We acquired a dry bulk tanker to service one particular customer in New England. (USA). The tank was designed, and built by Truck engineering. (King Trailers) The product hauled, was breadcrumbs, or called breading, for fish products. It was equipped with twin compressors that could run in either series or parallel. That way, it could not only blow off the light powders of flour or breading, but had the force to blow off a load of heavy salt. The blower, powered by electric motors,

and plugged into the customer's service, at 600 volts, was a lot quieter running system than a gas engine. It would run instantly at outside temperatures of well below zero Fahrenheit. 

Before the actual scheduled trips could be set up, a testing period was implemented. We had to test our new loading silos, along with the operating of the tanker trailer itself. This is a whole new field for us to explore.

During this period, the customer, Booth Fisheries in Portsmouth New Hampshire were still in the construction stage, building this new ultra modern plant. In the meantime we were exploring the workings of our new equipment, experimenting with loads of flour and salt.

My first chore was to go to Lou's Tank Lines in Toronto for a wash out, and sanitizing. Taking delivery of a new food grade tank trailer required certification before the first load. You never know if any construction filings, grease or contaminating objects were left behind. It cannot be afforded to take the chance.

The first trip to Midland, Ontario at Robin Hood Flour proved to be a learning experience. The new tank just barely fit through the doorway. I needed guidance to stop at the right location, lining up with the loading hose.

The 3" hose was hooked up to the receiving pipe at the rear of the trailer, and the flour was blown into the tank under air pressure. Two of the five hatches on top of the tank were left open. There was a giant sock in each one, and had to be pulled up and lying across the tank top. When the product was blown into the trailer, there had to be a filtered exhaust for the air to escape while holding the flour in.

The hatch was about 30 inches in diameter with a removable retainer ring on the inside. The sock itself was the full width at 30 inches wide and stood about 6 feet high when filtering and exhausting the air pressure. It looked like the Jolly Green Giant's condom.

When the amount ordered was loaded, I had to climb up top of the tank and lift the sock up vertically and knock the accumulated flour back down into the tank, and then fold the sock down to the inside of the tank and close up the hatch. In the meantime I am wearing a dark blue driver's uniform, and with all that flour floating around in the air, I was starting to look like a walking talking snow man. Not only that, but being in the heat of the summer and working up a sweat, the flour dust would get mixed on your skin with the sweat, turn into a paste, and then start to rot right away. (Just ask my wife.) Within an hour, if you stopped for a coffee, you would find yourself sitting alone, as any others around you would slowly drift away to another spot, trying to avoid the stench. It was one of the pitfalls of exploring a new venture.

2 weeks of experimenting went by, when upper management, at Robin Hood Flour, along with my company Griffith Laboratories got a brainstorm and decided that a loading demonstration was in order. (I guessed that they figured they needed a well deserved pat on the back, along with a free meal.)

NOTE; The flour companies were always competing for Griffith Laboratories business, for Griffiths were Canada's largest users of flour, even more so than any bakeries in the country.

I was notified of the demo load, and suggested I wear a clean uniform & tie, to impress the higher echelon. I arrived at the requested time for loading in Port Colborne, Ontario. Backing along side the dock, and on the railroad tracks to where the 3 inch hose was hooked up to my rear loading pipe. I opened up the front and rear hatches, spreading out the filter socks on top of the tank.

Managements grand demo tour was to take place near the end of the loading period. The parade of dark suits was moving along side of the trailer on the dock. I was sitting in the cab watching this display of backslapping and brown nosing. As they stood near the back of the tank, (6 of them) the loader lost his attention to the loading, and let it go just a little too far. As the crowd was taking in this glorious demonstration, the rear six foot sock plugged up with flour from overloading; the pressure blew the sock out of the ring, strait up into the air about 10 feet, and exploding about 300 lbs of flour, plus at the same time the loading pipe was still pumping it out the open hatch.

The loader hit the kill switch but was too late. On this bright, clear July day there was an unexpected snow storm. (Flour) I of course rolled my window up pronto, while watching all the black suits & hair quickly transformed into white ghosts. I was so impressed that I got a gut ache from laughing so hard and long. All the talking turned into a deadly quiet for a couple minutes, and then all hell broke loose, these genteel business people started yelling and swearing so bad it was hard to separate them from an outraged gang of truckers. It was a great sight.

It took a couple more hours to get the tank reasonably dusted off, and the socks stowed away. It was a couple weeks later that I was passing through vice presidents row in the office, that I saw our lead representative, I gave him a smile and in return he shook his fist at me and then started laughing like hell, and then bought me lunch.

This tanker business gave us quite a few unexpected incidents.

Once the flour run was finally established, I had hired Smitty to take over the tanker while I prepared to set up another run, a dry van to Chicago.

About 3 or 4 weeks into the tanker operation, Smitty was becoming quite used to the routine. The problem at that time was that the rear loading was manually timed for the amount of weight required. There were no scales on the property and we had to go to the local scrap yard to weigh in and out.

On this particular day they overloaded the trailer so much that even the 2 socks were full and would not lie down. The only thing that could be done was to head back and shake the load down while driving. You have to pressurize the trailer to unload any overload, and that is impossible with the socks out and hatch open.

Smitty was running down the road while these two socks stuck up 6 feet in the air. There was so much flour dust coming off the top of the tank that it looked like it was on fire and the smoke was trailing.

He was planning on going a few more miles and then try to shake the socks down and empty them into the load. He was looking for a place to pull over, when this guy in a convertible was blasting his horn, and shaking his fist at Smitty. It was a bright red car with the top down; well actually it used to be red. This guy's car was full of flour inside and out, and even he was snow white, and screaming obscenities. Smitty thought that to stop and apologize would be futile if not too dangerous, so left the convertible in a cloud of dust.

There is one smaller incident that I think is worth mentioning.

Smitty and I were running double for 2 training trips to New England, for Booth Fisheries with a tanker load of breading. We were loaded to the gills and had to detour down the old road for a distance in Massachusetts and coming out again at the Mass 10 Truck stop. (Gene Murphy’s place.)

During the detour on the old road, it was all narrow, twisting and hilly. We were dragging our butt over the hills with only 225 hp to play with at full gross. On this section there was a line-up of traffic accumulating behind us with no space to pass. One nut case in particular had no patience (or brains) and kept pulling out and in, trying to pass. Eventually we made it to Gene Murphy's truck stop, the Mass 10. He followed us on to the property.

Smitty went on into the office to wait while I fuelled up. The guy went after Smitty and was screaming at him about holding up the traffic, and was in a fighting mood. Now I am about 6 foot 4 inches tall and scaled in at about 280 lbs. Smitty was about 1 foot shorter and 100 lbs lighter than me. Smitty told him that he was not driving and that I was at the pumps fueling. The guy said that he was going to clean my clock. As I was coming in through the door Smitty told him that "he was the one driving, you go talk to him." He looked up at me to speak and I said WHAT DO YOU WANT? He hesitated, turned and walked briskly out the back door in silence.

I asked Smitty, what was that all about? He just laughed and said that it was his turn to by me lunch. It was sometime later that I had learned what really happened.

I seem to be on a roll here so may as well tell one more incident during our learning experience with the dry bulk tanker.

Not knowing what to do with the socks when plugged up and needed cleaning, we had no idea as to how to go about it.

One evening when I was dropping a load of breading (gravity load) my wife and my mother took the flour infested socks next door to the plant where there was a commercial Laundromat. Not having any Idea as what to do, my mother said that we should shake the dust free from the socks first. Well my wife is 5 foot, and she is snapping or trying to, a 6 foot sock. The dust started to fly and covered parked cars in front of the Laundromat. Then it started to rain a bit, changing the flour on the cars into a paste. After the washing and drying they brought the socks next door to me while I stored them in the trailer tool box.

One of the parked cars was there every day. The next day was hot and dry. The flour dried and curled in flakes, at the same time lifting the paint. Also the washer was plugged with flour paste, and heard later that the owner through a sh-t fit, but did not know who did it. After that we found an industrial cleaner to take over the chore.

This was just a couple more things that happened in this crazy world of trucking.

TRUCKING, THERE IS NOTHING ELSE LIKE IT ---

THE DIESEL GYPSY SAID THAT.

 ---------------- William (Diesel Gypsy) Weatherstone.                          RETURN TO STORY MENU