'The Ore team' 1984. Part one.
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- čas přidán 15. 11. 2015
- No comments on 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 thrown by the strikers.
The drivers are given food parcels before leaving as there was no stopping en-route.
Part two to follow. - Auta a dopravní prostředky
Would have loved to have heard them all starting up at once... like the start of a big diesel grand prix!
wow blast from the past worked for meeks as a mechanic at the time and used to support the convoys in transit
I remember the miners strike very well as a child ............the 80s was crazy time
Priceless video footage from a 2016 stand point. Nice to see how well organised it all seemed. Somehow I can't imagine a feller running across the front of moving trucks in just shorts happening in todays world. Excellent video!!
Hi All. I was involved in organising and running the Iron Ore Convoys in 1984/85. It was i who coined the phrase 'The Ore Team' and it stuck. I can be seen in the video wearing a blue tee shirt, lol. I have read a few questions and a few innocently incorrect info comments on the two videos but will endeavour to tell the whole story as best i can in a few days when i have more time.
Hey Keith remember me, I was a mechanic for Meeks in Newport, I followed the Convoy in a service van for the first few months doing running repairs etc, Glyn.
I was a shunter in the abbey and remember the convoys I worked for joints .is keith the one with glasses on shouting the reg numbers still alive he was tidy on the main weighbridge
@@glynevans7607 I used to visit Newport with my Dad Tom Marriott with Meeks from Kirkby, good times!!
Great work Steve ,it was worth my time seeking this footage out .
+Cummins Agreed ! Have you found anymore ?
Great video, classic trucks at work
Thanks for the video classic trucks at work
My dads a driver for Meeks and I rode with him a couple of times on the run. I used to clean the wagons at Kirkby. Is that Erick handing food bags out.
used to work in portalbot and llanwern steel works for Short Bros plant hire servicing the plant great days
Better days then drivers were proper drivers and looked after each other
Now then Mate great video as always hope your well was nice to finally meet you👍🏻was holding on at Newark would of like to of got a video of your motor leaving but maybe next year👍🏼
+terrance bubba Agreed, contact finally made, ha-ha.
I was one of the last to leave Newark, around midday when I got there, easy to get out though !
+SMayleification Ahh I see was quite when we left to be fair just the lads pulling the marquees down and come for a brew next time ha ha and hope to see the FODEN as well as they AEC there next year think the S21 had some interest there was always someone round it
Enjoying the old trucks, many thanks for uploading. What was in the packed lunch? Was there a vegetarian and or vegan option?
he-he, I don't think vegans and vegetarians had been invented back in those days, more a case of take it or leave it.
I remember that this I was a driver. Those sandwiches were egg mayonnaise and were disgusting. Made by labourers. Some of whom spat in the sandwiches. Also they were lying in the hot sunshine.
I was on that convoy...
Look at all the muck, dust and crap. I wonder how many are still alive. Was this stuff normally moved like that, and were they running past the pickets?
Some great trucks ERFs Leyland constructors Volvo F10 Seddon Atkinson must have given the haulers a lot of work wonder how many of these firms still going
Great video, when is part two up ?Cheers Chris
+5020Chris I'll try and get it done before Christmas Chris, it needs a lot of editing and the quality is very poor, this part has been through the improver and edited about five times to make it viewable.
+SMayleification cheers, will look forward to it !
them sarnies must have been boufing !!!, look at the seagulls flyin around the trucks
He-he, it could be the smell of the drivers if they had been out all week !
Are they lunch bags passed up ? does anyone know where the ore originates ?
+Poppys Bench Yes packed lunches, the convoy could not be broken once on the road.
Originally mined locally it now comes in from such places as Australia, Africa and Brazil.
Great videos and thanks. I'm from Alabama and am just asking for informational purposes, but what was the strike all about.
It was the national coal strike 1984/5 over pit closures that lasted for 12 months ( all pits in the UK are now closed and coal is imported from all over the world).
The miners wanted the steel and rail workers to join the strike, but the steel men refused, so iron ore and coal went in by road.
There is still bitter resentment to this day over this dispute, families divided because some worked through the strike.
SMayleification Thank you very much for the reply. I have never been around unions in my 51 years. I own a small Mom and Pop construction company and something like this would put a lot of us out of business. Terrible business.
So I take it the truckers had no sympathy for the miner's i can't remember the convoys must have been great job i think i would have loved to have been on the job very exciting very fast pace
This operation seems to be well organised with everyone working together. I can't imagine it would run so smoothly today. The lorries appear to get two shovels of ore from the loader and there off. Is that because ore is heavy and that was enough to take them up to the weight limit of the time or was it just to get the job done quickly. Any way really enjoying the videos on this channel. Cheers, Davy
+David Webster It's surprising how well things can work when the need arises, the max weight of 38 tonnes over 5 axles had not long come into force so most artics would carry around 24/25 tonnes of ore, and the rigid's are at 30 tonnes gross, so would carry 18/20 tonnes.
Iron is heavy by volume, so the shovel probably has around 10 to 12 tonnes in each bucket full. (a cubic metre of concrete weighs about two tonnes, a cube of steel is around seven tonnes).
I don't think they were to bothered about over loading just guessing the weight each time as only a few are being directed to the weighbridge each time, drivers hours were probably put on the back burner as well, all legal in a time of national crisis, and this was a national crisis !
+SMayleification Thank you for that. One of the guys I worked with had been a driver at the time of the foot and mouth outbreak. I remember him telling me that drivers hours were relaxed at that time for drivers who were contracted to remove the cattle that had been culled.
I have some Amos Meers they will take some serious editing ,but the quality is ok ,I will have to seek permission first there's various scenes from in the yard to coal pits and the m25 .
+Cummins Get the permission, there is not enough working lorries on you-tube, we can edit anything out they are not happy with.
What was the iron ore used for ??????
Steel making.
That's probably David Meeks in the shorts and sun glasses .
+Cummins That would figure, with all the ordering about !
The older guy with no shirt on who is helping him looks like Eric.
What is the connexion between a coal strike and a mill's ore supply?
That's what I call lorries at work. Videos like this one are priceless.
+Carl Napp What an excellent question Carl, and the answer is what took the 'Great' out of Great Britain !
After WW2, left wing politic's came to power, backed by the trade unions and resulted in many industries being nationalised. Coal, steel, railways, ship building and road transport.
If one group came out on strike (no matter how trivial the cause) others would come out in sympathy as in this case, coal backed by the railways, road transport had been denationalised in the 1950's so were not tided to unions.
This and weak management were a recipe for disaster, it wasn't until a woman called Maggie Thatcher came to power in the early eighties that the unions were defeated and business could return to normal, but by then the damage had been done.
Yes there is a lack of working truck videos on you-tube, hopefully a few more will appear.
SMayleification
What a pity!
Condensed it’s called greed