Astran / Middle East Drivers

[john_west]

Having gone through most of the Astran/Middle East thread, I was delighted to find a link on P213 to a Swedish ‘video’

youtube.com/watch?v=iX1Z31etU-8

Here’s a screen shot from it.

I probably wouldn’t have clicked the link except that ‘Wheel Nut’ had written ‘some proper belly tank on that Douglas motor’.

I drove for Douglas freight from the Isle of Man for about 9 months in '76/'77. Sure enough, it’s my Volvo. I’m not in the clip. the guy walking towards the Volvo must have been heading for the left ■■■■■■ next to it.

I can’t remember who else was stopped there. I think the green & white Daf was driven by a lad called Jeff from the Preston area, but could be wrong. I think I met him on another trip when he was headed for Tehran and picked up a turkish girl in Istanbul, who worked in a bank and took her with him. I think her parents alerted the police and he got into big trouble on the way back.

I was loaded with a prefab house for Al Khobar, from Kent IIRC, and you can see bits of it had already fallen into the tilt side. They were a good 20 tons, but the Volvo pulled OK for a 240 - or was it 230? It was very reliable. I don’t think it broke down while I drove it.

I came down through France, then the Blanc, dodgy permit into Italy and on down.

Douglas had a new 6 wheel LHD 290, but that seized the back cylinder on the road back from H4 to Mafraq and the driver dumped it and flew home, leaving an old Jordanian guarding it. I passed him a couple of times over the coming weeks as we started shunting the trailers from Iskenderun & left him food and money. It was eventually recovered.

The houses were for expat Saudia pilots and we delivered maybe 30 or 40 loads, including at least 10 trailers shipped into Iskenderun for onward transit.

The belly tank was, as Wheel Nut said, a beauty, which hooked up to the air line to blow the fuel across, but there were no trailer boxes unfortunately.

As well as giving me the dodgy permit, Roy ■■ the transport manager, said to be sure to plumb the tap loosely at Dover. I did and was able to run on red from France onwards.

There were no restrictions on taking fuel out of the arab countries then, as I understand there were later. I think I could get home on that tank.

The Volvo had a ‘MN’ registration. On another trip a border guard between Czech/Hungary insisted that it wasn’t a British registration & wouldn’t let me through. Sometimes you got sick of paying bakshish, so I waited for the shift change. Luckily he hadn’t told anyone on the new shift and I was just stamped up and let go.

I remember the guy on the evening shift had a 3 ft length of plastic pipe, which he whirled around and played a weird tune. Quite surreal!

Apologies if any details are wrong, but it was 38 years ago.

John

[hutpik]

Hi all.
Freshir.I don’t recall the incident but it seemed to me that most of the Dutch guys were so dam tall they wouldn’t need to stand on the bumper
John.I may be wrong but wasn’t the 290 specially designed for the UK market and only came in RHD. The F88 was 240 in UK and 260 in Europé and the F89 was 330 and only LHD.They were the ones that seemed to have the piston problem.I had one go on Simons and i remember that some of Oryx Freight carried a spare piston and liner.

[freshir]

bestbooties:

freshir:

robert1952:
0

Hi Robert, I was very interested to see your pic of PIE of Southall, I was very pally with Micky Maunders in our M/E days, I have not seen them mentioned before on the thread and it certainly raised fond memories, thanks, regards Fred

Mickey Maunders and I worked at Chapman and Ball until they folded, in '78 or '79 then he and a John Wischussen started up some venture and asked me to join them. I didn’t trust this Wischusson bloke so I declined, just as well I think as the venture didn’t work out, I got a job working for SI instead!
Nice fella was Mickey, what’s he doing now?

Hi Ian, havn’t got any info on Mickey, gone but not forgotten - as you say he was a one of the best, I hope that he is still about and looks at this thread, he came from the Southall area, perhaps I will mention him to my son who works at Scania west London and ask if his name has popped up in the trade where I have had a lot of feed back in the past years of some. well known names – regards FRED

[john_west]

hutpik:
John.I may be wrong but wasn’t the 290 specially designed for the UK market and only came in RHD. The F88 was 240 in UK and 260 in Europé and the F89 was 330 and only LHD.They were the ones that seemed to have the piston problem.I had one go on Simons and i remember that some of Oryx Freight carried a spare piston and liner.

Now you’ve said that I’m sure it was an 89. I know I was jealous in my 88, but at least it always got me there and didn’t seize the back piston.

I heard after they were prone to it if your boots were heavy in the heat of the day, & maybe wrong but didnt some lads take out the balancing piston and get them back to Europe on 4, or did I imagine that?

John

[john_west]

John West:

hutpik:
John.I may be wrong but wasn’t the 290 specially designed for the UK market and only came in RHD. The F88 was 240 in UK and 260 in Europé and the F89 was 330 and only LHD.They were the ones that seemed to have the piston problem.I had one go on Simons and i remember that some of Oryx Freight carried a spare piston and liner.

Now you’ve said that I’m sure it was an 89. I know I was jealous in my 88, but at least it always got me there and didn’t seize the back piston.

I heard after they were prone to it if your boots were heavy in the heat of the day, & maybe wrong but didnt some lads take out the balancing piston and get them back to Europe on 4, or did I imagine that?

John

Apologies Hutpik, just realised how my comment about heavy boots looked!
Didn’t mean…
Think I’ll stop digging now.

[hutpik]

Hi John.I think heavy boots were more or less compulsory in those days as an owner driver or on trip money. And as we all know bureaucratic and police problems were easier to ‘‘fix’’…Mike

[robert1952]

Volvo heading for Iraq. Robert

[robert1952]

Robert

[jimski]

robert1952:
The HO / 1:87 diorama evolves…Robert

10

Hi Robert who’s diorama is that ■■ Are you a model man ■■
R Jimski

[robert1952]

Jimski:

robert1952:
The HO / 1:87 diorama evolves…Robert

10

Hi Robert who’s diorama is that ■■ Are you a model man ■■
R Jimski

N Robert

[loose-wire]

Robert, You got the trailer box on the wrong side of the trailer,poor guy would be sitting in the road having his nosh,

[robert1952]

Loose-wire:
Robert, You got the trailer box on the wrong side of the trailer,poor guy would be sitting in the road having his nosh,

You’re right there, mate! Bit of poetic license to fit in with the diorama. Fortunately, the box is reversible so I can turn it round at will! Robert

[nz_jamie]

Some nice models there Robert mate. I think Herpa made a really neat ‘Turksped’ F89,which would be a good addition if you don’t already have it.

On a different note I’m looking for some help with some photos for a M/E spec model that I’m building at the moment.

Can anyone please help with a photo of a flat mounted beer keg water container? I’m interested to see how the brackets are made to hold it to the chassis.

Thanks Jamie

[david_miller]

Postby hutpik » Mon Oct 20, 2014 10:26 am
Hi all.ERF. When i worked for Fransens [after Afghan int stopped] i was the last on to have an F10 as they used to keep saying ‘‘Yes,but you old ME men can keep an old F88 truck going so you save us money’’ Klootzakken.

Mike, you have often been an inspiration to me but this time you’ve really done it! It had never occurred to me that the dreaded machine on this forum that destroys swear words on sight would not be able to speak European languages. Classic!

“Cabroncitos”

David

[hutpik]

It’s funny how swear words in one language have a different meaning or effect in another.If you call a Dutchman a ‘‘klootzak’’ he gets quite excited yet calling an Englishman a scrotum will not have quite the same effect.
Up here when you tell someone to ‘‘dra het helvete’’ they can get quite worked up when it just means ‘‘go to hell’’[which is where most of us are destined anyway].When you speak a variety of languages and live in different countries it’s quite amusing[and sometimes dangerous]to see the different effect of swearing.If i tell my boss here to f…off they laugh as i am English and this is commonplace to hear on tv and suchlike whereas if i swear at him in Swedish he takes it more seriously.

[john_west]

Worked with several Americans in Saudi. I used to enjoy saying ‘Well, Bu**er Me’ in a serious voice, hardly a strong swear word in Blighty, but taken literally by them.

John

[robert1952]

John West:
Worked with several Americans in Saudi. I used to enjoy saying ‘Well, Bu**er Me’ in a serious voice, hardly a strong swear word in Blighty, but taken literally by them.

John

Aye, and in Arabic you only have to mention ‘your mother’ to imply a veritable treasure-house of inexcusable profanities! Robert

[john_west]

robert1952:

John West:
Worked with several Americans in Saudi. I used to enjoy saying ‘Well, Bu**er Me’ in a serious voice, hardly a strong swear word in Blighty, but taken literally by them.

John

Aye, and in Arabic you only have to mention ‘your mother’ to imply a veritable treasure-house of inexcusable profanities! Robert

That made me smile Robert.

Richard Brewer, an American who worked at Caravan (picture attached) was the nicest bloke you could ever meet, took the trouble to learn Arabic, yet a simple faux pas meant that Ali, the boss (second picture) despised him.

We had a small booklet from the British Embassy with do’s and don’t’s.

‘An Arab does not liked to be touched, and will avoid physical contact’ - right! Ever been in the scrum at the PTT trying to make a phone call home?

But one of those nuggets was ‘never show the soles of your feet, this is an insult.’

Richard had obviously never heard this. As Americans do, he was relaxing back in his chair with his feet on the desk when Ali came into his office. I happened to be there and tried to signal to take his feet off the desk, but he didn’t understand, and the conversation continued with Richard showing Ali the soles of his shoes.

Ali disliked him thereafter. ‘I’ve never met anyone as rude in my life’ Ali said to me later. I tried to explain that no insult had been intended, but the difference in cultures meant that poor Richard could never do right again.

John

[robert1952]

John West:
1

robert1952:

John West:
Worked with several Americans in Saudi. I used to enjoy saying ‘Well, Bu**er Me’ in a serious voice, hardly a strong swear word in Blighty, but taken literally by them.

John

Aye, and in Arabic you only have to mention ‘your mother’ to imply a veritable treasure-house of inexcusable profanities! Robert

That made me smile Robert.

Richard Brewer, an American who worked at Caravan (picture attached) was the nicest bloke you could ever meet, took the trouble to learn Arabic, yet a simple faux pas meant that Ali, the boss (second picture) despised him.

We had a small booklet from the British Embassy with do’s and don’t’s.

‘An Arab does not liked to be touched, and will avoid physical contact’ - right! Ever been in the scrum at the PTT trying to make a phone call home?

But one of those nuggets was ‘never show the soles of your feet, this is an insult.’

Richard had obviously never heard this. As Americans do, he was relaxing back in his chair with his feet on the desk when Ali came into his office. I happened to be there and tried to signal to take his feet off the desk, but he didn’t understand, and the conversation continued with Richard showing Ali the soles of his shoes.

Ali disliked him thereafter. ‘I’ve never met anyone as rude in my life’ Ali said to me later. I tried to explain that no insult had been intended, but the difference in cultures meant that poor Richard could never do right again.

John

When I was head of a school in Cairo, most of the rows that broke out between my secondary school-age boys started with one of them mentioning the other boy’s mother in passing… No f-ing and blinding needed to take place!

Same with blaspheming. I was parked up in Tangier docks with my lorry one afternoon and some local kids were annoying us and I yelled ‘Gotverdamme! Bugger off!’ They had no objection to being told to ‘bugger off’, but took great exception to my use of the Dutch for ‘■■■■■■■■ it!’, which they understood - because it was blasphemous. They took me to task for speaking out against their invisible friend in the sky. The shock was so great I was forced to go to the Marco Polo for a glass of ‘Flag’. Robert

[john_west]

Quote - The shock was so great I was forced to go to the Marco Polo for a glass of 'Flag

No ‘Marco Polo’ to go to, or ‘flag’ to drink in Saudi. We used to buy Siddiqi (friend!) from people on the Aramco compound and also had a small supply of pure ethanol from the Military hospital - staffed by Americans.

I once smuggled brewers yeast back in my underpants on a flight into Dhahran to make wine. I also had some videos and nearly spoilt the yeast when stopped by customs - definitely bowel loosening - they actually only wanted to look at the videos and fast forwarded through them, mostly coronation street and top of the pops, then let me go. I was able to make terrific wine from grape juice, but never risked it again!

John