50's Road Hauling (DVD)

Whilst wandering around the shops of Shrewsbury, we decided to look at the Scope charity shop. I noticed that they had started selling a range of new DVDs produced by a company called Delta, of Orpington in Kent. (you can contact them at 222 Cray Avenue, Orpington, Kent, BR5 3PZ or via www.deltamusic.co.uk)

Delta are marketing the films produced by the British Transport film unit. The first one I bought (I'll be going back for more!) ...
...DVD is called Dodging the Column and was produced on 1952. (You'll note that the person who thought up the title has the same irksome habit of producing appalling punning headlines as I do. Sorry. But we just can't help it. Apparently for a time the road haulage industry was privatised, hence the British Transport Film unit and the use of the Lion on the wheel symbol, also used on British rail trains.


This is the (probably ... more

Whilst wandering around the shops of Shrewsbury, we decided to look at the Scope charity shop. I noticed that they had started selling a range of new DVDs produced by a company called Delta, of Orpington in Kent. (you can contact them at 222 Cray Avenue, Orpington, Kent, BR5 3PZ or via www.deltamusic.co.uk)

Delta are marketing the films produced by the British Transport film unit. The first one I bought (I'll be going back for more!) is called 50s Road Hauling. The first film on the DVD is called Dodging the Column and was produced on 1952. (You'll note that the person who thought up the title has the same irksome habit of producing appalling punning headlines as I do. Sorry. But we just can't help it. Apparently for a time the road haulage industry was privatised, hence the British Transport Film unit and the use of the Lion on the wheel symbol, also used on British rail trains.

This is the (probably highly fictionalised!) account of how a 137 foot long distillation column was taken by road all the way from the manufacturers in Greenwich, South of London, all the way to the oil cracking plant that it was destined for in Grangemouth, in the north east, a distance of some 500 miles.

When one considers that the drivers and crews (headed by Mr Skipp) had no motorways to use, and that the top speed of the two Scammell tractor units (remember them?) with the load was only 10 to 12 miles per hour, it is no wonder that it took them two weeks to complete the journey!

The scenery of this film (in black and white) was interesting, as it shows a slice of life that is now long gone. Trams in London, police escorts for heavy or long loads, the interested crowds wearing sensible pullovers and caps, bowlers or school caps, as the load was hauled through central London, as it made its way northward, through St Albans, the Potteries, Preston, Manchester, Hamilton and don't forget Shap, probably one of the highest main roads in Britain at that time.

Watching the Scamells and their load park up at night on a suitable bit of roadside, with nothing more that half a dozen Hurricane lamps was illuminating, of you'll pardon the expression! It certainly wouldn't be allowed today.

The householder who had to have his garden fence dug out and removed looked as glum as you'd expect. On that part of the job they also had to bend a tree on the other side of the road.

The next film was different, (They Take the High Road) as it was in colour and told the story of a team of dedicated drivers who, using nothing more than ERF lorries, hauled thousands of tons of cement on a windy and exceptionally poorly-planned road for it to be turned into concrete for a vast hydro-electric dam in the Scottish mountains.

The drivers lived on site during the week, living and eating in a converted railway carriage in a siding at the railhead. The film introduces the drivers and shows the very hard job that they had, as the road was clearly not designed for the purpose it was intended for, and the drivers are shown really struggling to keep the lorries on the road, as there was no power steering in those days and no automatic gearboxes.

One of the drivers (all 18 stone of him, he was a big lad!) did the cooking and provided full English (sorry!) breakfasts at the start of the day and rather fine looking steak and fried egg dinners at the end of an exceptionally tiring day.

The feel of this film was, it has to be said, was better and more professional. It was made by a Scottish production team and had the feel of a travel documentary, and gave the background of the transport industry in Scotland.

It also showed that, even then, the transport industry made use of the best in available Information Technology. The Telex machines certainly helped keep things on the move.

The third film is another black and white presentation called Journey to the Sea. It showed the story of a trawler that had lost something quite important. It's propeller! It needed a replacement and there was one at a depot in Preston. An Atkinson lorry and it's crew of two (those were the days, hey? A driver and a driver's mate!) who had to take the propeller all the way by road.

The Atkinson had a boxed trailer behind it, filled with other goods for the port, with the propeller lashed to the bed of the wagon. It was interesting to watch the driver undertaking a pre-journey check on his wagon and the trailer.

It showed the culture of the 1950s lorry drivers, the truck stops with juke boxes and fish and chips.

The film seemed a little hokeier than the other two, being far too contrived for its own good. The scene with the gypsy fortune teller and the tin bath, for example, was something one would have expected to see in an Ealing comedy. And was it my imagination, or did at least some of the "Welsh" accents veer into" look you, boyo" parodies? My wife, who is a Welsh speaker has just assured me that I am wrong, they seemed genuine Welsh accents, though perhaps voiced by actors who had lived too long in England. There was a nice bit of Welsh language singing together with the Welsh mountain scenery really did compensate for the slightly dodgy bits of this film.

It cost £3.99 and was worth every penny. 

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