S&M Fox Coal Trucks

olddon thanks for the lead on coal carters, great info on the blue trucks .just what i was looking for cheers den

I worked for a bloke called Ron Hartshorne (RH Engineering Burrows Rd Alexandria) in the mid sixties and he won a labour only contract to build single axle tipper bodies for S&M Fox. He was supplied enough material to make 5 bodies each time. Everything down to the sidelights. The material required for the job had been specified by S&M Fox. His price was verrry competitive. However out of each batch he was allowed to keep the offcuts. He used to make water tanks out of the little offcuts. The big offcuts consisted of 2 12'x8' sheets of 1/8 plate and one 12'x8' sheet of 1/4 plate. This was achieved by making a set of templates out of brown paper and carefully rolling them out over the supplied material to get the most from the least. Verry crafty fella young Ron. He also made all Fruehauf

The Coal Carters site is a great site, there's a lot of history in Burragarang & it got me thinking,
I spent some time in the Oakdale/Picton/Camden area as kid/teen in the 70's/early 80' & vaguely recall the Fox Trucks & well remember the 24hr procession of Clutha 1418's/Inter's/Roadboss's & the single drive RC's running(though not the KW's or Scania's) & a few old Leyland Clydesdales ? Also went down to theClutha Oakdale operation c.'76/'77 with a schoolmate & his Dad who was contracting (the mine roads drop off's scared the hell out of me at the time) & also attended the Operation closing down/clearing sale c. late80's/ early 90's.
So I was a little suprised when I checked Google Maps & www.nearmap.com/ to see what still remained - clearly, there was in Feb 2010, something still going at the Oakdale mine site as around the old washery area there are loaders/conveyors/dredges operating. Neat to see the old Bailey bridge across the river still intact too ( recall that being one scary ride too as wide eyed kid) - Anyone know what's happening now at the mine site ?
I'm not trying to hijack this S&M Fox thread, just trying to continue with any recent developments to the Burragarang story (anyone who drove there has my admiration for their shear guts) - there must be a lot more photo's/stories around from it's heyday to be shared.

gerat to see the link to the story of the blue coal trucks,my dad bought a 1418 benz from them in the late 70s and took it to canberra to cart blue metal....pictures brought back a heap of good memories..

When I moved out to Campbelltown from Sydney in 1965,I got a job driving a tipper for an old guy called George White in Camden.He had a few trucks,rollers,front end loaders etc.contracting to the Main Roads Department,which were in the process of removing the hair pin bends on Razorback Mountain near Picton.Razorback was in the news in later years when the interstate truckies held their big road blockage,headed by two guys called Ted Stevens (Greendog) and Spencer Watling,which resulted in the NSW Government rescinding the per mile road tax on trucks.I didn't make much money but the blokes driving the coal trucks were well paid.
George had worked with Stan Fox years ago and got me a start on the coal trucks,then known as S&M Fox.It was like joining the Cosa Nostra! It was a good job,but everyone was someones brother,cousin,father-in-law,uncle or son.You name it.I didn't know anyone.I was given a Leyland Comet single drive prime mover with a single axle aluminium tipping trailer which was legal with about 15 tons of coal.You took the truck home every night,you could start work any time between 4am and 8am and were required to complete at least three trips a day but could do five if you felt like it.All work was paid as trip money which was unusual for local work in the 60's.You could work up to 12 hours a day but no more.If you had time you could do five loads and pre-load one for the morning.Then in the morning you could tip that load at 4am,do two more loads and be finished for the day if you wanted to.On Fridays we would have gone to work,gone home ,showered and be standing in front of The Good Intent in Campbelltown when it opened at 10 am!
At Christmas the coal pits closed down for four weeks holiday so everyones truck was parked outside their house for a month.Just imagine companies doing that to-day!
Stan Fox & his wife,Millie sold out to a yank called Daniel Ludwig whose business was called Clutha Development.There were at that time 250 company owned trucks and around 500 subbies carting coal between Burragorang Valley and the Glenlee coal washing plant at Camden,where it was loaded onto rail wagons to go to the wharves for export.We also ran loads down to Port Kembla to the AIS steel works and also for export to Japan(so they could make Datsuns and send them back to us!).
When I started on the coal trucks in 1965 they were still running 85 of the AA Series International rigid body tippers which had been re-powered with Perkins 6.354 when the old petrol motors were worn out.
As I stated in an earlier post,the Inters had a bad habit of breaking off the stub axles.The company used to get the stubs welded back on and put the trucks back on the road.
After the Comets they bought a fleet of of the new Leylands with the Ergomatic cabs which I think came about after Leyland took over AEC.After that they bought some Commers with Perkins which didn't last too long and then they had some 1418 Benz's and then they bought a couple of hundred White Road Commanders but that was after I had left. If you would like to read a little more about the "blue trucks" click on members.optusnet.com.au/gmartin66/About.html its very interesting.This was the best truck driving job I had in my whole working life.You would never get conditions like that again.
Cheers

here is a new resto, no32 S&M Fox 6 wheeler

Is the ole girl local coal carter???