Ex-Bathurst 0635 @ Singleton
After capturing that Port Stephens footage in my previous upload, I ventured to the Upper Hunter area for the next day’s goals. That Wednesday ended up being quite a failure, I did lots of driving and saw much refreshing countryside, but achieved close to nothing that I hoped. The only success that day was gathering this footage of JR Richards side load unit 0635, which was definitely a win, but still not what I was specifically hunting. I ended up in Singleton with intentions to get one of the company’s young Rico/ACCO collection trucks on video doing weekly garbage, but I learnt that morning one truck was out of action and the other was off to rural runs in the middle of nowhere for the remainder of the shift. After initially discovering 0635 tackling urban work, I attempted to locate the second fulltime truck I guessed was tackling Gowrie and Maison Dieu, and I did spot him, but heading in the opposite direction from me after already completing the job in these places.
I’ve never had true success with Singleton garbage, sadly not scoring anything from the Cleanaway contract twice and couldn’t even get a current JR Richards truck since the November 2018 takeover. On the bright side, of course I did manage to cross paths with this 2007 ACCO and its big 35m JJRE body on the back, which was originally allocated to Bathurst recycling alongside twin truck 0636 (only that one had a wind deflector on the cab). By time I made it out to Bathurst in 2017, a new NetWaste regional contract was in force and these couple trucks had been moved on to work as back-up vehicles in various locations, so I was bummed to miss them, but years later I would find this one in another setting! Although they later looked completely naked without any signage as shown, the white body space was filled with appropriate livery for the Bathurst operation during their earlier years.
Damn this rig sounded awesome too, not that a 2007 ACCO is really ever a letdown in this respect. The noise output from this truck was more entertaining and enjoyable than the actual bin emptying side of things, I found myself focusing on getting good driving clips and offside shots of the exhaust pipe. Had a really cool low growl about it at take-off as well, which was the best to hear then and there in person. We don’t have the fastest bin lift rates during this video, pretty steady operating pace, though he wasn’t shy to full throttle the truck which was great. The driver mentioned he wasn’t a big fan of this arm and preferred his regular truck much more, quicker to work with. Took me a while to get what I wanted on camera, even actually lost him for a while early on which didn’t help, but wasn’t in a great rush by this point – nice sunny weather to be walking around in regardless!
I was meant to save this as an upload for a little longer, as I’m running low on footage of Richards side loaders, in fact this is my final video of a big 35m JJRE recycler! It’s a wild thought thinking about how common these bodies were in the past and now they almost cease to exist. Even that short throw grab lifter chucking bins over the low hopper edge is a thing of the past now. Anyway might be the last video of a once regular Richards side loader from me, but still got a few cool ones to come in future. Also be sure to view this video in the 720p quality! Lastly, below are three YouTube links, one shows this same truck in full swing on recycle duty in Mornington Peninsula, next there’s a video of a proper Singleton garbage truck and then a Bathurst council production showing the two trucks where they started.
• Ex Bathurst #0635
• Singleton Waste - #1134
• Bathurst Recycling