Back in 1963 I worked on George Wimpey's Lutterworth section of the London-Yorkshire M1 Motorway driving a Terex earth remover. Sometimes, whilst loading, the machines skidded and had to be given a hefty shove by a Caterpillar D8 bulldozer. My time with Wimpey was a fascinating experience. "We Import More Paddys Every Year!"

@x17aerialconsultancy51

2 жыл бұрын

Great story Peter!!!!

@byteme9718

10 ай бұрын

Always love their benders. The burgers were good too.

FAME AT LAST, COULD BE ME DRIVING THE red "FLYNN " 6 wheeler 64/65, we were based Manchester . HAPPY DAYS

@diananash1

3 жыл бұрын

Great to hear from you, you are the second worker to have commented. You're right, those WERE the days.

dont you just love the music

what a truly stunning piece of history this film is . the sad reminder of cars and commercial vehicles of days gone by . the hillman minx and husky , mk1 cortina super , ford corsair and 105e anglia . morris oxford and austin cambridge . excellent footage of a mickey mouse cabbed foden wagon , in brooke bond tea livery . other wagons such as AEC , dodge, albion , and bedford tk , and ford d series also feature . thankyou for putting this on (-;

Thanks for the comment, nice to know it's appreciated.

Thanks for your very kind comments. Planning in the UK has always been chaotic, not much different than the USA no doubt. In 1957 at the start of building the M! was projected to reach capacity of 80,000 vehicles per day by 1980. It reached 120,000 per day by 1961!!! Roads just generate traffic. Need I say more

I remember going down the M1 in Northern Ireland a week after it opened and never saw another car. Then I was told there was a terrible accident on the first day and nobody would go on it. Eventually I'll get round to uploaduing M! footage 1960 when the first bit was brand new.

@diananash1

3 жыл бұрын

I did and I'm still around

totally cool video, I remember when they tore up the forest in leicester forest east to build this monster they called a motorway. One day we were climbing trees and picking damsens, the next day watching earth movers and cranes :(

@kevlandy

3 жыл бұрын

At least Leicester Forest West is still untouched.

Wow you posted this 12 years ago...Malcolm you Sir are a trend setter.

@diananash1

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks, don't forget I made it 55 years ago!!! And I.m still around.

@fastasfox

3 жыл бұрын

@@diananash1 I can't even begin to imagine how you edited the film...no go-pro or filmora editing suit online 🤔

@diananash1

3 жыл бұрын

@@fastasfox Viewer scissors pegboard splicer - isn't that how it's always done ha ha ha?

It is nice to see some motorway history, well done!

Malcolm, Great footage! Really well done! Its made my day!

@kezbell

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks, this was never planned as a film i itsown right but was an afterthought using cuttings from other projects. Pleased you enjoyed.

Great - thanks! Wish there was more of this stuff around.

Some very nice classic cars and lorries amongst that lot... Oh ! how I wished the motorways were that tranquil today... :-) Great Video. 5*

@TangoVictorSierra

2 жыл бұрын

These days they are filled with bad drivers, e.g. people sat in lane 2 doing 50 mph.

Reminds me of triang minic motorways with the old vehicles and motorway without crash barriers

My sentiments entirely. M1 was to carry 80,000 a day by 1980 - it reached 120,000 in 1961. Roads generate traffic!!! Thanks for viewing and your kind comments.

Great video, thanks for posting.

I grew up in the UK, so the M roads have always had a soft spot in my heart. I can remember stopping for snacks or lunch at various M6 Services throughout the Midlands. There is little point for that these days unless you need to relieve yourself! It's much the same in the USA of course. Only a few of the interstates even have proper "Services" (the toll roads like the New Jersey Turnpike come to mind). Yes the interstates handle far more traffic today than originally planned for!

Brilliant, thanks.

Excellent video! There is an interesting article on the motorway turning 50 this month in Top Gear magazine - a must read if you are a car buff! UK motorways had a utopian feel about them when they first opened - nowadays they are generally loathed. It's the same here in the USA with the Interstate system, unless you are driving in rural areas.

@TangoVictorSierra

2 жыл бұрын

I for sure loathe the endless road works and so-called 'smart motorway' upgrades that take years to finish.

No speed limit ,no traffic jams, but no crash barriers - loads of crossover crashes and littered with busted fan belts and boiling radiators. The cars weren't built for sustained high speed, cross ply tyres, no ABS. Those were the days???!!!

Thanks for the kind comments. Nice to have a response from somebody who knows his subject. Did you notice that the in-car shots in Baker Street were from a MkI Cortina????

The comment about Markyate now being traffic-free (approx 7:30 in) is slightly odd given that it was already bypassed before the M1 opened.

look at the country now, YOU ONLY HAVE YOURSELVES TO BLAME

@heathstjohn6775

4 жыл бұрын

Oscar Wilde's remark that when the Gods want to punish us they give us what we want , applies here. I've found in life that it's often from the things we don't want that we most benefit.

@livestock984

3 жыл бұрын

Aye.

Not much I could of done it was the Yr I was born but I love the old trucks and cars and most if not all made in the great Britain I'll take every one of those mk1 cortinas and minis I'd be rich

Stilll trying to find a solution for traffic in cities especially in london 50 years later

@daw162

4 жыл бұрын

It's coming with autonomous cars. Then the roads will get crowded even with them, and who knows what they'll do.

@ulazygit

Жыл бұрын

@@daw162 with them being all-electric, it’ll be easy … just switch them off remotely.

Thanks for your comments. Two years ago I had to drag my caravan from Galway to Rosslare in a hurry --- you do need those motorways. But they tend to be the victims of their own success. Exciting days when they were building the M1 and the rest -- they were going to solve all our problems!?!

@Paspiedreamcast Yes, I know... I remember when thye first opened it (I think the Dartford Tunnel was open long beferoe the M25 was open all the way.) OI also remember when they built the Queen E II bridge.

Unfortunately the construction of the motorways spelt the death knell for the railways in general...and have never really recovered back to what it was.Very interesting piece of travel history,many thanks for posting. But back then all that empty road ahead...go on the motorways now and you literally take your life in your hands?

It would have been a great time to own a quality metal detector, just think of all the possible treasures that were paved over.

@user-ky6vw5up9m

4 жыл бұрын

Archaeologists were called out when something was found.

Nice 'mickey mouse' Foden at 1,31..just before the continental makes started taking over and effectively closed down the antiquated British truck building industry.

@jondrizzle4554

Жыл бұрын

It's a shame but the continental trucks were far superior and years ahead of ours at the time

Love the fact that there was no central Armco 🤔🤔

Liverpool to Norwich 7 hrs still no proper link but a nice drive................

Correct

Do you know the reason why that short little spretch of the M25 isn't motorway around Dartford? It's so legally, ANY motor vehicle can cross the Thames at that point, which is why a lot of obviously motorway-standard roads in Ireland are still signed "N" instead of "M" - as parts of these roads used the old road as a single carriageway and the old road literally doesn't exist any more.

5:31 Oh look, the now redundant hard shoulder “nah we don’t need a hard shoulder - they won’t notice if turn it into another lane....🙄”

Mate they think London was clogged with cars then

wish it was like that no less traffic and best of all ne speed cam's :)

@sanctuaryism

3 жыл бұрын

old comment I know but when did the speed cams start to come in... was before my time I would say in all essence.

terrible sound quailty, but really good video and very intresting

I take your point about service areas - you need to take out a second mortgage to eat there these days and I can compare with your Interstates having toured the whole of Florida five years ago. The European model is better in some coountries - no enormous expensive gin palace service areas many miles apart. In France and Benelux they have stopping "Aires" every 10km with fuel stops every 20 - 40KM. In Belgium if you buy gas they have to give you free coffee by law.

Is the same everywhere here in Belgium the infra is also crap. Why ???

3> 3.35

I WONDER IF ANYTHING WAS EVER FOUND ?(-;

I wonder if Gynsill Studios was on Gynsill Lane?

@diananash1

3 жыл бұрын

No 173

@kevlandy

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you, that was quick! Quite often drive down there to get to Anstey.👍

Ironically if this motorway money had been invested back into the railway?

@heathstjohn6775

4 жыл бұрын

True; but few shall ever exchange the private, warm, and now entertaining space of car transport, waiting for you on the driveway , for crowded metal carriages, to which you have to travel just to reach, ( often in a car ), un-airconditioned , sweaty-or-cold,dirty carriages, shared with often rude , always thoughtless people , bellowing misery, gossip, tedium, filthy-language into mobile 'phones, departing , ( if it does at all ), when IT wants , not when the traveller wants , only to leave you at a place near to , but not at , where you want to be ; from which you have to travel again : by road.

There probably wasn't any archeological digs back then, they probably just ploughed through everything.

@hugoagogo9435

11 ай бұрын

As they should do. Archeology should stay in the ground as it only interest’s a few boring people

Why do so many film and early video tapes from this era, sound like they were made in 1930? even the BBC official stuff sounds/looks like it's been in the sea.

Built by Irish men, hard working proper men

@asensibleyoungman2978

Жыл бұрын

Little Irelander.

@paraickelly4494

Жыл бұрын

Go away little W⚓

@asensibleyoungman2978

Жыл бұрын

@@paraickelly4494 Touchy little Irelander.

And where did it all go wrong. Things have to change the new word needs to be sustainably against the old word growth!!!!

Population Increases Generate Traffic !

It still is im 64 never owned a car waste of money 2:24

Commentary sounds somewhat amateurish in this.

When they closed down the railways and increased road Transport resulting in more deaths!

Yeah, and hardly a 'foreigner' in sight, all British made by British workers. How easily we gave up our motoring heritage. Tossers.

@markmitchell450

5 жыл бұрын

Philip Croft how easy we gave up the whole country I'd say

@andrewoliver8930

4 жыл бұрын

It's due to the Boomers going on strike all the time in the 1970s. The millennials dont go on strike as they're not a bunch of leftie lay-abouts like the boomers were.

@livestock984

3 жыл бұрын

Aye, would rather be speaking German as well.

@roadgent7921

3 жыл бұрын

@@livestock984 Jawohl.

@paraickelly4494

Жыл бұрын

Built by Irish men, ya 🤡

The motorway killed the railways with the axing of some of it branchlines and the Great Central Railways thanks to Beeching and Marble, look at the states of our motorways today chocker block and now the UK Goverment spending billions to reinstate some of axes Railways lines. Big mistake.

@alfredfanshaw4786

2 жыл бұрын

Marples who was a major shareholder in one of the civil engineering firms involved in building the M1. Tory sleaze is not confined to the present day.