HISTORIC HAULIERS
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THOMAS SMITH JR
Iconic Edinburgh fish and whisky haulier
hisky Galore
Edinburgh’s Thomas Smith Jnr played a key role in Scotland’s fish and whisky transport sectors during its 60-plus years of operation. CM raises a glass to this classic Scottish haulier
Words: John Henderson / Images: Geoff Milne – A1 Archive Newhaven is a scenic coastal district of the
City of Edinburgh, and in the past played a key role in the shipbuilding and ishing industries. Today it is one of the capital’s 40 conservation areas, but in the early 20th century the harbour area was awash with business activity. Thomas Smith Jnr founded his own transport company in the village in 1930, based at 26 Fishmarket Buildings. The ‘junior’ part of the business name distinguished him from his father – an established carter.
The irst vehicle rented by Thomas Smith Jnr – known to everyone as Tam – was a Tyler-engined Lothian charabanc, complete with a roof-mounted gas tank and solid tyres. This well-worn motor got his new venture off to a disastrous start. Loaded with 15 boxes of herring en route from Eyemouth to Whitehaven, it broke down and forced Tam to send his irst ever load by train.
Undaunted, he persevered and a £100 loan from a friend, in the shape of Scottish Motor Traction’s Sandy Bracken, saw him acquire one of the irst twin rear-wheeled Ford lorries. As word got round the ish wholesalers about Tam’s now reliable, fast distribution service, vehicles two and three duly followed. The latter was a Bedford and Tam’s irst brand-new lorry purchase, funded by another advance plus the trading in of his two-seater car.
By the Second World War, Thomas Smith Jnr’s leet was six-strong and had established regular ish delivery runs across Scotland, in addition to supplying ports further south such as Hull and Grimsby.
The business ran steadily until 1949 when it was nationalised, after which Tam kept himself busy organising customers’ leets running in their own liveries.
The Thomas Smith Jnr business name was quickly resurrected after denationalisation and the family’s third transport generation – Tam’s son Tom – came on board straight from school in January 1959. Tom’s irst roles included sweeping the garage and washing the lorries, sometimes twice a day when shifting ish. Hitting the road as soon as age permitted, Tom spent ive happy years enjoying the relative freedom of life behind the wheel before moving into the ofice.
Organic growth continued during the 1950s and early 1960s until the business was bought by the Transport Development Group (TDG) in 1964, at what Tam describes as a “damn good price” . His friend Willie Russell, from the famous West Lothian transport dynasty, had brought his attentions to the then beneits of TDG membership. The mighty Charles Alexander operation in Aberdeen had been one of the irst big Scottish leets to board the TDG ship and others soon followed suit, on the basis that ‘if it was good enough for them, it’ll be a good move for us’.
Tom Smith took over as MD from his father in July 1969 and held the post for 24 years. He recalled that the irst two decades or so of TDG ownership was very much business as usual, while the top brass from down south visited only twice a year and never interfered as long as the overall proit line was good.
The switch from ish to whisky trafic for the Distillers Company Limited (DCL) evolved gradually over several years from the end of the 1950s. In addition to their responsibilities at Edinburgh’s harbours, general haulage work meant Tam Smith’s lorries regularly collected newly built barrels for distribution from the nearby Lindsay Cooperage in the city’s Canonmills district. The management there encouraged Tam to think seriously about entering the whisky trade.
The timing of this suggestion was perfect, as the number of boats operating from Newhaven and Granton was decreasing, along with the amount of landed catch, every week. In due course, Thomas Smith Jnr moved exclusively to the movement of this key Scottish spirit.
Whisky haulage saw Smiths trucks run across the highlands and lowlands – with either full or empty casks – for decades. An additional four-acre depot in Leven was sourced in the late 1970s next to DCL’s plant and used for several years. The Edinburgh company then bought out another whisky transport concern, John Birrell & Sons of Markinch, to strengthen a valuable presence in this part of central Fife.
Bottled whisky in cases was also shifted following another takeover; this time of Leith-based John Russell. By the time Thomas Smith Jnr moved to a state-of-the-art, purposebuilt three-acre depot in Broxburn during 1988, seasonal increases in spirit work saw around 10 tractor units and 40 trailers rented for the last three calendar months of every year, bolstering the irm’s own 45-strong leet.
A TDG business and management restructure in 1993 put paid to the ine traditional Thomas Smith Jnr livery and the leet was gradually painted into the controversial Linkman green inish, under the name of McPherson.
Tom Smith reluctantly accepted a move to TDG management positions at Mossend, then London, but after a few months had seen enough. His retirement brought to an end his family’s remarkable 60-plus years’ involvement in road transport and its presence is still missed on the whisky trails of Scotland today. n
UP TO THE MARQUE
In the first four decades with Tam Smith at the helm, this resplendent Edinburgh fleet consisted of a mix of British marques. A selection of AECs, Albions, Bedfords, Dodges, ERFs, Leylands and Morris’s was interspersed with the odd Maudslay or Mercedes.
After taking over from his father, one of Tom’s priorities was to streamline this mixture to give the drivers, workshops and parts store better focus. A move to AEC products saw Mandators and Mercurys, fitted with the maker’s Ergomatic cab, dominate in the first half of the 1970s.
At the time Thomas Smith Jnr operated from neighbouring properties in Leith’s Pitt Street and Trafalgar Lane. Like the fleet with its gold leaf sign writing and lining out, the premises were kept to a high standard with all tractor units parked up indoors. Outside, neat rows of semi-tandem Crane Fruehauf Crown Lock Vans were joined by a handful of whisky tankers, sourced for work with Drambuie and Hill Thomson’s Queen Anne brand.
The first Volvo F86s arrived at Smiths in 1976. At the time it was practically considered a Scottish-built motor, thanks to Jim McKelvie’s thriving business in Barrhead. The ‘bubble cabs’ performed well and the drivers took to them quickly, although some of the rear cab panels were prone to rusting. The F86 and subsequent F and FL series reigned unopposed until 1983 when a move to the larger Volvo F10 took place. Scanias dominated the latter years of Smith’s operation and the first of many 112M tractors arrived, along with a revised livery, in 1985. P and R cab models in 4x2 or 6x2 guise delivered sterling service before the firm disappeared under a TDG reorganisation in 1993.