AEC Dump Trucks & Lorries A2 Eltham Relief Road Building Works 1986

[@rocksreynolds3642]

We had old internal use only trucks like these at Homefire in Kerseley, battered, only two gears left in the box, no exhaust, door held shut with a bungy cord and always overloaded but still getting on with the job. Great atmospheric footage.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

That's what sort of vehicles these were. But they kept going, a tribute to the builders and those that drove them!

[@davelove3779]

Rocks Reynolds I grew up behind the home fire plant. My dad used to park his truck in the corner of the car park he had an ex whimpy Leyland constructor. I used to chat with the loading shovel driver at the homfire plant as a lad. He used to make a seat for me next to his in the shovel. I think his name was Adrian or something along them lines. I was taken on many tours round that plant by a manager called Aurther. Happy times.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

@@davelove3779 Yes, there's a big interest in old lorries such as these, i see loads every year at the Llandudno Transport Festival!

[@MICHAELDAFFY]

I worked on this site for three summers 85 to 87 as a student from ireland, graduated from working on a concrete gang to driving a roller, 12 hour shifts but the money was good, great memories

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

My plaesure.....I can't imagine getting access to a site like this would be so easy now......

[@andynixon2820]

Just been watching a video of these very same trucks working on the A12 Chelmsford bypass. They're bloody heroic vehicles .

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Certainly well built vehicles back then.....

[@1973ts]

Fantastic! I love the one with only one windscreen and twisted tipper body.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

They were all withdrwn from normal use and just used on off road contracts like this. However battered they got they were patched up and carried on!

[@craigsibley8161]

Hahaha 😂 A novel air conditioning system on truck 9... Loved watching plant and trucks as a kid. Ended up driving CAT 785s at pennyvenie opencast in Ayrshire.

[@AMK1000]

Gotta love old warhorses, bashed, battered, bruised but still getting the job done

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Solidly built machines, like RT & Routemaster buses that howeve battered they get just tromp on....

[@tl50camiva]

Another fabulous video of these AEC workhorses, well worth the wait :)

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Thank you, i do have more....

[@tl50camiva]

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus Good to hear- I shall remain tuned in! :)

[@AndrewSmith-xy1ld]

Rough ,ready,reliable, good old bruiser.

[@rogerfwright8423]

All MOT compliant . . . that is Magnificent Old Trucks!

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

MOT compliant for the Philippines perhaps......lol But good solid machines .

[@firglenchainsaws]

Pure class! I drove them all. We had Scammells as well as AECs with Cementation. Flat out! Proper wagons.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Top Man! Even in this state i bet they were still good, rugged vehicles mechanically....

[@robsterbob580]

Amazing video! Reminds me of the old Ford D series truck I drove when I had a job in a scrapyard years ago. It had a hiab crane on the back and was used to move cars and engines around the yard. It was clapped out, missing a front wheelarch and various other bits. But like these trucks, it did the job. No health and safety in that scrapyard either. They let me drive the Ford and an old site dumper around the yard, I hadn't even passed my driving test at the time!!!

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Sounds like it was fun! I used to drive buses around on London Transport property with a B license and i hadn't even got a car license!!! But great fun as an 18 year old....happy days.

[@robsterbob580]

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus You got to drive buses at that age, wow, that must have been fun! Happy days indeed. I have driven a Routemaster bus, but it was only a few years ago. I had a voucher for a driving experience on one. Really enjoyed it, was a dream come true for me. Must have been brilliant to have a go at such a young age!

[@adrianharper1535]

My first site job as a trainee engineer, started there right about this time when they were moving the muck down towards the Kidbrooke end. We would come out of the site office by the old coal yard and down the temporary underpass under the railway in the Land Rover , to see one of these beaten up old wagons heading at you loaded up to the bollxxxxx at full tilt.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Thanks for your memories, i assume from Kidbrook the muck was transported away for other uses or landfill?....

[@adrianharper1535]

It was all sand and gravel there, they built the tunnel and then the long retaining wall by the railway first. Then dug out for the new road and took most of it down to the bit between the new railway bridge and kidbrooke where it’s all fill. I was there from about this time until it was opened. We then went up to the next job on the north circular at the A10 junction. Great time, learnt a lot about life and civil engineering.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

@@adrianharper1535 Thanks for the info.....

[@SELondoner75]

Great video, live 5 minutes away from this section, remember as a kid this being built, and of course the original bus/train station.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

I did go to the old station and have a few photos taken there of buses. All swept away now, just the thunderous traffic passing on the A2 relief road!

[@SELondoner75]

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus I'm guessing this messages don't show up on public feed? As was gonna ask I f your was the name on my video cover, I'm actually guessing you are. I remember my dad telling you about funny bit on video we have when a woman falls of back of an RM think a 37 near Richmond ?

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

@@SELondoner75 All this is public, so keep my anonimity please! Yes, that bit was on the vid and will be an upload on here. Given time you will see all i have. Indeed there are uploads of buses on here that were never released before, so check through my 300+ uploads and see what's new! Am off working in Birmingham at a CAMRA beer festival for a week or so but will be uploading again then.

[@SELondoner75]

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus No worries, many thanks for your replies.

[@martynmollot8936]

CGB-75: I am looking for information on an old outdoor pool which was demolished near Westhorne Avenue when this section of the Rochester Way Relief Road was built - it was shaped like two small circular pools linked together at the centre. Do you remember where this was?

[@richardc9416]

Brilliant stuff, I know that area well

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

It's changed a bit now i should imagine, i'd get run over standing where i filmed this now!

[@Buckstom]

Love this film, really Atmospheric. Can you imagine having this level of access to a building site these days ?

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

The guy who owned the lorries was a contractor. My mate who got me to film them was into AEC vehicles, he had seen them at work on the Chelmsford by-pass and went to investigate. He contacted their owner who got permission to allow us on site to film them there and then here at Eltham. I seem to recall we had hard hats on and were told to not get too close the the actual work. All good fun!

[@articeddie5494]

Any footage from Chelmsford ?

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

@@articeddie5494 As they used to say on Blue Peter....here's one i made earlier! kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y6fMd6N4rq15frc. I do have more from Chelmsford and will upload more in time.....

[@rowanlidbury]

I remember watching this construction from the bridge at Eltham station.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Could well have been the same bridge i stood on to film some of this?

[@adrianharper1535]

I think you was on west mount road bridge at the start. The next bridge up was green link bridge. While we was building it some kids chucked a length of rebar onto the rail line below stopped all the trains

[@adrianharper1535]

I think you was on west mount road bridge at the start. The next bridge up was green link bridge. While we was building it some kids chucked a length of rebar onto the rail line below stopped all the trains

[@adrianharper1535]

I think you was on west mount road bridge at the start. The next bridge up was green link bridge. While we was building it some kids chucked a length of rebar onto the rail line below stopped all the trains

[@deezelfairy]

Number 99 definatly fell on her left hand side and some point. Grew up 500yds away from here, I was 1 year old at the time of this video 😂

[@petersmith4455]

hi there. theAEC trucks are mammoth major mk5s. i worked at AEC, southall.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Thanks for that. My mate was a lover of all things AEC , he knew i had a video camera and took me out to film these and the London Fire Brigade AEC TL's. He soon got hooked and we did all fire appliances plus heavy haulage moves! I was into buses & trains only back then but i'm pleased i did it all now!

[@stephenthomas364]

Yes ..poor old Excellent AEC vehicles. I remember the use and abuse they got building the A27 bypass too. So enduring and hard working. Lovely sound and style. Such a part of growing up in UK . AEC trucks building the roads, AEC engines powering ( some ) of the DMU trains.. AEC fire engines ...Riding to school on AEC RTs.

[@gooldscross8702]

thought my old fellas scammells at iver on the 25 were rough but that wimpey no,9 takes the biscuit all togther

[@firglenchainsaws]

They are not Mercurys, they have the MK5 cab but were a short wheelbase type for site work. Great bit of film.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

I must admit i am not well up on lorries so i am always pleased if someone can correct me on any mistakes, i can then change the description. Pleased you like the film, i still have more......

[@steetee725]

They are Mammoth Majors built to Wimpey specification with the AV760 engine in them...AEC were still building them like this for Wimpey in 1973 even though the Park Royal cab as it was known had been discontinued 10 years before that.... I had the privilege to drive one for Egerton Transplant in Manchester in 1976.... Bulletproof is the only way to describe them

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

@@steetee725 Bulletproof indeed as this video shows! Thanks for the info, it was a friend of mine who loved AEC vehicles that had me out filming these vehicles so my knowledge of them is a bit lacking, i am more a bus & railway man.

[@petersmith4455]

@@steetee725 hi, i worked at AEC and remember doing these trucks,indeed it was the mk5 cab done at park royal coach wks,,i believe there are 3 in preservation which look new..the av760 was a good engine !

[@steetee725]

@@petersmith4455 It was a cracking engine and would leave a 680 Leyland for dead, amongst others 😉

[@purplemoonproductions9269]

love it

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Thank you, i still have more.......

[@Merseysiderful]

4:45 Wagon 99 must have been the spare parts donor.

[@hfraat25]

The 360 driver is good

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

They certainly flew about the place!

[@articeddie5494]

Not a HiViz to be seen

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Nor many bump hats!

[@eddkennedy6458]

Yeah great times.

[@geraldlrstubbs]

That was probably Crazy Horse and chums.

[@paulbennell3313]

Poor old things!

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

But even in their twilight years they just carried on!

[@DKS225]

I have to say it The AEC Mercury Trucks like many others were built of sturdy stuff. They get a dent and still keep on going. Much like the old double deckers that ran around Sydney most notable the post WW2 built DD's built between 1947 and 1954 with bodies supplied by either Commonwealth Engineering or Clyde Engineering with chassis either The AEC Regent III or The Leyland Titan OPD-2 type the last of which were withdrawn in 1976-77. While a number have been preserved or in private hands one unit number 1877 was exported to a buyer in Scotland and still runs there today on special trips. Of course filling up the radiator was mandatory for those who drove them in government service during the Department of Government Transport or DGT and it's successor The Public Transport Commision or PTC of NSW. The current title for Government buses in Sydney is known as State Transit. But that clips was very brilliant watching as always Soi.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

have a look through my bus uploads, there are some nice old buses at work as well as more up-to-date vids! There are some old London buses in or near Sydney i believe. A guy called Sergio has been to the UK to some bus rallies buying bits & pieces for them-a Routemaster and a Leyland RTL! Plus a bus driver i worked with here in the UK spends half his time here and the other in Aus, out near Perthwhere he has an old London AEC Regent III RT bus that he used to drive years back in London...

[@DKS225]

Soi Buakhao The Sydney Bus museum has possession of two London buses in their collection plus another business Called Forest Minatures has at least one Leyland National in amongst it’s collection

[@DKS225]

I did a little digging on what i mentioned about The Sydney Bus Museum Soi they have two preserved AEC Routemasters units RM 1708 and RML 2353 plus one of the predecessors to the original Routemaster AEC Unit RT 3708 and there's also a former Lothian Buses Edinburgh Volvo Olympian that was at there London Transport theme day back on the 20th of October with the Volvo it nowadays operates for Blue Mountains Explorer Bus Charters. Hope that is of some use to you though i suspect that there are more Ex-pat Routemasters or similar over here in Australia albeit in other museums or private owners.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

@@DKS225 A guy i worked onthe buses with in the early 2000s spent half his life in the UK and the other half in Aus (i think he was Australian & his wife English) so he never saw winter (lucky man) and had a wedding hire business near Perth and had an old London RT bus out there, RT 1024 which he used for weddings. One he drove in service in London back in the 1970s he told me. I would like to have a holiday over in Aus and chase some trains and buses. I may have to make it sooner rather than later!

[@WytwórniaStyropianu]

When i look at this dumpers I think i'ts rather in 1968 not 1986 ;)

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Back in 68 they would have been new and nowhere near this hard work! But even 20+ years old they were still up to the job.....

[@neilcrawford8303]

Not only no hi-vis, no orange flashing beacons on the trucks or excavators either. Certainly not ROPS or FOPS cabs. It's the fact to, that you are obviously on the other carriageway on the road project. Imagine trying to attempt that these days. The H&S police would be on you like a ton of bricks.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

We did have permission to be there but it was all very much agreed with a bloke on the ground. But no one questioned us and left us alone!

[@banjobolt1]

No health and safety to be seen 🤣🤣 or site speed limit .

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Yes, today would be a sea of yellow and hard hats plus we probably wouldn't have been allowed on site!

[@eddkennedy6458]

We didnt need those knobheads stopping us from getting the job done, great times.