Wiganers at Work

Jeez Bill, that's a tidy lump there mate, and no mistake., but to be fair, at least you had 420 bhp at the business end of the pedal.
In 1971, or thereabouts, it could have been '72 I suppose, I loaded a Priestman Lion, with jib sections and dragline bucket, from Heaton park in Manchester for delivery to the Margaretting Bypass. At the time I estimated that the gross weight of the loaded rig wouldn't have fallen much shy of 70 tons . The prime mover being a twin steer Foden unit fitted with a Gardner 6LX ( 150 BHP ) engine. and a Foden 12 speed splitter. The unit is pictured on this site somewhere. I managed to make it as far as junction 15 of the southbound M6 before the weld on the swan neck finally gave up and dropped the trailer onto the carriageway. You may remember the tramlines gouged into the Tarmac on lane one. They were there for years until Staffordshire council decided to resurface that section.
The plod rocked up and took a few photos, before issuing me with a notice of intended prosecution under c&u regs, which ultimately came to nothing fortunately.
At the time, I think I was working for something like thirty quid a week, top line. Unbelievable eh? But there you go.
But at the end of the day , we were all in this crap together.

All the best mate.

Regards. Ozy.




Regards. Ozy.