Wigan Album

The old Thames Trader lovely work horse of that era.

To people who don't understand the word Jackknife. Jackknife is used when an artic (trailer and truck) looses control and snaps in half. Snow/bad weather is the cause.

Not a trader Gary, this one's a Ford Thames.

You could be right Garry but I used to go out in my uncles Thames Trader in the early 60s and it did not look like this one in the photo.

Where's stairgate???????

Ann,
Stairgate used to connect Millgate with Station Road, from a point near Pennington's furniture store.

Ann. Stairgate was located on the site of the Civic Centre in Millgate, between this office and Pennington's.
Naylor's was a Brass foundry.

Ann - Stairgate was the narrow, steep hill running down from Millgate to Station Road.

Come on Garry! A jack knife lorry?

I would dispute the earlier definition of the term `jacknife`. If a vehicle towing a trailer skids, the trailer can push from behind until it spins around and faces backwards. This may be caused by equipment failure, improper braking, or adverse road conditions such as an icy road surface. In extreme circumstances, a driver may attempt to jackknife the vehicle deliberately in order to halt it following brake failure.

In the early hours one morning many years ago, a vehicle with a long trailer, braked sharply at the lights in front of me. The trailer ended up diagonal across the three lanes with the vehicle in the middle. Jackknife or not scared the pants off me!! A few yards closer I would have been dead.

The old church/ chapel behind the truck was home to Wigan Sea Cadets, TS Adamant in the 60's.I spent many happy evenings there as a cadet in 1966/67

Ow, I didn't say jackknife lorrie. I said jackknife artic.
You can't jackknife a lorrie...its rigid.

Yes Jude ,that was a jack knife.Lucky escape.

Ford called all their earlier commercial vehicles Ford(son) Thames - my first vehicle was a little 5cwt van, regd. OKC 5. Apart from the small vans they were supplied as chassis-cabs to body-builders who built on whatever body customers required - vans, tippers, pantechnicons, dropside - or as tractors for articulated lorries. Not many of these seem to have been built before the motorway era, and they were largely used for local delivery work where access for longer rigids was difficult. Probably the railways had the largest fleet, with their Scammell 3-wheelers.
This is a Thames ET6 - which was superseded by the larger Thames Trader - the radiator of which protruded up through the curve of the bonnet to give a rather menacing appearance. They were awful to drive for long distances - the engine sat between the seats inside the cab, and was very noisy. I drove one down the M6/M5 to South Wales to recover a broken coach - when we stopped at the M5 Services I stepped down from the cab and almost fell over - the noise had played havoc with my balance. I steered the silent, broken coach back home!
As for why this articulated lorry has jackknifed - perhaps it was down to the ice on the road. If the unit had failed to gain traction on the icy surface, the driver might have let it slip back a bit in the hope of finding a better grip... commonly known as a 'slippery slope'....

Sea cadets were based on Crompton Street.

At 1967/68 sea cadets were definitely based in Stairgate in the old Church / Chapel which had been converted inside to resemble a ship.I know because I went there often enough!Don't know if and when they were base in Crompton street.

Garry, a jackknifed vehicle does not snap in half, it folds up like a penknife, but the tractor unit remains connected to the trailer.

Jimmy I was speaking metaphorically.