Some more photos courtesy of Paul Willis.
Been doing a bit of skulking around on Facebook recently. Marvellous what new info can still be found. Four names associated with Promotor have cropped up. They are;
Eddie Braine. O/D who did groupage to Yugo for us as well as some of our Coles Cranes work.
John Cox. Promotor driver.
Keith Renolds. Promotor driver around 75/6 and step dad to the next guy.
John Francis. Worked for Show-Haul in 85. Show-Haul were absorbed into the Promotor business a couple of years later.
I find it fascinating hearing the names and reading about their exploits from many years ago.
Been supplied with some interesting photos and information by former Show-Haul driver John Francis. The photos were taken in Brno in 85. John had gone out with Clive riding shotgun and met up with John Preece. In the photo there is another guy and a child. Donât know who they are but was wondering if it was John Preeceâs son and grandson. Suppose not as may have been a problem with visas.
It seems a little later Clive helped John Francis get a job with Richard Dyneâs Show-haul who a few years later were absorbed into the Promotor business. John Francis moved onto SAS where he spent ten years driving for them but now as he nears retirement drives a fuel tanker for Tesco. Hope Iâve got the facts right there John. Please feel free to pull me up if I havenât.
Unfortunately you have to click on the first three photos to see them properly. Why is that!!!
A little anecdote re ex-Promotor Scania B267DHK.
In about 1992/3 my Dad was driving B267 for Harrier Express, and had stopped for a cuppa in the big layby on the A40 just outside Oxford.
He was letting the motor cool down, and was about to pull the stop cable (remember them things haha), and jump out, when all of a sudden - BANG.
Turned out that a wheel had come off a passing truck and hit the drive axle wheels on B 267, literally seconds before he climbed out of the cab. Surprisingly, there wasnât too much damaged, just the outside wheel & tyre, and the mudguard and itâs support arms - luckily the fuel tank wasnât damaged.
Now, Iâm pretty sure ( I canât remember exactly) , but I think that the truck that lost the wheel, was one of Promotorâs - ironic to say the least, if it is the case.
Cheers, Keith
kmills:
A little anecdote re ex-Promotor Scania B267DHK.In about 1992/3 my Dad was driving B267 for Harrier Express, and had stopped for a cuppa in the big layby on the A40 just outside Oxford.
He was letting the motor cool down, and was about to pull the stop cable (remember them things haha), and jump out, when all of a sudden - BANG.Turned out that a wheel had come off a passing truck and hit the drive axle wheels on B 267, literally seconds before he climbed out of the cab. Surprisingly, there wasnât too much damaged, just the outside wheel & tyre, and the mudguard and itâs support arms - luckily the fuel tank wasnât damaged.
Now, Iâm pretty sure ( I canât remember exactly) , but I think that the truck that lost the wheel, was one of Promotorâs - ironic to say the least, if it is the case.
Cheers, Keith
Morning Keith
Iâve found the culprit for you. Of course no one would recognise him now. See the attached photo, its the little fella. It was, believe it or not, my son Christopher who was aged about twenty six at the time of the incident. I was in the office when he returned and Tom Miles our mechanic came and told me there had been a little problem and that the trailer had come off and careered into another lorry which happened to be one we had sold a year or two before. Caused quite a laugh in the yard and was a good topic of conversation for months afterwards. The lorry Christopher was driving that day was one of our rigid two car covered in transporters and towing a single car open trailer behind it. I always thought it was the trailer, not a wheel, that had come off and hit your dads lorry in the lay-by and I have just rung Christopher to confirm it. It seems there had been problems with the lorries brakes and Christopher had reported it to Tom earlier in the day. They were snatching on and off and as he braked near the lay-by on the A40 the next thing he knew was the trailer was overtaking him on the inside where the entrance to the lay-by was. It seems the alloy ball hitch had snapped off. Certainly your dad and a few other drivers helped winch the trailer up into the back of the lorry to enable him to drive back to the yard.
Bit of a calamity happened yesterday. One of my memory sticks containing many recent photos, both my own Iâve scanned and others given to me has given up the ghost. I took the stick to be looked at by an expert this morning and he has pronounced it dead. So remember everyone, âbacking upâ not only applies to reversing your lorry. I now intend to buy some new sticks and make copies of all the photos on old ones.
sandway:
Bit of a calamity happened yesterday. One of my memory sticks containing many recent photos, both my own Iâve scanned and others given to me has given up the ghost. I took the stick to be looked at by an expert this morning and he has pronounced it dead. So remember everyone, âbacking upâ not only applies to reversing your lorry. I now intend to buy some new sticks and make copies of all the photos on old ones.
Best save your data files online with Google or OneDrive (Mac have a free online drive too I think). Flash drives have a very limited life. The online drives are free up to a certain size and wonât lose your data.
Our boiler has expired and so on Thursday I have to clear out some space for the plumber to work in. This is where my photos are possibly stored (wife moved everything so I can find nothing)/ Letâs hope so. It would be nice to share some of them.
Efes:
sandway:
Bit of a calamity happened yesterday. One of my memory sticks containing many recent photos, both my own Iâve scanned and others given to me has given up the ghost. I took the stick to be looked at by an expert this morning and he has pronounced it dead. So remember everyone, âbacking upâ not only applies to reversing your lorry. I now intend to buy some new sticks and make copies of all the photos on old ones.Best save your data files online with Google or OneDrive (Mac have a free online drive too I think). Flash drives have a very limited life. The online drives are free up to a certain size and wonât lose your data.
Our boiler has expired and so on Thursday I have to clear out some space for the plumber to work in. This is where my photos are possibly stored (wife moved everything so I can find nothing)/ Letâs hope so. It would be nice to share some of them.
Thats the difference between you and me Efes. Youâre still in the fast lane, no doubt with an auto gearbox and a young son coming up behind you at a fair rate of knots and youâre striving not to be left behind and succeeding whilst Iâm still bogged down without chains on a very slippery minor road with huge deep ditches either side and its odds on my gear box will fail before I get to my first drop.
Youâre right of course. I shouldânt be using a memory stick but the âPhotobucketâ debacle put me off using the online drives a while back. However, I will look into going down that route. Trouble is today you are so soon left behind by modern technology. My wife and I both like to think we keep abreast of it but a couple of days ago, as we tried to put an item on eBay, my daughter, who was staying with us for a few days was sat there playing with her smart phone laughing at us as we struggled to take photos of the item then transfer the card from the camera to the laptop then download the image then reduce it and so on and so forth and all we could get out of my daughter was derisory remarks such as âwhat are you doing, oh thats so old fashioned, I canât help you as Iâve never seen it done that way beforeâ. Blâdy youngsters!!!
Anyway enough of that. I have added another photo of Bluebird Efes. The car Staggie entrusted to your care. I see we werenât the only ones to transport it around but look at the heavy gear they used. Perhaps the one we moved around was a plastic life size model!
Hi Brian, sorry to have been away so long but I had a laptop problem and lost all my passwords and couldn,t remember most of them,trucknet included! Anyway regarding the Anglo-Yugo Express photo you asked whether I could identify the driver on the left. Well I sure can! thats dear old,long departed Billy Heath and thats TNO 140 R the long wheelbase, 6 wheel 140 which was destined to be the most troublesome motor on the fleet. It was given to Billy to drive and to be honest it looked the business. Just about everybody wanted to drive it until Billy started having problems at the German borders with it being overlength when pulling a standard tilt! It was a tandem axle,double drive with a fixed 5th wheel. It had twin diff-locks and cross-locks and was geared for heavy low-loader work. I believe it was flat-out at 53mph. It had originally been bought to pull the extendable Broshuis trailer that Peter had bought to haul oversized machinery to the trades fairs but the office assumed that when it wasn,t doing that then it could be used to do the tilt work. Billy was road foreman at the time and made sure he was front of the queue to grabit not realising just how much hassle it was going to be! Once he found out how much hassle it was he moved heaven and earth to pass it on! I remember he came to me one day and tried to convince me that I should be the rightful driver because the reg. was TNO and my name was TONY! The truck had a short,chequered life with Promotor. I think one of the reasons for its demise was the ludicrous delay it caused at the German border when we were on the 7 or 8 truck Ford tour. Bob Archer was driving it then and he was 4th or 5th to go through when the Krauts came out and measured it. It was about 1 meter over so they stopped it and the other couple behind him too. BIG TROUBLE! Suffice to say there was a lot of questions asked, I think Stagg flew out with a top Ford guy to try and cross some palms with silver. I think one of the first group of guys was despatched unit only back from Nuremburg to drag the 140s trailer in and Archer was sent back home unit only. Billy Heath was a great guy, I dont think anybody disliked him. You always had a good trip/laugh if Billy was running with you. Sadly he passed away many years ago. I think Bobby Keen knew him quite well and lived near him
I can well see why Billy Heath wanted out of that lorry Tony. Sounds a right nightmare. Pity there is only a frontal photo of it. I have attached another photo of LGU 666P, Stevie Smithâs lorry. Not very clear but I think it must have been quite new as was the trailer when the picture was taken. First time I have seen this photo. It was given to me recently.
That was the leftie that I took to Israel in 80 or 81. It was the first of what was supposed to be 5 or 6 new trucks bought solely for the ill-fated Nigerian exercise hence the Afro Camion graphics. Bannons colours were very similar and I presume they were going to be the handling agents for job. May be wrong but I think Bannons were owned by Bob Glover who was an old friend of Peters, you probbly know better than me!
A few posts back I mentioned driver John Francis had worked for Show-haul back in the mid 80âs before he went on for SAS. He has given me a couple of photos of the Transcon that he drove at that time. Whilst I am posting them I thought it was a good time to re-post some others I have in my possession. Some of the photos depict Show-haul in its early days whilst others show the company after it came under the Promotor banner.
i think the rental truck in the first pic is the same truck in the last pic. They were the last Transcons off the production line & both started out in Stormont vehicle hire livery before Showhaul had them on long term hire . Remember the Ivecos 
!
A WARD:
i think the rental truck in the first pic is the same truck in the last pic. They were the last Transcons off the production line & both started out in Stormont vehicle hire livery before Showhaul had them on long term hire . Remember the Ivecos
Yes!! Remember the Ivecoâs indeed. It was taking some of those units on long term hire that caused Richard Dyne to over extend himself and ask Promotor for help.
The attached photo, a picture blown up from the last post, shows what I can only think is a concept car and trailer or does anyone know better.
Couple more John Francis photos from 85. Havenât seen a Stormont Vehicle Hire Volvo before. Unfortunately you have to click on the photo to see it fully.
They had 2 Volvo units from memory, also a few Mercedes as well. Started out with a Fiesta & Transit van & a yellow v reg Transcon very similar to your earlier picture not sure if its the same truck ? but that ended up the same colour blue as the Volvos
Another old photo of Roy Cannonâs Transcon, PLC 265R has materialised. I believe it was Nottsnortherner who said Peter got a good deal from Brighton Van Hire to purchase two of them. Roy, who was a Promotor subbie had one and the company took NGU 333P with John Ward driving it for many years mainly on Yugo work.
A few photos showing the changes to the Promotor livery over the years. I prefer the 80âs colour scheme which I believe came in about 83.
sandway:
A WARD:
i think the rental truck in the first pic is the same truck in the last pic. They were the last Transcons off the production line & both started out in Stormont vehicle hire livery before Showhaul had them on long term hire . Remember the IvecosYes!! Remember the Ivecoâs indeed. It was taking some of those units on long term hire that caused Richard Dyne to over extend himself and ask Promotor for help.
The attached photo, a picture blown up from the last post, shows what I can only think is a concept car and trailer or does anyone know better.
That picture shows the front of a Ford Transit if Iâm not mistaken Sandway.
David
5thwheel:
sandway:
A WARD:
i think the rental truck in the first pic is the same truck in the last pic. They were the last Transcons off the production line & both started out in Stormont vehicle hire livery before Showhaul had them on long term hire . Remember the IvecosYes!! Remember the Ivecoâs indeed. It was taking some of those units on long term hire that caused Richard Dyne to over extend himself and ask Promotor for help.
The attached photo, a picture blown up from the last post, shows what I can only think is a concept car and trailer or does anyone know better.
That picture shows the front of a Ford Transit if Iâm not mistaken Sandway.
David
Ford Transit custom with RS200. Clas