Might have been posted before, but if not then memories for a few!
Memories indeed. Kenny Snooks - another name I had forgotten. Is he still with us?
Were we all handsome devils like that back then?
David
adr:
Pat Searleâs F88 still for sale in latest Commercial Motor
I think you mean Pat Seal.
The advert is in most trucking mags.
David Miller:
Memories indeed. Kenny Snooks - another name I had forgotten. Is he still with us?Were we all handsome devils like that back then?
David
Of course we were!
And we thought the job,like us would last for ever.
hutpik:
Hi all.MM.Excellent pics,they really encapsulate the fun we had then.I Think we all have had nightmares about if we were going to end up like as the poor sod in Kapic as we struggled to park,or hoped we would not be in the same situation as the Hicks driver,we all lived in fear of accidents.I bet that almost everyone of us has an almost identical Picture of Tahir,usually 1 summer and 1 Winter just to prove to ourselves that we really had done it.
I remember the first time i Went to Gallipoli it made me feel really humble.My grandfather was there in the Gallipoli landings during the 1st WW,he was 16.As a Child i Heard the stories from him about ââJohnny Turkââ and all the hardships they suffered.He lost all his toes with frostbite and i could never understand as Turkey was a hot country,but when i visited Gallipoli my Eyes were opened,i actually sat and cried for my grandfather.
I wonder how many of us have had relatives die in ââfar flung cornersââ of the Empire which we have visited in trucks,be it the fields of Flanders,North Africa,Middle East.Afghanistan,Balkans,etc.And how many of us have had a humbling moment of reflection.Come on Fred,get searching soon those old arthritic fingers wonât be able to turn the pages or type.
Take care all.Mike
Hello Mike, I swopped a couple of P.M.s with Fred a few weeks ago about this very subject. I once spent a weekend at Carrisio in Italy with a lad called Alan Morrey who used to work for Thor from Stoke on Trent in the seventies. Alan introduced me to two Moorlock drivers, Ray Gould and Phil Bunch who were also ex Thor drivers. Alan, Ray and Phil were all loading on the Monday in the same area and ended up running home together. Somewhere after Fontainbleau Alan told me that they stayed off the AutoRoute and kept on the main roads around Paris until they reached Arras. It was a route that Alan had never been on before and he said that he just kept following the others. The fascinating thing about this road that they followed was that every few miles there was a World War 1 cemetery, some with hundreds of war graves in them and some with a dozen graves or so in them. It had been a beautiful summers day and Alan mentioned that he seen a sign somewhere along the way for Peronne.
Now this was in the eighties and I always wondered which way they actually went as I stopped on quite a few occasions at Peronne Services. The annoying thing is that recently I have been researching my Grandfather who I never met as he was killed at The Battle of Le Cateau on the 26th August 1914, three days after The Battle of Mons which was on 23rd August 1914 and was the first engagement between German and British troops. As itâs less than thirty miles from Peronne to Le Cateau I am sure that I could of made a plan to visit the area ( tachograph in hand 
) if I would of know then where he had actually been killed.
Regards Steve.
Hi Steve.Hope the Winter is not too severe out there 
.As i wrote,i wonder how many of us,especially the older guys who grew up in the 40s and 50s and were taught much more about the history of the ââEmpireââ,and who could remember relatives from the 1st and 2nd WW,and remember most of the scool teachers were also ex forces at that time.I Think that the history of our country and Culture was more ingrained in us than is the case now.As i said i would be interested to know how many of us actually Went to visit places where a famous battle was fought,or a relative was lost.We had a special time in the 70s and 80s of still being able to go to places which now[and maybe forever] will be denied to us with the history they contain.Take care.Mike
As a kid I can remember going into some of my friends houses and seeing a photo of somebody in a World War 2 uniform on the mantelpiece or a picture on the wall of somebody in a World War 1 uniform.
Sometime in the early 80âs I can remember passing an area that had signs saying âdanger unexploded ordinanceâ which was written in English. I have a strong feeling that they were somewhere along The Gallipoli Peninsular but at the back of my mind for some reason something keeps telling me that the area was in Greece along the Turkish border when I was delivering a couple of Massey Fergusson tractors. 
Sorry if you have seen this before but I think that itâs the only photo that I have of The Canakkale Ferry, sometimes we were packed on like sardines and sometimes they would sail as soon as you arrived with only a couple of cars on it.
bestbooties:
adr:
Pat Searleâs F88 still for sale in latest Commercial MotorI think you mean Pat Seal.
The advert is in most trucking mags.
Yes, sorry about that, hope didnât offend anyone that new him! As I was doing the post a mate of mine rang me & his name is Searle, whether word association or what but for some reason I put his name, realised as soon as Iâd sent it!Just a shame about the F88 that it hasnât found a good home yet, donât want it ending up in the wrong hands & ending up in a corner of a yard somewhere rotting away!
hutpik:
Hi Steve.Hope the Winter is not too severe out there
Reaading through this thread and the various books, it is wonderful how people of all nations got on well, in the 1960s and '70s. The founders of Astran were happy to send their vehicles into uncharted territory, seemingly without fear of hostility. The drivers on this and other forums all have tales to tell, of great hospitality and people of all nations/races/religions helping each other out on the road. Maybe the world was so fed-up of warfare, its people just felt that it was easier to cooperate. Look at it now- The Foreign Office advises us against going anywhere interesting, due to the risk of terrorism and crime.
[zb]
anorak:hutpik:
Hi Steve.Hope the Winter is not too severe out thereReaading through this thread and the various books, it is wonderful how people of all nations got on well, in the 1960s and '70s. The founders of Astran were happy to send their vehicles into uncharted territory, seemingly without fear of hostility. The drivers on this and other forums all have tales to tell, of great hospitality and people of all nations/races/religions helping each other out on the road. Maybe the world was so fed-up of warfare, its people just felt that it was easier to cooperate. Look at it now- The Foreign Office advises us against going anywhere interesting, due to the risk of terrorism and crime.
Well Put Anorak, a Sign of the Times mate, The world we live In Now Is a far cry from the one in byegone yrs, Cheers Chris CJA1.
Hiya i agree with the above statmentâŚcan i also say their was not much television around in the 1960âs
to let you know just what you was driving into.if you purchesed a so called posh newspaper youâd get some
word news iâd think.
John
About 2002 or 3, i loaded a trailer full of motorbikes (i think they were all Hondaâs) from Portsmouth or Southampton, and took them to Hamburg docks, after i did customs to get in, and was tipping them, an Astrans motor pulled up, a stocky chap ( i mean stocky, not fat!) maybe in his early-mid 30âs, wraparound sunglasses and covered in tattooâs, he was driving an FH Globetrotter. He had loaded the same place as me in the UK. Nice lad he was, im sure he said he was a subbie, and heâd just done a trip out Saudi way, and this was his first job out after a few days off.
Back in the mid 90âs Libya was meant to pretty dodgy, but the guy I was working for at the time though it would be alright. I must admit that nearly all the folk I meet were fairly friendly including some of the guys down south that hi jacked me.
The British chaps that met me back at the Tunisian Border werenât very polite, and made me feel a bit uneasy.
Full version should be in the 4th book.
JeffâŚ
I came across this photo that somebody posted on here a couple of years ago, I canât remember who posted it but I did wonder if it was taken in June 1980 when I was doing my first trip to Dyerbakir in Southern Turkey. We were travelling along the road somewhere between Adana and Gaziantep when we came across a brand new yellow crane lying on itâs side very similar to this if itâs not the same one. The guys who I were following were a long way in front of me and stopped to see if they could help and by the time that I caught up with them they were ready to set off again.
O.K. so accidents do happen but why this photo sticks out in my mind is that about another ten miles further on there was another identical crane also lying on itâs side at the side of the road. The story was that they were being delivered from Coles somewhere in The North East of England to Baghdad and that they had sailed from the U.K. to the Port of Mersin in Southern Turkey where the drivers were then taking them overland.
Now, can anybody make out if they are actually Coles Cranes or shed any other light on this as I canât remember if they were British drivers or Turkish drivers although I have a strange feeling that they might of been the latter.
Regards Steve.
Tell if itâs a Coles craneâ â ?, Steve if you hadnât told us it was a crane I would have said it short trailer or some kind of heavy haulage module.
Had a second look at it and after a bit of squinting it could be some kind of Iron Fairy, theyâre pretty bad for jumping, there was a similar incident with one in southern Tasmania a few years back.
As they were classed as mobile plant they didnât have to have suspension, so the only suspension they had was the side wall deflection of the tires.
The bigger ones did have springs and shocks, usually an inverted spring on the rear with the center rocker like an 8 wheeler tipper, or rubber blocks, again like an 8 wheeler tipper.
JeffâŚ
Jelliot:
Tell if itâs a Coles craneâ â ?, Steve if you hadnât told us it was a crane I would have said it short trailer or some kind of heavy haulage module.Had a second look at it and after a bit of squinting it could be some kind of Iron Fairy, theyâre pretty bad for jumping, there was a similar incident with one in southern Tasmania a few years back.
As they were classed as mobile plant they didnât have to have suspension, so the only suspension they had was the side wall deflection of the tires.
The bigger ones did have springs and shocks, usually an inverted spring on the rear with the center rocker like an 8 wheeler tipper, or rubber blocks, again like an 8 wheeler tipper.JeffâŚ
If they were Iron Fairyâs, they were also rear steer, which wouldnât help.
I recently had this pic sent to me of KJN671P
This was originally a draw bar rigid but Astran cut it back to a tractor Barry Barnes drove it before Jerry Whelan had it as an owner driver on for Astran, I then bought it from him when he packed in being an owner driver.
Some other pics of KJN
Seen here on the way to Italy
Regards Pat
How come it went from a 140 to a 141â â ?
JeffâŚ
Hello Jeff, those two cranes that I saw all those years ago were certainly not Iron Fairyâs and after doing a bit of a Google search I came across this which is more like the type of cranes that I saw. One of the reasons that I posted the first photo was that itâs not everyday that you see two brand new cranes lying at the side of the road about ten miles apart. As I mentioned before it was my first trip to Southern Turkey and itâs surprising what things you remember when you go to a place thatâs somewhere new to you.
After travelling over Bolu and Tarsus and seeing some of the wrecks in the valleys and listening to some of the tales from other drivers for the last couple of days I was probably thinking oh well thatâs the way things are out here and just carried on. So if anybody on here was passing this way about the same time then I think an incident like this may of ignited the old grey matter which is one of the great things about this thread.
Going over Tarsus in the winter.
Regards Steve.
That upturned crane looks like a 4 x 4 Coles or Liebherr. If so they had quite a high centre of gravity and would have been prone to roll. Thereâs a story about Coles en route to the Baghdad Fair which might tie in with this. Iâll see if I can get some further info.