One for the more mature drivers
Who remembers the Café on the A74 before the M74 was built■■?
Coatesgate cafe beside the quarry,remember it well,had to run across the dual carriageway if you stopped in heading south
Yep, had my first flat sausage there. 
Elvanfoot was much better I thought.
About 10 miles or so up from it.
Best Breakfast Butties Ever…
Was that the one with the revolving door? I certainly remember running across the road to get to it.
Used to have quite a few beds in a house on the Carlisle side of the café, food and digs were always ok, but it was in the late 60s early 70s…
Used to occasionally have a night at the “Carlisle Truck Inn” in the late 70’'s. (Could be a bizarre experience)
I believe it is still there although somewhat changed!
They should of left the moss .
Dr Damon:
Used to occasionally have a night at the “Carlisle Truck Inn” in the late 70’'s. (Could be a bizarre experience)
I believe it is still there although somewhat changed!
Stobarts changed… it in their own inimitable way 
GOG47:
Coatesgate cafe beside the quarry,remember it well,had to run across the dual carriageway if you stopped in heading south
That’s the one…
I remember. Like most cafes at that time it was adequate but nothing special.
robroy:
Dr Damon:
Used to occasionally have a night at the “Carlisle Truck Inn” in the late 70’'s. (Could be a bizarre experience)
I believe it is still there although somewhat changed!Stobarts changed… it in their own inimitable way
In other words…
They ruined it.
When it first opened (pre-Eddie times), the food was good, huge portions and (the best bit) waitress service. 
Yes that cafe brings back memories from the early 70’s when I first started driving arctics and as Jano’s said square sausage, I’d never come across that before, very tasty indeed as were the Scottish barmcakes.
My memory is a tad hazy but I remember overnighting at a transport cafe in Kirkpatrick Fleming a few miles further up the A74 back then, I cant remember the name of it now, anyone know if it’s still going!
PPH:
One for the more mature driversWho remembers the Café on the A74 before the M74 was built■■?
Had to take shelter there round about 1990 when a blizzard struck and spent about 15 hrs or so there in the end whereas I was trying to get to Lesmahagow truck stop for the night.
I remember crossing from the cafe to the south side one cold night in the mid 70’s, I heard a whistling to start with then a set of headlights heading in a south direction, I stood and waited for it to pass in the central reservation, as it went by I could see the turbo at the rear of the engine glowing bright red in the darkness, that Leyland certainly had been working hard
robroy:
Elvanfoot was much better I thought.
About 10 miles or so up from it.
Remember it well, it was my halfway stop when I was running up to Aberdeen.
lancpudn:
My memory is a tad hazy but I remember overnighting at a transport cafe in Kirkpatrick Fleming a few miles further up the A74 back then, I cant remember the name of it now, anyone know if it’s still going!
The London House if memory serves me right!
Grumpy_old_trucker:
lancpudn:
The London House if memory serves me right!
Hi Yes thank you, 
That was it, I remember the food was good & it was a quiet place too, just a few minutes off the A74.
There was also the Kirtle Cafe at Kirtlebridge n/b…anybody?
It closed when the motorway was built, about 2000?
Friend of Dad’s owned the nearby sawmill and lived in the house beside the carriageway southbound at the bottom of the gravel pile. His wife Annie, a lovely German woman, worked p/t at Coatesgate. Two sons worked as mechanics at Millar’s garage Beattock.