Engineer shares fascination with trucks with kids

Brian Donaldson • Published 19 Aug 2010 16:00 0 Comments

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The front cover of John’s book.

A local man’s fascination with trucks has been taken to a level beyond which most would not go. He has written a children’s book about them.

John Armstrong grew up with trucks, his family having established Armstrong Transport Services in his native Dromore, Co. Tyrone. John’s father, Roy, is well known having transported agricultural products for many years such as hay and straw and now his brother, Alan runs the company.

John, meanwhile, went down the engineering route and graduated from Harpers Adams University College with a degree in engineering. After arriving home following his studies, he took up a temporary secondment at South West College’s Omagh Campus to cover for another lecturer.

After 12 weeks, the post was advertised and John stepped into the job full-time, lecturing on mechanical engineering.

Now 10 years later, he has published a children’s book called “Meet Truccz and the Team.” He says the family business was the inspiration behind the book and the fact he often read stories to his four children, making them up as he went along.

Thanks to his new project, aspiring truckers of the future can learn all about the haulage business through the colourful and fun stories of ‘Truccz’, a mild mannered lorry who works for a small haulage company - Jaaz International Ltd - throughout the UK, Ireland and Europe

Now drawing upon his own experiences of a love of all things truck, John has created over 20 stories, the first of which is now published.

Explaining how the venture came about, John said: “It started about two years ago. I had been telling my son Joel stories about my experiences out on the yard and realised that there was nothing meaningful or realistic based on trucking or transport in the children’s books and entertainment sector.

“I was very fortunate growing up to have had the experience of coming from a haulage background. I got to learn, see and do so many things that none of my friends in school could. It was a great experience for any child or young person to have, I would have thought nothing of going to Somerset in the lorry with my dad.’ Even this summer, John got behind the wheel of his favourite Scania to do some driving duties.

“I thought I should start writing things down, using my own experiences and if I could write these stories down and get them drawn up, maybe we could have a trucks series. There is a big gap in the market for this kind of thing - that is why I knew it was worth while pursuing from day one.”

John said from the ‘word go’ he knew that an important component of the storybooks would be the illustrations on each page.

“I wanted these books to be fun for children to read, and the ‘cartoons’ to be as detailed as possible, so that children who are ‘truck admirers or enthusiasts’ can look at them and see all the detail of real trucks on the page. I wanted the pictures to compliment the text.”

His idea came to fruition when he joined forces with Claire Aiken, an architect now living in Belfast.

“She can draw anything, her illustrations were excellent and we worked really well together,” said John, “We just sat down and talked through what we thought each picture should look like, referring to the text that I had written on each page.”

John, who is self-publishing at present, said his family had been amazed at the final product.

“When they saw the draft copy they couldn’t believe that it was actually real and that I had done it,” said John.

His four children - Joel, Adam, Abby and Zac were all the more excited by the fact that the first initial of each of their names made up the name of Truccz’s haulage business - Jaaz.

Expressions of interest have already been voiced from various quarters recognising the potential for John’s project. His publisher has sent the books to various bookshop chains for their approval and he also sees potential in stocking the books in toyshops. Paying tribute to his wife, Paula, and children for their ‘support and patience’, John said that while his venture had involved ‘a lot of hard work’ it had also been thoroughly enjoyable.

“I think there is a lot of value in these books - a lot of learning and a lot of fun. A few teacher friends have tried the books out in the classroom and they have been well received. I just hope that many people, children and adults, can enjoy the books.”

The books can be ordered directly from the website, www.greatfreightadventures.co.uk or by enquiring some local bookshops.

This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 19 Aug 10

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