Since J2s have been mentioned, when I worked for the Post Office Telephones, a long time ago, we had a diesel J2, GYO84D, the only diesel van we had which we used to tow a compressor for road breaking. It was such fun as the compressor weighed almost a much as the J2 so once it got up to its very max of 45MPH stopping it or going round a corner was quite fun as the compressor pushed the van around so much. Luckily the GPO was still a Crown company so the police weren't too interested.

45 MPH 

you must have had the GT version 

later of course replaced by the much  loved  JU250.

another pile of absolute 

I nearly had a J2O once but I saw sense just in time and had a beer instead 

It did need a long hill ,going down,  to get the top speed but that just made stopping more difficult, we also had a Morris J? minibus with a completely reverse gear box, 1st where 4th should be and 4th where 1st should be, you had to concentrate with that. It also had the trick of backfiring very loudly if the ignition was switched off for a couple of seconds and back on, boom. Great until it blew the exhaust to bits, that apparently took a bit of explaining to the MT guys by the person who did the damage.

With the J250 which had a large rear door and twin side doors it was a hoot to drive ,but one of my colleagues had been working in a mining area and the van was overheating so he took it into the MT and when they lifted the engine cover in the cab the baked on mud completely surrounded the engine and there was complete impression of the underside of the engine cover which was the only thing visible. the MT were once again unhappy.

My JU250 the lower rear door hinge pulled thought the door metal and dropped down, the MT fix was 2 big washers on the other side of the door and bolt it back up with the remark "when it falls off again take it to another mechanic".

Loads more van memories as you say they managed to buy some truly terrible vehicles but then the choice at the time was rather limited.

Anyone got any anecdotes about electric milk floats ?

There can't be any vehicle slower, less manoeuvrable than that ?

In the meantime, my dad was a bus conductor in Dublin before the war. He didn't know how drive but one evening, after hours, he decided to have a go. He managed to start a bus but he didn't know how stop it so he had to drive it round in circles inside the bus garage until it ran out of petrol.

Quote from: joe cassidy on December 14, 2021, 01:14:32 PM
Anyone got any anecdotes about electric milk floats ?

only the usual, I'd assume.
in my youth, often returned home sat on one after a good night out, with the added advantage of course of a pint of proper milk to settle the stomach.

ahh, the rattle of milk bottles in crate, a sound no longer heard.

plastic bottles don't rattle  :'(
we do still have a milkman come round here, but not in a proper float.

In the early 2000s I used to sell milk bottle capping foil to many of the major dairies but had to watch that business decline as supermarkets/plastic bottles killed off doorstep deliveries :'(

For a while around 2000, the Dundee and West Midlands parts of National Express were running a bus each with an identical registration plates.. Probably one of those 2 for 1 deals that went wrong. The following batch of buses were BU51, appropriate for the type. It all started going wrong when the BJ series was in use. Ok until they got to 2008. My neighbour's wife's BMW still carries an 08 plate, with the last 3 characters representing her name.

When I was a six-former in the mid-seventies I used to work "on the milk" at weekends for the Co-op dairy in Tamworth.

There was a period when milk bottles were no longer available so we had to deliver the milk in plastic sachets, loaded in bins on the milk float.

Anyone remember that ?

Quote from: joe cassidy on December 14, 2021, 01:14:32 PM
Anyone got any anecdotes about electric milk floats ?

I recall in the comedy show 'Naked Video' there was a skit by a supposedly Welsh chap named Siadwell (pronounced Shadwell) whose uncle drove a milk cart.
One week Shadwell said "We went to Aberystwyth in my uncles's company car. Took us 7 hours"
There are clips on YouTube but I can't find that one

Quote from: class37025 on December 14, 2021, 01:28:46 PM

ahh, the rattle of milk bottles in crate, a sound no longer heard.

Our neighbours have a delivery every day of glass bottled milk carried in crates on a flat-bed van. Plastic crates though, so the 'rattle' is not quite the same as in my youth but it is still there. Just.

Are you sure it's not "Ernie's ghostly gold tops, a rattlin' in their crate" ?

Quote from: joe cassidy on December 14, 2021, 01:14:32 PM
Anyone got any anecdotes about electric milk floats ?

Yes. Many years ago, the milk float delivering milk to my parents, on a slow, residential road, met a car coming the opposite way and pulled in between two parked cars - except that he swung in too early and the side of the the milk float went over the wing of my dad's car.

It caused no end of complications, as it was a company car, so had to be dealt with through insurance, but the milkman was on holiday, his brother was unofficially covering the round, didn't work for the company and he wasn't insured to drive the milk float.

After preliminary details had been exchanged and driver had moved the milk float, he added insult to injury, by coming back for the weekly milk money!