Road goods vehicles in Ireland 1950s/1960s

[Mol_PMB]

I’m wondering about a couple of lorries for my layout, as there are road loading bays as well as rail. 
In the 1950s/1960s, which marques would have been seen in south-west Ireland? I think I’ve read somewhere that there were tariffs on imported complete vehicles and so some firms did final assembly in Ireland, so those would be more common. 

Looking at a few CIE vehicles of the period, a lot of them seem to be AEC, and later Leyland, badged. 
https://www.kennellyarchive.com/media/f9ca4dec-d916-4807-ac6f-f3922db8b86d-liebherr-cranes-at-fenit

But there are also some Fords, not obviously CIE in this case:

https://www.kennellyarchive.com/media/6a85dd4e-67e4-4138-a03a-b5a1cd5c7f7a-unloading-grain-in-fenit

For this sort of size truck, is my choice basically AEC / Leyland or Ford? And were there particular models more common in Ireland? What other options would there be?

I think in the 1940s, GSR/CIE had a dominant position in the road transport business and the role of independent firms was quite limited. I expect that had changed a bit by 1960. Would independent hauliers and/or industries have been more significant than CIE by this time, or was CIE still dominant? 
 

[Flying Snail]

I can't help you much with the marques but regarding the haulage firms active in the 1960s, I think it was still restricted in terms of carriage of goods for hire up to the 1970s. You would still have options for adding lorries though. Businesses would have had their own fleets for the haulage/delivery of their own products - including the milling companies. Farmers would have made extensive use of their own machinery (tractors and trailers) to transport grain, and there was/is also a system of farmers' co-ops with their own lorries.

In terms of local traffic on nearby roads, Irish Sugar who had a plant in Mallow would have had their own fleet too and there's probably good archives somewhere for them and other semi-states.

Also, in rural Ireland, lorry's from businesses like Kelly's Foundry in Portlaoise (picture below) could be found delivering hay sheds everywhere, and its also plausible that a mill would need steel structures?  I believe the picture of Kelly's fleet below is 1950s or early 1960s so I hope its helpful in terms of the kinds of vehicles on the roads in Ireland then. (Portlaoise is my hometown and despite it being long gone now, Kellys is still very fondly remembered in the town. Not just a midlands business, Kellys erected sheds all over the country)

View on Facebook here

Edited yesterday at 08:28 by Flying Snail

[Mol_PMB]

That’s really useful info, many thanks! And a great photo too. 
 

[Westcorkrailway]

There is a 00 gauge CIE flatbed truck on the market. I have one at home that’s “roughly the right thing” no idea if the lorry itself is accurate to CIE that time. 
 

once again, I might get onto Ray. After the West Cork, he worked with Irish Rail Road Freight in cork until that closed 

[Ironroad]

2 hours ago, Westcorkrailway said:

There is a 00 gauge CIE flatbed truck on the market. I have one at home that’s “roughly the right thing” no idea if the lorry itself is accurate to CIE that time. 
 

once again, I might get onto Ray. After the West Cork, he worked with Irish Rail Road Freight in cork until that closed 

Yes Base Toys, see https://www.marksmodels.com/?pid=18137

[Mol_PMB]

The CIE ones seem hard to find, but there’s actually a fairly good range of 1950s and 1960s AEC trucks from EFE and Oxford, as well as Base Toys. 

A bit of paint and some CiE transfers and they could be quite convincing I think. 
 

There are a few trucks available in Ranks livery but I think they are GB prototypes and probably too big for 1960s Ireland. 

[Flying Snail]

1 hour ago, Mol_PMB said:

There are a few trucks available in Ranks livery but I think they are GB prototypes and probably too big for 1960s Ireland. 

I'm not actively trying to drag the thread off-topic (by about 95 miles to the north east) from Mallow  ... but there were reasonably sized flour lorries in Ireland.

Portlaoise, again, .. this time Odlums:  

From Portlaoise Pictures: http://www.portlaoisepictures.com/odlumhistory4.htm

Edit: I'm not sure if this is 1960s (maybe later?)?

Edited 14 hours ago by Flying Snail

[Mike 84C]

If you check out the Road Transport Images web site they do lots of resin chassis/cabs/ bodies to make up almost any British marque from pre war to the 2000's . Not cheap but nice models.

An S type Bedford tanker from RTI parts built by me. Needs a few detail bits before its complete.

[Mayner]

Large companies such as CIE, Roadstone tended to but AEC/Leyland  trucks smaller operators and owner drivers tended to use 2 axle trucks Ford, Bedford, Dodge with Hino becoming a dominant marque during the late 60s. Growing up in the 60s some normal control models such as the Leyland Comet were still in use with engine/over forward control dominating, Models like the Bedford TK and tilt cab Ford, Dodge and BMC models appearing during the mid 60s. While CIE held a dominant position and larger companies had their own fleets, owner operators (hackers) running their own trucks (unbranded) were significant e.g. delivery from merchants to building sites & farms. CIE is likely to have used owner operators to deal with seasonal peaks such rail from farm to railhead during the beet campaign.

Owner operator trucks tended to be 'unmarked" without ownership or fleet details, trucks delivering to building sites in the 70s & 80s sometimes could be quite decrepit.

[Mol_PMB]

Many thanks, great stuff! 

[Galteemore]

One of my own memories of visiting my grandparents in Eire/the Republic/or as we still called it ‘the Free State’ was the age and condition of vehicles compared to NI. Back then there was no NCT (MoT in GBP) IIRC, so all kinds of things crawled the indifferent roads. If your layout is populated with 1950s British trucks in poor nick you’ll capture the look. There also needs to be an ancient tractor crouching somewhere. They seemed to be everywhere.    
 

Now, if you were setting your layout in the 80s, you’d need at least one Hi-Ace van……;) 

[Flying Snail]

12 minutes ago, Galteemore said:

Now, if you were setting your layout in the 80s, you’d need at least one Hi-Ace van……;) 

and Hinos ... lots of Hinos: that's one of the biggest gaps in 1:76 trucks for Ireland

[Mol_PMB]

For Quartertown Mill set loosely in the 1960-1975 period I think I'm before the Hino period, but I also remember them everywhere in the 1980s and 1990s. 

Even then, there were still plenty of donkey carts to be seen on the roads, a few churns of milk or a mound of hay on the back (not many balers in the west of Ireland in the 1980s as I recall - lots of rounded haystacks, sometimes on stone 'mushrooms', with a small tarp on top held down with weighted ropes - like half a bikini).

Ancient trucks and tractors - definitely. 

I have a strong recollection of red numberplates, but I think they were a 1970s thing and may be too late for my period (certainly on older vehicles).

[Broithe]

I spent Septembers in Ireland from 75 to 80, and not at all again until the early 90s, by which time the future had arrived.

A particularly noticeable thing on the roads in those years was the absolute preponderance of Hinos, although they were virtually unknown on the Big Island.

Harris seems to have started assembling them as early as 1968, but it may have taken a few years to corner almost the whole market, to the extent that they eventually did.
 

As a 'marker' of the second half of the seventies in Ireland to me, a Hino would be as necessary as a few cars with different coloured doors...

[skinner75]

I remember around mid 80s, the dad of a friend from up the road running a fleet of Hino trucks from out of a yard near Croke Park. 
He got me one of the Hino winged grill badges, which I stuck on the door of my room

[Mike 84C]

Transport operators on "Big Island" were very conservative in their buying policies, mainly until they discovered Volvo and Scania and we all know what followed!  Having driven a few of those foreign offerings I believe the Leyland/AEC ergonomic cab offered better visibility and driver seating position than most competition. Notice I did not mention noise levels or heating in winter or the other driver comforts that the chaps liked! 

[Broithe]

5 minutes ago, Mike 84C said:

Transport operators on "Big Island" were very conservative in their buying policies, mainly until they discovered Volvo and Scania and we all know what followed!  Having driven a few of those foreign offerings I believe the Leyland/AEC ergonomic cab offered better visibility and driver seating position than most competition. Notice I did not mention noise levels or heating in winter or the other driver comforts that the chaps liked! 

The Scammell Routeman always seemed the pinnacle of both style and function to me, but without being comfortable enough to allow the driver to nod off to sleep...