Vintage truck

[Steve]

No idea what this is, but I liked it, note the three digit phone number!

[John Rogers]

It looks like an old Ford.

[Steve]

Can anyone really remember answering a phone with three figures! Iver 137

[Farmer John]

That oval badge looks like a Ford to me. The 3 digit telephone, we used to be Menston 100, then a further digit 4100, then finally it got to 874100. First one, operator connected, last one, with the area code, dial from anywhere in the country. Add 044, dial from anywhere in the Galaxy (slight exaggeration).
It is so easy to forget that after STD (Subscriber Trunk Dialling) you could stop panicking that your money was draining away.

Menston 120 was a personal number , Menston 100 was The Doctor (Dad).

[John Rogers]

Think we are correct Farmer John, look at the data board through windshield.

[Farmer John]

Thank goodness we aren't detectives, we could miss something. I wouldn't mind that old truck.

[BobClay]

I have an old Guide book to my home town published in 1906. In it there's an ad for a hotel and this is interesting because of the 2 digit telephone number

The hotel still exists, but I suspect the number has a tad few more digits in it these days …

[Hawkey01]

Steve,

Yes I certainly can - Blunham 298 - a small village in Bedfordshire were I spent a lot of my fomative
years. That was the Rectory. Also Blunham 238 which was friends number and their garage business, in a nearby village of Tempsford. That is a village with a lot of history. The aerodrome was used by the Dambusters/for a time and also where they flew the Lysanders from with the SOE ops. Used to be a TV programme - Moonstrike based on Tempsford. Famous pub the Wheatsheaf - one of my locals - where many famous racing drivers used to meet. Hawthorn,Bueb,Archey Scott Brown, Ron Flockhart and many many more. Still there but A1 no longer runs past the pub.
Showing my age now.
Met up with old school pal recently in Los Angeles and he reminded me we had known each other for 61 years.

Neville

[Steve]

Lot of History there Hawkey, I drive up the A1 regularly to RAF Cranwell to meet friends, if only that Road could talk about whats its seen over the years.

[BobClay]

On talking pictures last night there was an old British Film about truck drivers called: "Hell Drivers."

Made in 1957 (I was 10 when I first saw it) it looks very dated and corny now, but what a cast !! Many of whom went on to become household names:
Stanley Baker (playing the hero, usually played bad guys.)
Herbert Lom (The Human Jungle, went on to become the long suffering Inspector Dreyfus.)
Patrick McGoohan (Danger Man, The Prisoner and a host of other parts.)
William Hartnell (Carry on Sergeant, The Army Game, the first Dr Who.)
Sid James (Nuff said.)
Jill Ireland ( drop dead beautiful, lots of films with her second husband, Charles Bronson.)
Alfie Bass (character actor in many films, also The Army Game and Bootsie and Snudge.)
Gordon Jackson (Upstairs Downstairs, The Professionals and many more.)
David McCallum (one of the Men from UNCLE.)
Sean Connery (Nuff said.)

I kind of like watching those old Brit films just see the vehicles and streets of those days.

[SJB]

Ford AA Type 79 Dropside 1 ton truck, 1932 vintage.

[Malcolm G]

#10 - Hell Drivers.


I love the way that the 'fast driving' sequences are obviously just speeded up film.

The trucks in the film incidentally were Dodge 100 Kew which, as the name suggests, were built by Dodge at their Kew factory for the British market.

[BobClay]

Originally Posted by Malcolm G

#10 - Hell Drivers.


I love the way that the 'fast driving' sequences are obviously just speeded up film.

The trucks in the film incidentally were Dodge 100 Kew which, as the name suggests, were built by Dodge at their Kew factory for the British market.

Yes that was a bit on the obvious side … (or course the laws of physics might have been different back then … I mean come on, drainpipe trousers were popular … )

[Dartskipper]

Originally Posted by BobClay

On talking pictures last night there was an old British Film about truck drivers called: "Hell Drivers."

Made in 1957 (I was 10 when I first saw it) it looks very dated and corny now, but what a cast !! Many of whom went on to become household names:
Stanley Baker (playing the hero, usually played bad guys.)
Herbert Lom (The Human Jungle, went on to become the long suffering Inspector Dreyfus.)
Patrick McGoohan (Danger Man, The Prisoner and a host of other parts.)
William Hartnell (Carry on Sergeant, The Army Game, the first Dr Who.)
Sid James (Nuff said.)
Jill Ireland ( drop dead beautiful, lots of films with her second husband, Charles Bronson.)
Alfie Bass (character actor in many films, also The Army Game and Bootsie and Snudge.)
Gordon Jackson (Upstairs Downstairs, The Professionals and many more.)
David McCallum (one of the Men from UNCLE.)
Sean Connery (Nuff said.)

I kind of like watching those old Brit films just see the vehicles and streets of those days.

I agree Bob, good old monochrome British entertainment. I too enjoy seeing the old films, but always wonder what happened to the actors featured at the end of the cast list under the heading "And introducing xxx...…" You hardly ever see them again!

One well known British character actor who appeared in many war films was Victor Maddern who was a near neighbour to my family in the years around the time I was born in 1951.

[Dartskipper]

Originally Posted by Hawkey01

Steve,

Yes I certainly can - Blunham 298 - a small village in Bedfordshire were I spent a lot of my fomative
years. That was the Rectory. Also Blunham 238 which was friends number and their garage business, in a nearby village of Tempsford. That is a village with a lot of history. The aerodrome was used by the Dambusters/for a time and also where they flew the Lysanders from with the SOE ops. Used to be a TV programme - Moonstrike based on Tempsford. Famous pub the Wheatsheaf - one of my locals - where many famous racing drivers used to meet. Hawthorn,Bueb,Archey Scott Brown, Ron Flockhart and many many more. Still there but A1 no longer runs past the pub.
Showing my age now.
Met up with old school pal recently in Los Angeles and he reminded me we had known each other for 61 years.

Neville

Bits of the old A1 that have been bypassed still exist, often with a name board declaring that it is the "Great North Road."

[Papa Bear]

Remember Hell Drivers, my mates and I thought it was neat. We watched it in the local town hall, our so called theatre. On the subject of phone numbers, my Grandmas was Stromness 276. Now I have to write it down to remember it all. John L.

[Jolly Jack]

In 1957 when we moved from Gravesend, with the number 5678, to the village of Higham, our phone No. was Shorne 471. Later it was upgraded to 2471. Taking ship movement messages for my Dad, they will stick in my memory forever.


JJ.

[Malcolm G]

On the subject of short phone numbers;


The Purbeck quarries number was Wareham 2.
One of the managers at Portland quarries regularly called the number, via an operator of course, with the words: "Wareham 2, do you?" - A new operator would answer "Do I what?" - Reply: "Wear 'em too."

[Farmer John]

I can just imagine Alexander Graham Bell complaining "All these bloody numbers, it's a new one to remember every time, I meet someone"

[YM-Mundrabilla]

Skoda Fire Engine of 1930
Prague Technical Museum
13 July 2017

[YM-Mundrabilla]

Smekal Fire Engine of 1914
Prague Technical Museum
13 July 2017

[YM-Mundrabilla]

Shand Mason Fire Engine of 1882
Prague Technical Museum
13 July 2017

[Malcolm G]

Originally Posted by YM-Mundrabilla

Shand Mason Fire Engine of 1882
Prague Technical Museum
13 July 2017

That looks like a fixed branch pipe nozzle beneath the driver's seat.
I wonder how that worked in that position..

[BobClay]

To be honest it looks a bit kinky to me … but sh1t, I am a child of the 50's and 60's …

[YM-Mundrabilla]

'Almost certainly' for hosing the horses.