Comming into Renner Springs from delivering the mail to Larimah I had burnt out 2 valves on the petrol motor and about to burn out another, I limped into John and Dorothy Doyle's road house, the engine quit and that was that. Sometime later my mate George Richards came along with Kittle's Bedford with a load of large fuel drums of oil for the mines at Tennant Ck, He said, "you can't stay here there's no beer, I'll tow you into Tennant" We hooked up a long chain and off we went, everything fine until we got to Churchill's head jump up, about 3 quarters of the way up the bedford would not make it, none of the trucks had enough braking power to hold them on a jumpup so he let it go, knowing I was behind him and nowhere to go he swung the wheel and it did a perfect jackknife with the semi sitting on it's belly on the edge of the cliff, the best piece of driving I have ever seen, the tanks tumbling off down the ravine, Jeff kittle came up with one of his Fodens and pilled us both up to the top, I sent word down to Alice for a new cylinder head and George was forever known as JACKKNIFE GEORGE!!!

[IMG]http://i1141.photobucket.com/albums/n593/ronhor se/Mack.jpg[/img]

I first learned that a diesel engine would run backwards when I was driving an old NR Mack tipper at the Leigh Creek open cut coal fields in SA, I would back up under the mechanical shovel, kill the engine and wait to be loaded, (it was government so no hurry!) When I was loaded I would let the truck run forward , put it in 3rd gear and pop the clutch to start, well, one day I forgot and left the gearbox in reverse, the old mack started up and ran like a bird except for this plume of square of blue smoke going straight out of the radiator into the still air, engine running smooth as you like, Great stuff on the origin of the name "diesel" not only is this site amusing but informative as well!! Our Gardners werre badged "Gardner oil engines" as the Pom's were still a bit miffed at the Germans and wouldn't use the name, even dropped the SS from Jaguar>

Me at the back deperately looking for somewhere to help,trying to get these pictures the right size!!

Took this picture off a video Knox Grammar school sent me of an expedition Len Tuit and I took them to Ayers Rock in 1950, not clear but gives an idea what the journey was like, Len promised them 4 wheel drive vehicles, he lied!! not about to miss out on making a dollar

Unloading at Sydney, Holden boxes from Adelaide, my two daughters on the front,my wifes name on the front, in Adelaide at Holdens I would get the loading order, go around to the yard and slip a 10 pound note in the order form so the man in charge would give me a light load, payed the same as heavy ones. However going into Sydney one night the roads were blocked due to heavy rains so being light took the alternate route, across a narrow bridge and up a grade that was like a wall, stuck it in bog cog and hoped, halfway up a tailshaft snapped, couldn't hold it on the hill and had to let it go, hopped out and it went down the hill and did a perfect jackknife blocking the bridge, traffic held up for miles, never seen such rain, tow truck came out fron Sydney, put a chain on the front and it came around and up the hill neat as you like, amazing

Ted Stiles first introduced Cummins power to the NT, he also bought the first Mack B61 over from Queensland, old mate Merv farrell was driving it, we had a yarn on Churchill's head, I was impressed, I would have driven it for free!!

Thanks cenTRpede for John Ryans picture, really neat, he and Noel Buntine were a great pair of blokes, real gentlemen, knew them well. Noel worked as a checker over at the railway station on Saturdays checking the perishables off the train, Old mate Doug Foster ended up managing his operation, Doug got a Rhodes scholarship to study cattle transport here in the U.S. and stayed with us for a couple of weeks here in Florida. When I was in Canada working in the 60's I was interested in the way they put turntables on the back of their semi's to hook another one making it a one man operation, Doug took the idea back to Oz and I believe that's how the B doubles came about

I like the shorthand you use squishy, could revolutionize the education system, better than that rubbish they try and teach you

Glad they are of interest loadstar, must be loads of these out there, you are in the new year, we are 14 hours behing you :-[ love the Sydney celebrations

This is listed as a KB7!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Would like to wish everyone on this site a great 2011 and for keeping it going with such interesting stuff. I'm glad some of the pictures of NT trucks on truck-photo.net were of interest, if I had a working brain I had intended to put them in the proper sequence, it was a unique time in the Territory during the late 40's and early 50's, there was probably only about a dozen or so semi's operating in the state, mostly lend-lease Chev's and Ford's. Southern operators cleaned out all the good stuff from the auctions after the war except for the Diamond "T"s and Federals, too slow for the big smoke! People came from all over the country and piggy-backed 4 0r 5 at a time down to Alice, that was my brothers job. Everyone used McGrath 24' round nosed semi's, way overloaded of course. At the first big jumpup going North it was at Barrow Creek, 3 or 4 would be waiting there until it got dark and cooler, then one would go and we would hear the engine getting slower then start to pick up and we knew it was over the crest, then the next one would go, we would go last as we had the BIG GARDNER!! and could unhook and pull one over if needed. The work ethic was non-existent then
,laid back, 25 quid a ton to Darwin so everyone was making a few bob, no big outlay for equipment!! 4 0r 5 of us were waiting for the Ghan to arrive one saturday, Les O'Neil who owned Australian Blue Metal was there telling us he had bought into Co-ord and his son Dennis was going to run it starting from the ground up, we all rolled our eyes at that, with our daggy old trucks and he with about 4 BRAND NEW Fodens with BRAND NEW trailers, we thought we were quids in with BRAND NEW tyres! In the early 60's I did my mandatory 2 years on the Hume (and lived) The only bright spot was going through the check point at Maroulin they thought I had a KB6 with a bogie trailer, when They checked my old KB8 it had a high GVW so was legal. Ticked them off! Life on the road, what stories there are out there untold, need some young journalist to gather them all up like Jack Maddox

Well, what a nice response, thanks guys, made an old man's day, thought they may have been too old, I really really enjoy reading all your stories and of course the humour, that dry laconic Aussie humour, I miss that as I am hiding from the DMR in Florida!!! I spent a couple of hours on the computer trying to send the pictures until my head started to hurt, probably from eating yippee beans on the Hume! then a little light came on and I remembered several years ago sending a bunch to a site in Scotland, www.truck-photos.net click on to contributors, go down half a mile to my name, Ron Dingwall, gives an idea what they are. I have all the original pictures, how I still kept them I don't know, luck, in the meantime I will try to work it out

Anyone interested in pictures of old trucks we built after the war in the N.T?