Bird's Eye
Page 47
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ViewBY THE HAWK
Looking Back
"THE brothers McMillan and the brothers McSporran celebrate a century-old family association with the opening of the new £100,000 repair and maintenance depot for Scotland's biggest firm of road tank operators, James Hemphill Ltd. (See page 26.) Back in the 1860s, William McMillan started a cartage and furniture removal business in Govanhill. Duncan McSporran, father of the brothers Malcolm and Robert, became a carter in William's business. Later, the first William McMillan handed over to his son, the second William McMillan. Business flourished.
Then the third generation of McMillans, Willie and his brother Stewart, joined the business in the early 1930s. The McSporran's Malcolm and younger brother Robert, were already working for the company which merged with the business of James Hemphill and took the name in 1936.
Today, 65-year-old Malcolm McSporran, the company's longestsurviving employee, recalls that when he joined the firm at the age of 14 he started work at 5 a.m. to groom the pony, clean the harness and go off with the trap to collect Mr. McMillan (No. 2) at his home at 8 a.m.
Parlez Vous Cornish?
T-VRING last week's South Western Traffics visit to Le Havre, LII understand, the company's two traffic managers let it be known that they intended to take a crash course in French—to assist reciprocity. I also understand that there was a suggestion SWT should arrange a course in Cornish for the French hauliers. Having spent some time with Fred Heale, of Exeter, I would agree.
For Sale: Wings
ILIKE the lyrical lilt of the name. It's Western Wings of Worcester, which makes Fibreglass-aluminium wings for "any" commercial vehicle, mainly on the proved-correct assumption that hauliers would be happy to keep older vehicles running if they could obtain body panels.
Now WW of W is holding a Summer sale (from July 1) of its products at prices even lower than its planned-for-Winter target of a third less than the retail prices of the steel counterparts.
At last!
TT'S a magnificent trophy. "Lorry Driver of the Year Competition'; 1 says its emblazoned face. "Lady Finalist. Presented by T.G.B. Motors Ltd. Highest Award for Female Driver." Presented? Not yet. You see, it has been waiting three years for a winner.
But this year there will be a recipient. For at Leeds last Sunday Mrs. Jean Clouth, of the WVS Food Flying Squad, won Class B for drivers of 16 to 19 ft. vehicles with only 76 penalty points. And she's the first female entrant ever to qualify.
In Passing
DROFOUNDEST midnight must have shrouded the perceptive r abilities of the Glasgow informant upon whose observations I based my "No Tears" remarks concerning the passing of the Corporation's trolleybuses (June 9).
True, as he told me, only a few pedestrians watched the last trolley run. But it was midnight. And my informant missed the 200-odd people who saw the last trolley leave Queen's Cross terminus, not to mention the 100 or so—including many trolley staff members—who watched it arrive at Hampden trolleybus garage.
I'm obliged to Brian T. Deans, author of the Scottish Tramway Museum Society's book, Glasgow Trolleybuses, for putting the record straight. He tells me that the last Glasgow trolley was TB123. Reading Transport Society wants to preserve it—if enough money (donations to 68 Albert Road, Caversham, Reading, Berks.) can be raised.
Inside Out?
yoU might think that the battle for standardization of containers and pallets, if not won, was at least taking recognizable shape. Not so. I am intrigued to learn that at the ISO meeting in Moscow this week one topic will be the drawing up of standard dimensions by working from the inside out. That is, by taking the required internal dimensions and working outwards to an exterior dimensional result.
Maybe I've only heard half the story, but it sounds crazy to me. We've had something of the sort before, with pallets. Just when standardization of vehicle widths is beginning to mean something, it is crazy to ignore the limits which this sets. Into reverse gentlemen, please.
Advice Unlimited
(NNE question I've longed to ask Mrs. Castle: "How many 44...1 non-Civil Service working parties do you have to advise you?" But Peter Walker asked it first—in the Commons the other day. Her list:— Transport Advisory Council; National Road Safety Advisory Council; Advisory Committee on the Landscape Treatment of Trunk Roads; Regional Passenger Transport Co-ordinating Committees; Transport Co-ordinating Council for London; Urban Transport Manpower Inquiry; Control of Motor Rallies Advisory Committee; Nationalised Transport Advisory Council; Central Transport Consultative Committee for Great Britain; Transport Users' Consultative Committees; Railway Policy Review /Joint Steering Group; Committee on Motor Insurance as a Factor in Road Safety; Joint Ministry of Transport-London Transport Board Review; Bridge Design Committee; Joint Safety Committee for Mobile Radio; Area Traffic Control West London Experiment Management Committee, and sub-Committees; Road Construction Liaison Committee, Liaison Group with Federation of Civil Engineering Contractors; Joint Working Party on Road Construction Units; Working Party on Rural Bus Services; Working Party on Braking Regulations; Working Group on the One-man-Operation of Buses; Working Party on the Revision of the Motor Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations; Research Committees of the Road Research Laboratory; Advisory Council on Road Research; Working Party on Street Name Plates and House Numbers; Working Party on Speed Limit Policy; Joint Working Party on the Use of Project Evaluation Research Techniques for Road Programme Management; Working Party on Pedestrian Road Safety; Winter Maintenance Equipment Development Committee; Traffic Signs Technical Working Party; Urban Transport Research and Development Group; Joint Anglo-French Working Group on Channel Tunnel; Channel Tunnel Technical Committees: River Thames Passenger Services Committee; Working Party on Vehicle Lighting Regulations.