Hi, Good photos, I was just scrolling through page and said “oooops do I reconise that location” and after finding my specs, yip it was Portobello prom, well the cafe that was there (red building) is long gone, killed by bypass of A1, I think it might be a Chinese restaurant now, not sure. Also toilets closed, oh dear. Bobs
sheepman:
Hi, Good photos, I was just scrolling through page and said “oooops do I reconise that location” and after finding my specs, yip it was Portobello prom, well the cafe that was there (red building) is long gone, killed by bypass of A1, I think it might be a Chinese restaurant now, not sure. Also toilets closed, oh dear. Bobs
Spot on there with your observation.
Just seems like yesterday I took the photos of “Wullie Wink”
It was about 1983.
Those are the crane rails for Torness power Station
made at Findlays of Motherwell.
Had to wait there for a police ■■■■■■.
Had to head along Ferry Road and double back towards Leith.
The second man was Eddie Hoy from Craigneuk if I mind right…Ray will correct me if I’m wrong.
It was challenging to say the least for Wullie but he “loved” it.
Hi Guys,
My father, Jimmy Allan, drove for Hunters of Wishaw in the 60s. He stayed in Cambusnethan and latterly Coltness. I just thought I would share a picture of his lorry.
Regards,
Swally
Swally:
Hi Guys,My father, Jimmy Allan, drove for Hunters of Wishaw in the 60s. He stayed in Cambusnethan and latterly Coltness. I just thought I would share a picture of his lorry.
Regards,
Swally
Hi there
Thanks for posting this photo, before my time there, but that’s when driving was a hard “game”.
If you find any more please put them on.
Cheers
Jim
Hope this isn’t too long as to be boring.
Hunter of Wishaw, one of three well established local Hauliers in the town and who sadly are now all gone. The other two being DM Smith and,
more recently, Tom Muir & Son who closed the door for the last time in January of this year.
As the cutting from bubbleman says, Hunter specialised in Heavy Haul work serving the local engineering firms such as The Motherwell Bridge
Work and Findlays of Motherwell, and of course Redpath Dorman Long at Westburn, Cambuslang, who were major players in the building of Power
Stations nationwide and Northern Ireland. All in all a busy little operation with few competitors, so to say it came as a blow when announced they
were finished was something of an understatement. The problem it seems not to be lack of work so much as the new generation of management
who in the drivers, if jaundiced, opinion were only part prepared by a Uni education. Where have we heard that before?
Early days. Charabancs for weekend excursions and bodies off for weekday work. The Belhaven on the right was built locally.
The photographer seems more interested in the loads than on the wagons, mores the pity, so if any one wants to hazard a guess?
There appears to be nothing restraining the load on the Bedford, the section of tube seems to be in a cradle and just look at those
chains in the 3rd pic 
Sadly none of these pics show the smashing, traditional, livery to best advantage.
Iv’e re-posted the Atki to keep it in this thread
Typical backloads, if any, would be steel, bricks etc. none of your fancy pants pallets or anything needing
sheeted. In fact the yard crane behind the Volvo unit saw to the revenue for homeward journeys by splitting a
third load between two trailers heading south or o’er the water 
To-wards the end the “traditional livery” was to be a thing of the past 
Hunters were not without incident. This ERF was making it’s way along a snowy A66 heading for Drax Power Station
when a local decided to emerge from his left, at a staggered junction, and then failed to turn right because of oncoming traffic.
The driver was trapped by the legs but fortunately survived to tell the tale.
Finally talking about tales heres one.The late 60s.
A driver who arrived home one friday fully expecting to do something local before heading off to Morecambe with their young
family and friends for a summer holiday was persuaded to do one more “flyer” to Port Talbot in the four wheeled Dodge.
Bear in mind Wishaw is only 16 miles to the south of Glasgow. Off he went, driving all day, late tip then drove all through
the wee small hours getting home Saturday morning just in time to load bags and kids into the Vauxhall Cresta and off again.
A combination of Guinness and sunshine soon had him fast asleep on the beach and he didn’t come to until 8pm on the
SUNDAY night. Absolutely true story. Aye, halcyon days or what 
So there we have some of it. I’m quite sure there must be many with stories and, hopefully, pics. ( Bumper??) Anyone?
Finally finally, come August, if I include my van and threepenny bit cabbed lorries before my HGV licence, I’ll be celebrating
40 years on the road so can someone, after all this time, explain the weird fleet numbering Hunter, Pollock and others use(d)
What was up with more usual 1…2…3 and so on ? It’s probably simple but Iv’e never understood it and was always “Afraid to ask” 
…jim
hi stravaiger, that has brought back some happy memories of hunter & sons, in the early 70ty i remember they were running big box’s of mining machine’s from anderson boyes to hull dock alexander no1 these box’s wieghed 42 ton,
first 3 loaded on the monday down to hull. tuesday only to be tolled it would be friday before they got unloaded, with 3 motors stuck in hull and still had 2 more box’s to go, only vechicle spare was an old erf 6 wheeler with a150 gardner (this had been a tipper at one time then converted in a tractor unit) a young lad called barny drove it, he loaded on the tuesday and headed south for hull, i loaded the last box late thursday, and left motherwell at midnight, caught up to barny in the morning just after beverley, when we go to the dock his mates asked where u been , barny 's reply is not printable, 
i dont know how he got the load over the a66 saided it took a full day penrith to scotscorner. last time i saw barny he was working for sam anderson, happy days bumper. ps sorry i don’t have any photos of hunters,
Good pics and nice to read about the history of some of these old firms, definately not long or boring, keep em coming. Cheers Dave.
Thank you for this posting. I worked here many years ago, in fact was there when the T45 in the pictures arrived, some caracters drove for Hunters, would be here all day with the stories also. thanks again brought back memories.
Hi ,i used to have Hundreds of pictures of Hunters but sadly throught the ages ive mislaid most the ones i found recently i added to flickr… flickr.com/photos/abnormal_l … 440299371/
And flickr.com/photos/abnormal_l … ng/page18/
Of which some are already on here
Looking at these ones on here YGM with the long girder on trailer 14 a CF rear steer, nothing fancy there like the modern one we see , this one was a pain in more ways than one ,a donkey engine at the back that had a habit of not starting when you needed it , and if you did get it to start you had to get the handle of quick or it had habit of hitting you in the face etc 
and there were a few it hit .
The Seddon Atkinson 6x4 and the Volvo F88 6x4 both day cab they could 10ft over front of trailer which was interesting on corners and watching the faces of other motorist’s as the front over hang swung out towards them.
The clearer photo of the roadtrain with the bigtube on the skelatel the driver undoing front chain Graham Whitfield
next on his left was Mr Hunter in the blue jumper jacket
Then they got sleeper cabs ,the roadtrain and the sed atk 401 both had one bed ment secondman still had to find digs ,Scotch corner cafe, The Haven,The Sunset, The Hollies,Punch Bowl, Brough, All the upmarket places
Ok Once Wullie Wink and myself got to stay in Fishers Hotel in Pitlochry only because Wee Hunter was told there wasnt any cheap digs and thats where everyone else was staying ,Altho i wasnt to keen on the Contenental Breakfast .
The Volvo in the picture of what i can remember spend more time over the pit in bits But when it did go it had a good heater ,The Crane in background During the winter when it was frosty before it got used we had set a fire under it to thaw it out then run from garage to crane with 5 gallon drums of water as the radiator had hole in it ,But having said that i dont think they would be going today unless they diversified into some different as most of their work is all gone RDL Westburn, Findlays Motherwell, Atlas Chalmers Netherton,Motherwell Bridge all gone
The Seddon Atkinson 6x4 was sold to Forsyth of Denny and had crewcab added and ran as a heavy wrecker for a while
The Volvo RYS880R before they shut went to a Showman but i was asked about it few year back and as far as i know it got Scraped
Thanks lads for the response. Just show if you keep a thing going you’ll never know what can turn up. Great stuff.
Bumper you giving our ages away. “Young Barny” indeed
trophyblue is this yourself? "Male ■■■■■■ " you say on your profile
I’ll have to set some time aside to go through your flikr pages.some interseting stuff on there.
I never worked direct for Hunters but subbied first of all with Wullie Bell ( The Florist ) who leased 2 ERF A series when he
tried his luck at haulage in 1975. Jaffa had the other one. Then more subbiing over the years with Tom Muir, who supplied the
early Hunter photos.
Got to agree with you about Hunters traditional customer base but always thought the were ripe for other large, heavy steel
movements or into your line of work eg Terex/Euclid etc etc. If only. Ah well.
Mention of the generous front and rear overhang reminded me of one of their drivers who was up-grading his licence from rigid
to artic and there they were, on HGV L plates heading up Wishaw, a typical town centre, with such a load when Joe the Mechanic/Driver/
Instructor 
gave the instruction to take the next road on the left and immediately didn’t like what he was seeing. “Move to the right a bit”
No response. "Out a bit ". Nothing. “MOVE OUT " only to be asked by the “Trainee” Who’s driving this …ing thing” ?
He passed first time.
trophyblue I don’t know if youv’e been all over this site ? but check this one out. From Jessics-Dad. Brilliant piece of film over 5 clips.
( Iv’e tried to paste it in but the link don’t work but you can access the clips by going to Jessicas-Dads post currently on page 7 called
McKelvie&Co Big Beanie. Definately worth the effort)…jim
Right then lads another rummage around the house, up the loft, lets get those photos out.Thanks …ji oops! done that already 
Ooooops, Nippy Heid never forgave me for reversing into his beloved car. It was great he never spoke to me for months.
Where is Wink now? last seen by me at Geest…
A good read that Stavaiger.I remember seeing James Hunter’s wagons about in the 60s and 70s.
There was another Hunter in Airdrie wasn’t there,any idea what happened to them? The livery was a bit like Harry Lawson’s IIRC.
I like the “flyer” bit from Wishaw to Port Talbot and back and then down to Morecambe on holiday I have to say I did similar things in the 60s,but you could get away with it then - most of the time anyway 
.
Where is Wink now? last seen by me at Geest…
Went to see Wullie a while back he was driving for someone in Shotts
John Kay Hes driving a Minibus up in lanark
Bobby Healey Big Campbell saw him this year
Wee Robert Driving for MacAdam Motherwell ,Still has his big grin
Rab Husband Pass
Les Soutar Driving with Pollocks
Big Tony seen driving Council Van
Tam Frame Retired
Tatty Thomson Pass
Alistair Hunter (Bongo) Now in Metropoliton Police
Jimmy Boyd Shotts Pass
Graham Whitfield Last seen working with timber haulier from Carlisle/Penrith Area Orangie Scania Black stripe
Bill Kerr Pass
Spoony RIP
Stuarty RIP
Arthur RIP
Jackie Grant RIP at end of January this year .I felt a little Dissapointed at the attendance the only People i Knew there were Big Campbell ,Robin ,Robins dad ,Tam Frame, and myself.
If Anyone Knows any other drivers let us no
Bobby Heeley, last I saw him he was working for Morrrisons at Bellshill. He moved from Larkhall to Stonehouse.
Great Guy, proud to call him a friend.
Alex
Graham Whitfield Last seen working with timber haulier from Carlisle/Penrith Area Orangie Scania Black stripe
STILL tramping yet. Says to say hello. More pics to follow.
Jimmy Burton
Joe Rodgers
Terry ?
John Murdoch
Barney Rafferty as mentioned with big Sam
Watty Alexander still doing ( ?) europe
Chris, that is what happened to Hunters of Airdrie.Taken over by Lawson during the black gold rush
of the 70s when steel tubes reigned. All gone from Airdrie now.
Their original livery was maroon/brown. ( Photos anybody ? 
)…jim
stravaiger:
Chris, that is what happened to Hunters of Airdrie.Taken over by Lawson during the black gold rush
of the 70s when steel tubes reigned. All gone from Airdrie now.
Their original livery was maroon/brown. ( Photos anybody ?
Thanks Jim,I wondered about that.They ran a lot of Atkis with “Hunter of Airdrie” on the headboard.I used to stay at Chapelhall,can’t remember the name of the place - opposite G.R.Stein’s brickworks IIRC -and Hunters were a commom sight on that road.
Can you recall that place in Chapelhall? Spalding Haulage used to change over there and J and C Finney from Tyldesley.
I have read some of the comments and feel that some contributors are not that well informed about the demise of JHS.
For those who interested I am happy to provide you with the story warts and all.
My father died in 1981. He left me 50% of jhs. The other half belonged to my uncle a doctor who knew sod all about jhs and wanted to sell jhs.
I decided to buy him out and borrowed 60k otherwise we would all have been pratted.
Now not being a complete arse I knew that this borrowing was risky but sustainable. Until one previous event conspired against me.
THE GENERAL MANAGER A YEAR PREVIOUSLY FAILED TO PROPERLY SUPERVISE THE LOADING AND INSURING OF A CRANE BEING TRANSPORTED TO ARDROSSAN WHICH FELL OF THE WRONG TRAILER IN HAMILTON.
That cost me 50k. I could go on but during my late fathers illness many unscrupulous people screwed him and my family.
Andrew since I started the thread, in an attempt to collect photos of the 3 major transport firms of Wishaw, and fine
firms they were too; and before these pics diss-appear forever. Can I just say that your comments on the factual, financial
side of things is the second side to the story and every story has two.
That said if we look around this forum it’s not general for " Management " to come out shiny side up as past
employment gets discussed. Just the nature of things. How often have we all done it, sitting slagging off the gaffer only
to quickly shut up when the same guy suddenly appears? Just cafe talk, and I wouldn’t imagine anything more sinister was
intended.
I’m still in contact with former JHS drivers and only to-day met with Jimmy Burton, long since retired, and he was recalling
past days with affection and none more so than his “Hunter” days. He also took delight in remembering him being the shop
Steward and giving management a hard time at negotiations. Again just memories, no malice intended and it all goes to
show the regard drivers had for that firm.
Iv’e been e-mailed a photo of a former Hunter ERF 4 wheeler from erfguy that he snapped in the the 80s but unfortunately
we don’t have a lot of info on it so if any of you guys can add anything that would be great.
Chris Apologies about the time lapse. If memory serves me correctly the digs you mentioned in Chapehall may have been
" The Glen " but then again ■■?
Any more photos and stories ? keep them coming lads…jim
Thanks for that Jim,to be honest “the glen” doesn’t ring a bell but it could have been,it was a long time ago.