I am assuming you are Brian, as by my recollection there were only Richard Brown, Graham “Bugsie” Bartram and me as drivers on that trip.
Am I correct in thinking you took the photo? If so were you there in your capacity at that time as Exhibition Rep?
Interesting trip that, it was JNO’s maiden trip (I had just been allocated her from new) and she wasn’t even allowed to run on her own registration plates. If you look in the middle of radiator grill you will see the Libyan registration plate we had to have.
We left home, if I remember correctly, around mid October to get set up for the November conference and didn’t get home until 1st or 2nd week in December.
First off we had to wait about a week on the dock in Marseilles for a berth on a container ship, no ferries.
The ship had a Phillipino crew and we shared their mess room. Bugsie spent the trip productively, as only he could of course, collecting photos and addresses of Sisters and and female relatives of the crew as “pen pals” only he could see that as an opportunity in that. More about him in due course.
On arrival in Tripoli we spent another week or more on the docks, waiting for customs clearance and registration and insurance of the trucks.
It’s a good job “Pros” had built in a good margin of error because by that time we were pushed for time, to get set up, we did it of course always did.
After Tripoli we had to break it down and head for Benghazi, as I recall we did it in one hit about 24hrs on biscuits and coca cola. Tachos? what were they?
Good start to the trip, an idiot brushed his donkey cart up against me. No damage thankfully but he kicked up such a fuss with all his mates backing him I had to pay him “bacsheesh” my fault apparently just for being there
After Benghazi we had another week or more wait for a ship home.
Getting back a couple of weeks or so before Xmas.
Will dig out any photos I still have
Mr Universe photo was taken when we were messing around after we had finished work the day before the opening ceremony in Tripoli. The attached photo was taken at the same time and yes, it is Brian.
I am assuming you are Brian, as by my recollection there were only Richard Brown, Graham “Bugsie” Bartram and me as drivers on that trip.
Am I correct in thinking you took the photo? If so were you there in your capacity at that time as Exhibition Rep?
Interesting trip that, it was JNO’s maiden trip (I had just been allocated her from new) and she wasn’t even allowed to run on her own registration plates. If you look in the middle of radiator grill you will see the Libyan registration plate we had to have.
We left home, if I remember correctly, around mid October to get set up for the November conference and didn’t get home until 1st or 2nd week in December.
First off we had to wait about a week on the dock in Marseilles for a berth on a container ship, no ferries.
The ship had a Phillipino crew and we shared their mess room. Bugsie spent the trip productively, as only he could of course, collecting photos and addresses of Sisters and and female relatives of the crew as “pen pals” only he could see that as an opportunity in that. More about him in due course.
On arrival in Tripoli we spent another week or more on the docks, waiting for customs clearance and registration and insurance of the trucks.
It’s a good job “Pros” had built in a good margin of error because by that time we were pushed for time, to get set up, we did it of course always did.
After Tripoli we had to break it down and head for Benghazi, as I recall we did it in one hit about 24hrs on biscuits and coca cola. Tachos? what were they?
Good start to the trip, an idiot brushed his donkey cart up against me. No damage thankfully but he kicked up such a fuss with all his mates backing him I had to pay him “bacsheesh” my fault apparently just for being there
After Benghazi we had another week or more wait for a ship home.
Getting back a couple of weeks or so before Xmas.
Will dig out any photos I still have
Just as well Promotor allowed plenty of time to get to Libya. That two venue show was the first time we had been given responsibility to organise such an event and it was thanks to the medical equipment trade association and their counterparts in the pharmaceutical industry who had faith in us. We handled everything from building the stands, thanks to Stan Mountain and his hoppo’s, to making all the travel arrangements, thanks to Suzie P and shipping the freight. We certainly earned a few plaudits for our efforts as well as future business.
Alan. I believe you, Richard and Graham as well as the three stand fitters were put up in a hotel a few miles up the road. Do you remember the name of it? You mentioned your trip up to Bengazi. I also remember that trip as the rest of us flew up, courtesy of Libyan Arab Airlines, piloted by the crazy American reformed (so he said) alcoholic. We flew over you at 30,000 feet and I remember looking down wondering where you were.
I’ve attached a photo of your three lorries just after you arrived at the hotel from the port in Tripoli. I didn’t realise you had Libyan reg plates fitted. A couple of years ago I posted all my photos and the story that accompanied them here on the Promotor thread.
Good morning Mr Moderator. Yesterday Alan Grant posted a collection of his photos taken in Libya in 83. Today the post has disappeared. Was there a problem because the photos were in a Zip file or was there some other reason? I’d like to know so we don’t make a mistake again.
As it so happens I copied them all. They are an excellent record of his time in Libya albeit the photos are very small. I tried to enlarge them but they lose a lot of definition, however, I am reposting one here that made me chuckle, its the one of Alan on the beach and holding a skull and it goes like this…
Alan. We had one or two ‘Eton educated chaps’ working for Promotor like that Dave Boulding, didn’t realise you were one of them but theres you standing on the beach spouting from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. ‘Alas poor Yorick! I knew him. Horatio’ a fellow of infinite jest, blah blah blah…
sandway:
Good morning Mr Moderator. Yesterday Alan Grant posted a collection of his photos taken in Libya in 83. Today the post has disappeared. Was there a problem because the photos were in a Zip file or was there some other reason? I’d like to know so we don’t make a mistake again.
…
Afternoon Sandway. Nothing sinister, the post has just been popped into storage awaiting admin’s decision to OK it or not. I read it and clicked on what I thought was the usual link we see on these threads. It immediately downloaded itself onto my computer. Yes, I know it said Zip but I didn’t like this. I felt that people would not feel comfortable with it. I’ve never come across it before. So I referred it to my superiors. This is a technical matter and I’m sure the pics are brilliant but if I download anything from TN I want to do it myself. Watch this space!
sandway:
I mentioned in my recent posts the fact that companies offer giveaways at exhibitions to promote their products. These giveaways come in many shapes and sizes. Key rings, T-shirts, diaries, calculators, pens, the list is endless. The only criteria is that either their name or the name of the product must appear on it. Most are harmless, some even childish but always much sought after even by the well healed doctors and other well educated attendees at the exhibitions we set up in the College’s of Medicine in Mosul and Baghdad.
However, one company namely Smith Klein & French decided to promote one of their products ‘Ampiclox’ by plastering the name on a handle. Not just any handle but on the handle of an 8" knife. A knife that resembled a ‘stiletto’. Google ‘stiletto’ and you will see that its described as having a long slender blade with a very sharp point so that it enters very easily. Smith Klein & French of course described it as a letter opener. Hah.
Was the idea to provide knives to all the doctors as a self defence weapon incase a patient turned nasty over a diagnosis they didn’t like or were they to be given to the nurses so when the doctors made advances to them they could protect themselves. Another thought is that it was a backdoor method of arming the Iraqi doctors, maybe thought up by the CIA who, hoping one day one of the doctors would be called in by the regime to treat Sadaam, that doctor could then use his knife to dispatch the dictator. Yes, all a bit far fetched I know, maybe like me the medical profession simply used them for opening letters after all.
I reckon some of them might have been appropriated by British lorry drivers, and used to bribe French traffic police on the way home:
sandway:
I mentioned in my recent posts the fact that companies offer giveaways at exhibitions to promote their products. These giveaways come in many shapes and sizes. Key rings, T-shirts, diaries, calculators, pens, the list is endless. The only criteria is that either their name or the name of the product must appear on it. Most are harmless, some even childish but always much sought after even by the well healed doctors and other well educated attendees at the exhibitions we set up in the College’s of Medicine in Mosul and Baghdad.
However, one company namely Smith Klein & French decided to promote one of their products ‘Ampiclox’ by plastering the name on a handle. Not just any handle but on the handle of an 8" knife. A knife that resembled a ‘stiletto’. Google ‘stiletto’ and you will see that its described as having a long slender blade with a very sharp point so that it enters very easily. Smith Klein & French of course described it as a letter opener. Hah.
Was the idea to provide knives to all the doctors as a self defence weapon incase a patient turned nasty over a diagnosis they didn’t like or were they to be given to the nurses so when the doctors made advances to them they could protect themselves. Another thought is that it was a backdoor method of arming the Iraqi doctors, maybe thought up by the CIA who, hoping one day one of the doctors would be called in by the regime to treat Sadaam, that doctor could then use his knife to dispatch the dictator. Yes, all a bit far fetched I know, maybe like me the medical profession simply used them for opening letters after all.
I reckon some of them might have been appropriated by British lorry drivers, and used to bribe French traffic police on the way home:
If you read the last few posts you will know Alan Grants last one was temporarily removed due to the way it downloaded photographs direct onto your computer via a Zip file. When you read this Alan please contact me by PM so we can find a way round it. However, I did copy the photos before they were removed and I have attempted to enlarge them and have reposted them below.
As the original photographs were small the blown up ones have lost a lot of their resolution but that takes nothing away from the fact that those three Promotor lorries driven by Alan Grant, Richard Brown and Graham Bertram trod ground in Libya very few other British companies trod.
Many thanks for sharing your photos Alan. I hope you have many more and that we can find a way to post them here without any fuss.
I am reposting the remainder of Alans photos that were removed. For some reason I don’t seem to be able to enlarge the last one of the two lorries on the beach.
Hi Brian,
Not quite sure what your private message means. However will endeavour to send pictures but individually not in zip files.
I am as far as July 2017 in catching up on previous posts, in this one you mention the Ford Cargo Launch in Portugal.
That was one of my early jobs with Promotor, I was not yet a full time driver with my own truck at that time, and had not got to know other drivers. However I have here a photo with George Fardell, Roger Oakley, myself and another lad posing in front of the trucks before departure. They are X reg. so putting that as 1981.
The trip down was a real “doddle” we had a Ford executive traveling with us who paid for everything.
He also seemed to be a 9 to 5 man.
Leaving the Ferry we promptly booked into a hotel, the next morning after a leisurely breakfast we hit the road at about 09.30 we then drove until about 12.30 before stopping for about an hour for lunch, then after a couple of more hours we started to look for a hotel for the night. No cheapo hotels or restaurants for him either.
That set the pace, it took us about a week to get to Lisbon.
When we arrived in our hotel rooms there was a lovely crystal fruit bowl and a bottle of 20yr Old Tawney Port on our beds. One of the others, I think probably George, advised the Ford man of the mistake, it was pretty obvious they had been left for the Journalists. He was very gracious and told us we could keep them. ( It gave me a taste for Tawney Port I have to this day, I get a couple of bottles of 40yr Old every Xmas from Aladi)
The original plan had been for us to stay and run down to Faro each day and return the trucks to Lisbon and prepare them for the next day. The authorities in Portugal put a stop to that, as it was work their own people could do.
This resulted in us having to fly home, then back out at the end to bring them back to the UK. A much quicker journey than the outward one I have to say.
These early days of my time with Promotors, on what would be called zero hours these days, I seemed to do as many miles in planes and trains as on the road.
Hello Alan. Your last two photos have come out well. I cant remember what I wrote about the Lisbon job but I had been told you lot had grabbed all the goodies and there was nothing left for me. I’m glad you posted the photo of the late Roger Oakley. Thats the first decent one I’ve seen of him. Also I think its the first photo of George where he didn’t appear scruffy. As for the guy on the extreme left in your photo. I don’t think I recognise him. Maybe Efes or Tony Grainger will know. Hope you don’t mind me playing around with your excellent photos Alan, its just something I enjoy doing and it can help add even more interest.
The Private Message facility here on the Trucknet forum is useful. Look to the top left on the page and you will see ‘User Control Panel(new messages)’. You hopefully will see one new message from me.
The attached photo was taken on my way home from the Ford Lisbon job mentioned above. Soon after I arrived in Lisbon and met up with the Ford guys at the Intercontinental Hotel I was informed the engine didn’t sound right and told me to take it back to the UK. I hung around for two days helping out before making my way home. As Alan said it was hotels every night both ways but not sure if they paid for my nosh.
Sorry your pictures were delayed, Alan and Sandway; but they were worth waiting for! What driveline did those Fords have? Some of that era of Cargos had ■■■■■■■ E290s with 9-sp Fullers. Some even had Twin-splitters.
ERF-NGC-European:
Sorry your pictures were delayed, Alan and Sandway; but they were worth waiting for! What driveline did those Fords have? Some of that era of Cargos had ■■■■■■■ E290s with 9-sp Fullers. Some even had Twin-splitters.
Ro
IIRC the reason we were in Portugal was to do with the launch of the new Dover engine. There’s plenty of info on Wiki if you google it. I have copied an article from Commercial Motor dated Jan 82 in which Steve Gray tells us he was there at the launch. Also looks like one on the lorries we took down on the left.
I know I shouldn’t have posted the attached article so if you remove it I understand why.
Hi there Mr Moderator,
Delay not a problem, my fault for not thinking clearly (age thing?). I fully understand not wanting to download possible virus through a zip file.
As to your enquiry about the engines in the Fords I am afraid that’s a bit technical for me. All I was interested in was driving one down there They didn’t have splitters, I would have remembered that.
They were just simple work horses more designed for the likes of the building trade, and of course became very popular in that function.
ERF-NGC-European:
Sorry your pictures were delayed, Alan and Sandway; but they were worth waiting for! What driveline did those Fords have? Some of that era of Cargos had ■■■■■■■ E290s with 9-sp Fullers. Some even had Twin-splitters.
Ro
IIRC the reason we were in Portugal was to do with the launch of the new Dover engine. There’s plenty of info on Wiki if you google it. I have copied an article from Commercial Motor dated Jan 82 in which Steve Gray tells us he was there at the launch. Also looks like one on the lorries we took down on the left.
I know I shouldn’t have posted the attached article so if you remove it I understand why.
Please click on the article to read.
Thanks for answering my question. I must confess to not knowing about the Dover engine! No probs with article. Cheers, Ro
Alan Grant:
Hi there Mr Moderator,
Delay not a problem, my fault for not thinking clearly (age thing?). I fully understand not wanting to download possible virus through a zip file.
As to your enquiry about the engines in the Fords I am afraid that’s a bit technical for me. All I was interested in was driving one down there They didn’t have splitters, I would have remembered that.
They were just simple work horses more designed for the likes of the building trade, and of course became very popular in that function.
Thanks for your patience; and welcome to the forum, by the way! Yes, I understand the need for the basic design. Cheers, Ro
They didn’t have splitters, I would have remembered that.