Gascoyne Trading...

...a big bump back to the top (since not much else is happening : :)...and Acars advice ringing in our ears.....

who will put their hand up for this great old beast?..............

HI All

Just read the Posts for Gascoyne Traders.........Brings back a lot of memories for me.

I started my first Full Time job as the Workshop clerk at Diesel Motors in 1964 at the age of 16.

I remember well the Fodens and Merc's assembled and fitted out for Gascoynes. Being so young and in awe of the places these trucks went to. The north west and NT seemed a lot more remote and exotic in those days. If I got a chance to talk to any of the drivers I would always get them to tell me where they had been.

I then was transferred over to the Car Workshop in 1965.
I remember a Gascoyne boss that drove a green Chev and was finally talked into trading it in for a Merc Car.

I realised clerking wasnt for me and I asked for an apprenticeship but they said no because they thought I wouldnt like the pay drop..........from 9 Pound a week to 3 Pound a week...........the company did organise a 12 month 1 night a week mechanical course at Carlisle Tech for me.I really enjoyed that, but it only confirmed the fact that pencil pushing wasnt for me.

I applied to Newman mines for a job as a Trades Assistant and the RAAF as a Trainee Radio Technician.
The RAAF got back to me 1 day before Newman, so into the RAAF I went.

I am now retired and am very gratefull for my experiences at Diesel Motors and the Drivers for Gascoynes and other long distance transport companies.

Cheers
Darryl

Nice to see some of my photos of Gassie trucks on this post. The one of the Foden with a chiller van was taken in 1968 at the Overlander. The young guy in the Foden was Brian Houlahan who unfortunately died in a roll over about 20 years ago. I am not arguing about copyright as I am pleased to be able to contribute to the history of road transport in WA, however, I still have the original negatives that I photoshopped for these images.

Hi Guys Now I

Did I hear years ago that the 'Yellow Submarine' had a tendency to fall apart on the corrugations?

TDU

If I remember correctly, most of its life was spent on the Carnarvon Freezer runs.

Did I hear years ago that the 'Yellow Submarine' had a tendency to fall apart on the corrugations?

TDU

Sorry to take so long to answer this post but I have only been a member a short time. The 2624s had a 5-speed main with 2-speed splitter and the later, 1969 2626s had a 6-speed main also with a splitter. Now I may have got the model numbers mixed up due to old age and senility. However, I clearly remember my first trip with a 2626. At the time, I was the Senior driver on the Port Hedland chiller run. Jock Wallingford was my offsider and, on this run, we used to load every Friday and if the weather up north was dry, we would plug in the chiller unit into the mains at Bassendean and leave at 08.00 on Saturday morning. If the weather was predicted to be wet, we would leave immediately after loading on Friday evening. One Friday, when we were loading, Lloyd Morey, the workshop foreman came across to the loading bay and told me I was to take out a brand new 2626 on the trip. He also told me in no uncertain terms that he had fixed the gearbox to ensure that I could not use 6th high. If when he checked my tacho graph on return and he found that we had engaged 6th high, we would both be tramped. At the time, this was of no concern to me, so we loaded the truck and headed north on the Saturday morning as usual in fine weather. Jock and I always used to stop at Rakich's store in Upper Swan to stock up on cool drinks for the trip, in those days a carton of Coke used to cost about $2.00 and when I got my new truck rolling, as usual I was doing the up-changes without using the clutch, when I noticed I was in 6th high. It was only when I used the clutch pedal to change down that I noticed that the box dropped down to 6th low without me using the button. Bloody hell, I thought, it was a piece of piss to circumvent the block on 6th High, just change without the clutch. When we returned to Bassendean on the Wednesday afternoon, I went into the workshop as usual to tell Lloyd about any problems that wanted fixing and when I told him what I had found out, he hit the roof, but did not tramp us. A couple of weeks later, I had a guy named Wally Marriot as offsider on this run and he had a son in law who was the Three Springs Traffic Inspector. Wally always used to phone his son in law from Geraldton when we were fuelling up there and he would meet us in Three Springs and take us home for an evening meal. This evening, he told us that he had followed us for about 15 miles and our speed had not dropped below 67 mph. So much for modern trucks.

Apologies for dragging up an old thread, but would anyone know what kind of transmissions the old Mercs had, i.e. both normal control and COE types?

Cheers!

G'day fellas, l just saw mention by Chocs a couple of pages back about Trans Otway and Royal Mail. After Ron Laney from Geelong stopped being a TNT subbie, he had a small fleet of taxi truck type jiggers and he did the Royal Mail as well if l'm not mistaken.

...onya Clarkie on that earlier post....

...this fabulous old banger is still out there crying for the next owner...(and with all due respect to the current owners)...

.....she's got an awful lot of history to make her one of THE most classic Aussie rigs ever to be assembled for use in our Country

BRS, just read your 2624 story I have 4 of them and I can not get 100 km out of them what diffs did they run? Regards Andrew

Its still working
Pic borrowed from facebook/Bruce Wilson
https://scontent.fper1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/12313951_10208180775866928_4048049801433174725_n.jpg?oh=8429fdc505a0c4e0065ca065c2e5e64a&oe=56E88C06