Nice little anecdote there Efes. Everyone thought Barry Jones was a strange character. A Brit living in Moscow. Doing anything he pleased. Women by the dozen. Can’t say that I liked the chap but he had a way about him. Can still remember him relating the time he and one of his women spent three solid days in bed hard at it. Well looking at his face in the photo I can well believe it.
Last three photos are from my first trip to Moscow by lorry.
Promotor. The name lives on. Now ‘Promotor Events Limited’ ably run by Peters son Simon who mainly works for Fords organising clinics and the like. Pity about his taste in football clubs.
I remember when some car company or other wanted to run up the mileage on a series of brand new cars and we Promotor drivers - and Peter’s son - were sent off to drive them as much as possible. Why this happened I can’t remember but I do remember threats were made - on pain of death - that the cars should not be damaged in any way… No Promotor drivers damaged any of the cars you’ll be delighted to learn…
Efes:
I remember when some car company or other wanted to run up the mileage on a series of brand new cars and we Promotor drivers - and Peter’s son - were sent off to drive them as much as possible. Why this happened I can’t remember but I do remember threats were made - on pain of death - that the cars should not be damaged in any way… No Promotor drivers damaged any of the cars you’ll be delighted to learn…
I know one of the cars was damaged but am I reading this correctly Efes. It seems to me, reading between the lines, that you are casting aspersions on young Simon Calderwood! How can you do that, I mean ‘YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS MAN’. Butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth and as for damaging cars… that’s a ludicrous statement. Go stand in a corner and repeat ‘Dave Stagg’ 2,000 times.
Well I do remember great hilarity amongst the drivers at the time… I can also see the threatened death sentence wasn’t carried out.
Just got to post this great photo taken by sometime Promotor subbie Micky Martin. Have to say it wasn’t one of our loads this time.
Couple more pics from Micky Martin. First one goes with the photo above and the second one was taken by Micky in France where he was collecting wine.
Found these interesting photos recently on the web. All of them show how basic or ugly the buildings were but they’re all still open for business.
Photos 1 to 3 are of Chris’s Cafe at Stokenchurch near High Wycombe. When I was working for Mitchell & Robertson early 70’s and running bramley apples up to Frank Idiens processing factory in Evesham I spent many a night here. Rooms were mainly doubles, better than the dorms in many places, and the food was excellent. Remember being in there one time having our evening meal when a couple of F Troop arrived. They came in for a meal and instead of going up to the counter to order just sat at a table, yes, like we did abroad. Anyway Chris, unfazed, and wearing his apron threw a tea towel over his shoulder and went over to them. We all had a chuckle as Chris sorted out there requirements by hand and mouth gestures.
Photo 4 must be take the title of Britains ugliest building. A place, well the lorry park, I frequented often. Can anyone identify it?
Photo’s 5 and 6 are of the Hollies at Gailey. Another place I frequented a lot before the M6 missing midland link was built. Only ever pulled in for an evening meal as I returned home from Liverpool or Manchester markets. The first photo was taken I think from my era whilst the second one is a recent shot. I’m sure those of you who also pulled in there years ago remember the terrible rough lorry park. Well, it’s all been concreted over now.
sandway:
Found these interesting photos recently on the web. All of them show how basic or ugly the buildings were but they’re all still open for business.Photos 1 to 3 are of Chris’s Cafe at Stokenchurch near High Wycombe. When I was working for Mitchell & Robertson early 70’s and running bramley apples up to Frank Idiens processing factory in Evesham I spent many a night here. Rooms were mainly doubles, better than the dorms in many places, and the food was excellent. Remember being in there one time having our evening meal when a couple of F Troop arrived. They came in for a meal and instead of going up to the counter to order just sat at a table, yes, like we did abroad. Anyway Chris, unfazed, and wearing his apron threw a tea towel over his shoulder and went over to them. We all had a chuckle as Chris sorted out there requirements by hand and mouth gestures.
Photo 4 must be take the title of Britains ugliest building. A place, well the lorry park, I frequented often. Can anyone identify it?
Photo’s 5 and 6 are of the Hollies at Gailey. Another place I frequented a lot before the M6 missing midland link was built. Only ever pulled in for an evening meal as I returned home from Liverpool or Manchester markets. The first photo was taken I think from my era whilst the second one is a recent shot. I’m sure those of you who also pulled in there years ago remember the terrible rough lorry park. Well, it’s all been concreted over now.
Photo 4 above is of Toddington Services on the M1.
I posted this article last year but it was a second hand account. Now here it is in Roys own words. See the attachment below. The photo posted recently on the LHD Ford Transcon page was taken by Roy Cloke. There’s an interesting story that goes with it. Roy’s lorry was one of five working for Promotor and on their way to Tehran. There was one Promotor lorry and four subbies on the trip. Roy summarises what happened when his Volvo had a problem. It seems the Transon driver was Geoff Douglas and he didn’t hang about according to Roy.
Does anyone remember the rather disasterous trip that a group of PM drivers took to somewhere in the Middle East. I just can’t remember the details but it all went terribly wrong. All I know it was before my time and one name kept recurring and that someone was “milking it”.
Efes:
Does anyone remember the rather disasterous trip that a group of PM drivers took to somewhere in the Middle East. I just can’t remember the details but it all went terribly wrong. All I know it was before my time and one name kept recurring and that someone was “milking it”.
Ring your mate George Fardell Efes. He was flown out to take over one of the lorries after the driver was sacked.
Following on from the Roy Cloke story mentioned recently and his sick Volvo I have come across another one of Roy’s photos which I don’t think I’ve seen before. The picture was taken on the French side of the Blanc as Roy was homeward bound after delivering a load of tractors to Milan. This was after the Tehran trip but obviously before the Ford Transcon he bought with the help of Promotor. He must have been impressed with the pulling power of the Transcon after being towed to Tehran that he wanted one for himself.
sandway:
Following on from the Roy Cloke story mentioned recently and his sick Volvo I have come across another one of Roy’s photos which I don’t think I’ve seen before. The picture was taken on the French side of the Blanc as Roy was homeward bound after delivering a load of tractors to Milan. This was after the Tehran trip but obviously before the Ford Transcon he bought with the help of Promotor. He must have been impressed with the pulling power of the Transcon after being towed to Tehran that he wanted one for himself.
I drove that Promotor Transcon once… Somewhere in the UK, not on a trip. It was like being in a boat - swaying around - but very comfortable to drive as you didn’t feel the road at all. Spacious too.
Was it Billy Proudlove drove it usually? Or Johnny Ward? Alas, I can’t remember.
As to the Tehran affair I’d love to hear that story again… Wasn’t it a Mr Scutts involved?
News in today: telegraph.co.uk/world-news/ … uple-less/
I did a good number of trips to Smederevo to the steel mills
Efes:
News in today: telegraph.co.uk/world-news/ … uple-less/I did a good number of trips to Smederevo to the steel mills
‘One and only’ comes to mind when I think back to those Anglo Yugo Express days Efes. I didn’t do as many trips as Micky Twemlow, I think he said he did 86. Mine were in the lower teens I reckon. I would be surprised if I did more than thirteen or fourteen trips. Of course I transited the country many times though.
However, ‘one and only’ comes to mind when I think back to one particular trip…
The ‘one and only’ time I took my wife on a trip.
The ‘one and only’ time I was weekended twice on the same Yugo trip.
The ‘one and only’ time I tipped in Rijeka. (the shipyard).
The ‘one and only’ time I delivered to the steel works in Smederevo.
The ‘one and only’ time I loaded furniture near Nove Gorica and crossed into Italy at the border crossing nearby.
The Smederevo job was quite big for Promotor. Steve Marshall our transport manager pulled it in. It was to transport a complete steel mill to Smederevo. Can’t remember the name of the company but they did have a small office in Poole. I was in the office when Steve told Peter Calderwood and Dave Stagg the job was ours. There was a lot of back slapping that day. Three or four years later we pulled out of Yugo as all of our return loads were paid in dinars which had tanked against the pound.
We still had plenty of profitable show work and so we concentrated on that. Much of this came to an end when Dave Stagg made accusations against Steve that he was taking backhanders. I didn’t hear in what form these backhanders were meant to have taken place but assumed Dave meant from some of our subbies. It seemed to me there was very little evidence against Steve and that Dave was using it as an excuse to get rid of him. Dave took these allegations to Peter who immediately called Steve into to his office. By the end of the day Steve was gone but he didn’t sit around. He asked two of our drivers, Tony Grainger and Richard Brown to join him in forming a new company, Motorvation and being that he was the main contact he also took our best customer with him.
Marshall was one of the reasons I left. I was racing back and forwards to Moscow - with not a day off for 3 or 4 months - and was really, really run down living in sub-zero (- 30C to -45C) for months on end eating out of a tin and nowhere decent to eat after leaving Poland… I was getting ill and needed some good food and a rest.
I was promised Christmas off when I returned (on Christmas eve) and in the office Marshall said he had promised me Christmas at home and I was indeed having Christmas at home but Boxing day I was off to Baghdad… I advised him I was available for work in the New Year and he started threatening to sack me if I didn’t go… I went home. The phone rang all day, Christmas day and every day after that.
I called on New Year’s eve and asked whether I had a job or not because if not I’d find a job elsewhere? Mr Marshall nice as pie as if nothing had happened.The next day I was off to Baghdad with lots of snow in Turkey and having to put chains on to get over a small rise at the Bulgarian Turkish border and then again at Bolu…
Marshall’s rotten attitude made me realise it was time to move on. Staggie was bad enough but Marshall was the icing on the cake. Richard Phillips in the office was always a nice fellow. Calderwood was always pleasant too but we didn’t see much of him.
Not long afterwards I found myself a nice job going to Eastern Europe (and elsewhere) for all the exhibitions I had previously served for Promotor. I then computerised the customs papers and was so efficient I took most - if not all - of Promotor’s work from them for Brno, Leipzig, Plovdiv and a large chunk of Kepstowe’s too. Shame the wall with Eastern Europe came down as all the expo shows dried up after that…
Efes:
sandway:
Following on from the Roy Cloke story mentioned recently and his sick Volvo I have come across another one of Roy’s photos which I don’t think I’ve seen before. The picture was taken on the French side of the Blanc as Roy was homeward bound after delivering a load of tractors to Milan. This was after the Tehran trip but obviously before the Ford Transcon he bought with the help of Promotor. He must have been impressed with the pulling power of the Transcon after being towed to Tehran that he wanted one for himself.I drove that Promotor Transcon once… Somewhere in the UK, not on a trip. It was like being in a boat - swaying around - but very comfortable to drive as you didn’t feel the road at all. Spacious too.
Was it Billy Proudlove drove it usually? Or Johnny Ward? Alas, I can’t remember.
As to the Tehran affair I’d love to hear that story again… Wasn’t it a Mr Scutts involved?
Evening Efes. The Transcon was driven, if that’s the right term to use, by John ‘Welly’ Ward. His personal scud missile. Bombed everywhere in it.
As for the infamous M/E job. It was to Saudi I believe. Yes Mr Scutts was involved and I believe George Fardell flew out to take over his lorry. I have posted on this story before and if I find out how to reboot it, if thats the correct term, then I will do so.
Please click on photo to enlarge.
Just heard from Andy Mclean aka Jazzandy that our old Rhodesian driver George Fardell, who has been mentioned here recently, is in a care home down in Devon. It seems George’s partner Lizzie is ill herself and unable to look after him. Here’s hoping you return home soon George.
Just received from Ray Mitchell, brother of Promotor driver Mick Mitchell, some up-to-date memorabilia of the old company. Many thanks Ray. Reminds me of Dave Stagg and the t-shirts with his famous ‘Professional Exhibitionist’ and ‘Trucking Magic’ and the less than romantic, ‘On Site Crew’ emblazoned upon them.
