for a road trip.



Although often you need to use blocks of wood etc to make sure you aren't squashing the sills or the exhaust..
Many years ago, we used to bring wrecked cars home from up north, and we would load up smashed cars at all the wrecking yards that we dealt with. So of course we used every dodgy old forklift known to mankind, most with no brakes, running on a few cylinders, and often they wouldn't go high enough to put a car on the top deck. So of course you'd have to use bits of wood on the forklift tynes to "chock" the car high enough to sit on the ramps..and you can imagine the wobble from some old shitbox forklift, at maximum extension with a car swinging around up there. Dad tipped one off once, in Dubbo- there happened to be a car yard right next door to Scotts wreckers in Cobra St, and the car fell on one of his "pre owned delights".. so Dad had to buy that car from the dealer, then it too got forked on the truck, and dragged back home with the rest of the plums, to go to one of the wrecking yards here in Geelong.

We used to take brand new Nissans to Ira Berk's in Brisbane,subbying for Arnolds transport. So we'd load in Clayton, on one of those high ramps that reached the top deck- and yes Morris, we'd back them up or down the ramps! Not really an issue once you were used to it. Then we come back to Geelong, occasionally we'd need to unload the cars to change something, or modify the car frames, or whatever. We had this old Ford Blitz crane, it's previous owner had decided it was buggered and it was going to scrap. I was with Dad one day when he saw this Blitz on a tow truck going to Simsmetal. So as my ever enterprising Dad did, he rang Sims, and bought it from them for $300 - a bit more than scrap price. No brakes or anything of course. So to unload the top deck we'd fire up the old Blitz, open the cars front doors, put a decent lump of wood through the door opening, pad up between top of the wood and the roof a bit so it wouldn't bend the steel where the pinchweld was, then just pluck them off one at a time. Many a time we had to get in there with the multigrips and straighten out the pinchweld parts, never very worried about it though.
There must have been quite a few Nissan owners in Brisbane, wondering why their brand new car had sorta bent bits up in the corners of the door openings!
I don't think they'd be too happy about it these days, somehow...
Have a great day!
cheers
Rich

This was how we loaded vehicles at the old Chrysler plant at Keswick SA, that same crane was used in the early days at Tonsley Park SA for many years.
Not sure I'd want to be standing under that!! :ohmy:



Source:- Photo courtesy of A History of Chrysler in Australia 1946-1981 by Gavin Farmer
cheers
Pierre

Things have not changed much on the wharves (or these days on road building/repairing sites) In the top photo, I count seven people standing around not even watching, while one (the crane driver) works. The two on the ship can be excused because they have to wait for the car to arrive on deck.