The Ore team. part 2. On the road and tipping at Llanwern Steel Works.
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- čas přidán 23. 12. 2015
- As with part one, no comments regarding the rights and wrongs of the 'coal strike' will be approved, this is purely about the transport !
Filmed during the 1984/5 coal strike. Around a 150 lorries at a time would load iron ore from Port Talbot South Wales, then travel down the M4 motorway under police escort to the Llanwern steel works, keeping the steel works open.
Steel mesh over the windows on some lorries can be seen, this is to protect the drivers from missiles being thrown by the strikers.
Not the best quality video, but after much work it is now at least watchable, the first three minute are on the road and a bit repetitive, but as there is little footage out there of motors of this period I've left it in. - Auta a dopravní prostředky
it would make you weep when you see the british built lorries there that we have now lost this industry
F88's, F10's F12's and Wendy houses going by..seems like yesterday, Leyland Marathons and Foden Haulmasters too, real classics now
I've seen a questions about the brown bags handed to drivers by someone in shorts ? this was the drivers packed lunch which was issued twice a day as we were unable to stop at anytime. Tea and Coffee was provided at Port Talbot steel works, and as soon as you have loaded and parked up, you could help yourself to a brew. Looking back, the packed lunch was ok at the time, sarnies chocolate bars and crisps were the staple diet, with definitely no Veggie option ! No wonder there were some big bellies around in string vests, not a pretty sight ! As far as the iron ore is concerned, 2 large bucket fulls were about 20 tons in total depending on good the machine driver was. In the footage of the trucks arriving at Llanwern, the security guard in the picture waved the trucks through, but every now and again he would signal to a truck to pull onto the weighbridge for a check weigh. I did this a few times and weighed in and around the 38 ton mark, but did weigh in once at 43 tons. I thought my ageing Leyland Marathon was struggling a bit, and then i knew why.
Why,, were you over weihgt, the ruleing class.can brek the rules, no teckos either,,, ?????????
I was there in my youth and watched the lorries go on their way on the M4. I felt proud of them for their courage.
Because of the nature of the job , we did not weigh at all at the Port Talbot end when we loaded , the signal from the British steel security guard at 4.04 was for the vehicle that he was signalling too , to have a check weigh , this was something that we all liked as when you were check weighed you went to the front of the convoy on the way out , meaning a longer break in the sun ,I was the youngest of the E and J Meeks drivers at the time at 23 years old and many of the old boys are long gone , best year of my life , and we had a real blast of a time .
Hey Dave I think I remember remember your CB handle ''bits and pieces ' wasnt it ? . . ..
Great to see all the old classic lorries at work. Thanks for posting.
all tipping side by side, no hi viz vests or beacons couldn't do that now - good old days -
Makes you wonder how we managed to stay alive mate, or was it just called common sense !
Safe tipping zones had not been thought of then!
What great film when I was on bricks and blocks used to see Meeks up and down that m4 could not catch half of them 👍
My Dad was on this run, he drove for Meeks. used to go with him every now and again from the Kirkby Depot to Newport. He really enjoyed being on the convoy and me and brother wanted to go with him but e weren't allowed. His name was Tom Marriott, he has passed away now but seeing this video has bought back some great memories, thanks
So pleased this has brought some good memories back to you, that's what this channel is all about. Have you seen part one.
@@SMayleification yes thanks, was excellent
I started on Meeks’s in 1984 when i was 23 Tommy Marriott was the first driver i met there, he took me under his wing for the first week. Lovely man he was.
HI Jason, I was a Mechanic at Meeks in Newport from 83 till 87 and knew your Dad, we always called him Tommy, he was a lovely chap, as was all the Kirkby crew, sorry to hear he has now passed on. best regard, Glyn
My dad was from the Kirkby yard and moved to Newport not long after this and was based out of Newport. He sill lives in the area his name is Barry seddon. I also worked on a Saturday morning cleaning trucks at Kirkby my names Mick I would have been about 14 then.
Hi, i was a young 22 year old driver on this convoy and spent 12 months up and down the M4. I have Just discovered this video and i have enjoyed the footage greatly. I made lots of friends on the Iron ore convoy and some of which i still see occasionally. Everyone had a CB in their cab, and the banter and mickey taking was relentless. Seeing the old trucks brings back some fantastic memories for me, and something on this scale will never be seen in the UK again, im sure of that. Some parts were a bit hairy mind you, going through the Newport tunnels sticks in my mind, 10 feet behind the tipper in front of you at 60mph and no view ahead whatsoever was quite an experience ! Great video keep it up.
Thanks Tony, you are the first driver who was there and witnessed this first hand to comment on these two video's and hopefully you can answer some of the questions I've been asked about them.
Feel free to reply to any of the past comments but try and keep the politics out of it as this is purely about the transport. Thanks for viewing and commenting.
I was also on the convoy, I had the only Meeks Seddon Atkinson, Polecat was my handle on the CB, I remember some of the lads on there. Bunny, Animal, Banshee, Tail Gunner, we ran on different channels as there was so many of us. Ive got loads of photos of the trucks, on the M4 and tipping Llanwern.
I’ve seen this film before and I believe it was filmed during the 1984 miners strike, with the trucks tasked in getting enough iron ore into steel works very quickly to enable production to continue. Notice the grills on the cab windscreens.
Excellent - you did say you would get this video up before Christmas !!!Thanks, Chris
+5020Chris He-he, only just though !
Thanks.
That’s my old man at 9.26 in the blue vest. I was only a kid but went along for the ride and free sandwiches 😂😂😂
My dad was a driver on this I had a couple of days with him it was a sight to behold. Was that Eric Meeks dodging about with the load tickets.
Great to see those old vehicles but that was the end of South Wales!
Lots of donkey engines flatout on the artic's great video and a good mix of trucks
He sold it on in 1977 still in blue with a white bumper but it could be the one. But I will never know Thanks for the film
When summer was summer. Brown grass lol 😂
I found these 2 films last week and have watched them dozens of times since. They are brilliant. When I left school in 1985, I worked for E & J Meeks as an apprentice fitter. It would have been about the time this was filmed. I am always searching for photos of old Meeks lorries but this is the best thing I've found yet. Thanks for putting it on CZcams. I'm enjoying your other films too.
Thanks again. You have made this ERF fan very happy.
Chris.
Thanks Chris, if you were in the garage around that time you will remember Dave Clarke who let me have these films.
He also gave me some footage of the yard fire around the same time, at some point, I'll put it on here but it needs a lot of work to get it something like watchable.
I don't remember Dave from that time as I worked in the garage on Stanley Road in Mansfield (Mansfield Roadways) and only worked in the garage at Kirkby occasionally. But I did meet him about 3 years ago when he interviewed me for a job at his firm. I don't think I impressed him, I didn't get it.
Look forward to seeing the footage about the fire, I remember it. We had nothing quite as dramatic at Mansfield, but did have lots of airlines cut one night, and radiators punctured with screwdrivers.
Ha, I remember Roadways well, my uncle worked there in the 1960's.
This image from my 'flickr' site is before your time there, but may be of interest to you. www.flickr.com/photos/75262259@N03/14035732891/
Just looked at the photos of the Roadways fire. Some of the old timers there told me stories about it but these are the first pictures I've seen. I like the write up under the picture. The place was still a relations nightmare when I was there. When the lorries went out in the morning, they would leave oily tyre marks right down the street, so being the lowly apprentice, my first job in the morning was to literally scrub the road clean so not to upset the residents.
Your uncle must have work under George Hill. I only met him once as he had retired when I was there, but they say he was quite a character. Did your uncle drive a tipper? I was told they used to run flats as well. It was all tippers when I was there. ERF B series, and a few C series, Foden Haulmasters and a couple of Scamell Routemans. Oh, and 1 Iveco!
Happy Days!
It would have been in George Hills time (I remember George's house was called 'Roadways' at High Oakham), Uncle drove an Albion LAD cabbed six wheeler flat, like the one undamaged in the picture. The lorries were allover dark blue in those days.
My father used to have a Volvo f88 in the same shade of blue as the one on the motorway he used it on the Middle East run
+Sean Jones Did it have chevrons on the bumper, is this the one ?
Absolutely loved watching this I'm definitely subscribing to your channel. I need a bit of a history lesson though. How would the ore normally have been transported? I understand that ore is mined but if this was ore why did the miners strike mean the ore had to be transported this way. Were the ore miners out in sympathy for the coal miners or was there another reason why it had to be this way. I hope I'm not going to stir up trouble I'm just looking for facts because I was too young to know what was going on at the time. Cheers, Davy
+David Webster Thanks for taking an interest in this channel, and welcome aboard.
The subject of the miners strike is a delicate one even after 30 years, people around my area are still bitter about it even now on both sides of the fence !
My understanding of it is that the rail unions were in sympathy with the colliers so reduced or even stopped the movement of ore and coal which was the main method of transport to the steel works, with around four train loads a day going into Llanwern around eight thousand tonnes of ore.
However the steel unions were under threat of closure them selves so kept the steel works open.
There is a large port at Port Talbert were most of the ore is imported, I'm not sure if ore is still dug around that area which was the main reason the works were built their, as well as a ready supply of coal.
If you have an interest in this part of social history this web site might be of interest to you. Regards.
www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/callinicos/1985/miners/chap4.html
+SMayleification Thank you for the reply. That's very interesting and I'll go and check the link you've posted. I remember minors strikes as a child as well as the issues at ravenscraig as I live in Scotland.
David Webster - This is exactly the same scenario as Yuill & Dodds running from Hunterston to the Craig.
Great video of some classic old trucks - and trailers!. They don't seem to be carrying much in each lorry?
Iron ore is very heavy, I would think they would have their weight on, under the circumstances maybe the weighbridge wasn't the biggest priority. Although in the second video some are directed to the scales.
We were often overloaded, it might not look much, believe me 24/26 tonnes was the norm.
Was this filmed by Meeks Transport. They seem quite prominent throughout the film.
Yes, it came to me via one of there old drivers, I don't know the reasoning behind it but I'm glad they filmed it, as there is very little of this type of material on the net.
Not an Iveco in sight !
Why was this classed as a special load and what is it used for
Iron ore for steel making was the load, during the miners strike anything that used coal in the production process was deemed a legitimate target for mass intimidation by flying pickets, aka; striking miners. This was the counter measure.
odd seeing 38565225 on some trailers and tube type tyres on the trucks
A time of change in more ways than one !
I can remember a time when it was legal to have tube type and tubeless on the same axle.
385/65/22.5 super singles were becoming ever popular around this time, although we ran twins on tri-axles for years after this.
All very interesting what was the funny hand signals from the copper at 4.02 ??, I could work out the rest of signals all pretty much the same as Australia
What sort of a time frame did this go on for because these trucks must have all come from some where to do this job and will have to get back to there normal work and amazing bit of organization looks like it must have been summer time by the way all the people are dressed
Fantastic stuff from the other side of the world and the amazing thing is even over here it was all in a mess at the same time thanks for sharing we didnt see a lot of those pommy trucks over here of that era plenty if Volvo's and Scania's though
I must confess that hand signalling is new to me as well, but the next truck goes to the weigh bridge so I'm assuming he is gesticulating balance scales.
The minors strike lasted a year but I'm not sure this job was at the same level over that period, there was always a picket line at any place that used coal until the end though.
Many hauliers saw this as a cash cow and brought anything that could move and tip onto the job, long hours well over legal limits with a police escort, it was seen as a national emergency with similar scenes at power stations.
It wasn't all plain sailing though, many drivers and hauliers were attacked and lorries burnt, some families are still divided over this strike even today, not this countries finest hour !
As you can see the European truck makers invasion is well on it's way here as well, British trucks being in the minority.
A lorry was picked at random and check weighed That's what the security chap was indicating to the driver. Because of the nature of the job, they couldn't weigh all of the lorries.
C.P.L. GWILLHAM. PETE C.R.HAULAGE CORNWALL. PETE