During the Algiers Fair Dave and I managed to get away from the city and head into the Atlas Mountains for a day of relaxation and recuperation. We had met up with Mike, the Australian Pavilion director, who was also looking to see a bit of the country and so the three of us hired a taxi and driver for the day and on the fifth day of the fair we headed off into the hills.
Theres not much to say about the trip. The scenery was nice and the air was clean. We found a restaurant for lunch and as we had a driver we didn’t have to worry about opening another bottle of wine.
I sold my pickup recently. Had her from new and after fourteen years with still less than 100,000 miles on the clock I decided to sell her. She was sold to a chap up near Telford. I hope he is looking after her as well as I did.
Do any of you remember your old lorry with affection? Do you wonder what became of her, your travelling companion? Many of you spent more nights with her than with your wife. I didn’t think I was a romantic, well my wife say’s I’m not, by hey, thinking about it perhaps I am. Guess who I share my Facebook cover photo with and have done for many years and no, it aint her indoors.
The lorry I am talking about is CJN 287X. A Scania 112 that I had from new. She was first registered in 81 or 82. I remember the first trip I did with her. It was a Yugo and I shipped over Dover/Zeebrugge. Leaving the port about 0530hrs I ran down the road to the filling station to fill her up. As I pulled in I spotted another Promotor lorry, it was Micky Twemlow and Pam on there way home. Pam came over to say hello followed by Micky. Of course they were both interested in the lorry and I remember Micky asking what it was like having a new one. I replied it was great but it would only be new on its first trip to which he agreed.
The next few years saw us visit some exotic, and some not so exotic, places such as Madrid, Baghdad, Izmir, Moscow and Tehran and many places in between. We never did a high milage as often, if I was working at an exhibition, she would sit there doing nothing till the show was over. However, when I came off the road Dave Boulding took her over. Finally she was traded in at Scantruck Purfleet for a new model. I don’t know what year this was but assume it was about 86/7.
Since then, apart from putting the photo of us on my Facebook page I haven’t thought much about her until a few days ago. I posted ten photos of old Promotor lorries on a F/B site and CJN 287X was one of them. To my surprise I had a couple of knowledgable guys, Graham Standage and Garry Brennan, contact me with news of her. It seems she was purchased by Unitruc in Essex at some stage. I don’t know if they bought her direct from Scantruck but theres a very good chance they did. Garry drove her and said by the 90’s she was the oldest lorry in the fleet and using almost as much oil as diesel. Unitruc’s boss then decided to buy another unit with a shot body but a good engine and Graham, who joined Unitruc in 1990 together with his brother swapped the engines over during a weekend. CJN 287X was given a new lease of life and was kept in service for a few more years. Her old engine was put in the unit with a shot body and worked as a shunter for the next year or two.
sandway:
I sold my pickup recently. Had her from new and after fourteen years with still less than 100,000 miles on the clock I decided to sell her. She was sold to a chap up near Telford. I hope he is looking after her as well as I did.
Do any of you remember your old lorry with affection? Do you wonder what became of her, your travelling companion? Many of you spent more nights with her than with your wife. I didn’t think I was a romantic, well my wife say’s I’m not, by hey, thinking about it perhaps I am. Guess who I share my Facebook cover photo with and have done for many years and no, it aint her indoors.
The lorry I am talking about is CJN 287X. A Scania 112 that I had from new. She was first registered in 81 or 82. I remember the first trip I did with her. It was a Yugo and I shipped over Dover/Zeebrugge. Leaving the port about 0530hrs I ran down the road to the filling station to fill her up. As I pulled in I spotted another Promotor lorry, it was Micky Twemlow and Pam on there way home. Pam came over to say hello followed by Micky. Of course they were both interested in the lorry and I remember Micky asking what it was like having a new one. I replied it was great but it would only be new on its first trip to which he agreed.
The next few years saw us visit some exotic, and some not so exotic, places such as Madrid, Baghdad, Izmir, Moscow and Tehran and many places in between. We never did a high milage as often, if I was working at an exhibition, she would sit there doing nothing till the show was over. However, when I came off the road Dave Boulding took her over. Finally she was traded in at Scantruck Purfleet for a new model. I don’t know what year this was but assume it was about 86/7.
Since then, apart from putting the photo of us on my Facebook page I haven’t thought much about her until a few days ago. I posted ten photos of old Promotor lorries on a F/B site and CJN 287X was one of them. To my surprise I had a couple of knowledgable guys, Graham Standage and Garry Brennan, contact me with news of her. It seems she was purchased by Unitruc in Essex at some stage. I don’t know if they bought her direct from Scantruck but theres a very good chance they did. Garry drove her and said by the 90’s she was the oldest lorry in the fleet and using almost as much oil as diesel. Unitruc’s boss then decided to buy another unit with a shot body but a good engine and Graham, who joined Unitruc in 1990 together with his brother swapped the engines over during a weekend. CJN 287X was given a new lease of life and was kept in service for a few more years. Her old engine was put in the unit with a shot body and worked as a shunter for the next year or two.
My thanks to Graham for the Unitruc photos.
I remember all of my old trucks fondly, granted some more fondly than others. I looked after them all and I’ll never forget hearing the news that a truck I had from new had been written off in a pile up a few months after being sold on…I actually felt bereaved! Most people couldn’t understand my reaction Sandaway, but it sounds like do!
As an aside, and I’ve said it before, I really enjoy your anecdotes and photos, maybe you should write a book?
sandway:
I sold my pickup recently. Had her from new and after fourteen years with still less than 100,000 miles on the clock I decided to sell her. She was sold to a chap up near Telford. I hope he is looking after her as well as I did.
Do any of you remember your old lorry with affection? Do you wonder what became of her, your travelling companion? Many of you spent more nights with her than with your wife. I didn’t think I was a romantic, well my wife say’s I’m not, by hey, thinking about it perhaps I am. Guess who I share my Facebook cover photo with and have done for many years and no, it aint her indoors.
The lorry I am talking about is CJN 287X. A Scania 112 that I had from new. She was first registered in 81 or 82. I remember the first trip I did with her. It was a Yugo and I shipped over Dover/Zeebrugge. Leaving the port about 0530hrs I ran down the road to the filling station to fill her up. As I pulled in I spotted another Promotor lorry, it was Micky Twemlow and Pam on there way home. Pam came over to say hello followed by Micky. Of course they were both interested in the lorry and I remember Micky asking what it was like having a new one. I replied it was great but it would only be new on its first trip to which he agreed.
The next few years saw us visit some exotic, and some not so exotic, places such as Madrid, Baghdad, Izmir, Moscow and Tehran and many places in between. We never did a high milage as often, if I was working at an exhibition, she would sit there doing nothing till the show was over. However, when I came off the road Dave Boulding took her over. Finally she was traded in at Scantruck Purfleet for a new model. I don’t know what year this was but assume it was about 86/7.
Since then, apart from putting the photo of us on my Facebook page I haven’t thought much about her until a few days ago. I posted ten photos of old Promotor lorries on a F/B site and CJN 287X was one of them. To my surprise I had a couple of knowledgable guys, Graham Standage and Garry Brennan, contact me with news of her. It seems she was purchased by Unitruc in Essex at some stage. I don’t know if they bought her direct from Scantruck but theres a very good chance they did. Garry drove her and said by the 90’s she was the oldest lorry in the fleet and using almost as much oil as diesel. Unitruc’s boss then decided to buy another unit with a shot body but a good engine and Graham, who joined Unitruc in 1990 together with his brother swapped the engines over during a weekend. CJN 287X was given a new lease of life and was kept in service for a few more years. Her old engine was put in the unit with a shot body and worked as a shunter for the next year or two.
My thanks to Graham for the Unitruc photos.
I remember all of my old trucks fondly, granted some more fondly than others. I looked after them all and I’ll never forget hearing the news that a truck I had from new had been written off in a pile up a few months after being sold on…I actually felt bereaved! Most people couldn’t understand my reaction Sandaway, but it sounds like do!
As an aside, and I’ve said it before, I really enjoy your anecdotes and photos, maybe you should write a book?
Thank you ‘alright now’ for your endorsement of our Promotor postings. Its always an added incentive when our efforts are recognised.
I have been looking through my collection of photos and realised I have quite a few of Promotor lorries in disguise. So although some of them have been seen recently I thought I would show them again. However, the pink one, is an ex Promotor lorry but as its so striking I’ve included it in this compilation.
Ipsala. My favourite border crossing into or out of Turkey. Passed this way on quite a few occasions and never once got held up. Going home the next stop was the beach at Kavala and a bit of R & R.
sandway:
Ipsala. My favourite border crossing into or out of Turkey. Passed this way on quite a few occasions and never once got held up. Going home the next stop was the beach at Kavala and a bit of R & R.
Going down, Maria’s truckstop just before the border was a great place to stop. Then, just over into Turkey there were plenty of filling stations to top up with cheaper diesel.
Not much fun sitting in your hotel room in Baghdad with nothing to do even if you are on one of the top floors with fantastic views. So we organised a small group of exhibitors from the Baghdad Fair, hired two descent taxis with air conditioning, talked Hanan, one of the girls working in the British Pavilion to come with us as a guide and headed off to Babylon.
Babylon is about eighty five km south of Baghdad and situated just outside the large town of Hilla by the Euphrates. A large part of the structure was in a bad state as the mud bricks were disintegrating but Sadaam Hussein had parts of it repaired using the traditional bricks which looked a bit odd but better than doing nothing.
We spent about three hours there. Of course we’ve all heard of the ‘Hanging Gardens of Babylon’ but I can tell you there’s definitely no gardens there now. Just the overpowering heat and dust. We were all pleased to have made the effort to see these famous ruins but doubt any of us would go back again. Best bit was having Hanan along as guide. This was a couple of years before she escaped from Iraq and made her way to Canada. I use the word escape as when the Iraq/Iran war was on only young children and the elderly were allowed to travel abroad.
Not getting out a lot. Still keeping ourselves to ourselves. Bit bored. Looking for the odd job or two in between watching ‘La Tour’ on the the gogle box. Decided the alloy wheels on my wife’s car deserved my attention. 17 years we’ve had her car from new. 17 years build up of brake and road dust. They’ve never been cleaned properly in all that time. Time we brought in ‘SuperCleaner’. Well, me actually. A good dollop of cleaning compound + elbow grease + 4 hours of my not very valuable time and hey presto, they look like new. I won’t leave them 17 years till the next time. Oh dear, just remembered I haven’t done the spare. Well, there’s always tomorrow.
Photo 1. Brake dust and general road grime.
Photo 2. Cleaning equipment.
Photo 3. Not a very clear pic but how do you show elbow grease.
Photo 4. Super clean wheels almost like new.
I have taken my 1943 Willys Jeep -as rebuilt by yours truly some 35 years ago - out of the garage as the young master is aged 16 and is interested in it and we are grateful as parents that this is displaying an interest in something other than the PC…
I have a close friend who owns a large field near Tunbridge Wells where he keeps his own fleet of Jeeps and, on Sundays, meets up with a handful of friends - a women free zone - for a small BBQ , a sausage roll, cuppa, beer and natter. He invited me over to meet a chum of his who could do a bit of welding on the Jeep called Bill Harbour (sp?) (welding now sadly necessary). How it came round the subject I don’t know but Bill, whom I’d never met before, suddenly announced he’d worked for Promotor for a while! He’d previously been working as a body shop repairman in Tun Wells and for Tom Miles had repaired a Scania with a bent door pillar (which was probably mine when the ferry nearly fell over and all the lorries fell over - one on top of my unit).
He worked out of Longfield Rd for a while and then moved to the depot in Essex when the Ford work started. Sadly he did a job for Ford filming and fell out with PM because the film people had unrealistic ideas about driving hours and said PM should have had 2 drivers etc. He was rather fed up with PM after that and left.
sandway:
Not much fun sitting in your hotel room in Baghdad with nothing to do even if you are on one of the top floors with fantastic views. So we organised a small group of exhibitors from the Baghdad Fair, hired two descent taxis with air conditioning, talked Hanan, one of the girls working in the British Pavilion to come with us as a guide and headed off to Babylon.
Babylon is about eighty five km south of Baghdad and situated just outside the large town of Hilla by the Euphrates. A large part of the structure was in a bad state as the mud bricks were disintegrating but Sadaam Hussein had parts of it repaired using the traditional bricks which looked a bit odd but better than doing nothing.
We spent about three hours there. Of course we’ve all heard of the ‘Hanging Gardens of Babylon’ but I can tell you there’s definitely no gardens there now. Just the overpowering heat and dust. We were all pleased to have made the effort to see these famous ruins but doubt any of us would go back again. Best bit was having Hanan along as guide. This was a couple of years before she escaped from Iraq and made her way to Canada. I use the word escape as when the Iraq/Iran war was on only young children and the elderly were allowed to travel abroad.
sandway:
Not much fun sitting in your hotel room in Baghdad with nothing to do even if you are on one of the top floors with fantastic views. So we organised a small group of exhibitors from the Baghdad Fair, hired two descent taxis with air conditioning, talked Hanan, one of the girls working in the British Pavilion to come with us as a guide and headed off to Babylon.
Babylon is about eighty five km south of Baghdad and situated just outside the large town of Hilla by the Euphrates. A large part of the structure was in a bad state as the mud bricks were disintegrating but Sadaam Hussein had parts of it repaired using the traditional bricks which looked a bit odd but better than doing nothing.
We spent about three hours there. Of course we’ve all heard of the ‘Hanging Gardens of Babylon’ but I can tell you there’s definitely no gardens there now. Just the overpowering heat and dust. We were all pleased to have made the effort to see these famous ruins but doubt any of us would go back again. Best bit was having Hanan along as guide. This was a couple of years before she escaped from Iraq and made her way to Canada. I use the word escape as when the Iraq/Iran war was on only young children and the elderly were allowed to travel abroad.
Do you iron your jeans, Sandway? Looks like it…
Jeans–JEANS!!! Do you really think I was a Jeans person Efes. I have never worn jeans in my life, not even when broken down or changing a wheel or something equally dirty. Jeans indeed. Interesting what you said about Bill. I must have known him but as I keep saying, ‘the little grey cells are not what they were’. However, I do remember one company complain cos one of our rigid box lorries was to underpowered to haul two Ford Mavericks around the mountains in Spain. The lorry finally broke down and I had to fly out there to placate them and sort out a repair.
Talking about breaking down, my trusty Scania decided to do that on my first trip to Austria at Schladming. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me but I did have Welly Ward alongside me. He of course soon made it clear that Promotor drivers weren’t allowed to hang around so after we had informed the office and a local Scania mechanic was on his way to me John roared off into the distance.
I am posting some general photos I took of Austria as well as a few I found on the web. However the last one of the castle was taken before, I think, the Austrian border at Salzburg in Southern Germany. Its well known so somebody will I am sure identify it.
Did you have a favourite bit of road or an area you looked forward to driving on or through? I’ve always loved mountains so its no surprise when I name the Alps and in particular the route up to the Blanc on the French side. Promotor didn’t have masses of French permits but had enough that every now and again, almost like a treat, you were routed that way. Of course if you were doing an Italy you had to go that way, unless you were going via the Vent or Mont Cenis, but most times it was into Yugo or like on one occasion John Preece and I were on our way to Baghdad.
My favourite route started as I turned left onto the bridge over the river Saone in Macon. From there down to Bourg en Bresse it was flat but that didn’t matter, you were heading towards the foothills of the mighty Alps. In Bourg I always filled up at the Shell station then parked up at the rear and went in for a shower before hitting the road again. Down to Pont-D’Ain, turn left and you were finally on your way. Up through the Cerdon, where the ‘Monument to the Resistance’ stands proudly on your right and at last you are climbing in ernest.
Up to Nantau and Bellegarde heading towards Geneva where every other lorry was British, or so it seemed. Of course there was no autoroute then. Driving through some of the towns you could almost do your shopping from your cab seat. I bet the inhabitants had a street party to beat all street parties once the autoroute was completed and lorries were banned.
Once you were to the south of Geneva you picked up the autoroute heading to Cluses and the Blanc. It was at Cluses you may remember John Preece got both of us locked up for the night but as I’ve already told that story I won’t repeat it. After Cluses at the end of the autoroute near the steelworks you started to climb in ernest. The road was narrow having been chiseled out of the side of the mountain. The last time I drove up there the new viaduct over the steelworks was under construction.
The final climb up to the tunnel entrance wasn’t to bad. You had to stop at the bottom to show your invoices so the gendarmes could check that you had no hazardous goods aboard. A few months before my last trip in about 84 there a landslide that had cleared the hillside of trees and vegetation. The scars were still very visible.
Once you had paid to use the tunnel it was normally plain sailing from then on but you had to be careful as you exited in Italy. As the last photo shows the weather could be completely different to the French side.
The photos attached are a mixture of my own and others borrowed from the web.
nb. I’ve just realised I did another trip up the Blanc together with Stevie Smith, Graham Bertram and Tony Blackman in 92/3 when we went to Israel for a Ford Mondeo film shoot.
I was in touch with Gavin McArdle a few days ago and he related an incident that happened back in 76 on the Yugo/Austrian border. I have copied the short anecdote here wondering if the Promotor driver could have been correct in his assumption that his Scania had a 12v electrical system. What do you think? My view is its either a wind up or it was Wellie Ward at it again!
In the mid to late 80’s, I think it was 88 but not sure, we organised a small exhibition for mainly British drug companies in Iraq. It was a two venue affair with the first event being held in the College of Medicine, part of the University of Mosul in Northern Iraq. The second part was held in Medical City, Baghdad.
I took a number of photos including the attached pic of Tommy Birch’s lorry just after he arrived at the facility. I have others showing us setting up the exhibition. Once I have found them all I will post them on here.
Morning to you fellow Promotor driver Dave Clark. Nice to see you’re still popping in. Would you please post a photo of yourself Dave. Doesn’t have to be when you drove for Pro’s. Can be an up to date one if you wish.
Here’s a link which has nothing to do with Promotor (so excuse me for being off-topic) but it’s a series of videos (hundreds of them) of a low-bridge in the good ol’ USA and how US truck drivers drive more like Austrians and Turks…
I watched for ages… The same bridge day in day out. Happy viewing!
Efes:
Here’s a link which has nothing to do with Promotor (so excuse me for being off-topic) but it’s a series of videos (hundreds of them) of a low-bridge in the good ol’ USA and how US truck drivers drive more like Austrians and Turks…
I watched for ages… The same bridge day in day out. Happy viewing!
Never had a major coming together with a low bridge but I remember attempting to take the Tautliner shown in the attached photo on its first trip through the Blackwall tunnel. Was coming towards the entrance on the Kent side when overhead signs started flashing ‘Overheight-Divert’. Thought to myself must be somebody behind me with a high load. Continued on a bit further when another sign lit up ‘Overheight-Divert’ with an arrow pointing to a slip road. Still didn’t sink in. I had been that way many many times. Never had a problem. Then it hit me! I had this new trailer and I’d been told it was higher than usual. At the last moment I swerved into the slip road. Phew, that could have been nasty. Just goes to show you have to have your wits about you the whole time.
Next stop was Fallujah customs if you were headed for Baghdad. Very few drivers got their head down by the side of the road in Iraq. Just didn’t feel safe.
