THE FLATLEY DRYER

[Stanley]

One of the mysteries of wartime was the occasional arrival of food to supplement the rations. If I remember rightly fish wasn't rationed apart from scarcity and Mac Parker, manager of what was then the Carlton Cinema in Stockport (Later the Essoldo) was the source, I think they had a canteen for the staff. After the war we had free seats on the front row of the circle every Thursday night and father always got home from work in time to take us. Sometimes he was late and took his tea and a flask of coffee with him to the show! When we went in we went to the ticket kiosk where Phyliss presided over the machine, she pressed the right keys and the appropriate tickets popped out of the slots in the stainless steel top of the counter. It used to fascinate me!

[Stanley]

My father on the left, the MD of General Gas at Audenshaw and nearest the camera an American businessman called Ernie Hommel. This was in 1950 and Ernie was the owner of a company that supplied enamel frits to GGA. The reason the pic is in here is that Ernie regularly sent care parcels to us throughout the war. They were mainly long shelf life items like incredibly sweet fruits cake and sweets but we appreciated them!

[chinatyke]

Fags in hand and pens in top pockets except for the better turned out Yank. How styles have changed.

[Stanley]

Old pics can be so revealing China.



Here's an example. It's a General Gas management day out at Llangollen in 1931. Father is on the right hand end of the second row. These are well fed men with drink taken! Look at the plus fours and the shoes.....

[chinatyke]

Isn't that Adolph standing behind him at the right hand end of the top row?

[Stanley]

I see what you mean but I doubt it. Most likely a driver perhaps..... 38 of them would just fit into one chara?

[Tizer]

Look at the plus fours and the shoes.....

...and the `man spreading'!

[Stanley]

Different world Tiz!

[Stanley]

GGA figured large in my early years, I used to go with my dad on Saturday mornings and spent happy hours drilling holes in pieces of scrap metal or watching the big machines working. The presses fascinated me, they were working 24X7 then of course on the war effort. The most exciting thing was the fact that they built Landing Craft Minors there and had launching ceremonies in the works yard culminating in the Edward Box wagon taking the boat off to Manchester Docks where it was craned into the water. Here's one leaving the works in 1943 as part of the preparations for D Day in 1944.

[Tizer]

Are those discs of sheet metal to protect the pavement from the great weight passing over them?

[Stanley]

Spot on Tiz.

The Landing Craft Minor (LCM) was the biggest treat. This was later in the war when the invasion of Europe was being planned. GGA used to build complete LCM's and the famous Manchester heavy haulage firm Edward Box would come down to Corporation Road when one was ready and it would be launched with due ceremony whilst on the back of the low-loader in the factory yard. Then, covered with bunting, it was taken down to Manchester Docks and lowered into the water by a floating crane. One man who was always at the ceremony was Lt. Charles Knighton Warren RNVR. who used to come and stay with us the night before. His job was to supervise the launching and then conduct "sea trials" as the LCM motored down the Manchester Ship Canal to be finally accepted by the Navy at Birkenhead docks. On one memorable occasion towards the end of the war, father took me with him on the trial. I think it was the best and proudest day of my life and certainly an entirely new experience for me. The LCM's were quite a large boat, about 60 feet long, they were powered by two Invader petrol engines, I think they were a Canadian engine. Part of the trial was full speed running and this was very exciting.



Father at the helm of LCM 7006 on ‘sea trials’ on the Manchester Ship Canal. Charlie Warren is the middle figure with the peaked cap at the stern.

Charlie Warren was a character, he and father used to have a night out when he stayed with us and they always got drunk. When I was with them we hit Barton Swing Bridge for some reason and I remember Charlie swearing non stop for what seemed like five minutes at the bridge-keeper, most impressive. I was surprised when he came to visit us at Napier Road after the war and had a dog collar on! He had taken Holy Orders and was a curate at Leytonstone. Later he rose to become Suffragan Bishop of Tasmania.

[Tizer]

Is that you in the bows with a school cap on?

[Wendyf]

Saw this photo on Facebook and thought of this topic...its a bit like this today!

[Stanley]

No Tiz, another lucky lad!
She's well dressed Wendy for a washer woman!

[Tizer]

It saves folding them Wendy - she could just prop them up in the wardrobe!

[Stanley]

I had some Chilprufe pure wool combinations like those when I was tramping in the winter of 1962/63. They were women's actually but big enough for me. I got them at a shop on Rainhall Road somewhere near where Garry's TV is now. I went in for wool vests and the lady asked me if I would be interested in them as they were the last she had and she doubted if she'd ever sell them. They were just the job and I wore them until they dropped to bits. From the look of the weather I will be in the Damart drawer this week!

[Stanley]

Thinking about the winter of 62/63 reminds me of the tales of woe about diesel freezing up in the intense cold. It's possible for wax to separate out of diesel at low temperatures and this can block filters but I believe that most of the failures due to fuel starvation were nothing to do with this, it was simply accumulation of water in the sediment bowl of the primary filter which was almost always mounted externally in the fuel line and on the side of the chassis. This was just the right place for it to freeze up. I always made sure that I had no water in the bowl and in extreme weather I put a gallon of petrol in the diesel tank to dissolve any wax that formed. Some drivers used paraffin but that is notorious for having more water in it so I doubt if it did any good.
When you were parked up overnight the test of a well maintained wagon was whether it would start in the morning and we spent a lot of time towing wagons to start them on the clutch! I remember one night staying in Stilton, it was so cold that the water froze in the wash basin. I went out before breakfast and started my wagon so it could tick over and be warmed up when I went to start the day. There was a bloke there with a furniture van and he couldn't start. He said he had a cure for it and got a cut down ten gallon drum out of the cab, it had sand in the bottom and he poured some petrol in,lit it and pushed it under the sump of the engine.
Later, when I went out to start the day I was entertained by the fire brigade putting out a large fire. It was the furniture van. So much for the miracle cure! I stuck to keeping a clean sediment bowl and never failed to start or run.

[Wendyf]

In the late 1950's and through the 1960's my family were keen caravanners, almost every Friday evening we would set off somewhere in West Yorkshire and occasionally further afield to a caravan rally. In those days a lot of the menfolk worked on a Saturday morning and many of them had Landrovers for towing. Early Saturday morning we were all woken by the sound of diesel engines being started and run whilst a quick breakfast was grabbed before they all went off to work.
Lovely memories, we would usually be in a field somewhere and the farmers would provide milk from a churn on the Saturday and Sunday mornings. I remember times when the water container froze despite being brought in the van and frozen Calor gas bottles.

[Stanley]

And I'll bet you soon learned that the cure for the Calor Gas bottles freezing was to use Propane in winter!
One summer's day I was returning from the East Riding with a full load of Barley, 'catch weights' so I was overloaded. I noticed I was losing power on the hills and eventually was brought to a halt at Harrogate. I found the cause, it was tiny bugs in the fuel, they had accumulated in the sediment bowl and when I had my foot hard to the boards the flow was lifting them up against the gauze screen and blocking it. A quick clean out and everything was OK.
What had happened was that the nozzle of our fuel pipe on the tank at Marton was exposed and in summer the small bugs were being trapped in the film of diesel on it and gradually getting into the tank. From then on I always wiped the nozzle when I refuelled! That was the only time I was ever stopped by a blocked filter.....

[Stanley]

That's reminded me of another fly problem I hit in Norfolk one summer when I was tramping. It was very hot and close and I became aware that my engine temperature was getting dangerously high, most unusual. I had a furtle and found the reason, my radiator was almost completely blocked by small black flies. I called in at the next garage and they let me use their air line to blow it out. The man at the garage told me it was a local problem, they called them 'Thunder Bugs' and it was quite common. That was the only time I ever had that problem.

[Tizer]

Is this the future for lorry drivers (wealthy ones, that is)? LINK
`Tesla unveils first electric truck'

[Stanley]

Tiz, when I started driving there were still a few steam wagons on the road, my first wagon ran on petrol and the seat was a wooden packing case with a folded sack on top. I saw diesel take over and since then the only attempt at innovation was the Leyland Gas Turbine and one of my mates ran one of them for almost a year on test in the late 60s, he said it was OK but in the end the technology failed. Remember the Rover turbine car?



The logo they adopted at the time was based on the turbine.
Mr Musk and Tesla are on to something and eventually diesel technology will disappear just like the steam wagon but I suspect it's like Mr Branson's space travel, a valiant hype that may not survive.
For many years, Gardner Engines at Patricroft were famous for producing engines that ran at 50% thermal efficiency, far better than any of the others. In the 70s Rolls Royce set out to make a more efficient engine, the Eagle, and managed to match Gardner after a lot of effort but at the expense of longevity. What killed the Garners was the fact that they never managed to up-scale their engine beyond the 240hp of the 8LXB and the industry wanted at least 400hp.
Mr Musk is up against the whole infrastructure of the diesel engine manufacturers which is enormous. Even the claims for the ecology of the new drive are suspect as primary electricity generation is so inefficient. It may be that eventual success will depend, not on performance figures but battery design, life and cost, and the advent of fusion generation of electricity.

[Tripps]

Mr Musk tells us that in 18 months he will deliver an electric powered vehicle which will pull 20 tons at a reasonable speed for 500 miles. The current electric small passenger cars have a range of say 80 - 120 miles. Put me down as ' slightly sceptical' Don't ask me to explain why he would announce it now though.

The Coop bread and milk float vehicles were electric. At the end of the round you could walk faster than them on their way back to the depot. That was a long time ago though.

[Stanley]

I share your scepticism David.....

[Stanley]

Just after WW2 there was a plethora of gizmos to reduce fuel consumption, most of them based on weakening the mixture and cutting down on power. The fault with all of them was that valves started to burn out due to the weak mixture. There were also the 'miracle workers', people peddling white tablets which, mixed with water made fuel..... Rumour had it the pills were aspirin and needless to say they all failed! This was the era of the 'Spiv'....