I alway thought they were based in Broxburn !
Hello,i remember Popeye of Armadale,Yellow scannis,Alsastion Dogs tied to the Railings,ha ha,Done alot of Beer of Tennants,Duke St,Glasgow,Edinburgh,Back in the 70s wen i drove for Harris & Miners of Devon,i loaded off them several times,Beer for Plymouth,ships stores…Norman croad,Torquay…Devon.
Im looking for some info or pics about the long since gone company of Popeye of Scotland. Im into building modern model trucks, but in the liveries of long departed scottish hauliers. Seem to remember the name of Popeye of Scotland from many years ago, but dont know nothing about them, where were they based in Scotland , what sort of motors did they run ,what colours were they, any info or pics would be helpful.
There is a snippet of info in Bob Tuck’s ‘King of the Road’ book on Popeye of Scotland who were based in Edinburgh apparently they ran a fleet of Scanias mainly carrying fruit out of London they also ran a bonneted Mack which is pictured in the book.
The Mack in the picture looks to be in non standard fleet colours of white with red and blue relief, whilst the trailer is in yellow with a white band with the “POPEYE of SCOTLAND” fleet name in black.
Actually, they were based in Armadale, West Lothian. ‘Popeye’s’ was owned by Wullie Dryburgh who for a number of years was (and I believe, still is.) employed as a driver by Christian Salvesen at Bellshill RDC operated on behalf of, firstly, Safeway, and now Morrisons.
Wullie drove for years at the other Safeway depot at Bathgate operated by, firstly, Glass Glover, later Wincanton. He left there when made redundant.
He’s ok, is oor Wull.
Alex
I beleave Jimmy Cameron ex road servises forth[alloa] went to popeye as manager in early seventies.
There’s a Mack B series preserved in Popeyes livery, it’s been featured in the preservation mags a while ago. Colours are bright yellow with red chassis, and “King of the road” in white on the front bumper. It was on the Transpennine a couple of years ago.
Actually they were based at Redmill between East Whitburn and Blackburn.Now a distribution depot or something.
ISTR it was Scannys he ran.I had a few telephone conversations with him back in the mid seventies when he wanted me to go and work for him on the tools.Never met the man though.I would have thought he was past retiring by now.
Mark.
VOLVOF16:
Im looking for some info or pics about the long since gone company of Popeye of Scotland. Im into building modern model trucks, but in the liveries of long departed scottish hauliers. Seem to remember the name of Popeye of Scotland from many years ago, but dont know nothing about them, where were they based in Scotland , what sort of motors did they run ,what colours were they, any info or pics would be helpful.
One of my drivers, now retired worked for popeye in early / mid eighties ,think he drove an M.A.N
Can confirm he use to trunk fruit up to Forton on nights
Popeye’s original depot was at Bathville, Armadale.
When I worked for him early 70’s main south bound loads were Tennants lager mainly for ships stores, these were trunked to Leighton Buzzard, backloads were mainly asbestos sheets back to Stirling.
Wagons, all Scania 80’s & 110’s.
Dave.
fodenway:
There’s a Mack B series preserved in Popeyes livery, it’s been featured in the preservation mags a while ago. Colours are bright yellow with red chassis, and “King of the road” in white on the front bumper. It was on the Transpennine a couple of years ago.
hi all,
sorry,the b model mack that you mention is restored in the livery of p&s contracts,from ballieston near glasgow.i don’t think? they were anything to do with popeye.
regards andrew
i remember as a van boy going into the yard office at whitburn , now wincantons dairy’s yard , and being greeted by the biggest alsatian dug id ever seen , ‘’ heel naw touch ye son , jist stay still ‘’ was the shout from the office window … lol… my driver had a good laugh when i came out 
… good bunch up there nothing was a problem…
sorry think its wisemans dairys yard … and not wincantons
pete 359:
fodenway:
There’s a Mack B series preserved in Popeyes livery, it’s been featured in the preservation mags a while ago. Colours are bright yellow with red chassis, and “King of the road” in white on the front bumper. It was on the Transpennine a couple of years ago.hi all,
sorry,the b model mack that you mention is restored in the livery of p&s contracts,from ballieston near glasgow.i don’t think? they were anything to do with popeye.
regards andrew
Oops! Yes, you’re right. I got the photos out today that I took at Harrogate, and it is indeed in P&S colours. Must put brain in crawler before I set off next time.
hi , i worked for Popeye ( willie Dryburgh ) from 79 -84 as a trainee transport manager , working under the ’ guidance ’ of Jimmy ( crazyhorse ) cameron , what a man .( anyone know what happened to him i know he moved , with me to lionheart freighting for a short time after popeye , them went to Thomas Black & sons , bathgate , after that i lost touch with him )
i started after he had moved to Redmill ind estate . as well as Scanias , we ran Man , S Atki’s & of coarse the Mack , the livery was Yellow/blue but we also had some done in a light Blue as well ,
Willie was actually well ahead of his time and had some great ideas about transport & logistics.
he is still Driving for Morrisons and still Jogging often ( aged 68 )
we had a few vehicles on Tramping and also ran a daily trunk 4 vehicles to London .and ran daily from various fruit mks (mainly covant gdn ) to both edin & glasgow markets but had lots of other work wich also came up by Trunk .
Re the Dog it was called TINY . and was the softest ( & smelliest ) dog u’d ever meet But no one knew that when they arrived in to the office
cheers
stewart
sleekitcollie:
hi , i worked for Popeye ( willie Dryburgh ) from 79 -84 as a trainee transport manager , working under the ’ guidance ’ of Jimmy ( crazyhorse ) cameron , what a man .( anyone know what happened to him i know he moved , with me to lionheart freighting for a short time after popeye , them went to Thomas Black & sons , bathgate , after that i lost touch with him )
i started after he had moved to Redmill ind estate . as well as Scanias , we ran Man , S Atki’s & of coarse the Mack , the livery was Yellow/blue but we also had some done in a light Blue as well ,
Willie was actually well ahead of his time and had some great ideas about transport & logistics.
he is still Driving for Morrisons and still Jogging often ( aged 68 )
we had a few vehicles on Tramping and also ran a daily trunk 4 vehicles to London .and ran daily from various fruit mks (mainly covant gdn ) to both edin & glasgow markets but had lots of other work wich also came up by Trunk .
Re the Dog it was called TINY . and was the softest ( & smelliest ) dog u’d ever meet But no one knew that when they arrived in to the office
cheers
stewart
Yeh Stewart,the first time i met Jimmy Crazyhorse Cameron he was drinking whisky out of a pint pot!! vic 
i worked casual for wullie now and again when popeye were in armadale,delivered the fruit market usually and loaded out of tennents duke street,wullie was alright.
i drove the mack when it came,it was awful,it was like driving a four wheeler with a 40 foot trailer behind it,but it looked ok and it had double air-horns which i blew at anything that moved.
here is the mack during the edinburgh cavalcade.
v7robbie:
here is the mack during the edinburgh cavalcade.
Nice one rob were did you find that ,The old man!!!.
v7victor:
v7robbie:
here is the mack during the edinburgh cavalcade.Nice one rob were did you find that ,The old man!!!.
its a secret…haha