Hi BB.I have just had a look in one of my albums and definitely have a pic of us in the queue at Gurbulak,Me in my Simons roadtrain and a Carmans transcon behind me so it must have been Goldy.It could well have been Jan\Feb 76 as i had broken down over Xmas in Turkey.I know it took about 3-4 Days to get across and due to the bad Winter we were all low on diesel.I remember it well as we had also little water so put it all in one Jerry can on Johns step and when we pulled forward it fell off and he ran over it 
so we had to send a lad for VERY expensive water.
How many road trains did SI have?
I recovered one F89 r/t from Gevgelia when it had been abandoned with a collapsed trailer wheel bearing,that would have been about 1979.
Hi BB.as far as i know they had 2.My one was HMM 121N.I drove it fron late 75 to middle 76.Then i moved to Holland to work for Afghan Int.
Yes, I can confirm that S.I. had two F89 Road Trains. When I first joined in 75 they were both driven by Turkish Cypriots.
I did have a photo of the one I recovered but it went missing ages ago so I canāt confirm the reg.
With only driving it back from Gevgelia after getting repairs done,thereās no chance of the reg being in an old passport.
When I went out on that recovery job,Jeff gave me a set of wheel bearings for the trailer that I took on the plane as hand luggage!
If they had fallen out of the overhead locker they would have killed someone!
I flew from Heathrow to Athens and was met there by Black John in the ex Radclive F12 roadtran on his way back from Baghdad.
We drove between us non stop to Gevgelia where the F89 had been parked and unloaded at a customs warehouse on the Yugo side.
I drove the rig into Greece with the trailer hub on the dolly looking very sick,and parked up on the restaurant.
Remember Chris the waiter?he phoned a local mechanic friend of his who came ,shoved a large tin of grease into the knackered bearing and dragged the trailer off to his workshop,taking the new bearings with him.
I donāt know why now,but Black John and myself went into Thessasalonica and spent two days in a hotel until the trailer was repaired.
I loaded paper out of Austria and made the mistake of using Schwarzbach border instead of the smaller favourite,Frielassing.An eagle eyed German border policeman noticed a slight kink in the trailer A frame where some previous driver had jack knifed it,and confiscated my documents and told me I would not be allowed into Germany until the damage was repaired.
Despite Jeff telling me to get the paperwork back and go to Frielassing it was too late,my cusoms papers said I was in Germany and thereās no way I could get my paperwork back!
I had to go back into Salzburg,find a garage and get a repair done,despite my advice,they knocked up a new A frame.
Once repaired,I eventually got on my way home.
This was in the winter as well,plenty of snow to help things along!
Ooops,double post!
ray nicholls:
Volos.These 2 pics are at Volos waiting for the ferry to Tartous Syria.The 2 ferries were FB Falster and Scandinavia.Ray
Hi Ray, Trucker Ash e-mailed me a few photos about five years ago and here is one of Super Simon that he sent to me, so I hope that he wont mind me reshowing it.
Does anybody remember seeing the Dromedary Freight Foden from Stockport that used to run down to The Middle East.
Iām sure thereās a photo of a Simon road train somewhere in Scrap Book Memories probably in the first 30 pages.
Jeffā¦
PS hay Steve weāve got 39c tomorrow. ( Snow last week )
There are a couple of pics of my S.I. roadtrain somewhere as Ron Davies kindly posted them for me as i dont have a scanner.Maybe thereās one on the thread Mikes lorry pics which is āāsomewhereāā here.
Here they are then
Thanks Ron.Presumably we both have about the same temp now 25c,just different ends of the scale.Santa may be delayed as itās snowing like hell here so he may have to put studded boots on the reindeer.Have a good Xmas.Mike
Is that the Bazargan or the Zackho queue?
Is that the Bazargan or the Zackho queue?
Hi Andy.That was at gurbulak\Bazargan opposite Dogubyazit [Spelling] village Jan\Feb 76.It took about 4 Days to get to the border.Mike
Hi, cast your mind back to November/December 1976, I was on my way back from Baghdad and I think we ran together for a couple of days, if Iām right and it was you, you had lost a hinge pin from the A frame of the trailer (I think it was a 20 foot semi trailer on a bogey) and you had substituted a jack handle secured with a rubber tie off the tilt cover. I was on my first trip driving a yellow DAF road train, I was very green Iām afraid but I got there and I got back. If I remember rightly we were running with a guy called Terry who Iād met on the way to Baghdad and as I was tipping 130 miles south he said he would wait for me at the British club, Iām afraid I couldnāt find my way back to the British club so pressed on and at some point you and Terry caught up with me and Terry was very cross that heād waited and I didnāt turn up. That 89 certainly was a flying machine
Hi John.Sent you a pm but in case it went wrong.It was not me as i only drove to Iran for Simons.I done a lot of Iraq for Astrans but that was before that time.
Not to worry, it brought back memories for me anyway, cheers mate
Thats what itās all about.the memories.Take care.
Hi Huitpik,
Tell me about it! We used to slew our trucks across the road to stop the tonkas passing and get back into line as traffic approached from the border leaving them head to head as we crawled slowly away! Great fun, especially when the police would force the tonkas off the road and into the fields so the oncoming traffic could get moving again!
Homeward bound from Teheran on the winter of 77/78 this one couldnt make it up Imranli mountain in Turkey and slid into the ditch. Not the fondest of memories.
Wishing you all on here a very merry Christmas and a Prosperous new year. Best Regards Jamie.