Glossop Street was blocked for two hours after a collection truck, on its very first run in the town, ground to a halt across north Linden's major artery.

Taking the situation with good humour, the vehicle's driver, and Wentworth Falls local Ray Prentice, said the safety bar hanging from the rear bumper caught the road as he tried to turn out of the steep Caley Lane.

Around 20 vehicles, including two RailCorp trucks, banked up on either side of the blockage were joined by a number of curious residents keen to see what all the fuss was about.

Jeremy Leather, who lives on the street, provided planks of wood to wedge under the truck's wheels as the operation to move the vehicle kicked into gear.

His wife Ann expressed surprise that council's new contractor for recycling collection, J.J. Richards, had not conducted a dry run to identify such a fundamental problem.

Mrs Leather said she and her husband first noticed the truck at 8.45am. It took until 10.45am to budge it free.

She said the inconvenience caused to the people of Linden was unacceptable.

"It's a good thing there hasn't been an emergency," she said.

J.J. Richards NSW General Manager Paul Angove said the company had conducted dry runs in the area but not on that particular street. He assured the Gazette the problem would not happen again now it had been identified.

"It's just one of those unfortunate things . . . we are very sorry for the inconvenience," he said.

"It was the first week and that was pretty much the only incident that we had . . . That's a pretty big effort for something of that magnitude to go off with such little effect to the ratepayers."