J & M Murdoch
The Return
Shortly after establishing our new men's group in 2023, we made the collective decision to engage in more than just indoor activities like enjoying tea and bacon rolls. Instead, we opted to explore various places of cultural significance, take leisurely walks in country parks and nature reserves, visit sports venues, and other locations that would appeal to older men while also promoting the development of friendships. Therefore, our inaugural excursion, which took place slightly over a year ago, was to J & M Murdoch's Transport Museum.
There weren't that many of us back then so, now that our membership has grown, we realized that many of us hadn't seen the treasures inside the mill so Raymond took the initiative and made a call to organize a return visit.
"Can you see anything?" "Yes, wonderful things."
The caption above is of course taken from the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun back in 1922, when Lord Carnarvon asked Howard Carter if he could see anything, so I'm maybe pushing it a bit. But, if you like trucks and bikes, this could be your Tutankhamun moment.
Murdoch's Reception Desk - I think they were trying to tell us men something 🤣
For the few of us that were there last year, things hadn't changed that much. The old muscle car they were working on, I think it was a Chevrolet Camaro, has been replaced by Ian Murdoch's old tractor and they've added a newly-restored flat-bed lorry. They've still got that car but it's been stripped down and is waiting on more parts so maybe one day we'll see the finished project.
An ex-demo electric train carriage and Ian's tractor
Trains, Trucks and Motorcycles
Raymond had also arranged some coffees for us while we were waiting on everyone turning up, so a shout out and a thank you to Coffee Roasters Scotland, one of the many wee businesses operating out of Crofthead Mill.
This time round we were welcomed by operations manager Gordon McMurdo, Ian Murdoch and Ian's daughter Helen. Gordon explained that brothers Drew and John were out at meetings but that Drew hoped to join us.
Gordon then gave us a some of the interesting background and history of the company - from its beginnings in 1964 at Thornliemuir Farm in Paisley and moving into Crofthead Mill in 1998, to today where they're currently planning a move to a larger site to better accommodate their growing fleet of 80 trucks.
An appreciative audience
The lads, Gordon McMurdo (centre) with Ian and Drew Murdoch
Drew Murdoch did get back to join us and, along with his dad, Helen and Gordon, the four gave us a very interesting couple of hours on the family's love affair with trucks over the years and just how expensive it is to run a trucking business. The legislation and logistics around trucking, waste disposal and haulage are seriously complicated and the price of new trucks has gone through the roof due to the pandemic. At about £194 a day plus diesel at £1 a mile to run a modern truck, the cost of renting a skip or getting goods moved around is certainly sobering.
They also laid on another delicious lunch for us all. If you haven't tried deep-fried black pudding balls in crunchy breadcrumbs, then your life is incomplete (sorry veggies).
"Electric Ted" - the first fully-electric skip-loader in Scotland
Drew also mentioned that, always on the lookout for more sustainable and eco-friendly means of transport and in a partnership deal with Volvo, they now had an all-electric skip loader in the fleet. It's been named Electric Ted, the "Ted" being short for “Tomorrow’s Environmental Decisions”. It's still early days for electric trucks and the team are also looking at hydrogen as another possible clean fuel of the future. For example, they're making headway towards net zero, already changing their car fleet to electric and hybrid vehicles, and ensuring the rest of the fleet complies with the cleaner Euro 6 emissions standard.
Drew went on to explain their latest hobby project, a world first, along with trucker and YouTuber Sandy Flat Out Flat Broke MacCallum from Fort William. They've transplanted a Scania V8 engine into a Volvo FH12 truck chassis (Volvo don't make trucks with V8 engines). It involved modifying the Volvo engine housing and building a custom exhaust manifold so the lads are hoping it'll be a bit of a draw at Truckfest Scotland in August.
You can watch what happened in the YouTube movies below:
The last time we were at J & M Murdoch, we managed to get a visit over to the vintage shed to see where they do most of their renovation work and where they also house some vintage trucks and lorries but with the weather being so appalling, we sadly had to give it a miss. They did say they had plans to further develop their workshop here in the mill once they'd relocated the main business to their new site so - maybe a reason for yet another visit in the future.
I think we all had another cracking visit to Murdoch's so many thanks to Gordon, Drew, Ian and Helen for being such accommodating hosts again.
If you fancy a visit to J & M Murdoch's, then bear in mind they're a very busy commercial company and Crofthead is a working site with very large trucks coming and going all the time so it's not somewhere you can just walk into. You'll have to give them a call and arrange a suitable time.
In the meantime, you can find all the information you need on their web site:
...and you can read about our first visit here: