What about the WEE MOSS cafe operated for a while by Jock Kerr’s wife & daughters it also was a busy place I used it mainly in the wee sma hours about 3 in the mornin Steak Egg & Chips magic then up to the top o Beatock for a couple o hours kip then into Glasgow tip down to Kilmarnock load a combine at Massey’s and off back down the road the combines could be for anywhere from Cambridge down to Lewis tip it the next forenoon and load London again and back up the road Jack Campbell liked to keep them rollin 3 round trips to London one week and two the next paid on 27mph and an hour and a halve for each drop/pickup.Then it was a lot easier with the old log books you just tore out the sheets and made out another one or used two books and there was only the occasional silent check as the saying goes they were the days. Eddie.
Hi Eddie, the Traders would be supplied by The County Garage at Hardwick Circus beside the Sands lorry park now the Leisure Centre. County Motors in Mary St, then Kingstown, They were ERF and Guy agents as well as Ferguson tractors. I remember going to your S type Bedfords new owners yard in Denton Holme with my father to hire a small concrete mixer when we laid a base for a car garage at home. The amusing part were all the notices pinned to the traffic office window frame threatening drivers with instant dismissal if they were tempted by a bribe from the bosses wife to put their wagon at her disposal to take her to Brampton or other towns around Carlisle where she would get on the beer with some of her pals. A few years later she fell down the stairs on the double decker I was driving outside Carrs Biscuit Works en route to the Infirmary. She had a shopping bag full of beer bottles for one of her cronies in hospital. This was a front entrance Leyland Titan PD3, beer bottles were bouncing down the stairs and when I opened the door they rolled across the platform and smashed in the gutter. Happy days.
Cheers Leyland 600.
County Garage it was Gerald. Eddie.
robroy:
I thought that the Elvanfoot cafe, North bound about half an hour North of Coatesgate was better,and if you were Northbound there was a parking area opposite which must have also been a services at one time I reckon, and you walked, or mostly ran, over the dc, it was a BP station also.
The cafe that was on the other side was the Telford Cafe on the original A74 before the dual was built. It closed when the Elvanfoot cafe opened .They were owned by James Harvie & Sons Abington and managed by Albert Moffat.
Regards,
Robert.
Aye on the southbound side just south at Greenhillstairs was a wee garage irrc it was owned in later yrs by jock crighton from Moffat …
coatsgate wi the spinning door ,there was a hopper for loading salt opposite ,you had tae drive through the quarry to get to it …Kings of Scotland , Wull iIreland was the manager proper old school…hehe many a midnight whiskey on a snowy night to warm me up.
jimmy
Chris Webb:
What happened to the Star Café at Lesmahagow,is it still going or is it a Tossco Express or summat?They were all pretty decent cafes on the A74,I weren’t too keen on the Moss though.
The cafe was demolished but the site is still used. Not sure what the company do but there are always a few vehicles about. If anyone knows Lithgow Jackson he does work for them in the workshop possibly haulage as well.
Robert
ben walker:
Anybody remember the Greenhill Stairs Cafe at the Moffat Road End run by a Mother and Daughters one of the best on the 74, just as it seems to be forgotten about, never seem to hear anyone mention it.
Cheers Ben.
I think it was Thomsons that had it. Jim Millar from Abington bought it and the filling station round about 69/70.
Robert.
hi mechanic (robert) i worked with yur brother ronnie at tnt im still there
My favourite café was the rosebank at Gretna
regards dave.
bill m ex y@d:
hi mechanic (robert) i worked with yur brother ronnie at tnt im still there
He’d just be walking to the shop for his paper about the time you posted this Bill.
NB12:
Was the moss not popular with the Aberdonians because it sold mince and tatties.
it was also popular wi the paddys,race doon the 75 fae the cairn,last in buys the tea’s somebody reckoned the coal fire in the moss was lit in about 1948 and was never out til they knocked the place down
dafdave:
My favourite café was the rosebank at Gretna
regards dave.
Aye I can remember the Rosebank at Gretna spotless clean good food & table cloths plus milk jugs on the tables, & the cheese on toast was one of the best ive ever had in a transport café, Regards Larry.
Lawrence Dunbar:
dafdave:
My favourite café was the rosebank at Gretna
regards dave.Aye I can remember the Rosebank at Gretna spotless clean good food & table cloths plus milk jugs on the tables, & the cheese on toast was one of the best ive ever had in a transport café, Regards Larry.
Another great cafe Rosebank Larry,I first called there when I was on the 8 wheeler and trailer at Bradys.Happy days,Dennis.
erfguy:
What about the WEE MOSS cafe operated for a while by Jock Kerr’s wife & daughters it also was a busy place I used it mainly in the wee sma hours about 3 in the mornin Steak Egg & Chips magic then up to the top o Beatock for a couple o hours kip then into Glasgow tip down to Kilmarnock load a combine at Massey’s and off back down the road the combines could be for anywhere from Cambridge down to Lewis tip it the next forenoon and load London again and back up the road Jack Campbell liked to keep them rollin 3 round trips to London one week and two the next paid on 27mph and an hour and a halve for each drop/pickup.Then it was a lot easier with the old log books you just tore out the sheets and made out another one or used two books and there was only the occasional silent check as the saying goes they were the days. Eddie.
Aye I remember in the 60s loading at Kilmarnock with a combine harvester, Off a firm called Clevedon & Neibough The delivery was for a place near Grantham, I don’t think the firm I worked for got paid for the job, Happy or Unhappy Days, Regards Larry.
Another haulier comes to mid, Drummonds of Armadale, Still going I think ■■?, Plus Smith Ferguson from Bathgate, Dodgeys Geazers mind, Long gone now I think, Regards Larry.
Who remembers buying meat from the Irish drivers from the back of their trailer in the Moss car park,dead of night!!!■■?
David 
I remember just about every 5 miles there was a CB name for where you were on the 74, so you knew where the police were hiding or coming after you. They would never follow you over the border so if you made it to the border you had won…lol 60 --70 mph when the limit was 40 … good days 
Lawrence Dunbar:
dafdave:
My favourite café was the rosebank at Gretna
regards dave.Aye I can remember the Rosebank at Gretna spotless clean good food & table cloths plus milk jugs on the tables, & the cheese on toast was one of the best ive ever had in a transport café, Regards Larry.
Yes Lawrence that’s the one.I used to use it regular because in the early 70s from Manchester-Glasgow it was roughly half way driving hours.Apart from all the points you have posted.happy days.
regards dave.
5thwheel:
Who remembers buying meat from the Irish drivers from the back of their trailer in the Moss car park,dead of night!!!■■?David
You theiving Git!! So thats where Shergar ended up eh! 
Anon 1.
Oh dennis it’s a bit naughty mentioning anything about Irishmen and Horsemeat the noo man. Eddie.