Hi, I am Ray Smyth, Ex Robert Baillie Transport, Portsmouth, based at their Wigan Depot early 70s.
Connals Transport from Glasgow used Baillies yard as an operating centre for their Trunking and
Shunting. I drove for Connals for a short while in late 1973, my regular lorry was a Volvo G89 day cab,
Reg.No. AUS 240J, that was some powerful motor. Ray Smyth.
Connals drivers names from over 40 years ago,that I can remember.
Glasgow night trunkers, Big Stan,(Scania 110,YGG 550J)
Wee Alan, Drove a Brand new Volvo F86
Bobby Pringle, drove one of the Volvo G89s
Wigan shunters, Jeffrey Sell (R.I.P.) from Kitt Green,Wigan,
Cliff (Glasses),I think he was ex Smith of Maddiston,
Newton le Willows depot.,
Big thank you to Eddie Heaton, Trucknet Senior Member,
for the Connals photos. Regards, Ray Smyth.
Hi Ray, unless I’m mistaken, the G89 doesn’t appear to have been a popular choice of vehicle in the UK, I certainly don’t recall seeing any about this area, other than the ones that Connals operated. How many did they have by the way?
No doubt they were an excellent motor, but they did look a bit oddball. Perhaps it was the combination of being a day cab and having the forward set front axle that made them look a little bit U.S. spec.
Presumably, the forward set axle was for weight distribution, but surely that couldn’t have been the primary reason for Connals to choose them. Perhaps it was the power ?
Who else ran G89s, any idea mate ?
Regards. Eddie.
Hi Eddie, I read somewhere on Trucknet that the G89 Volvo was for the Australian market,
Regards, Ray.
Here’s another one of Connals motors. This was taken on Pritchett Bros trailer park, alternatively referred to as ’ the beach ’ in certain quarters. It was just off the M6 at junction 24. I’m not sure of the exact year.
Ray Smyth:
Connals drivers names from over 40 years ago,that I can remember.
Glasgow night trunkers, Big Stan,(Scania 110,YGG 550J)
Wee Alan, Drove a Brand new Volvo F86
Bobby Pringle, drove one of the Volvo G89sWigan shunters, Geoff Sell from Kitt Green
Cliff (Glasses),I think he was ex Smith of Maddiston,
Newton le Willows depot.Big thank you to Eddie Heaton, Trucknet Senior Member,
for the Connals photos. Regards, Ray Smyth.
Hi Ray.
Remember Stan and Alan well used to meet them every Night in the Millburn Carlisle , in late 60s early 70s when i was on Nights for LEP .
Ben.
Hello Ben, I enjoyed reading your post on “Connals”. Such a long time ago,
but sometimes seems like last week. An amusing thing has just entered my
head. Most of the northbound traffic for Scotland on Connals was double deck
Mazola bottles for Brown & Polson in Paisley, However,about once a fortnight,
one of us at Wigan would load 20 pallets of canned salmon and crab at John West
Foods in Liverpool. Most trailer vans with “barn doors” at the rear,would open
offside door first,then the nearside door. One particular trailer,for whatever
reason was built the opposite way. The checker (Knowall) at John West always put a
plastic seal on the offside door,and a heavy steel seal on the same door.
He said it was to prevent any thieving lorry drivers from pinching tins of salmon.
When the above trailer was used for this work, It was usual for my wife to open
“A nice tin of salmon” for Sunday tea. Sometimes the 40ft trailers with double
doors over the tandem axles would be used for the John West load, but the
checker still only put seals on the back doors. Plonker. Fond memories, Ray Smyth.
If John West is reading this, I’d like to apologise on Ray’s behalf for the errant tins of salmon. That said, when we were running out of Jacobs biscuits in Long lane, up to Uddingston or down to Reading for Pritchett’s, it wasn’t unusual to find the odd Club biscuit or two lurking around in the cab, and sometimes the occasional Mars bar if we were backloading out of Slough.
Regards. Eddie.
Were they not ownd by the TDG and merged with the Glasgow Hiring and then with Higland Haualge eventually becoming part of Inter City Transport.
Hello Mr Garsdale, Thank you for your post on the Connals thread.
I was with Connals for only about 3 months, so I do not know very
much of their history, However, I do know that they were a TDG
company, later to merge with Highland Haulage, to be known as
Connal Highland. Kind Regards, Ray Smyth.
It is almost 1 year since I started this Connals thread, and whilst there have been over 800 views,
replies have been few. Perhaps many Drivers & Transport Enthusiasts who remember Connals
are no longer with us, or are far too busy doing far more important things, unlike me, who is on
Trucknet most days,now that I have retired. I have found a good photo of a Connal Highland Scania
on" Flickr", and a DAF outfit on “Fotki”, but I am not sure how to download them, but more importantly,
am I allowed to download them and post them onto this thread ?. Kind Regards, Ray Smyth.
I believe that the TDG embarked on quite a lot of consolidation at that time which I believe was mainly as a result of declining traffic and profits at some of the subsidiaries. But the strong performances of the likes of Ridings ( Mr. T. !) and Stirlands meant that they were unaffected by the “culls” . Cheers Bewick.
Thanks to Dennis and Les for their posts on this thread, Kind Regards, Ray Smyth.
Eddie Heaton:
Hi Ray, unless I’m mistaken, the G89 doesn’t appear to have been a popular choice of vehicle in the UK, I certainly don’t recall seeing any about this area, other than the ones that Connals operated. How many did they have by the way?No doubt they were an excellent motor, but they did look a bit oddball. Perhaps it was the combination of being a day cab and having the forward set front axle that made them look a little bit U.S. spec.
Presumably, the forward set axle was for weight distribution, but surely that couldn’t have been the primary reason for Connals to choose them. Perhaps it was the power ?
Who else ran G89s, any idea mate ?
Regards. Eddie.
Just reading through this thread again,Humber McVeigh,Grimsby had some G89 Volvo day cabbed units,not sure how many though.
David
Hi David, Thank you for your post on Volvo G89 lorries. I was a driver at Connals toward the end of 1973,
and at that time,if you were in a lorry with a 180 to 220HP engine,you had a powerful motor. I believe
that the G89 engine was about 290HP, which was needed particularly when you were coupled to one of
Connals 40ft Boden boxvan trailers which were 15ft 3ins high,and loaded with double stacked pallets of
Mazola bottles for Brown & Polson at Paisley. Kind Regards, Ray Smyth.
Brown and Polson ended up being CPC Products in Trafford Park,not sure if they have other places,I used to load up their starch products,for Humber McVeigh’s Salford,Trafford Park Road I think near to Brook Bond tea warehouse
David
Hi David, Most loads that arrived at Connals Wigan site, (Robert Baillie Transport in the Railway Goods Yard),
via the night trunk from Glasgow,were for CPC- Corn Products at Trafford Park. The majority of the return traffic
for Scotland was,as mentioned above, double deck bottles for Brown & Polson at Paisley, from Rockware Glass
at St. Helens, Garston Bottle Co.Liverpool,and sometimes Rockware at Wheatley Hall,Doncaster.
Regards, Ray Smyth.
oiltreader:
Noting you request on Past and Present Ray for Connal photos, had a look and found this one.
Oily
Eddie …Thank you for the Connal Highland picture, Kind Regards, Ray Smyth.