Extreme Lorry Driving #2. Mountain Track To The Clouds. With Frank, Tim & Me Delivering to Hill Farm

This route has already been conquered by Frank, then Tim before me this morning so at least I know it's possible and I'm not the only silly bugger to attempt this. After the extremely tight, newly repaired canal bridge, at the bottom the only other worrying bit was when the wheels started slipping on a steep bit where it was made of rough concrete, and that was with a full load on. Would not like to do this in the winter as there were too many sharp drops over the edges. Stunning carved stone horse on the way back down. What a difference several hours makes to the outlook up at this farm. The farmers son made everyone on the job including myself sausage and bacon baps/cobs/buns big, full and tasty. No shortage of Lancashire hospitality.

[@davesinclair4749]

I like how you seem to get all the best jobs, super well done

[@cloudmaker]

Hello Dave, I've been wondering about that and think it's just because I'm lucky! 🤔😉🤣🤣All the best.

[@franktuckwell196]

Just proves what we (your audience) already know, in that you are a consumate professional when it comes to driving your truck, no matter how tight some of those corners are. We also appreciate your views on other drivers who got their licence when they bought their motor. Take care out there, they are not all as skilled as you are.

[@cloudmaker]

Hello Frank thank you for that one. On this job I was lucky enough to have both Tim and Frank already on the job and who guided me in here, both life long lorry drivers, both local to me although Frank is just over the border in Staffordshire but I can forgive him for that! 😉😂 These two are both drivers that will take on a challenge, within reason, like me, and don't think I know of many bettering these two. Frank did this run twice that day as while I was waiting he went back to Buxton and back again before I'd unloaded! However I do know of a few drivers that would not have entertained this job at all. I should also mention the lady lorry driver who drove up here too, that works for the firm we were delivering to. It does make you wonder if tomorrows drivers will have the same attitude and skills as all three of us, and in Franks case are, of retirement age. All the best Frank.

[@Sita1025]

I love all the drains cut into the road to keep the road from washing out!! Someone was thinking!!! Nice bull taking a break to chew his cud! Stunning vista!! I would love to live there!!! I'd be a hermit, that's for certain!! Amazing horse sculpture!! Your incredible skill in driving your truck is perfect for the gorgeous countryside you are lucky enough to get to drive in.

[@cloudmaker]

That place up on that hill is a bit like here, lots of folks think it's lovely until it gets to winter and most people then start itching to get out if the road's not open for a week or two. Horse sculpture was a nice surprise, and yes I am lucky in that driving a lorry means you get to see a lot more scenery as you can see over most hedgerows! 👍😁😁

[@Sita1025]

@@cloudmaker I happily would embrace winter and not leaving...just need my internet and I'll be fine!!

[@warrenheath6465]

Awesome driving, wish everyone on the road was as forward thinking and considerate as you. Having watched quite a few of your videos, I never fail to agree with you on your comments.

[@cloudmaker]

Hello Warren, thank you very much for that, but I have to warn you, don't watch too much of my channel, I don't want to be responsible for your sudden decline in mental health and shouting profanities everywhere! 😮😂🤣🤣Seriously though that's very nice of you to say, it is appreciated. Of course I'm not that good of a driver you know, it's all down to clever editing that makes me look good! 😉👍🤣🤣All the best Warren.

[@dashcamnorm8254]

Fantastic bit of driving there mate that bridge at the beginning was a challenge but you nailed it as I thought you would some lovely scenery well done to you all. I keep getting changed around with my runs in work because my boss knows I’ll do it and not Winge surprising how many new drivers don’t want a challenge or change. Have a safe week.

[@cloudmaker]

That bridge was a lot easier coming out. You've just reminded me about when I started back in 84, with that bit about new drivers not wanting a change. I started hauling tarmac for Thos. W. Ward from Sheffield as they operated a plant at Bakewell. As a new boy I could only load after everyone else, fine by me as I wasn't trying to push anyone out of their place. All the regulars had early morning depot tips in South and West Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire so would be back just after 8-830am. After about 6 months Jack the old bloke in the weighbridge says did I fancy a run to Harrogate as all the regulars refused it as they would be better off doing their depots and getting back for another. I says yes and next morning I was first loading at 5.30 for Harrogate, it was a 3 hour run in the Clydesdale! After that I was one of the early morning depot men too. 👍

[@robertbate5790]

That was epic!!! Wonder if they told the neighbours to stay off the track for you?? You wouldnt want to meet even a bicycle up there lol 🤣🤣 That horse was fantastic too.

[@cloudmaker]

Yes Robert I did note there was a serious lack of passing places up there, I think if I lived up there I'd be creating some, just like we have done out here over the years. The horse was a lovely surprise and it looked like it was real stone too, if not it was pretty convincing. All the best mate.

[@terrytopliss9506]

Mate you certainly earned your wages there,great driving.👍👍

[@cloudmaker]

Yes Terry, that's all I did that day and it was a nice little earner too. Obviously with the driving as I always say it's more luck than judgement! 😉😁 All the best Terry.

[@colinblack7049]

Good job driver, of course it's a lot easier in the eight wheeler, could you get an artic up there? No? Neither could I 😂😂😂😂. Another great view on the way down, and a big sausage and bacon bap, you wouldn't need paying for that shift. 😂😂😂

[@cloudmaker]

Hello Colin, it's a good job we'd got at least an axle missing from a normal eight wheeler on this occasion, don't know if I'd have made it with an eight from ours, but a short wheelbase one would I think as they seem to be about 2-3 feet shorter than the present fleet. And yes it was a nice little earner too. All the best Colin.

[@MikeWilliams-yp9kl]

Great driving, I thought you would have been able to get up and down in an hour 😂❤ LOL. Beautiful place

[@cloudmaker]

I might have done it in that time but it was the time taken waiting to unload that made it that long of a job. Having said that look at the plus points, a good feed and the views coming down in brilliant sunshine, in complete contrast to earlier, were well worth it. All the best Mike.

[@Hetton53EL]

Well done mate. There's a lot of car drivers who would be scared shitless. If they'd had to go there and back again. Wagon drivers need respect

[@cloudmaker]

Going over that bridge and that bit when the wheels started slipping when going up loaded, that scared shitless analogy was just about right! Thank you for that one mate, have a good weekend.

[@stevewareing8525]

Great driving again. 👌. If some of those bends had been any tighter they would have been water tight. 👍.

[@cloudmaker]

👍😁 Thank you for that Steve, that bend on the bridge was about my maximum in one go, as we were almost scraping the wall on the right, with the nearside tyre kissing the wall on the left. All the best Steve.

[@KevinD_33x150]

Another great drive, with fantastic views... at least on the way back! 👍🏼👍🏼 There's a very big difference between driving through tight suburban streets & places like this. You tend not to be able to slide off a cliff in suburbia, for starters. 🤣🤣 Technical driving, such as this, is an acquired skill. I've taught many how to deal with tracks where it's difficult to judge the incline (or decline) or see where the edges are, especially when turning tight corners and judging the ever changing surface your tyres are on. Spatial awareness is KING! Our kids were fast learners. The boys, being boys, were no problem. They made it look easy. I was also very lucky with our youngest, our daughter, who picked it up very fast. She can not only judge & pick her way through traffic as safely & swiftly as the boys, she has no problems (or fear) of tight spaces, either. (Apart from the exceptional tutelage, the genetics would have a lot to do with all that! 🤣🤣) After a few hours, it becomes obvious who can & who absolutely can't. (Not going to mention the Mrs... and her abnormal fear of steep edges & declines 🤣🤣) You can always tell when a customer is appreciative of your work when they take the time & effort to feed you, and well! 6:44 That's one spectacular looking horse! The little house at 8:51 would be a little draughty. Not the place to be when it rains or snows. 🤣🤣

[@cloudmaker]

Hello Kevin, don't know about the acquired skills because with me it's just luck not judgement! 🤔😉😂🤣🤣 Sounds like your kids had a good tutor. 👍 Getting into first gear before starting that climb might have been slight overkill as it might have made it in second but I was pretty sure I would not have to change gear on the steepest part, which as I'm sure you know can be catastrophic for the driveline, auto boxes are not good for drivelines, changing gear under heavy load then snatching followed occasionally by snapping! As for getting fed on a job that's a rarity these days, I did mention to the son who brought out the food that he ought to open a café as the Pennine Way ran behind them and when I said to him tell the chef thank you he says oh that's me I made them. I presume Mum might have been out at work. That horse was a nice surprise and it looked like it was real stone as well, never saw it on the way up as it was on the inside of that corner, that's where I thought our destination was but no all the way up! As it turned out this hill is next to the hill in the first Extreme video last week when I'd looked it up. All the best Kevin.

[@KevinD_33x150]

@@cloudmaker There's nothing wrong with a bit of "suck it and see", as they say! 🤣🤣 Where's the fun if you chicken out? 🤣🤣 It's all in the approach. 👍🏼 Funny you mention tutoring... A few of our new neighbours, with kids in their late teens-early 20's, have never driven a manual. They've all had licences for between 1 & 3 years. Two of them are competition motocross riders, which weighs in their favour for the understanding of a clutch & having to use both hands & feet to make it all work. They have been a dream to teach! The rest? There's a lot of work required... 🤣🤣 At least they know how to go, steer & stop! Sometimes first gear is all you need. It's slower than a wet week, but mechanically sympathetic. The loss of traction is quite often followed with "gravity assisted reverse", where the driver becomes a passenger. (Not sure if laughing emojis are suitable... 🤣🤣🤣) We had a neighbour, a few doors down from our previous abode, who is an out of control wood carver. He'd carved all sorts of things out of gum tree branches & trunks. As you'd imagine, his front "ranch style" gates are incredible! I'm amazed someone hasn't flogged them! 🤣🤣

[@cloudmaker]

@@KevinD_33x150 Gravity assisted reverse, yes been there, done that and bought the clean underwear! Your neighbours gates really do sound incredible always like to see something a bit different. 👍😁

[@KevinD_33x150]

@@cloudmaker When we were younger, my mum always told us to pack clean underwear, just in case. I was quite the adrenaline junkie back then. The spare undies? They were taking up a bit too much space... 🤣🤣 I really should pull out my finger & send you some stuff. From crazy gates hiding outrageous driveways to war memorial & clock towers. You'll be saying to yourself: "That looks familiar!" And rightfully so. Since settlement, the influences are everywhere. The gold rush years of the mid 1800's on are where the serious money was spent, from buildings & bridges to parks & gardens. Many of the buildings would be completely cost prohibitive, even for the deepest of pockets, to be built today. A stonemason that worked for my dad had told us there would be more than enough stone blocks cut & laid in Australia to easily reach the moon & back.

[@cloudmaker]

@@KevinD_33x150 Now you see the subject of differing countries similarities was answered by a retired university professor that I subscribed to many years ago in Maine USA, after he'd spent about 25-30 years rebuilding a Steam Lombard Log Hauler. Both things such as town names and in this instance his drystone walls were just like ours. It was simply that people from the UK took their names and wall building skills with them when they emigrated there over the last few hundred years. I've been a member of their museum for about ten years, this link will give you a fantastic over view on Herb's channel. kzbin.info/www/bejne/oJfOkGiAa891hrc One Lombard could pull hundreds of tonnes through snow. As for stonemason's quote, I'll bet he's easily right especially considering that most of these old structures had teams of stonemasons making thousands a day in each country over hundreds of years, another skilled job that's all but disappeared except on restoration jobs.

[@trevorbaker8374]

uk at its finest , lovly part of the world bur i think that lane and little bridge was made for donkey and cart not bloody great lorries ! nice drive though 10 out of 10 for that one . stay safe out there

[@cloudmaker]

Hello Trevor, but just think of that poor Donkey taking that cart up that bloody steep hill. I like Donkeys so I'm here to save the poor creatures from that back breaking work. Must have been horse and carts up there for hundreds of years I wonder how they coped going up but more frighteningly going down with something heavy, noy much room for error up there. Thank you for the comment Trevor, all the best.

[@whitesapphire5865]

And I found a couple of feature length videos here on KZbin. I haven't viewed them yet so can't say how good, but I'd definitely recommend the movie to anyone who fancies a nail biting thriller. It looks like there's two versions "The Wages Of Fear" and "The sorcerer".

[@KevinD_33x150]

The Wages Of Fear, 1953! Oldie, but a goodie! Sorcerer, 1977 is a good second choice. Haven't seen either in a very long time! Then there's a 2024 remake, of sorts. Set in a non-descript third-world desert... From what I've read, the time spent watching the 2024 film is time we'll never get back.

[@cloudmaker]

Sounds like you're quite the film buff, I've sometimes started watching a film that's already started, watched it then had no idea what it was called when it had finished! So a simple question of have you seen such and such a film might be met with well, I don't know! 🤔😂🤣🤣

[@davethebrit5897]

Bet the postman loves it

[@cloudmaker]

Oh and what about your average delivery driver, you can just see a lot of failed deliveries made at those addresses! All the best Dave.

[@davethebrit5897]

Bet Amazon love it!

[@cloudmaker]

@@davethebrit5897 👍😂😂

[@whitesapphire5865]

Have you ever seen that film, set in Venezuela, with the three lorry loads of nitroglycerine heading out to an oil well fire, driving at about four mph. All narrow winding roads, some unmettled, some on wooden ledges along cliff faces and stuff like that? This video reminds me a bit of that. If only I could remember what it's called..... 😟 Something like Devil Drivers perhaps, but I'm damned if I can recall it.

[@MikeWilliams-yp9kl]

I watched it, a shame it wasn't in English, subs were hard to read , I TOO HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IT WAS CALLED EITHER..❤

[@cloudmaker]

I think we've reminisced about said film before, I'd remembered it as a WW2 film where they had to drive at forty to make the bumps in the road less jarring so they didn't blow up, or am I wrong?

[@cloudmaker]

@@MikeWilliams-yp9kl OK it looks like I was wrong as the film I remembered was in English, well Hollywoodish anyway!

[@fingerpicker2]

Amazing thing is those bridges were built to take horse and cart

[@cloudmaker]

Yes they were, but not while I'm crossing! 😉👍😁 Makes you wonder how all those horses must have struggled up and down that hill carrying or pulling something heavy. Good job it looked like this bridge has had some work done to strengthen it, with it's new concrete deck over it. Still a bit of a nervous moment going over any bridge like this, especially loaded, as you say they were never designed to take our weights. Thank you for the comment.

[@whitesapphire5865]

Anyway I got that a bit off kilter, it wasn't Venezuela, there were only two lorries and four men. It was however in South America and the title is "Wages of Fear"... And it's a bloody good film, and I think I have it on home recorded DVD, and almost definitely on VHS - but no idea where I would start looking. 😟

[@KevinD_33x150]

We relocated almost a year ago, still looking for "stuff"... so, with certainty, I always know where "it" is! It's "in a box". 🤣🤣

[@cloudmaker]

Hello there, right in that case we are thinking of different films and we probably were before, but I can't remember anything other than trucks having to drive at 40mph and I think one exploded. Now if it had been Hell Drivers I think I remember nearly all of it, especially as it's used the tipper drivers training package! 😉🤔😂😂🤣🤣Have a good weekend.

[@clivewilliams3661]

The weight limit on the canal bridge was probably designed for much lower loads than the average HGV will exert. It is therefore both reckless and dangerous to risk a crossing without verifying the Highways Authority/Canal Trust approval.

[@cloudmaker]

Yes I understand your point but any bridge in the country that can not take 44 tonnes on six axles or 40 tonnes on five axles must have a weight limit restriction sign. This one does not have one. This bridge here may have had one in the past but as you can see it has clearly undergone some major structural works recently with all new bridge deck in, what I presume is heavily reinforced concrete, the original was most likely cobbled over the stone and in fill of the bridge arch. Personally going over these when loaded is nerve wracking in some cases, the worst for me was going over, what I think was the Trent in Lincolnshire with the lorry and the bridge deck was wooden planks! Coincidently that delivery was for a canal bridge along that road. Thank you for the comment Clive, all the best.

[@clivewilliams3661]

@@cloudmaker Thank you for your explanation. I did note that there was a concrete slab over the original stone bridge but that could just as easily have been a cheap repair. The big problem with vehicle loads is not the actual weight bearing down on the structure but the rolling load, which to counteract often requires considerably more structure than would be necessary for a static load.

[@cloudmaker]

@@clivewilliams3661 Yes you are absolutely right about the loading and associated forces on things such as bridges, static being much easier to accommodate by calculation but adding movement makes for much more input and a more complicated equation, which I for one would not be able to work out. I'm still baffled about bridges being stronger if they flex rather than been rigid, as an engineer was trying to explain on the Tinsley Viaduct we were delivering to. Apparently the basic principle is a rigid structure would break but a flexible one, like Tinsley, has to be able to move to stop it breaking. There was I knowing that if you continually bend something it breaks! No wonder I'm not an engineer or surveyor!

[@tonysaunders7521]

Livestock would have to grow their legs shorter on one side than the other to move on the fields.

[@KevinD_33x150]

That's all well & good, until they turn around! 🤣🤣

[@steveC2]

That's why in Scotland you always see the Haggis running the same way round the mountains

[@cloudmaker]

Dad used to say that sheep on steep sided hills had hydraulic legs! 🤔😁Thank you for that Tony.

[@cloudmaker]

@@KevinD_33x150 Of course! 🤦‍♂😂😂I wonder if that's how they get 'lean' meat! 🤔😁

[@cloudmaker]

@@steveC2 You know still never seen the little blighters in their natural habitat, got some coming in the shopping though on next delivery! 😉👍

[@PhilipOxley-by9cv]

Looks familiar where was it?

[@cloudmaker]

Hello Phillip Littleborough sort of Rochdale area. All the best.

[@Olminer66]

Is that up nr me Gary, looks like todmordon littlebourgh Area

[@cloudmaker]

Hello there, absolutely spot on there mate. Are you an old miner from up there, I'm guessing coal if it was. Thank you for the comment.

[@shaun30-3-mg9zs]

Wow!! that was some driving, I bet you rather drive on a road like that with no one around you than a bigger road full of morons. Stunning scenery, not a place to drive in the snow and ice, catch you soom mate

[@cloudmaker]

No Shaun not a good road at all. I wouldn't want one of these every week but yes it has it's advantages, less morons being one of them.

[@shaun30-3-mg9zs]

@@cloudmaker Yeh... may be not on those lanes at lest its idiot free

[@alanlawz]

Thats not a road its a fooking foot path lol.

[@cloudmaker]

Yes Alan it was more or less. All the best.

[@KevinD_33x150]

More footpath... less road... 🤣🤣

[@cloudmaker]

@@KevinD_33x150 👍😂😂