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
The ■■■■■■■ L10/ Twin splitter came later
A WARD:
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
The ■■■■■■■ L10/ Twin splitter came later
Yes, you are right!
Some more interesting photos. They appear on their side but anyone clicking on them puts them the right way up. But just to make it easier for others I’ve uprighted them anyway. If you’re getting fed up with me messing around with your photos Alan please say.
By the way. Did you return on the same tub as outbound or did you have a decent ferry?
Not all, glad someone can get it right 
There were no ferries going into Libya at that time, that’s why we had to use container ships.
My favourite photo from the Libya job. Yes, I know its been shown a couple of times before but it’s worth showing again. Left to right is Alan Grant, next is Graham Bertram. In the corner and partly hidden is Richard Brown with myself on the right. The photo was taken as we relaxed the evening before the show opened.
Of course its all to do with the Herpes display board on the wall. The three of us are pointing at Graham as the one most probably in need of a cure whilst he points at me. Sorry Graham but we all knew.
Please click on photo to enlarge.
Another nice selection Alan. Looking forward to hearing the story. Is that your lunch you’re holding in the first photo. I never went to the customs in Tehran as we cleared in the fairground.
Sent you a PM Alan.
Good Afternoon Sandway,
In 1976/77 I was working for HRS from Worthing.
I had done some trips - Baghdad , Saudi that had been fairly uneventful taking around 3 or 4 weeks.
On trip money back then you didn’t hang around much, 15 or 16 hour days were the norm.
My run down to Tehran started off pretty normal and I made good time down to Bazargan where I joined the queue for the border.
I recall the little man who came down the line every morning, selling bread (ekmek), really nice bread it was too.
After about 5 days I got to the head of the queue, progress hadn’t been helped by the Tonkas who just drove straight past to the compound in front of the customs building, then forced their way back in line.
The problem for us bigger trucks was that the entrance to customs was a hole in the wall only just big enough for us so we had stay in line to line up on it.
Edging forward in line I noticed a Tonka on either side, trying to cut in on me, and realised I would either have to give way at the next move or lose a wing.
Then all movement stopped ,not sure why lunch break for the Customs Officials maybe, the Tonka drivers all then left their cabs and sat around drinking chai.
I took the opportunity to jump out and reverse their “Turkish Handbrakes” from behind their back wheels to the front.
When they then all rushed back to their cabs when, the front of the line moved, I was able to pull forward leaving them revving the b****cks and wondering why they were going nowhere.
I sometimes wonder if the wrath of Allah that they called down upon me ,when they realised what I had done, had any bearing on all that happened to me subsequently. 
I headed down to Tehran Customs Compound where I spent the next month waiting for clearance.
I remember it was April as I got myself cleaned up, as best as I could, and went into town and treated myself to a nice Sturgeon Kebab for my 35th birthday. I had been expecting to be home by then but my troubles were just getting started.
It didn’t surprise me when the Shah was deposed a couple of years later. I had been carrying new Chieftain tank engines for his army FFS!
Good story Alan
You still in Flimwell? I’m down the road and live a few hundred yards from Bugsy’s final resting place. Ought to try for a beer once lockdown is over.
Hi effes,
Yes that would be great, I’m actually Ticehurst just up the road.
Watch this space, the stories not over yet 
Shame I missed Bugsy’s funeral. I really liked him.
He could be a bit exasperating at times but a lovely fella. Not a malicious bone in his body.
Regards Alan
Aaaah. The joy of the open road, seeing the world, picking up some gorgeous scandinavian hitch hiker, heading into a fantastic sunset, parking up at the end of the day with all your mates, a big plate of mixed grill, plenty of pivo or efes. Who wouldn’t want to be a lorry driver!!! I have a feeling Alan you’re about to tell us why you wished you’d never become one. That job sounds as if its going from worse case to horrendous.
Tell us a bit about your MAN lorry. Did it have column change and whats that number plate about. HIA 6692?
Got to suss out why your photos are all on their side Alan. Are you lying on your side in bed when you post them. No seriously, how do you copy them? Are the photos loose or in an album. Do you use a scanner and download them direct to your laptop or computer, better than using your phone to obtain the image. I love playing with them so don’t mind in the least setting them upright.
The first two attached photos aren’t mine but borrowed from our Italian colleagues website. Please click on any photo to enlarge.
Hi Sandway
I use my phone. My printer is an old “steam powered” model and hasn’t got a scanner. I really ought to get a new one.
Yes the MAN had a column change. The number plate was Irish and I think an attempt to disguise how old the bloody thing was
Continuing the saga:
I finally left Tehran to head home, about six weeks into the trip by now, things seemed to be going fairly well running unladen then I seemed to start losing power, just short of the boarder. I limped through into Tukey and found a work shop in Bazargan who cleaned my filters, (I am not a mechanic, Although I learnt a lot since) and I got on my way. Another day down.
About half way between Bazargan and the mountains, miles from anywhere, I couldn’t get any gears, trying to change I was stuck in neutral, I rolled to the side of the road and came to a standstill and there I sat for about 4 days until 3 Turkish artic. drivers stopped to help.
They towed me to a roadhouse/truck stop and bus terminal on the outskirts of the next reasonable sized town.
I don’t remember the name of the place even though I spent over 3 weeks there.
I asked permission to park, and they put me on a bit of waste ground to the side and I used their fax facility to notify HRS of my situation.
To this day I don’t know why rather than contact MAN, an International Rescue Service or even a Turkish Truck dealers.
Instead they decided to send a mechanic out from the UK, via Ankara Airport and Kamikazi.
He arrived about 4 or 5 days later.
It had been raining most of the time and, much to his disgust, I was ankle deep in mud.
We found something for him to lay on and he got under to see what was wrong.
The slave cylinder for the clutch had fallen off and been lost.
HRS then decided to airfreight a replacement to Ankara, so he got back on the bus to go and collect it spending 3 days when he got to Ankara for it to be released from customs.
Goodness only knows what this catalogue of errors and inefficiency must have cost them. It would be laughable if it hadn’t been so bloody stressful.
The plan had been for us to to double up on driving to get home, having seen the roads out there he point blank refused to drive on them “to dangerous”, so I buggered him off back to the airport when we got back to Ankara. He was just taking up space in my cab.
The damned truck still wasn’t finished with be, about half way across France (I travelled France /Italy with them) I started to develop electrical problems. Fortunately those old diesels, back in the day, could still chug on on compression.
I kept going but couldn’t drive at night so had to park with the engine running for a couple of nights.
They put me out on deck on the ferry when I explained what was needed.
I came off the ferry on a Saturday morning and got as far as Rye along the coast road to Worthing when I finally thought bllcks I’ve done my bit, I’ve got this heap of sht home. I parked it in the public car park by the chippy on the bend and phoned my wife to come and get me. I had been away nearly 4 months.
My wife was distraught, she had been phoning to check what was happening to me and the b**ards had been fobbing her off that all was ok when she knew that obviously it wasn’t.
She told me that my daughter who was six at the time had asked " If Daddy isn’t coming home will we get a new Daddy" (one of her little friends parents had divorced and her Mother had re married)
She also told me, in no uncertain terms, that if I ever went down the middle east again that would be it and our kids would be getting a new Daddy, she wasn’t prepared for them or her to be put through that again.
In fairness I didn’t need a lot of persuading. That had pretty much broken me, it took a couple of years of UK with a bit of Spain and Italy for me to get my mojo back.
That was one epic trip Alan. I hope HRS saw you right as you’d got their rig home. Many drivers would have abandoned it. Who were HRS and how many lorries did they have? The longest trips I ever did were eleven weeks in duration and at least six of those weeks were spent in 5 Star hotels.
Its a shame you don’t have an up to date printer/scanner even though you do quite a good job copying your photos using your phone. By scanning them you get an exact copy of course and lose none of the sharpness. I often, as I’ve done with your photos Alan, take a screen shot which allows me to enlarge them. I run a six year old MacBook Air 13 laptop which I find easy to use. I don’t know much about computers but just about manage. Efes told me a while back I should store all my photos in Cloud. Should be easy as we’ve got plenty of that around at the moment. I’m using memory sticks and of course over time they degrade.
Hope you’ve got plenty more pics and anecdotes for us Alan. Do you remember much about the Ford clinic we did in 81 in Nurnberg. Think it was Nurnberg as I was also on another one in southern Germany in Regensberg later on.
Hello Alan - Interesting to read your adventures. Don’t think we would have met but good to see HRS mentioned. I believe they came from Worthing ? I hired a couple of TIR tilt trailers to HRS around 1977/78, I believe they were Merriworth step frames and remember one was written off somewhere in Middle East. Your boss at the time seemed a decent guy to me and he settled up O.K. which was more than most did. Do keep the posts up, it’s good to read of the 1970’s pioneer times - my main contracts were with Astran during that time and I had fallen out with Peter Calderwood of ProMotor earlier in the 1970’s, I still remember him throwing a “wobbly” when he couldn’t agree.
High Sandway
No they didn’t. Even queried my diesel bill and expenses from all that running the engine stationary.
Have to confess I was not at my most courteous in our final meeting.
Will give my recollections of Nuremburg in a bit.
Meanwhile a couple more pics.
