KW:
FIAT pics?Atkins
Maritana (ran under Anchor-Euro colours out of Felixstowe)
Trans UK (know you’ve got them)Maggie-Deutz pics?
Trans UK (know you’ve got them)
Cawthorn & SinclairAnd have you got any old Eric Vick ERF pics? They did some M/E.
anchor euro eh, me and kindle were chatting about them the other day! i meant to pick up my trans uk disc when i popped home yesterday but i forgot (dont matter as my laptop is still broken, currently using kindles new one!)
KW:
FIAT pics?And have you got any old Eric Vick ERF pics? They did some M/E.
Im so pleased you said that… I was with an Eric Vick driver in Stanley Bull for a long weekend several years ago. I mentioned it to another EV driver in Holland asking about this driver.
This bloke was adamant that Eric Vick had never done Turkey or anywhere except North Africa. I knew I had seen them in the Eastern bloc
Once again i have to say thanks to Truckerash for the best thread on a forum i have seen for a long long time.
I dare say i am not the only one that now regrets not taking more pictures many years ago.
Keep up the good work ash 
Buzzer:
hutpik:
Just the thing to cheer me up on a Friday evening.A pic [nr 3]of the Oryx freight F89 and my F88 taken in the desert between Jordan #### and Turyaf [Saudi]April 1975.
[/quote]
'‘hutpic’" what do you know about these two motors mate, Buzzer.
[/quote]
Pat hawkes was my stepdad got a couple of pics of his trips
Wheel Nut:
KW:
FIAT pics?And have you got any old Eric Vick ERF pics? They did some M/E.
Im so pleased you said that… I was with an Eric Vick driver in Stanley Bull for a long weekend several years ago. I mentioned it to another EV driver in Holland asking about this driver.
This bloke was adamant that Eric Vick had never done Turkey or anywhere except North Africa. I knew I had seen them in the Eastern bloc
I was on the train a year or so ago talking to an EV driver,he was saying they did quite a lot of M/E &Turkey in the 70’s,all with ERF’s.
I remember there used to be an advert run by Bandag Tyres in the motor press that featured an EV ERF on a run to Istanbul.
KW:
Wheel Nut:
KW:
FIAT pics?And have you got any old Eric Vick ERF pics? They did some M/E.
Im so pleased you said that… I was with an Eric Vick driver in Stanley Bull for a long weekend several years ago. I mentioned it to another EV driver in Holland asking about this driver.
This bloke was adamant that Eric Vick had never done Turkey or anywhere except North Africa. I knew I had seen them in the Eastern bloc
I was on the train a year or so ago talking to an EV driver,he was saying they did quite a lot of M/E &Turkey in the 70’s,all with ERF’s.
I remember there used to be an advert run by Bandag Tyres in the motor
press that featured an EV ERF on a run to Istanbul.
GENTS: heres the advert, featuring a European cabbed ERF.
and heres a photo of a couple of the trucks:
and heres the story:
ERIC VICK, RICHARD READ and JONES TRANSPORT from Sandbach joined forces to start a new company to carry out a long term contract in the Middle East.
The new name was to be VIJOR INTERNATIONAL. They had a contract to carry animal feed mills in sections to various parts of the Middle East. 84 loads were to be delivered.
A VIJOR liveried truck:
and a Richard Read ERF: well actually its the same one as abouve 
and who wants to see another Read European cabbed ERF and an A SERIES ERF thundering across the desert■■? 
adr:
These 2 Cavewood Volvo’s are more from the 70s, but could possibly still been running in the 80s if not for Cavewood then someone else! Chris
Hi ADR, I think your find that the F86 Roadtrain was the one that went down with the Townsend Thoresen Ferry all those years ago. I was one of the first Owner Drivers working for Cave Wood when they were at Chesham and parked all the trailers up at Bovingdon Airfield. I had a Mercedes 1418 Bullnose at the time. Best regards Ben
KW:
FIAT pics?Atkins
Maritana (ran under Anchor-Euro colours out of Felixstowe)
Trans UK (know you’ve got them)Maggie-Deutz pics?
Trans UK (know you’ve got them)
Cawthorn & SinclairAnd have you got any old Eric Vick ERF pics? They did some M/E.
ERF done!
bare with me Keith … fiats and maggies coming Sunday morning
Mrs Truckerash’s birthday, so got to take er out tonite 
but dont worry folks, am takin “a few” photos to sort through when she nips to the loo 
now thats dedication…well i cant let you all down now can i
erf’s & maggies;Things to avoided at all costs.I drove that shed with the flag on it. 
And Manfred had just come out of Dover nick.
hutpik:
Hi Buzzer.The F89 was owned by Oryx Freight of Gravesend and driven by Pat Hawkes.On that trip he had Philip Llewellyn with him .This was Phils first trip to the ME for Truck Magazine.He Went with Pat to Kuwait with Caterpillar parts…When he came back an article was written and published in Truck mag.Titled ‘On the desert trail’',it was published in April 75.
The green and orange F88 was owned originally by Seahorse Int of Harwich and driven by Tony Saunders.When Seahorse folded the truck was taken as shares by one of the directors Roger Hargreaves.He then put it on contract to Astran.This trip we went 2 manned [i was a driver for Seahorse previously]with a load of plasic buckets for the new King Faisal hospital in Riyhad.Hope this helps.
Hi Hutpik & Buzzer,
The mention of King Faisal Hospital in Riyadh, to which we often delivered, reminded me of three characters I met while in Saudi back in about 1979. Eric Collins, Geoff Collins and Tom ‘Ginger’ McNeil. They were and two of them still are from Teeside. Eric sadly died from a tumour about 15 years ago. An event a week or two back caused me to write to Tony, Geoff’s son, and he replied that it had made him and Geoff laugh at the memories:
"One of Geoff’s old sayings caused a huge laugh last Friday evening, which made me remember some other things from Saudi days which I can’t resist sharing with you.
A few of us were hauling out of Sealand from Dammam Port. Geoff and Ginger were working out of Jeddah at the time, but knew Trevor Cooper, who was one of our lot, so when Ginger wrecked a ‘Cherry Picker’ crane, they high tailed it across to Dammam to avoid the fall out about whose fault it was. This would be in Ginger’s Daf. Geoff’s truck was impounded in Germany at the time, thanks to their driver (whose name I forget) passing dodgy Deutschmarks in Germany.
Geoff quickly got a job with a Dutchman, hauling cement powder in a tanker off the port into Dammam. The seals on the blower must have been a bit dodgy, we would be waiting for loads outside Sealand on the Port road, and Geoff would pull over for a cup of tea, covered in cement dust. ‘Ah’m like a little f****n’ flour grader!’ he would say - I’m sure you remember the adverts.
He finally managed to buy a truck, a Fiat. An unreliable piece of junk, but Geoff managed it, and joined us outside Sealand. Eric came out to Saudi and took over Geoff’s job on the powder tanker. He would call in, but usually said ‘I can’t stop - that Dutchman’s up my arse!’
They must have been good workers, the Saudi who was partner with the Dutchman said ‘I want English drivers, get me English drivers!’ Apparently Geoff and Eric did nearly twice as many loads as the far eastern divers.
We often spent time just sitting in the cabs, waiting for loads. I can picture it now. Geoff in the driver’s seat of Ginger’s Daf, Ginger in the passenger seat and me on the bunk behind. Ginger said ‘Hey John, don’t know if you saw it, but the electricity board are giving a discount if you have more than a dozen electrical appliances, you should write to your wife and let her know!’
This elicited a strangled snort from Geoff, but Ginger carried on ‘I mean, is your cooker electric?’ ‘Yes’ I agreed, ‘and the oven, so that’s two. Hoover, electric fire’ . this went on with each of them making suggestions, and me putting in my two pennorth, ‘hair dryer, music centre…’ Geoff appeared to be shaking slightly at this point for some reason. We went through the list until we reached number twelve, when Ginger said ‘And a dozen glasses and a cuddly toy…Didn’t he do well, he got the lot!’ Geoff was now convulsed with laughter at my naivety, and I suddenly understood the snort and the shaking. ‘You pair of ■■■■■■■■■■ I shouted, which made them laugh even more because I hardly ever swore.
Ginger’s brain had no censorship mechanism before commenting on anything. He and I would be in the ‘Souks’ supermarket, which was very western and where all the Europeans and Americans shopped. He would call me in a loud voice ‘Ow, son, come and look at the state of this!’ I would go over and he would be pointing at some poor western woman, not caring if she heard ‘What a waste of an air fair,’ I would of course be crawling with embarrassment. ’ I mean, you wouldn’t bother for an old Bewer like that would you!’
On another occasion, we were unloading at Riyadh hospital. A man, obviously a doctor, walked by, wearing a white suit. ‘Ow John, look at the clip of this!’ The call goes up ‘Haway, Son, Who got you ready?’
‘I beg your pardon?’ asked a very English voice, looking us both up and down. Bearing in mind I would be in jeans and Tee shirt and Ginger’s total clothing was shorts and flip flops. ‘Who the f*** wears a white suit in Saudi? Did you bring your Mam out with you to get dressed in a morning?’ The doctor just walked away, shaking his head.
Geoff always said that Paul Daniels stole his catchphrase, ‘You’ll like this, not a lot.’
Eric said he was at school with Chubby Brown. He once brought brother Andy and me signed photos. I lost mine, but Andy who is a hoarder, showed me his the other day, when Roy did two nights at the Forum in Barrow (he was booked for one night, but they had to make it two because of demand). Our Po faced MP said he should be barred because of the content of his show, The general concensus was, you know what you’re getting, if you don’t like it, don’t go.
Andy’s poster had ‘Now then Andy, never mind the ■■■■■■■■, keep on trucking, best wishes Chubby.’ written on it.
Back to last Friday evening. I often go over to the west shore club, Walney island, on Friday nights, my cousin is in a bowling team and in Winter we all congregate there for a few drinks. We catch the last bus home and the bus fills up with all the usual suspects as it makes its way across town. We stopped at one bus shelter and were obviously early. The driver paused for a minute even though nobody was getting on or off. The lit advert inside the shelter was for a KIt Kat competition, with prizes for holidays to Miami, Barbados etc. cousin Charles said, ‘Hey, good prizes.’ I looked and said ‘You’ve got more chance of getting a back scuttle off the queen than winning one of those holidays!’
The whole bus erupted with laughter."
Not an expression I ever use really, but it was one of Geoff’s and took me back forty years.
The other memory it recalled for me was that at Caravan Trading, we used to deal with an American customer in Riyadh called MSI. I can’t remember what they did, but we used to do their customs clearance and some of their haulage (they had a few trucks of their own, including Kenworths and a Volvo). They employed quite a few Brits, including drivers.
They also had a swimming pool at their compound and this was a gathering place on a Friday, the day off, for the people who worked there and their guests, often including British nurses from the hospital. One Friday, one of the drivers, Jesse James (yes that really was his name, his parents must have had a sense of humour) was lying close to one of the nurses with whom he’d become friendly, next to the pool, when he uttered, in his Geordie accent, one of the best chat up lines I’ve ever heard:
‘Ah’m getting a new gearbox in the Volvo tomorrow!’
John
Hey up John just thought I would post this picture of Rowland Ward’s total renovation of an F89, more pics on the South Wales thread and credit to him and his helpers, Buzzer.
Wheel Nut:
KW:
FIAT pics?And have you got any old Eric Vick ERF pics? They did some M/E.
Im so pleased you said that… I was with an Eric Vick driver in Stanley Bull for a long weekend several years ago. I mentioned it to another EV driver in Holland asking about this driver.
This bloke was adamant that Eric Vick had never done Turkey or anywhere except North Africa. I knew I had seen them in the Eastern bloc
Yeah,I saw a lot of Eric Vick motors on M/E work in the '70’s.
truckerash:
ps: Concorde did Middle East with Dafs and F89’s!!!
Saw a lot of Concorde Express as they were known on the M/E in the '70’s.Don’t know where they got some of their drivers from,met one on one trip who had just come from being an airline steward!
arthur springs to mind dave, and having spoke to my dad i belive he lives about 300 metres away from me, i remember he was a big bloke with hair thining on top. did you know any of the van leer drivers?, good bunch of lads, used to see a lot of them at the raven cafe at prees heath. fond memories of my youth!
ash any chance you might have some pics of tankers from the 70’s or 80’s?. would love to see some sedaks and erfs. 
whooshwhoosh:
propa lorry:
iya Ash it was me on the m6 the other night goin home after another road run,another new back end now she flysput a proper grin on my face lookin at you go past
hi ya whooshwhoosh,glad you like it.
hmmm,swap for merc,erm,kind offer but certainly not.
they’re a typical shabby jerry trick.
truckerash:
propa lorry:
iya Ash it was me on the m6 the other night goin home after another road run,another new back end now she flysiya Terry, nice to see you on here mate…small world ay?
u got any photos you can post here?this lot would luv to see the old Scammell
hiya,ill try when ive got more time,took me long enuf to get this far.
hows that book comin on?.
michael lacey should have some good pix cos we all did czech this year.
just for you then Harry…some lovely Maggies
apparantly HT Transport ran to the Middel East. DId you ever see them Ian?
you asked for Cawthorn and Trans UK Keith, here ya go mate
and heres ya Fiats…
I heard that this lot did Middle East too. Anyone know?
A later version operated by Pegasus, Kings Lynn. Think the old boy who drove this must have been pretty sick, cause all the other motors in the fleet were V8 Scannys
and to finish, the Irish boys luved um too!
wasnt there a wild west TV series about this lot…
wirralpete:
ash any chance you might have some pics of tankers from the 70’s or 80’s?. would love to see some sedaks and erfs.
got sum Norm Lewis, Brit Euro, S Jones. post them up soon pal keep watchin.
Trucherash,
While on the subject of Fiats,do you have any of the Chapman and Ball fleet?
Before I got into M/E driving,I used to work for the Stoke Fiat agent who supplied the motors to C and B.
When I started M/E,it was for Brit European,then after 2 years I was on for C and B driving amongst other things,the Fiat 619’s I’d helped to supply and maintain.One thing I can say about Fiats,as opposed to Maggies,Fiats were virtualy unbreakable.
Considering I worked for C and B for about 2 years,I haven’t got a single photo of any of their motors,Fiats,Volvos and of course,the Mack.I could,and probably will in time,tell you a long story about that Mack.
When Nick Garlick paid me a visit,he had a lot of photos of C and B motors,even photos with me on.
I belive it was C and B who designed the “Piggy back tilt” as it was known,the tilt trailer with the sloping corners for use on the piggyback railway.
