Good afternoon
I am very interest in the history of the HANDY ANDY line. I would love to get in touch with the man with the Manual
steve 541-980-4475

Good afternoon
I am very interest in the history of the HANDY ANDY line. I would love to get in touch with the man with the Manual
steve 541-980-4475

Wiggy I check very occasionally, but not for a few weeks. Many thanks indeed for your message.
Various trucks are featured in the black and white US military section.The Hyster Handy Andy is shown very briefly at about 7.11 minutes.
Much of the video appears to be an interesting Lancing Bagnall history. The Lister section reminded me of my apprenticeship days, late 50s, at Morris Commercial Cars Ltd in Birmingham where they were numerous.

The Handy Andy was remarkable in that it had no hoist cylinder though that's not very clear in the clip. The transmission was interesting too. Quote from spec. sheet.......
"FULL REVERSING CLUTCH permits FORWARD AND REVERSE speeds in any one of the FOUR selected traveling speeds WITHOUT SHIFTING GEARS, giving much faster operation and greater maneuverability. Highly innovative for 75 years ago.''

I recall the tv programme and I`m pleased that my memory was not playing tricks !!
Tim
(I worked for Hyster and wonder if you were at Barlow H.)

Hi there timothy_b
Not sure if your still checking this thread but I'm pleased to say that someone has finally uploaded a copy of this documentary onto YouTube in the last week!
Just search 'classic plant forklift' and enjoy! I certainly did!

Wiggy, thanks for you info. Other Coventry Climax engines evolved into 40s and 50s racing car engines, far more glamorous !

In addition to that Dinky Toy, I have from that era (?) a rough condition "Lone*Star" similar size diecast toy truck that has a carriage that can be raised by rack and pinion, a seized tilt and trunnion steering that can be steered from lever protruding from top of the counterweight. It appears to have had an overhead guard so it must be later than the Climax. Its the only one I have ever seen.

Are you Barry B ?
Tim

Yes that was the godiva, it was the first British designed and built forklift. They were nicknamed the 'godiva' because they used surplus climax engines from the ww2 godiva portable fire pump. Actual model started with ET but cannot remember the numbers after.
LOL! I think most my early forklift models when very young ended up the same way - ate most the tyres!

The correspondence is getting more interesting. My uncle worked for Hyster Portland after the Korean War naval duty, I think in the plant. He was a bachelor in the early 50's and looked after Grandma where I spent a good portion of time as a youngster. She had accumulated a wonderful collection of cast iron John Deere ag toys with which I was privileged to play. Mixed in was a small Hyster forklift with a side **** that raised and lowered the fork carriage and upright on a chain winder. One fork was missing and the steering wheel was gone. No overhead guard on this model as there were none then. Much to my surprise, in 1973 after I moved to Danville my mother sent me the forklift and it is proudly in my model display today. I have added right sized forks and fixed the steering wheel. It is complete. Other models are a H800A container handler, a smaller sized Druge Hyster straddle carrier, a H60C (Brazil), a H150XL (U.S.A.) and a number of Hyster H40XLs that were used in the 90s for dealer sales awards. I also have a collection of coffee coasters (winch line), pens, knives, pocket pen protectors, key fobs, demitasse cup, etc. Lots of old stabbed H logo fabric patches. Only two old photographs of the Handy Andy models.

Wiggy, thanks for the lead, with your detail I will try again to identify the source / owner of the Handy Andy clip; hopefully it may be longer than the short amount that was transmitted. on channel 4.

Climax Godiver, was that the name of the orange Dinky Toy of my 40s childhood. The childhood toy disappeared decades ago but I now have a complete one (incl. the carriage hoist thread) bought about five years ago. I have others incl. an incomplete poor condition Hyster H60 C from 60s.
Our son now 51 ate the tyres and steering wheel........no ill effect.
Tim B , Basingstoke

Hi Timothy B,

I can with 99% certainty tell you that the clip you saw was from an episode of 'classic plant - the forklift truck' it was narrated by the late John Peel and was aired on channel 4, sure it was early to mid 90's.

I used to have it on VHS cassette, sadly as a 10(ish) year old boy who lived and breathed forklifts as my father was a self employed one man band forklift engineer I watched it repeatedly until the cassette wore out many years ago.

Much of it was centered around Lansing Bagnall. The first segment was the Lister 'auto truck', then forklifts in ww2 (that's where the handy Andy clip is I think), then Coventry climax's first forklift (the godiva), lots about bagnall's, then the implications forklifts had on dock workers and then a short segment about container handlers at Thames port docks.

Wow, its amazing what you can remember sometimes when you rack your brains!

Sadly, I've never found a recording available since and I've tried a few times to track it down over the last 10-15 years, I'd be over the moon if I could find one - if for nothing else it would bring back some happy child hood memories!

Yes, and was the service guy from 1977 till 2005 when I retired. My area was UK and Ireland all the time and in times of headcount stress the territory included Scandinavia and twice it included the USSR, interesting times.

The products you mention were very rare here. I have seen a XA series only once and that was in the Irvine (Scotland) plant in late 60s, same with the Monomast , no lateral carriage stability, they were both factory hacks; Lewis Shephard, QN QC never, KE Karry Krane rare; an early KK chain drive, once in a marina. The Irvine plant (closed 3-4 years ago) KE was donated to the Irvine maritime Museum.
When offices were cleared and I was around I saved many items from the bin including Inst Manual / Parts Lists, RT 150, YT-40, VT-75 ; not much use but nice to have.

Tim

You are in Basingstoke. Did you, or do you work for Hyster? I worked for Hyster as a Latin American Service Representative, 1973-77. Based in Danville, IL. There were a lot of older lift trucks in my territory but most were QN/QC, XA/ZA, 200, Lewis Shepards and Hyster Ransomes. Not quite as old as the Hany Andy series. I had one Monomast in Trinidad. Lots of Karry Kranes of all vintages. I too would like to see the old film you are tracing but can't help much with that.

Hello MERNIC
Thanks for your response. I was interested in the source of the movie clip seen on tv of the Handy Andy Senior in a 1940s working environment that I'd seen many years ago. I never did find it's source. It must have been a history of warehousing type of programme.
I have had for decades an unused Handy Andy "Instruction Book and Parts List", an interesting historical document / publication. One of the pages in the booklet has a good picture of the truck with a driver. The driver's son lives in the Redmond -Bend area of Oregon USA.
Tim B , Basingstoke, Hampshire.

A Handy Any Senior Photo is available