Peter Charalambois
Derek Allen
Dave Telford
Rod Walsh
Brian Young
Steve Young
Ron Crooks
John Crooks
Geordie Foster
Jock White
Ron Bryant
Roy Hopkins
Mick Markham
Frank Doran
Mick Buckingham
Terry Dines
I apologise to anyone I have missed out from those early days at Pan Express, but in the absence of any other contributors this is the best I can come up with at the moment…There were a lot of subbies that I may have over looked, but sorry to you guys it would be great to hear from anyone associated with Pan Express.
There have been so many ex middle east truck drivers on these threads that have pulled the pin for the last time that it would be good to try to keep it all going before there non of us left…
I know that there were a lot of firms running to the middle east back in the day, but Pan’s was the outfit that I had the ME experience with, both good and bad, so it would be great to hear from anyone else associated with them.
All the very best
Mick B
Gerry Davis
Nick the Greek
Bill Hall
Davie McCullar
hello m8
i worked for pan express in 1990 to 1993 i was only 21 then dave telford was director then never done middle east only Europe
got the first 95 daf and 4.2 m trailer i ran a lot with a welsh driver Alvin then and little Danny had a good time then now not doing much
i am 50 this year family all flown nest
Peter Charalambois
Derek Allen
Dave Telford
Rod Walsh
Brian Young
Steve Young
Ron Crooks
John Crooks
Geordie Foster
Jock White
Ron Bryant
Roy Hopkins
Mick Markham
Frank Doran
Mick Buckingham
Terry Dines
I apologise to anyone I have missed out from those early days at Pan Express, but in the absence of any other contributors this is the best I can come up with at the moment…There were a lot of subbies that I may have over looked, but sorry to you guys it would be great to hear from anyone associated with Pan Express.
There have been so many ex middle east truck drivers on these threads that have pulled the pin for the last time that it would be good to try to keep it all going before there non of us left…
I know that there were a lot of firms running to the middle east back in the day, but Pan’s was the outfit that I had the ME experience with, both good and bad, so it would be great to hear from anyone else associated with them.
All the very best
Mick B
Gerry Davis
Nick the Greek
Bill Hall
Davie McCullar
hello m8
i worked for pan express in 1990 to 1993 i was only 21 then dave telford was director then never done middle east only Europe
got the first 95 daf and 4.2 m trailer i ran a lot with a welsh driver Alvin then and little Danny had a good time then now not doing much
i am 50 this year family all flown nest
Was this the Alvin that worked for Simon International in the '80’s?. Tall skinny lad with a beard?
Hi Guys,
reference John Jenkinson mentioned earlier in the thread, here’s a pic of the artwork on the drivers door of MWC333V
For those of you who know John I was with him last Monday, and he’s doing OK. He’s not that mobile at the moment but it’s 25 years since he had a heart transplant (at Harefield), and so, everything considered, he’s not doing bad.
He’s got a photo of his Pan Express Scania sitting on top of his tv, as a constant reminder of days gone by.
I’ll probably be seeing him again this week and I am taking my tablet along so he can read this thread, I’m sure he’ll be chuffed!
Cheers,
Dave
And here is said photo, not on his TV but on his DVD player, next to a DVD of Destination Doha!
Ah, Memories, what would we do without them? As for the photo frame…love my truck!
Rattlesnake Dave:
Hi Guys,
reference John Jenkinson mentioned earlier in the thread, here’s a pic of the artwork on the drivers door of MWC333V
For those of you who know John I was with him last Monday, and he’s doing OK. He’s not that
Cheers,
Dave
Hi Dave, can you ask John has he got an old photo of himself from the early eighties that you can show on here. I remember seeing that Pan Express motor on a number of occasions but I can’t remember who the driver was. In fact, it was that motor that inspired me to do the same thing with the column change M.A.N. that I had at the time. So after buying two of those tapestries, the ballet dancer one and the one of The Wailing Wall in Mecca from the “Carpet Arbi” at The Harem, I started to take off the drivers side door card and broke the first three clips. In the end I decided to just hang the ballet dancer one on the back wall of the cab. This helped to keep the cab a bit warmer in those cold Turkish winters.
I remember that Nick The Greek off Pan’s used to have a big Union Jack hanging up in the back off his cab at one time.
I did ask last year who the driver was of that Pan Express Scania was on another thread but I never had a reply.
Re: Middle East - Not Astran!
Postby mushroomman » Mon Dec 29, 2014 10:15 am
I was watching this and it brought back quite a few memories of being parked up at The Harem. We all remember the carpet sellers with their Belly Dancing rugs for the back of the cab and the pirate cassette sellers but how many of you remember the kids who sold the large pictures of Istanbul. Along with The Saint Sophia Mosque, The Bosporus Bridge had also been squeezed onto the picture but what really stuck out was the Turkish Airlines aeroplane which appeared to be the same size as the bridge.
It seems like the creator of that picture has now got a job on Kurdish television.
That’s another thing that I have just remembered, who was the Pan Express driver who had those Belly Dancer carpets not only on the back wall of his Scania but he had also reupholstered the doors with them and they looked really cool .
Rattlesnake Dave:
And here is said photo, not on his TV but on his DVD player, next to a DVD of Destination Doha!
Ah, Memories, what would we do without them? As for the photo frame…love my truck!
Hi Dave,
Good to hear that John is doing well in his retirement. The last time I saw him was I think in Padova, Italy. I was on doing a job for Jack Harris (Dave Burgess), I was asked to collect a full load of tiles. When I arrived at the Factory it was mid to late afternoon, and unbeknown to me they were on Holiday the next couple of days. Jenksie was there, already loaded and had stayed back, he gave me a hand to lift both sides, then when I was loaded, gave me a hand to lace it all up, then we were off. We had a good run home together. Tell him I said thank you. Please.
Please give John my best regards, hope he is doing okay In his retirement.
John wasn’t a bad trailer box chef as I recall. That truck MWC 333V never looked so good once JJ got to work on it. It was a bit of a plain Jane when I had it.
My Dad, Frank Doran worked for Pan Express in the late 70s and again in the early 90s.
He has many stories about his trips to the Middle East and a few near death experiences too.
Thanks Mick for directing us to this site, we’ve enjoyed looking through some of the pics on here.
Marten.
Peter Charalambois
Derek Allen
Dave Telford
Rod Walsh
Brian Young
Steve Young
Ron Crooks
John Crooks
Geordie Foster
Jock White
Ron Bryant
Roy Hopkins
Mick Markham
Frank Doran
Mick Buckingham
Terry Dines
I apologise to anyone I have missed out from those early days at Pan Express, but in the absence of any other contributors this is the best I can come up with at the moment…There were a lot of subbies that I may have over looked, but sorry to you guys it would be great to hear from anyone associated with Pan Express.
There have been so many ex middle east truck drivers on these threads that have pulled the pin for the last time that it would be good to try to keep it all going before there non of us left…
I know that there were a lot of firms running to the middle east back in the day, but Pan’s was the outfit that I had the ME experience with, both good and bad, so it would be great to hear from anyone else associated with them.
All the very best
Mick B
Gerry Davis
Nick the Greek
Bill Hall
Davie McCullar
hello m8
i worked for pan express in 1990 to 1993 i was only 21 then dave telford was director then never done middle east only Europe
got the first 95 daf and 4.2 m trailer i ran a lot with a welsh driver Alvin then and little Danny had a good time then now not doing much
i am 50 this year family all flown nest
Was this the Alvin that worked for Simon International in the '80’s?. Tall skinny lad with a beard?
I worked there in late 90,s uk only Dave Telford and Graham Burgen in the office, it was in Fullers yard Slough then Alvin was still there then .
Tony Hoots
Good to see Geordie Foster looking well. He came from Wideopen in Newcastle if I remember. Didn’t know Geordie very well as passing ships and all that. But saw him in the yard once or twice, once with a string of washing tied from his truck to the drivers crew room on a turnaround at the yard.
All the very best.
Mick B
Another Middle East Truck driver gone but not forgotten.
Frank Doran passed away just after Christmas after a short stay in West Middlesex Hospital.
I know his son Marten showed Frank the photos of Middle East trucking on this site recently, which brought back a lot of good memories of friends and work mates that Frank met along the road. He like a lot of ex drivers on here went to Iran Iraq Afghanistan as well as Syria Jordan & Saudi for Pan Express.
On my first trip to Tehran early 1975 I met a fellow scot at Aachen who had
2 years experience doing M/E for Ian Clark London drove a Red Scania cannot
remember drivers name but he always had his partner with him very nice girl.
There was a few of us ran down together and one was a Pan Express driver
I am sure his name was Rod at that time he was the youngest driver on M/E.
See 2 pics of our running group at that time all helping each other.
Pics not great very old now like me.
Along with The Saint Sophia Mosque, The Bosporus Bridge had also been squeezed onto the picture but what really stuck out was the Turkish Airlines aeroplane which appeared to be the same size as the bridge.
.
![013[1].JPG](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/business20/uploads/trucknetuk/original/3X/6/a/6ac017655768adbda69e2baed791629d5de785ca.jpeg)
