M62 Revisited - 50th anniversary edition.

My video consists of film, photos and recordings depicting classic plant and machinery at work on the Pennine section of the M62, Lancashire-Yorkshire motorway, in the summer of 1969.

[@basilguts1786]

Real proper old boys. Wouldn’t be too many of them left now 2023. Some characters 👍.

[@jerryhammack1318]

Hard working people in a past era ! Millions of cubic meters of material moved in a very short period of time! Bless the brave souls who labored on that monumental job! By modern standards that is incredible! If we only had people that worked that hard in the current age!

[@gerryattrick6731]

Yes. I only saw it when the sun shone, but there's a 3-part BBC4 documentary called The Secret Life of the Motorway, and episode 1 (I think) deals with the M62 and shows the shocking winter conditions that they had to deal with. Thanks for watching mine.

[@stephendavies8087]

A piece of important history for the north of England. Its easy to forget the route traffic had to take to get from Hull to Liverpool. Thank goodness it was not getting built now, , not sure it would have happened. Great video. Well done Gerry

[@gerryattrick6731]

Thanks for your encouraging words.

[@RebirthRadio2023]

I had to take the old way a couple of weeks ago when the M62 was closed. Had to get from Leeds to Manchester, via Halifax, Sowerby Bridge and Ripponden. What a trawl, and amazing to think either that route (the A58), or via Huddersfield and Saddleworth on the A62 would have been the major routes into the early 70s. It's weird driving on the road from Ripponden seeing the motorway looming above you, you don't realise how high it is when you're driving it, but when you see it from below the engineering works are astounding.

[@gerryattrick6731]

@@RebirthRadio2023 Thanks for your encouraging words. I was a part-time coach-driver in those days and remember, all-too-well, the trans Pennine routes. On one occasion I had to take a coach-load to Blackpool, for the lights, then drive back. 5 hours each way, in a beat-up old Bedford with a "Chinese" gear-box. However; I knew about the opening of the Pennine section before any of the other, more seasoned, drivers and was soon frequently arriving in Blackpool well before the drivers who'd ignored my advice.

[@markgrzywacz4435]

Magnificent feat of engineering by everyone involved who worked on the whole project I had the privilege of meeting a gentleman who was a formwork joiner from mirfield west Yorkshire who worked on the scammodan bridge he told me there was 12 joiners who worked on the bridge 6 from Huddersfield and 6 from Sheffield fantastic man and what a great story probably 90percent of people crossing the bridge or crossing the motor way haven't abloody clue how hard they worked everyone of them was fantastic

[@gerryattrick6731]

Yes. I remember lots of smiles and good humour. There's a doc. (BBC 4 I think) called The Secret Life of The Motorway and (again I think) episode one (of 3) includes scenes from the M62 construction. It was always sunny when I went up there but that doc. shows how bad the weather. can be. Worth a watch if you can find it.

[@lewiemcneely9143]

The singing by the kids was spot on BUT the real music was all that symphony of 2-cycle and the big Cat engines singing. Thanks and CHEERS! for this!

[@gerryattrick6731]

Hello Lewie. Thanks for your kind words and apologies for the delay in responding. It WAS a heck of a project. (See also episode 1 of the B.B.C.'s The Secret Life of the Motorway.) I only experienced hot sunny days up there but working up there in the winters must have been hellish.

[@lewiemcneely9143]

@@gerryattrick6731 No problem, Gerry and some guys went from here to Upstate New York for work and they had dozers wrapped up so only the operators head stuck out nd with a suck fan and a blade full a man could probably stay warm as long as he was working. I put a strip of canvas down the side of a D8 on the turbo/exhaust side and with a suck fan and putting a garbage bag over the bottom half of the radiator guard to keep from being sandblasted, I faired right well. But winter out in the open is a rough job. I never had a dry (heat and a.c.) till later in life and it was a real comfort so I've been on both sides. Thanks and God Bless!

[@oddities-whatnot]

@@lewiemcneely9143 what ? I think I nearly understood all that

[@lewiemcneely9143]

@@oddities-whatnot I'm simple minded. Read it like you're as retarded as I am and it'll come clear.

[@gerryattrick6731]

I did wonder about the "appropriateness" of the Children's choir but, as it's The Manchester Children's Choir, and the whole spectacle seemed like a bizarre giant dance-routine, I left it in. I'm glad that I did.

[@vandalsavage6152]

Brilliant, the soundtrack of the lads discussing 'the shillings' brought a lot back. Well done, a great piece of historical value....

[@gerryattrick6731]

Thanks for your kind words.

[@davidlotti5407]

When I was young I drove production truck in the Iron ore mines on the western end of the Mesabi Iron Range for Cleveland Cliffs Iron Mining Company They were Euclid 35 an 40 ton models with two sets of dual wheels 10 wheels total including the front wheels the shovels were Bucyrus Erie Marion

[@danielmarshall4587]

WOW much appreciate this. thank you.

[@gerryattrick6731]

You're welcome, and thanks for your encouraging words. It was a pleasure filming it, in the sunshine of that summer up there, and good experience putting it together from bits of personal memorabilia.

[@fatlad5090]

imagine having no cab like them scrapers. specially up there on pennines

[@gerryattrick6731]

Yes. The lad in the blue bandana, driving the T-S 14 in the photo near the end of the film, was later killed when a Drott shovel overturned on him on a railway embankment elsewhere. He'd have been glad of a strong canopy. Thanks for your comments.

[@SimonPerry-cz4ke]

Excellent The Good Old Days

[@gerryattrick6731]

Thanks Simon. If you haven't seen it, episode 1 of The Secret Life of the Motorway (pops up on BBC 4 occasionally) which has a section on the building of the M62 Pennine Section.

[@charleshart6992]

Excellent!

[@gerryattrick6731]

Thanks Charles. It was great fun collecting the images.

[@studebaker4217]

Excellent film thank you - and guys just wearing their own clothes, not a hi-vis suit in sight - and nobody standing around on a mobile phone, which so many do at civil sites these days.

[@seamusburke9101]

There was no micro management that time by college boys and girls who have no idea about anything.

[@FisheeC3]

I think the guy operating the shovel is wearing a tie 😅

[@gavster_999]

4:06 Round Ings Road by Outlane / Scape! Amazing to see

[@HorseMalone]

Just checked out the inflation calculator for 1969. Inflation means that the pound has lost NINETY FIVE percent of it's value.. The Sixty pound wage for working in a shaft would now need to be £1240..

[@fatlad5090]

the cat dumpers would of been the best my easy to drive and comfortable

[@gerryattrick6731]

Yes. I was fortunate enough to be given lifts in a few of them and it struck me as being the "Rolls Royce" of dump-trucks. Smooth, quiet, nippy and comfortable. Desirable attributes in that sort of environment, and 100% Cat! Thanks for your comment.

[@boyfromblackstuff7859]

McAlpines Fusiliers! Brilliant,thanks for posting.

[@gerryattrick6731]

Thanks for watching. Spending summer Saturdays up there was an enjoyable period in my life.

[@boyfromblackstuff7859]

@@gerryattrick6731 Gerry,is/was your background in Civil Engineering?

[@gerryattrick6731]

@@boyfromblackstuff7859 No. But I was a clerk in I.H.'s offices in Doncaster and a documentary was shown (on I.T.V. I think) romanticising, and grossly misrepresenting, the life of the blokes on the M62 job. I found that it was detested by those same blokes but it showed lots of I.H. machines toiling away and I was intrigued, so that's where my film originated. Thanks for your encouraging words. (P.S. When I offered some photographs to my manager for the staff magazine he refused them because the machines were - wait for it - TOO DIRTY! (Chortle!)

[@boyfromblackstuff7859]

@@gerryattrick6731 Back in the mid 80's Iwas working for a large regional civil engineering/surfacing contractor,one particular day it was lashing down with rain and while we were waiting for tarmacadam I started to wash our crewcab waggon whilst it rained so heavily,the foreman's brother 'big John O'Brien '(he really was a mountain of a man who didn't suffer fool's gladly!) shouted at me to stop as "clean kit is making no money"! I would go back to them days in a heartbeat,tough industry to be in then but what it has morphed into now, it is almost unrecognisable.All engineered deliberately but then we could also say the same for our country! As for the documentary producer's,their job as part of the Globalist controlled media is to present a vision to support an agenda not present the truth! Is the I H plant still in Sunny Donny Gerry?

[@gerryattrick6731]

No. I.H. became Case/IH Tractors some years ago and moved elsewhere. The site that it occupied is now a housing-estate, and Doncaster's not too sunny either, in fact it appears to be being pulled down and a slum built in its place!! I enjoyed working there though, and that was because of the blokes with whom I worked. Hilarious. For example, I used to give a colleague a lift home on the back of my tandem and, on one such journey, he said " I don't want to worry you but there's a mongrel chasing after us with a bucket of water!

[@markh5433]

And not ONE laser level on site!

[@honestopinion253]

no safety gear worn at all

[@eddkennedy6458]

No HSE knobheads to stop work.

[@garyh1572]

Yes, we must get rid of all that Health stuff.And all that Safety stuff while we'll at it.

[@SW-ok8qr]

Health and safety is a good thing you imbecile 😂😂