Saturday, 21 July 2007

19th - 23rd February 2007.

















Monday 19th February 2007
0615 Start. In and indeed out of the yard this morning with a minimum of fuss, a central London to do and a dentist appointment late afternoon meant that I wanted a good start in. First job was to run down empty to Loughton to collect some stuff belonging to a tennis court contractor. From Chelmsford the most direct way is along the A414 to Ongar and drop down to Abridge before cutting underneath J5 of the M11 but it is a bit arduous and easier to take the longer but faster route. Of course it would be easy if J5 was available to traffic arriving and departing from to the M25, however the best way in, is around to J26 M25 and drop in along the A121. My address was a road just past the turning for the station and right at the end was a little sports club with tennis courts. It’s 0730 and there’s no one on site so I try and find some space that won’t block too many people in and end up with me becoming a shunter. Whilst I’m waiting I knock the tie bars off the ramps, have a brew up and wander over to see what I have got to collect. Behind the Heras fencing is a skip (full), pile of spoil (large) and behind that the following plant; 1½t mini digger, skip loader, roller, Kramer shovel and a cement mixer. I have a scout about but cannot unearth any keys but at least it looks like it will be just possible to squeeze the stuff out between the gate post and the spoil heap.

At around 0800 someone shows up in a car and I expect he’s got the keys for this lot, he assumes I’ve got keys and it turns out that this is a job we are doing for another plant company and they have assumed it would be Norm and his magic keys on this job. Unfortunately the only solution is for someone to bring me the keys out from Chelmsford, so I settle back in the cab and stop the kettle from drying out. It is about 0915 before someone arrives, one of the fitters from the other company. He’s a top bloke though and helps me dismantle the Heras fencing and get the plant out, as the mixer is unpowered I decided that it’d have to be towed on but it can’t connect to the only machine with a hitch so we load up the shovel, the dumper and the roller before backing the digger up last. I chain the mixer’s towbar to the digger bucket and it’s a fairly tricky job trying to get the mixer up the ramps when it only just spans the gap and the digger has to go up the centre before being placed to the side. Somehow it all goes on and the mixer stays on the beavertail nudged up against the ramps.

After getting busy with the straps, I am finally ready to leave at 1000 having been on site for 2½ hours, the fitter retrieves his keys (that’s why he was so helpful) and assures me that they have keys on site. All this is to be delivered to Lambeth, just behind the Imperial War Museum so I head out onto the M11 via J5 and follow the A12 / A11 down to Aldgate and down to Southwark Bridge. It’s a short hop to Elephant & Castle and an even shorter one to the narrow street that is my delivery point, it’s a 7½t limit with no except for loading sign but I ignore it as chaos would ensue if I tried offloading on the main road. I’m in the right place and I’m told the keymeister will be with me in 5 minutes or so. I’m all unstrapped and stowed ready and they leave it to me to take the mixer off, theoretically a reversal of the loading but in reality 10x worse. The rest comes off easily enough and I grab one of the blokes to stop the traffic on the main road so I can reverse back up the one way street and onto it. By now it’s 1200 and that’s one job done, luckily I’ve only been allocated one more and that should do me fine. I made my way out the same way and followed the M11 up to Stansted and branched off down the A120 for Braintree and eventually High Garrett. Job 2 was to collect a Manitou rough terrain masted forklift from a civil engineering yard and it was loaded swiftly after the fitter had poured oil and water in it.
This was headed for Colchester to a housing development on Hythe Quay, sandwiched between Jewsons and Travis Perkins on the bank of the stinking river overlooking Easco’s scrapyard. Throw in a bit of grey sky and rain and …………..well what a place to want to live. Once it was all off and signed for, the ramps up and the chains stowed it was back to the A12 for a quick blast back to Danbury and off home at 1600 to visit the dentist.

Tuesday 20th February 2007
0645 Start. A large bucket had been loaded since I left so after securing it, I checked my paperwork and found that it was to be dropped off in Southend. The site in Southend was in a pub carpark where one of our machines is sinking a large diameter shaft, presumably for access to sewerage or water systems. There was not a lot of room, especially with a JS220 in there and I stayed outside and let them lift it off and over the hoarding with the machine. My next job was only a short hop around the corner to an old folks home to collect a skip loader and a 1½t mini digger, essentially similar to the ones I had on yesterday, these were loaded side by side up front and were taken back to be off hired at Jovic plant just down the road from our yard. When it came to unloading the dumper was fine but the mini was slipping about on the beaver tail and was proving difficult to get lined up so that it wouldn’t fall down the gap between the two ramps. I tried most things and even trying to get back up so I could go down one ramp wasn’t really happening as one of the tracks kept spinning and the whole thing sliding towards impending doom. Of course the best thing to do in this situation is to declare ‘your machine, you can get it’ and let someone try and get it off without damaging it. Thus it was so. Next up was an empty run down the waterfront at Brightlingsea to collect a 9t Komatsu that belonged to a local groundworker, I arrived on site and found the fella that I’d handed it over to when I’d delivered it and he showed me where it was and located the buckets for me. Oddly they weren’t together so I had to mess about with chains to try and get them in some sort of order, more oddly was the fact that he’d said the driver had had the machine all packed up with buckets nested against the blade. However I got sort of sorted and started manoeuvred it into a little space that I could get the truck in front and load up. There was a bit of a level (or lack of) ground issue here and the tracks did start to slip, I took it back down, gunned the revs and gave it a do or die charge up the ramps, it was a bit messy but it was on.

Shortly afterwards as I was getting in the cab, an old boy started talking to me and said ‘well you can tell you’ve done that before’ Obviously easily impressed. This machine had to be returned to it’s owner and that involved taking it right past our yard and off into wilds near Maldon. The entrance to the farm where they are based was a complete joke, not possible to get in without reversing up the farm entrance opposite to line up with the narrow gateway, there was a 20t + size machine there which is lowloader territory and being groundworkers they could easily widen the entrance. Maybe it was intentionally awkward to deter thieves I dunno. No sooner than I’d stopped I got the third degree about the buckets, apparently two were not for this machine and were wrong, I countered with the fact that I’d been told exactly which to take, they were all together and maybe if they’d been left with the machine it wouldn’t have happened. I loaded the rogues up the front, dropped the two good ones onto the floor and offloaded the machine before turning round in their poxy yard removing the lens from a marker light in the process. Whilst I was there a job had been phoned through, collecting from nearby Hazeleigh about a mile away. My instructions were fairly vague, go into the farm yard, open the gate and load a forklift (it hopefully should start, but the brakes aren’t all that) Oh joy. Found the farm and ‘unlocked’ the high security string padlock and found an elderly Case forklift. It did start and I spent a couple of minutes trying to work out which lever did what. Touching the handbrake killed the engine, touching the footbrake did nothing and the clutch came so far up my knee was almost under my chin and was really just a case of in or out with no chance of control whatsoever. Cab heat was provided by the vertical stack about 3” behind my head and I lurched round to the front to try and load it on. I got myself lined up and the bottom of the ramps, lifted the clutch and lunged forwards at the slope, about half way up the front wheels started spinning like a paddle steamer and as dabbing the brakes had no effect I decided to try my luck with the clutch. It did have some effect, being that of thundering backwards down the ramps.
Ah, now I see it.

Not sure how legal this is, perhaps to stop people trying to steal stuff like this...





I decided on a change of plan and turned the machine round and unspooled the winch cable ready to pull it on. It was the first time I’d used this winch and it was making some horrid grinding noises, I figured that if it went pear shaped the brakes weren’t going to be any good, so I thought I’d try and reverse it on instead. It was a bit of a death or glory effort but the gamble paid off and finally it was on. After re-securing the premises...............


I headed back to Danbury to deliver the machine to a Turkey Farm, it turns out that they had bought the beast (at least I won’t be taking it back) and unsurprisingly they weren’t champing at the bit to hop up and drive it off. We found a bit of ground sloping uphill and backed up to that to act as a gravity brake, I started it up, engaged gear and charged down the ramp onto the uphill stopping about 5 yards off the ramps. Handbrake on, engine off and with a hasty dismount declared ‘it’s yours now’ and left them to it whilst I made my escape back to the yard. Off home by 1545.

Wednesday 21st February 2007
In at 0630 this morning and I discover that the O/S/R markers and tail lamp are out, so I open the fuse box to investigate. Weirdly the fuse is OK but I notice that the front body marker on the nearside is also out whereas the front offside is on. These two markers are the LED type and are mounted more on the cab than the body and I suspect that they were the original ones on it when it was a unit. When I tried the fuse for the nearside it cured the problem, obviously someone got their wires crossed when they cut and shut it. With everything sorted my first job was a collection in Chafford Hundred, the posh sounding bit of Grays. First on was a large fuel bowser followed by a 4½t Kobelco digger. This was an external movement and the digger was returned to it’s yard in Tiptree before cutting across to Silver End to offload the tank.
Somewhere down here is a little yard.
Once I was empty I cut through Cressing to the A120 and off headed for Heathrow. I decided to stop at the rest area near Stansted and check the map as the details I had for the next job were sketchy. I opened up my map locker and rummaged around for my Surrey street atlas, this covered a bit of Heathrow although the road name wasn’t in the index but I noticed that it bordered Berkshire so I tried the same on that one too, same goes and out comes Buckinghamshire. All the maps are the Philips ones which I find to be excellent, however they do not overlap at all and I can’t believe that they haven’t overlapped a bit here as Heathrow is on the border of three maps. I eventually found what I was after on the London A-Z and it really couldn’t have been easier, just off M4 J4 on the North side. Traffic was backed up through the roadworks on the M25, there had been an accident just inside the tunnel and everything was having to pass on lane 3. At the other end of the tunnel on the other carriageway something similar had happened causing delays there as well. I eventually arrived at the Balfour Beatty compound at about 1200 and was presented with the keys to a 7t Hamm roller (not a 7t ham roll) This was a new one for me and it was a big old beast, still it was easy as anything to move, turn the key, joystick for forward and reverse and a steering wheel.


It was soon loaded and chained and I sat in the canteen watching Bargain Hunt with the site manager over a cup of tea. This I am sure is just a way of getting people who aren’t really ill back to work as it is truly dreadful daytime TV. After a while I could stand it no more and made my way back to Essex. This was also an external move for a company in Maldon and whilst there I collected a little Rammax roller to take back to the yard.



Offloaded the Rammax and then trundled off to Jovic plant at Sandon to collect a 3t digger for tomorrow, things were a bit slack there and it was just before 1700 when I left.

Thursday 22nd February 2007
0630 Start. This morning was a classic hurry and wait episode, rather than dropping the 3 tonner off first, I was to collect a 7½ t Hitachi from Hullbridge as it was needed urgently elsewhere. The site in Hullbridge is a large mobile home park and is a poxy place to go to, the roads are narrow, turning is difficult and all the residents are curtain twitching to make sure that you don’t even let the tail swing across their grass, let alone run over it. I was on site at 0715 and the site was shut up with Heras fencing which I had to dismantle before even attempting to get onto the plot. It was tight getting in and needed several shunts even with the tag lifted. Our fitter turned up behind to refuel it and give it a once over and then we started to work out how to squeeze it all on. Unhelpfully the machine had been left with the buckets strewn here and there and there was also a breaker to lift on as well. I let Clive do the fancy work with the buckets, he picked them up on the quick hitch and dropped the on the body whilst I sat in the 3 tonner and shifted them into position with that. All this messing about meant that it was 0830 before I was able to attempt to get out. This was not easy as with the extra weight I was running near max weight on all three axles and it involved a few more shunts to get out, before re-erecting the Heras fencing. It was only a short hop to Wickford to drop the machine and the buckets in Russell Gardens which as usual was chocca with vehicles trying to get in and out to all the businesses there. Finally I was able to go to Ramsden Heath to offload the 3 tonner on a housing development that has sprung up on a brownfield industrial site. I still had the breaker which was heading back to the yard, but it wasn’t in the way so I made my way back to Chelmsford for my next job. The address was George St. not a road I could picture and a check of the map shows it’s a tiny little road running behind Moulsham St. in the town centre, should be interesting. It’s a one way street squeezed in next to a pub and as I don’t know what’s the other end and don’t fancy reversing out I reverse down the street, meaning I will have to drive out the wrong way. The road is very narrow and there’s only a few inches either side before it opens into a long narrow surface car park
View from the cab.

There’s no space to get the wagon off the road so I just block the road and drop the ramps and figure people will have to find somewhere else to park today. The machine is a fairly old Cat excavator and it takes a while and a couple of phone calls to locate the keys. Eventually I start to track it across to the bottom of the ramps and score the tarmac whilst turning it line up. Just as I am about to load it an old biddy asks me if I can just back up to let her into the car park, I politely explain that if she’d just give me 2 minutes I’ll have the machine on, ramps up and I’ll get right out of the way which would probably be quicker than moving the machine and the lorry. Amazingly there were about three cars all stopped in the narrow lane in front of me, despite the beacons and hazards etc. It obviously hadn’t dawned on them that I’d have to get them to move first before they could get down the road. Once I had cleared the traffic, I pulled out and stopped around the corner to chain everything down and stop further chaos. The plan had been to take this back to it’s owners yard, but a last minute change of plan had me running it down to a little lane near Basildon Hospital. It was actually to go down a little private unmade road off the lane but there was no way you’d get anything much bigger than a skip lorry down the track because if you could get past the 2 trees standing either side of the track then there was a nasty little kink about 30 yards in. It was so tight that the machine only just squeezed through with literally an inch on either side of the dozer blade. I had to get some vans shunted and reposition a skip with the bucket to make a space to dump the machine in but it just managed to squeeze in somehow.

Ready to unload

The lane entrance between the trees, the driveway opposite wasn't an option as the 'main' road was too narrow to swing across to let me back in. . It was now just a case of running the breaker back to the yard and seeing if there was anything else to do. I had planned on a washdown if there was nothing doing, but the weather was having a go itself, so after a bit of cab tidying and an errand to the post office I made an early departure at 1430 for a straight 8 hour no overtime shift.
Friday 23rd February 2007
0645 Start. Out empty this morning, over to Greenshields JCB at Braintree to collect a machine. I was there about 0730 but no-one knew anything about it so I ended up waiting until 0800 until somewhere rolled in who knew the score. Today’s charge was a 541-70 Wastemaster (great name) which is basically a telehandler with a big bucket and grab for use in a waste transfer station.





Nice isn't it.
After loading it and getting it signed out, I headed off to deliver it to it’s new home in Brightlingsea at a refuse company. There was some question as to whether I was collecting the old machine hat had been Part Ex’d for this one, it was agreed I’d take it back until they decided that they weren’t happy with the bucket and would not use this machine until it had been changed over. In the end I returned to the yard empty and I was back in by 1100. There was not much doing so I dragged out the washer and gave everything a good clean up, revealing a red body and silver wheels underneath all the grime. Unfortunately it will not stay that way for long. There was a couple of jobs that had come in, so Norman and I selected one each and I think I made a bad call. My job was to collect a 5t Volvo from the site at Ramsden Heath and drop it in Bishops Stortford, it seemed like a nice little number but I discovered that I wouldn’t be able to collect it until about 1400. The machine (not ours) had suffered damage to the ram on the dipper arm and it took a while to extricate and collate the buckets, not helped by the disappearance of my lifting chains. Finally at 1430 I was on my way and I decided to take the A12 / M25 / M11 up to Stansted rather than one of the more direct but slower routes. I rang Norm at 1500 to ask if he’d seen my chains and he gave me the news that he was back in the yard having finished his job. Once I arrived on site I discovered that the fella who had loaded the machine had not left the keys in and hadn’t yet arrived, however he arrived shortly afterwards and I was off site by 1600. I decided to come back through Hatfield Heath to Chelmsford and I finished at the yard about 1700. Approx 1250Km this week.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

good stuff 8wheels.