|
Post by Dirty Epic on Apr 29, 2021 10:44:45 GMT
Drivers of vans with sliding doors driving with the doors open. Always looked rather unsafe to me. From the days the Royal Mail was trustworthy & a "service" to the public.
The "Pop Man" used to drive round our estate doing his deliveries. I'd seen some UPS drivers more recently driving those armoured style vans they have with the side door open.
Yes they were distinctive those sliding door vans from that era. I suppose nowadays like that they'd be a no no especially due to the H&S thing and more sinisterly the carjacking mob who'd have them away in seconds.
Yes those UPS vans are the closest things to that and seem quite bespoke compared to what over delivery/courier firms use. Wouldn't be surprised that they don't have a interlock on them preventing them being driven with the doors open.
|
|
Sparky
Producer
Status? Would that be Credit or in Society?
Posts: 2,784
Online Status:
|
Post by Sparky on Apr 29, 2021 12:11:19 GMT
There was also the Video Man who used to go round estates with a large suitcase full of Betamax videos you could rent out. At a mates house he rolled up to see my mates Dad and half the videos in the case didn't have legit stickers on, just bits of masking tape with the title written on in marker pen.
I'll assume they were all copies.
This chap had two suitcases- one with feature films of all varieties, plus also some 8mm film cartoons and bits for those who didn't have a video. The second suitcase contained content of a slightly exotic variety, he claimed was some of the "finest" examples Swedish, Danish, Dutch and German cinema... the stuff you certainly won't see on Barry Normans programme or at your local Odeon.
I wonder if any of those tapes Video Shop's/Van's/Man had were legit? I doubt it very much. None of the films had proper stickers on, they were all labelled with masking tape and marker pen.
As for Suitcase 2 - (though I never saw the content) but they almost certainly were copies - and a lot of them according to the titles seemed to feature Nuns.... I doubt they were off air recordings of Songs of Praise or Highway
|
|
|
Post by D.C. Burtonshaw on Apr 29, 2021 18:46:34 GMT
I miss the days of the mobile shops from the 60s and 70s. We had a butcher with a Ford Thames van with a side sliding door which would reveal a layered display complete with a set of weight balanced scales in the centre. There was also a grocer with a Luton van you could actually step inside and he had built a small counter. A great place to get a bag of podded peas and a packet of Tudor crisps in the 70s. The village co-op used to deliver groceries too, years before the supermarkets thought they were the first to think of online ordering. The local Co-op driver was called Halstead Battersby - which seemed like a name right from the pages of a Last of The Summer Wine script. Remember as a kid you'd get the van driving round. I'd always get a bottle of American creme soda and a bottle of tizer and pretty sure also he'd collect the empty bottles from ya and you'd get 5p or 10p back on each bottle! I remember the Bedford TK "Corona" lorry stopping off outside the newsagents delivering the bottles. It was the fizzy fruit drink rather than the later Beer (both of which sadly have unfortunate names, along with an a model of a Japanese Toyota car at the time!).
Also there was the newsagents that would order your monthly magazine you bought every month and keep your copy for when you popped in every week to pick it up.
Then there were some petrol brands you don't see now, like National Benzole (which had the side view of the god Mercury's head), Texaco and Total. Although correct me if I'm wrong if any of those are still around but I'm sure I haven't seen them lately.
And do postmen still use the electric hand cart on the public road? Last time I saw that was around the early 90's when one Postie was "towing" one through a busy intersection/junction near where I worked at the time. I think they even had a number plate.
Also dustcart lorries that didn't have the crusher on the back, and just had a cargo carrier on the body on the back, with removable covers, which the dustmen then simply tipped your house dustbins contents into and put the lid back on. My local town had dark green Karrier Bantam trucks that did that for our road up until the early 80's.
|
|
Nightfly
Screenwriter
Posts: 910
Online Status:
|
Post by Nightfly on Apr 29, 2021 19:09:45 GMT
I remember the Bedford TK "Corona" lorry stopping off outside the newsagents delivering the bottles. It was the fizzy fruit drink rather than the later Beer (both of which sadly have unfortunate names, along with an a model of a Japanese Toyota car at the time!). Then there were some petrol brands you don't see now, like National Benzole (which had the side view of the god Mercury's head), Texaco and Total. Although correct me if I'm wrong if any of those are still around but I'm sure I haven't seen them lately. I'm pretty sure the Bedford Corona lorry did house to house deliveries in the 70s around my area. Petrol Stations -Until I read your post I was unaware the National logo was a depiction of Mercury. I think National disappeared in the 80s, though we still have quite a few Texaco stations close by. Anyone remember the Sunblest wagons with the weird shaped cab. I think they were Leyland ?
|
|
|
Post by D.C. Burtonshaw on Apr 29, 2021 19:26:28 GMT
Thanks for the truck upload pick Nightfly! Yes and I remember the Sunblest lorries coming to my local Finefare with deliveries. The regular driver of one I remember looked like a member of The Sweet with his long blonde hair, it was the era!
The truck was the Leyland FG which had that cab with "Suicide" rear hinged doors which (similar to the sliding van cab doors mentioned earlier), were sometimes clipped open for hop on and off deliveries for the driver. They also featured small knee height windows in the cab to see the kerb apparently.
|
|
Sparky
Producer
Status? Would that be Credit or in Society?
Posts: 2,784
Online Status:
|
Post by Sparky on Apr 29, 2021 19:46:42 GMT
I remember the Bedford TK "Corona" lorry stopping off outside the newsagents delivering the bottles. It was the fizzy fruit drink rather than the later Beer (both of which sadly have unfortunate names, along with an a model of a Japanese Toyota car at the time!). Then there were some petrol brands you don't see now, like National Benzole (which had the side view of the god Mercury's head), Texaco and Total. Although correct me if I'm wrong if any of those are still around but I'm sure I haven't seen them lately. Blimey, I remember those vans, and the crates of Glass (returnable) bottles. They had great Lemonade.
In a way, lucky they aren't still around - as more recently, they'd perhaps need a re-branding & naming exercise.
|
|
Cartman
Producer
Posts: 4,027
Online Status:
|
Post by Cartman on Apr 29, 2021 19:53:33 GMT
Yes we used to get the Bedford corona wagons coming round, a good thing I thought, with the reusable bottles.
The BMC FG trucks were often used as bread vans, but one I used to see regularly was an open pick up type which an engineering firm in Radcliffe had. It was S refs and new in 77, when I was learning to drive. I didn't know they were still being made as late as that.
|
|
Deleted
Posts: 0
Online Status:
|
Post by Deleted on Apr 30, 2021 8:55:32 GMT
Ya see still these red cart things the Postmen have, to be honest I've seen quite a few in recent times and thought they were a modern concept! I think the dustmen have it easy nowadays! Yes they might be more bins to empty but there pulled along on wheels and then the machine on the truck lifts them up and empty's them. As I remember when I was a kid! the actual bin was always made out of the funny like zine alloy that easily dented, The lids I think would either be made out of the same material, in which the whole thing would dent easily! Or else the other combination was that sometimes just the bin alone was alloy and the lids were like an hard black rubber!! And the whole thing was carried to the truck by the bin man! a recipe for a bad back! Lol! But thinking about it I'm curious as to why they were metal lids and rubber ones! ?? But I do think later to remember seeing the same style shape but made in all black plastic! Along with the lid to. Obviously these must have been better for the bin man being lighter! But ya couldn't just put anything in them like hot ash' for obvious reasons since they would melt, like when they were the metal alloy my uncle used to wiz ash and coke in it from his coal fire he had at the time. I don't mean drugs lol! nowadays everything is politically correct, even with the bins, coz of recycling! Certain things have to go in certain bins!! Back home a few year back I remember running out of bin space and thought I'd just dump any waste in the non grey bin, but the bin men would refuse to take the bin because they would always open the lid to have a peep inside! so I had to hide the stuff like nappies etc underneath the re cycling stuff nearer to the bottom of the bin! I remember complaining to the council saying with having a large family and the turn over of stuff, that just one wheeley bin is simply not big enough for all the wast and so that's why I was having to sneak it in the other blue re cycling bin! they didn't believe me and offered to send someone around to our house to go throughout the bins, with myself as well, and to see if I was re cycling correctly! I declined the offer since I wasn't prepared to be fishing through used nappies, which was a lot at the time because my son was a youngster. They said on the phone to me that the only way I could get another extra bin was to have more kids!! and so then if there then were 6 people in the household then we would be entitled to another waste! bin. I replied don't be ridiculous! ! I thought to myself! I will just simply hide the bin for a few weeks and then ring up the council and say someone as robbed the bin! Can we have a replacement please! So eventually along comes another replacement bin! to which I then eventually got the other bin out again which had previously been in hiding!! and there ya go! Problem solved!!! But what an absolute load of nonsense! the whole thing had gone in for weeks with phone calls etc! This is how silly and annoying political correctness and the stupid rules we have to day! Pretty sure this scenario wouldn't have occurred once over.
|
|
Nightfly
Screenwriter
Posts: 910
Online Status:
|
Post by Nightfly on Apr 30, 2021 13:08:56 GMT
Here's something you would see in the larger railway stations up until sometime in the 70s. Tiny three wheeled trucks that would run up and down the platforms, sometimes with an added trailer or two. I think they were called Scammells.
|
|
Cartman
Producer
Posts: 4,027
Online Status:
|
Post by Cartman on Apr 30, 2021 14:10:17 GMT
Scammell Scarab. Radcliffe Goods yard had some, good collection and delivery service the railway used to provide at one time. They did have quite a big parcels business at one time, but it dwindled away and, as a result, they withdrew and scrapped a lot of parcels vans.
Now that on line shopping has become big, if they still had them, they could be back in this game.
|
|