Road Haulage Archive 10 - A Life With Lorries.pdf

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ROAD HAULAGE ARCHIVE
A LIFE WITH
HAULAGE • TIPPERS
LORRIES
CATTLE TRUCKS • GENERAL
NEIL JOHNSTON LOOKS BACK AT WORKING FOR HIS FAMILY'S COMPANIES, TOM JOHNSTON
AND W E REEVE LTD, AN APPRENTICESHIP AT AEC AND DRIVING TIPPERS FOR 40 YEARS.
Issue 10
£7.95
R
VINTAGE
OADSCEN
www.roadscene.com
E
The rst eight-wheeler to join the Tom Johnston
livestock transport eet was this ERF 68G, RTM
566, which was probably responsible for Neil’s
regard for the ERF marque in the rst place.
When Neil returned to the fold from his
apprenticeship at AEC at the end of the 1960s, the
Johnston livestock eet included this six-wheeled
ERF tractor unit, BVT 357C, which he drove
between Kent and Sotland or Belgium.
The rst AEC to join the
Tom Johnston eet was 11
GKN, a ‘tin front’ Mammoth
Major Mk III, which was also
the rst to appear on the
dealer’s stand at the Kent
County Show. It is seen here
with an earlier Mammoth
Major, LKM 592, which came
from the Goldwells eet, and
an AEC Mercury, dating from
the early 1960s.
A Life with Lorries
CATTLE TRUCKS • GENERAL HAULAGE • TIPPERS
Road Haulage aRcHive
1960 AEC Mammoth Major Mk V, 12 LKK, is seen with AEC Mercury, 490 PKE, in the new blue W E Reeve livery, after the company was sold,
with MK III eight-wheeler, 11 GKN and a couple of AEC Mercury artic units, including 606 VKR, still in the pre-1966 red livery used under Tom
Johnston ownership.
Edited and compiled by
Mike Forbes.
Design and layout
Rob Terry.
All pictures by Neil Johnston or from Neil Johnston Collection (His original 1960s ‘Brownie 127’ negatives scanned and enhanced by Graham Newell.)
Published by Kelsey Publishing Group, Cudham Tithe Barn, Berry’s Hill, Cudham, Kent TN16 3AG. Telephone 01959 541444. Fax 01959 541400. www.kelsey.co.uk
Printed by William Gibbons & Sons Ltd, Willenhall, West Midlands.
© 2016 All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part is forbidden except with prior permission in writing from the publisher. The publisher cannot accept responsibility for errors in articles or advertisements.
The views expressed are not necessarily those of the Editor or Publisher. ISBN 978-1-910554-32-6
4
A Lifetime with Lorries
N
eil Johnston has been involved with
lorries for his whole life. Working for
his family’s business, apprenticed to
AEC and later driving for a number of other
companies, his career is rather like that of many
other transport professionals. The difference
is that he has a photographic collection which
reects his years with lorries, with emphasis on
the livestock and general haulage vehicles with
which he was involved during the 1960s.
The offer to use these pictures for the next
Road Haulage Archive issue was too good to
turn down, as it provides a progression, from
the earliest vehicles operated during the 1950s
by Tom Johnston, Neil’s father, in connection
with his livestock business, based at Detling,
near Maidstone, Kent, through the many lorries
operated by the company, especially after the
general haulage business and vehicles of W
E Reeve Ltd of Maidstone were taken over,
along with a look at some interesting vehicles
with which Neil came into contact with during
his years as an apprentice at AEC, the lorries
he drove for his father’s company and many
more, mainly tippers, which he drove for other
Neil Johnston’s Lifetime with Lorries
Photographed in its prime, carrying a load of sheep from Scotland down to Detling, for onward sale,
ERF 68G, RTM 566, is seen in a lay-by overlooking the North Sea on the A1 near Berwick on Tweed. The
1956 Gardner 6LW-powered lorry was originally operated by Aves of Sandy. This vehicle was probably
responsible for instilling Neil Johnston with his on-going regard for the ERF marque.
From 1959, when the rst AEC joined the Tom Johnston eet, to 1967, one of the company’s new vehicles was to be seen on the stand of local dealer W H
Gatward at the Kent County Show. Here, AEC Mammoth Major 8 MK V, 12 LKK (Kent, 1960), the second AEC eight-wheeler to join the Johnston eet, is anked
on the left by similar vehicle, 14 LKK, for haulage contractors, E & H Ridgewell, of Northeet, and a ‘tin-front’ Mammoth Major Mk III for Goldwells of East
Malling, the cider makers, later to become part of the Allied Breweries group, with the nameboard on the cab advertising ‘Pink Lady’, a perry-based drink, a
competitor to ‘Babycham’ in that era. On the right, there are two AEC Mercurys, both with Boyes third axle conversions, 1 LKK, destined for the Henley’s eet,
and AF 142, with ‘cherished’ registration, for Alan Firmin. All of them have platform bodies; what a splendid line-up.
4
Introduction
Tom Johnston
7
15
W E Reeve
Contents
– Neil Johnston’s
Lifetime with Lorries
– Neil’s father’s
livestock dealing and transport
company
– The haulage
company taken over alongside the
livestock
44
AEC Apprentice
58
Back to Kent
Tippers
65
them
– Neil goes off
to learn how to mend them, not build
– He returns to the
fold to drive livestock lorries for the
family rm
– A change to local work,
which was to last for 40 years
Introduction
5
A 1961 AEC Mercury six-wheeler, 4 PKR, is seen
here in the Johnston yard at Detling,
tted with a cattle container, along with Thames
Trader, 486 MKL (Kent, 1960), tted
with the cattle box from an earlier Dodge, 5 DKK,
and 417 RKM, a 1961 four-wheeled AEC
Mercury. Although in use on cattle transport, both
AECs carry the W E Reeve lettering on
their cabs. All the eet was still painted in Tom
Johnston’s red livery at this time, however.
A lovely line-up of AEC Mercury artics in the
Detling yard, all in the original red
livery and dating from 1961 to 1963, from the
right, 7349 WY, 606 VKR and 8 VKT with W E
Reeve on the cab-top nameboard, with 6 UKK and
damaged 12 TKJ on the left, with Tom Johnston
lettering.
his enthusiasm for lorries in general. He now
spends a lot of time building models of the
lorries he remembers from his career, when he
isn’t visiting vehicle rallies and other events.
Neil’s father, Tom Johnston was a Scot who
settled in Kent to become a ‘‘Livestock Salesman
and Exporter” as it said on the headboard of
his vehicles, based at Detling in Kent, on land
where the Kent County Showground is now. He
found he needed his own lorries to collect and
deliver sheep, to and from Scotland in particular,
and a eet was built up from the 1950s onwards,
with the rst eight-wheelers coming towards at
the end of the decade.
In 1959, he took over the business of
transport contractor, W E Reeve Ltd of
Maidstone, when the owner died. The livestock
and general haulage eets were operated
alongside each other, with the cattle boxes
being tted and taken off the eight-wheelers
especially, according to trafc requirements.
From 1963 to 1969, Neil Johnston was
apprenticed at AEC’s Southall works, where he
The change to blue livery is shown by 1960 AEC Mammoth Major 8 Mk
V, 12 LKK, rst seen on the stand at the Kent County Show, loaded with
paper reels from Aylesford, plus AEC Mercury four-wheeler, 490 PKE of
1961, both in blue, with 1959 Mammoth Major 11 GKN and two Mercury
artics, including 606 VKR, in red, although carrying the W E Reeves
eetname.
So far, it’s nearly all AECs. Neil photographed plenty of lorries while he was
apprenticed at AEC, including this Works Transport Mammoth Major Mk V, which
ran on Middlesex tradeplates 490 H.

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