MALCOLM Slater spent a lifetime working in the construction industry - much of it as a driver. He was also a keen photographer, and took a camera with him whenever he could.
The result is a remarkable collection of photographs showing different types of transport down the years in York.
A photograph in last week's Yesterday Once More showing a truck towing heavy electrical generating equipment through the centre of York in 1971 prompted Malcolm, now 69 and living in Huntington, to send us a sequence of photographs he took in 1973 (see above).
They show a German Pacific locomotive - a sister to the famous Flying Scotsman - being hauled on a low-loader around villages to the north of York.
The locomotive was on its way from Hull docks to a new transport museum at Carnforth in Lancashire, Malcolm explains. "I followed the load through Dunnington and Warthill and over the A64 to Haxby and Wigginton. The transporter was heading out for Thirsk and onto the A1 for Scotch Corner then over the A66 to the Carnforth museum."
One of Malcolm's favourite spots for taking photographs back in the 60s and 70s was Layerthorpe Bridge. "Very large loads had to negotiate the bridge on the wrong side of the bollards, and very often the large low loading trailers would ground on the brow of the bridge," he says. Not great for the driver, admittedly: but a good picture opportunity for an observant photographer.
The Sunter Bros low loader on Layerthorpe Bridge
Malcolm has sent us one such photo - a low-loader belonging to Northallerton-based Sunter Bros. coming to a halt on the bridge. "Greased steel plates would be placed under the trailer after it had been jacked up in the hope that the tractor unit could pull and the trailer would slide out of trouble," he says.
Another photo show a large load negotiating Leyarthorpe Bridge en route to Drax power station.
A large load negotiating Layerthorpe Bridge en route to Drax in the 1960s
York had its own heavy haulage company back the 1960s and 1970s - Elliott’s, who were based on Wetherby Road and later in Bradley Lane, Rufforth.
"Elliott’s could transport almost anything, with a large fleet of cranes, lorries and heavy trailers at their disposal," Malcolm says. "My own favourite was the transporting of trams by the company.
"On one occasion I followed a trailer to Bradford to move the only surviving Bradford tram from its then Thornbury Bus Depot home, driving the relatively short distance to the town's Industrial Museum. A wall had to be knocked down at the museum in order for the double deck tram to enter. This was later bricked up again, thus entombing the tram within the museum."
A tram on the back of an Elliot trailer in Bradford
Malcolm has sent us a photo of the tram on the back of the Elliot trailer in Bradford - and another photograph of an Elliot trailer transporting a Blackpool tram along the Wetherby-Rufforth road to the Crich Tramway museum in Derbyshire in the late 1960s. Great photos they are, too...
An Elliot trailer carrying a Blackpool tram along the Wetherby-Rufforth road
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here