Klunk,
I’ve just been on Toprun & there’s some new pics from a swiss mob doing M/E, it’s worth a look, anyway there’s a shot of a very badly smashed up Daysons 111/141, do you know if the driver was ok?
I met up with a Davies driver in the mid seventies a few times short guy from near Bishop Auckland blind in one eye called John drove a merc, anybody ring a bell on this one?
bestbooties:
I met a Yorkshire lad in Ramtha who along with a mate,had left the UK with a pair of Guy Big J’s pulling tilts,with the intention of selling them in Saudi.
In Turkey,the engine in one truck gave up the ghost,so they had a Turkish garage do what they are good at.They welded up a front towing eye on the dead truck,and a towing eye on the back end of the other trailer,then fabbed up a mighty tow bar,than coupled them up They had got from Turkey to Ramtha and were still going the last time I saw them.Never saw them again though?
Wasn’t this one was it?
I always remember that someone pointed out a bridge in Yugoslavia near Gevgelia that a Taffy Davis motor had gone over the side. Dont remember the outcome but it always made me think as I drove over it.
KW:
bestbooties:
I met a Yorkshire lad in Ramtha who along with a mate,had left the UK with a pair of Guy Big J’s pulling tilts,with the intention of selling them in Saudi.
In Turkey,the engine in one truck gave up the ghost,so they had a Turkish garage do what they are good at.They welded up a front towing eye on the dead truck,and a towing eye on the back end of the other trailer,then fabbed up a mighty tow bar,than coupled them up They had got from Turkey to Ramtha and were still going the last time I saw them.Never saw them again though?Wasn’t this one was it?
Don’t think so m8,IIRC the ones I saw were grey in colour.
Only John I knew of with one eye was Johnny Munga (spelling) was brought out of somewhere in the middle east in the back of his brothers trailer, it was on the front page of our local paper. anyone know more on this story.
i would have thought the bloke who had write baghdad trucker would have stuck his nose on this site. proberley a lot of people he knew on here.
Hi wheelnut , the bridge in yugo that you mention, was what we called the iron bridge.
Taffy had left the shell garage at Gefgelljia one night after a few drinks and an argument. on approaching the iron bridge he skidded on the left hand bend and hit the rock face with the front nearside of the unit this then bounced the truck back across the road where it mounted the side of the iron bridge and then toppled off on to the carriegewayof the bridge. Taffy had been thrown across the cab after the first impact, so was in the passenger footwell when they found him. He had two broken legs and multiple injuries but survived.
The truck and trailer lay at the side of the road where they had towed it off the bridge for a number of weeks.
Whilst Taffy was convalescing he was in the same hospital as his old road foreman Gordon Crisp, he also had had a nasty accident in Belgium where he rolled his truck down the bank at the Zeebrugge/Ostende junction and was in a coma for three weeks. Regards Jamie
A Scot lost in the Valley’s [Full of useless inforemation]
bestbooties:
Wasn’t this one was it?
Don’t think so m8,IIRC the ones I saw were grey in colour.
[/quote]
Could this be the one Ian 
Pic is from John Mcvey some good pics by him check the link
s269.photobucket.com/albums/jj55 … y/?start=0
I went for a job with Taffy Davies around 78/79 ish.
I have never met a more self opinionated braggard in all my life 
And believe me after being invoved in this industry for over 30 years i have met some tossers,but he takes the biscuit.
That Grey Big J could have been an old RK Crisp truck, they had double skined roofs, if I remember right.
Robbies Dad:
I went for a job with Taffy Davies around 78/79 ish.I have never met a more self opinionated braggard in all my life
And believe me after being invoved in this industry for over 30 years i have met some tossers,but he takes the biscuit.
never met him but got the same impression (one of the lads who worked for me a long time worked for taffy before that, or more precicely his wife audrey) - he apparently used to say his later incarnation MFL stood for My eFfin Lorries 
nianiamh:
Could this be the one Ian
Pic is from John Mcvey some good pics by him check the link
s269.photobucket.com/albums/jj55 … y/?start=0
It’s a very good chance that is the one!Or one of the pair.As I said in my tale,there was one runner towing a dead one.
Robbies Dad:
I went for a job with Taffy Davies around 78/79 ish.I have never met a more self opinionated braggard in all my life
And believe me after being invoved in this industry for over 30 years i have met some tossers,but he takes the biscuit.
If you read “Baghdad Trucker” you will learn a little more about Taffy,(RIP)
bestbooties:
Robbies Dad:
I went for a job with Taffy Davies around 78/79 ish.I have never met a more self opinionated braggard in all my life
And believe me after being invoved in this industry for over 30 years i have met some tossers,but he takes the biscuit.
If you read “Baghdad Trucker” you will learn a little more about Taffy,(RIP)
I know enough of Mr Davies without reading a book Ian,personal experience teaches me more than reading a book will ever do,
Robbies Dad:
bestbooties:
Robbies Dad:
I went for a job with Taffy Davies around 78/79 ish.I have never met a more self opinionated braggard in all my life
And believe me after being invoved in this industry for over 30 years i have met some tossers,but he takes the biscuit.
If you read “Baghdad Trucker” you will learn a little more about Taffy,(RIP)
I know enough of Mr Davies without reading a book Ian,personal experience teaches me more than reading a book will ever do,
Can’t argue with that!
Witnessed an accident round about 75/76 where the North circular meets the A1 Someone had run into the back of this brown coloured 110 no signwriting but noticed was a North East reg, couldnt stop anywhere so signalled the driver that I would stop up the road.This done I gave him my details as a witness & off we went. About 6 months later gets a phone call at home from Taffy Davies it had been one of his moters and it had took him so long to get in touch because he had been doing internal work ME. Must have been on the phone about half an hour (5p gallon of diesel &putting the transport world to rights) anyway at the end of it invited me down for a job said id think about it but in the end listening to urban myth in Transport caffs & two young kids & the Boss (wife ) not to happy with the Idea declined his offer.
But to this day still have regrets would liked to have had the the experience.
Now financially secure kids up, theirs not a lot of this type of work around & I`m probably to old anyway. 
Mercs, good trucks maybe now but I seem to remember of all the European trucks they were always one of the first to freeze up in the extreme cold, and also 1418’s and 1924’s were always down on power output compared to equivalent engines from other manufacturers.
PROWLANDS:
Mercs, good trucks maybe now but I seem to remember of all the European trucks they were always one of the first to freeze up in the extreme cold, and also 1418’s and 1924’s were always down on power output compared to equivalent engines from other manufacturers.
When I did M/E in this 1626 they were affectionately known as German Atkis,or Hitlers Revenge!
fantastic pictures on toprun ian well done. 