alexsaville:
You guys are certainly keeping me busy!
Firstly, Wheel Nut…You are keeping me awake at night!!!
I can see in my minds eye the lorries of the firm in Armadale you mention, but I am damned if I can remember their name! I think it began with a G.
The other one you mention is the ‘oriental’ one’, you say ‘Thai’, dont have a clue who that might be. The only one up there I can think about is Denny Tipper Transport. Spardo…Purple John, or as he calls himself, John G Russell, is still about and prospering, he also owns Carntyne Transport which does a lot of whisky work in vans & tankers, NOT the finished product but all the stuff from Distilleries and Bonds. He was one of Wullie Russell’s sons and started in transport in pre ‘O’ lic days by buying Clyde Garage in Whitefield Rd Govan Glasgow to get the ‘A’ lic’s. He bought over the Norfrost refrigerator business up in Thurso which exports household and commercial fridges world wide (they went bust so John G stepped in) Wullie had several sons who started up but they mostly took work from TDG who bought their fathers business. One of the sons flung himself off the Forth Road Bridge, poor soul. Wullie had three daughters who had a storage business in Leith called Three Sisters Storage, if I remember right.
Munros of Aberdeen went bust, I seem to remember that the man who ran that died , shortly after, it went to the wall.
Chris, I remembered the company in Dyce who took over Lawsons old factory, it was MacIntosh of Dyce.
Morris Young , Duncan Adams, Curries of Dumfries are all still on the go.
Stewart Cameron of Croftamie is long gone, I pass their yard at Croftamie often and always expect to see his lorries parked their, old habits die hard!
Billy Walker, the commisioners put him out of the game, he pushed his luck once too often1
Tayforth, Blueband Motors, T & M Catto (they were taken over by Fridge Freight Fyfie who themselves are gone) Gibbs of Fraserburgh (one you did not mention) Alex Ayre, , all gone!
Tullis Russell paper is still in business at Glenrothes, they only have a few old lorries(no livery) they use internally,
Lofty Peak, this was originally the Scottish Cooperative Wholesale Society, with whom I started my ‘Career’ ), when the Junction mill in Edinburgh and the Chancelot Mill in Leith (both SCWS) closed, the SCWS and Rank flour set up a joint venture at Leith Docks with a new Chancelot mill. I believe the mill is owned by ADM nowadays.
Yesterday I passed D J Dunabies yard in Maybole Ayrshire and was surprised to see it completely empty! They did a bit of airfreight and also had a depot at Newbury in the south. I suspect they are gone!!!
Alex
So Wullie Russell owned Russell of Bathgate, he sold out to TDG then his son John set up John Russell (Grangemouth) who also sold out to TDG. John then set up John G Russell which he built up to be the second biggest haulage business in Scotland. John G Russell bought Storage Services (Leith) which I presume is connected to Three Sisters Storage of Leith?
There was another haulage company called John Russell and Son based in Edinburgh (two tone blue lorries) is there some connection between this firm and Wullie Russell’s families companies?
alexsaville:
You guys are certainly keeping me busy!
Firstly, Wheel Nut…You are keeping me awake at night!!!
I can see in my minds eye the lorries of the firm in Armadale you mention, but I am damned if I can remember their name! I think it began with a G.
The other one you mention is the ‘oriental’ one’, you say ‘Thai’, dont have a clue who that might be. The only one up there I can think about is Denny Tipper Transport. Spardo…Purple John, or as he calls himself, John G Russell, is still about and prospering, he also owns Carntyne Transport which does a lot of whisky work in vans & tankers, NOT the finished product but all the stuff from Distilleries and Bonds. He was one of Wullie Russell’s sons and started in transport in pre ‘O’ lic days by buying Clyde Garage in Whitefield Rd Govan Glasgow to get the ‘A’ lic’s. He bought over the Norfrost refrigerator business up in Thurso which exports household and commercial fridges world wide (they went bust so John G stepped in) Wullie had several sons who started up but they mostly took work from TDG who bought their fathers business. One of the sons flung himself off the Forth Road Bridge, poor soul. Wullie had three daughters who had a storage business in Leith called Three Sisters Storage, if I remember right.
Munros of Aberdeen went bust, I seem to remember that the man who ran that died , shortly after, it went to the wall.
Chris, I remembered the company in Dyce who took over Lawsons old factory, it was MacIntosh of Dyce.
Morris Young , Duncan Adams, Curries of Dumfries are all still on the go.
Stewart Cameron of Croftamie is long gone, I pass their yard at Croftamie often and always expect to see his lorries parked their, old habits die hard!
Billy Walker, the commisioners put him out of the game, he pushed his luck once too often1
Tayforth, Blueband Motors, T & M Catto (they were taken over by Fridge Freight Fyfie who themselves are gone) Gibbs of Fraserburgh (one you did not mention) Alex Ayre, , all gone!
Tullis Russell paper is still in business at Glenrothes, they only have a few old lorries(no livery) they use internally,
Lofty Peak, this was originally the Scottish Cooperative Wholesale Society, with whom I started my ‘Career’ ), when the Junction mill in Edinburgh and the Chancelot Mill in Leith (both SCWS) closed, the SCWS and Rank flour set up a joint venture at Leith Docks with a new Chancelot mill. I believe the mill is owned by ADM nowadays.
Yesterday I passed D J Dunabies yard in Maybole Ayrshire and was surprised to see it completely empty! They did a bit of airfreight and also had a depot at Newbury in the south. I suspect they are gone!!!
Alex
So Wullie Russell owned Russell of Bathgate, he sold out to TDG then his son John set up John Russell (Grangemouth) who also sold out to TDG. John then set up John G Russell which he built up to be the second biggest haulage business in Scotland. John G Russell bought Storage Services (Leith) which I presume is connected to Three Sisters Storage of Leith?
There was another haulage company called John Russell and Son based in Edinburgh (two tone blue lorries) is there some connection between this firm and Wullie Russell’s families companies?
hiya,
One you didn’t mention I just passed one on the A1M this morning Shore Porters Society still stating they’re the “oldest”.
thanks harry long retired.
When i worked for CERT we stored for UD ( Bells, whiskey White Horse, VAT 69 ,etc,etc ) we brought in down from scotland and we also used Thom Smith ■■ from again not sure was it Broxburn ■■ they also became TDG . Always remember they had a old guy driving for them with a wooden leg. Any pics or info on them
Wheel Nut:
Who was the other strange sounding name from Armadale?
Something of Armadale
Drummonds Transport green wagons lots of Albions in the good old days cheers Larry
Not so green nowadays Lawrence. Bog standard white same as most of them. Slightly off subject. I was out to overtake an '11 plate Jeffries of Otley and was thinking we were in for a treat with the livery. Nope. White with stickers.
Wheel Nut:
Who was the other strange sounding name from Armadale?
Something of Armadale
Drummonds Transport green wagons lots of Albions in the good old days cheers Larry
Drummond’s are still going at Armadale, although Peter (one of the brothers ) died a year or two ago. He was one of the nicest fella’s I ever met. A true gent. Ps the fleet looks just as good. regards kevmac47
An old scottish company I remember from growing up where my Granddad worked was Robert Hughes transport they used to own a fleet of ERF’s and the latest additions to the fleet before they went under they got a few Daf CF’s but I believe they were bought out by Andrew Black, if anyone could clarify that
Anybody remember the Company who had a Depot beside the Garage across the Road from WD&HO Wills on Alexandra Parade, they ran Atkinson Mk 1 i think, they were Green with Gold lettering ,50s and 60s.
jonnytruckfest:
An old scottish company I remember from growing up where my Granddad worked was Robert Hughes transport they used to own a fleet of ERF’s and the latest additions to the fleet before they went under they got a few Daf CF’s but I believe they were bought out by Andrew Black, if anyone could clarify that
Cheers
Jonny
Do you mean this lot Jonny? Photo courtesy of Flatman…
Yes I did mate thats the one Have you got any more pictures?? My granddad use to work for them for 90% of his career. He was hughes through and through, he stuck with them for nearly 50 years before they went under. My dad and granddad would be well chuffed to see pictures of their motors.
jonnytruckfest:
Yes I did mate thats the one Have you got any more pictures?? My granddad use to work for them for 90% of his career. He was hughes through and through, he stuck with them for nearly 50 years before they went under. My dad and granddad would be well chuffed to see pictures of their motors.
hiya,
One you didn’t mention I just passed one on the A1M this morning Shore Porters Society still stating they’re the “oldest”.
thanks harry long retired.
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Harry Shore Poters established 1498 and still going strong. I was up in Aberdeen a few weeks ago and took this shot of their depot at Aberdeen Harbour. regards Big Al
Munro… when running to Scotland with S.o.M from Southampton, Andrews at Brock ( anyone remember these digs ) was a days work. Also a days run for Munro from Aberdeen, so we would frequently meet up with them. One was one old guy, Peter, had a gammy leg, but that didn’t stop him driving, He’d been on the old sailing ships as a youngster, and we’d often sit for hours of an evening, him telling me all about the ships, and his time driving, he was great company, and I often wondered what happened to him.
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Fergie did you mean the Brock Cafe ? it is closed now but the B&B is still open it is called The Glen Darvel. On my website there is a page devoted to the Brock with many pictures from the 80’s. regards Big Al
