TRUCK DRIVING IN THE FIFTIES AND SIXTIES 1st Installment
Having driven trucks for a living from 1952 until I retired in 2001 am including this article in my memories to see if any old truck driver can recall the things I mention and also any young one's can realize how easy it is to drive a big truck now. When I first started driving for the Regent Oil Co (later to become Texaco) in 1957 the first truck I drove was an eight wheeled rigid Leyland Octopus, this was the largest tanker allowed on the road at that time carrying four thousand gallons of petrol (18,250 litres) and weighing 24 tons, no power steering, vacuum brakes, and a very slow crash gearbox with a top speed of 29 miles per hour (46 k.p.h.)
This may sound slow but as the maximum speed limit was only 20 M.P.H. (32k.p.h.) as it was then, it was sufficient. Last week I drove for a while at this speed and realised how slow it was yet we drove for up to eleven hours a day at this speed. This vehicle had a huge steering wheel so as to give you the leverage to get around the corners, and I, being only 5ft 6in and weighing 9stone 4lbs wringing wet, had to stand up in the cab to get around the tight corners also the gearbox was so slow when changing gears that you counted 1, 2, slowly before dropping into the next gear you could pull it through fast but being a crash box if you misjudged it you jarred your wrist.
Brakes were another problem being only vacuum so when descending steep hills you pushed your foot hard on the pedal, your back digging into the back of the hard seat to give you more power, pulled up the long handbrake lever which was connected to a cable drum and a ratchet and hoped nothing got in the way and at the bottom of the hill you slammed the handbrake lever forward to release the ratchet and away you went.
They also had a very heavy clutch.
And to top it all there was virtually no noise insulation so also there were no radios fitted we would not have been able to hear them anyway.
Because of the low speeds and not too powerful an engine we used angel gear a lot, the best place for this was Cockfosters Hill with a long downhill slope and a long hill going up with no side streets at all so it was into angel gear until you going up the hill you reached the speed that you could engage top gear at maximum revs (bearing in mind it was a crash box)
You also had to be double-jointed to drive at night as the light box was situated above the electrical isolation switch (which was mandatory for petrol tankers) at the back of the cab behind your right arm so you felt for the right switch to cut your headlights to indicate to passing trucks it was clear to pull over. Windscreen wipers were another handicap being only nine inches long and a sweep of 45 degrees and if I recall correctly also vacuum operated and when it snowed and stuck to the windscreen the area to see through was minuscule and the seat was a very hard contraption being hooked directly onto the back of the cab with only three height positions and no forward movement.