Customs runners at Ramtha, with their pet Mongoose. best regards jamie.
The Gaydon Retro Show & Middel-East Experience weekend was absolutely magnificent this year. Here are some Astran pics I took, relevant to this thread. It was nice to see the 143 again; the last time I saw it, it was parked up next to me on the Saudi border at Haditha with Trevor Dodwell at the wheel! Robert 
Certainly agree, terrific day at Gaydon Saturday, met my old mates from Grangewood’s namely Kenny Ward, David Miller and our manager Ray Smith, the one let down was that my camera went on the blink (Probably the nut on the handle) and many ‘old’ Astran jockeys, such a shame that we could not recognise everyone after all these years, but what a good turn out, Ashley done a fantastic job, I’m booking him for my 21st, looking forward to the next bash. regards everyone, be lucky. Fred
It was mentioned during Ash’s talk that it was thought that Kenny Searle had passed away.
Now normally members on this BB are up to date with losses amongst our ranks, and I don’t recall hearing anything about him, ie, no news is good news.
Forgive me if I’ve missed something.
bestbooties:
It was mentioned during Ash’s talk that it was thought that Kenny Searle had passed away.
Now normally members on this BB are up to date with losses amongst our ranks, and I don’t recall hearing anything about him, ie, no news is good news. Forgive me if I’ve missed something.
I met Kenny in 2008 when I was researching the book. I then lost touch with him as he told me he was going to Iraq to do some “security work”…
I tried contacting him again in 2010 to tell him about the book launch, but his mobile was dead and to this day I cannot find him.
I searched “Searle” in the Aldershot area where he lived, but I just drew a blank…
Thanks for that Ash, I would liked to have met up with Kenny again, he was good company to be with. But as I remarked, no news is good news, until we hear something definite, there’s always hope.
Ian, I was big mates with Kenny both on Oryx and his short time on Grangewood and, like Ash, I have searched high and low for him but have drawn a blank everywhere. I am very afraid that, in view of the work he was doing in Baghdad, that he must have been lost.
Nobody would be happier than me to be proved wrong.
David
Astran Marathon.
You don’t see this kind of thing on Jubilee Way any more:
How it was…
(found on the net) Robert
They used to sell these at Londra Camping. If you gave the man a photo of your own truck, he’d feature it on the plaque and you’d pick it up the following trip! Robert 
Nice to see a pic of my old Company Afghan Int.You don’t see many pics of them and yet they had 12 trucks running from Afghanistan to Holland and back.
Here’s an Alisan (pronounced Alishan) artic from Turkey. I did a couple of back loads for them and found them to be a pretty professional lot. Their paperwork was spot on, they took care loading you and their drivers were very helpful in giving directions and routes etc. Later, I would always help them in Dover if I saw them. Robert
More Turks. Robert
robert1952:
More Turks. Robert
Hiya Robert you have posted some good pics on here in the past and present which have brought back
many memory’s. I have tried to find a turkish company (Heavy Haulage) all white with stagecoach painted
on the side they helped me out when I broke down on route from Adana-Izmer Do you or anyone else remember
them? If I remember they were called Tuzgamalou or some thing like that.
GUESTY44,
Is that an ex-Freightlanes 1924?
backsplice:
1Not 40 miles of bad road !!! 200 klicks of no road
Backsplice, where were your Saramat Volvos struggling with that road? Saudi? Yemen? Robert
Guesty44:
robert1952:
More Turks. Robert32
Hiya Robert you have posted some good pics on here in the past and present which have brought back
many memory’s. I have tried to find a turkish company (Heavy Haulage) all white with stagecoach painted
on the side they helped me out when I broke down on route from Adana-Izmer Do you or anyone else remember
them? If I remember they were called Tuzgamalou or some thing like that.
GUESTY44,
Good pics Guesty! I don’t know the company you refer to, but you’ll remember the salt lake between Ankara and Aksaray. Well that’s called Tuz Golu in Turkish and means ‘salt lake’. So it’s likely that your good Samaritans hailed from one those little towns along the lake. Cheers. Robert
robert1952:
They used to sell these at Londra Camping. If you gave the man a photo of your own truck, he’d feature it on the plaque and you’d pick it up the following trip! Robert0
Looking at that plaque again reminded me that I was with a driver who bought one. He was called Steve and came from Manchester and drove a Pegaso that had been opened up to achieve phenominal speeds! I’m pretty sure he was pulling an RJ tilt. His plaque was impressive and he was well chuffed with it. This was late '95. He was a good bloke: very helpful and good company over an EFES or six at Londra! Robert 