Talking of the combination of ASTRAN and NORTH AFRICA, here is a picture I took in Tangier. It shows the Scania 142 with the Irish registration GAZ. It had a lift tag-axle, a high ‘Esteppe’-style roof and, wait for it - a 13-speed Fuller gearbox. Woah! Now THAT’S my kind of lorry: Scania V8, Fuller box, hi-roof and Astran colours. Sigh! I was parked up alongside it in Tangiers port and I had a long chat with the driver, a lovely bloke called John Allan. I believe he lived in Greece. I would that more ‘proper’ lorries populated our ports these days - anything with a Fuller Road-Ranger would do nicely…
Mr Hackford
Here’s the same Twin-splitter 420 Eurostar again on North Africa work. I was employed by Jeff Welton of Rochester on this work, as indeed I was with the Middle-East Astran work. To be honest Jeff Welton was one of the best blokes I ever drove for, by far: he was fair, he was trusting, he paid on time, he knew his business, he knew his lorries, he knew the work - I salute that man wherever he is now, bless him. Robert.
1234While I’m on a roll, me hearties (Sir Ashley Coghill of Long-haul Pioneers Astran fame, has long been urging me to share my trove!) here are a few more Astran shots I took sur le route…
1234While I’m on a roll, me hearties (Sir Ashley Coghill of Long-haul Pioneers Astran fame, has long been urging me to share my trove!) here are a few more Astran shots I took sur le route…
While I’m on a roll, me hearties (Sir Ashley Coghill of Long-haul Pioneers Astran fame, has long been urging me to share my trove!) here are a few more Astran shots I took sur le route…
Good photos keep them coming. You’d be the Robert Hackford that wrote Kamoyistan then.
Was your Eurostrar restricted to 55, I can remember passing it late one wet night on the M25 back in the mid 90’s and wondered why it was going so slow…
I remember the F88’s and old Scania’s and Mercs running on the bottom road from Symkent to Almaty when I was doing the China border run in the late 90’s, good blokes on them.
Jeff…
timthebus:
Is it my mind playing tricks on me or was there a Truck and Driver article about two Harrier Express Scanias on a trip to Istanbul, it would have been in the mid nighties. I seem to remember one was driven by an Ex school teacher.
I was thinking the same,I read that some were dont now were maby here or in a Swedish mag…
