A few more.
Astran depot in Doha 1970.
fantastic pics those aec drivers were what id call truck drivers. makes modern euro work look like running to the shops . 
How about this then. mirror.co.uk/news/world-news … ge-7716504
Danne
Dirty Dan:
How about this then. mirror.co.uk/news/world-news … ge-7716504Danne
That’s an interesting find, Dan. The trouble is that Nabq is in south Sinai (just north of Sharm el-Sheikh). Sinai is more or less a no-go area for overland trucks nowadays - in fact Egypt generally is a problem in that respect. Not so long ago you could, at a pinch, run across Egypt but things have changed hugely in the last couple of years. Sinai is more or less a no-go area now. Sad really, because when I lived in Cairo, I used to cross it regularly in my car and go camel trekking in the mountains and deserts there - such a shame. I suspect that in any case, this crossing of the Red Sea/Gulf of Aqaba will be designed to assist Hajj pilgrims to avoid dodgy, overcrowded ferry crossings to visit Mecca. Robert
I was just wondering in what year Asian Transport changed there name to Astran? I ran with some of there drivers in 1969/70, when it seemed that it was Asian Transport, the only drivers I can recall was ■■■■ Snow and John Frost but cant remember the other names, I was with UCC, After unloading swiss rolls in Kuwait and then running empty to Doha to load personal effects from the RAF who had left Qatar the previous year, I was told at the Doha Palace Hotel that some Asian Transport drivers had stayed there.Remember pulling in to the Londra Mocamp, and thinking I will fill up the next morning only to find that fuel prices had tripled over night, something to do with opec,the old American v8s which where used as cabs soon came off the road,then down to the ferry which sometimes you had to wait 3 days to get on,seemed a lot had changed in a small amount of years, If you used Syria as a transit country you would have had to pay in cash the value of the load and try to collect the money on the way out,so to get to Saudi you had to go Turkey,Iraq,Kuwait,Saudi.Turkey,Iraq had there own brewery’s,so much for Muslims not drinking, used to get ■■■■■■ in Baghdad down where the 2 rivers met,well that was a long time ago nearly 50 years,but none of us could have done this job without the help of Asian Transport and there drivers.
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Asia Trans became Astran in 1972, with the old name being run alongside the new one for a while, according to The Long Haul Pioneers. Robert
What made me wonder was the photo of a depot in Doha, it said 1970 and the lorry’s have Astran, I was there in1970 for a week loading and never came across a depot ore a Astran lorry driver,the only loads coming out at that time was from the RAF.Also I noticed in one of the photos snow chains on the front wheel, which I was told never to do as if they broke they would wrap around the brake pipes.Was anybody there in 1974 when the turks invaded Cyprus, I was coming from Tehran on Simons got to the big hill approaching Ankara, saw big clouds of smoke in the centre, it was the Turks starting up the tanks, going on the road to Istanbul which I think was about 300 miles, it took 3 days as the tanks were leaving the road and going over the mountains and breaking down.
I Think very few drivers even considered the front Wheel chain breaking,we were more concerned about going off the road.To close off a brake pipe is a small job but getting the whole rig back on the road is a bit different.The front Wheel\trailer chains were never put to the same punishment as the drive axel chains were.
Up here it is quite common to see trucks with front Wheel\trailer chains during the Winter.There is a difference,if you have '‘proper’'front\trailer chains they are much thinner and lighter than drive axel chains.
Hi Mike, have you got those new Auto sock things over there yet? They are like the wheel covers you see on the back door mounted spare wheels on 4wd cars, they’re supposed to offer the same grip as a set of chains, but go on a lot easier and save a bit of weight too.
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Hi NMM.Iv’e not seen anybody using them to be honest,maybe we’re a bit ‘‘old fashioned’’ or so far North they haven’t reached us yet.Most companies have so many chains in the garage they don’t bother,and it take only a few minutes to sling on a set of chains,[like you we get a lot of practice].And as we are so Close to Norway most firms have more ‘‘ice chains’’ than snow chains and for cross border traffic they are compulsory anyway.
Do they acctually work them “socks”? I only read about them. For the first winter in a long time i havent put any chains on al winter. But i havent been more then 600km north of Stockholm either…
Danne
my neighbour used a set(socks) this winter and said they were ok a lot easier than chains to work with .
One snow sock…not very sweaty! 
hutpik:
I Think very few drivers even considered the front Wheel chain breaking,we were more concerned about going off the road.To close off a brake pipe is a small job but getting the whole rig back on the road is a bit different.The front Wheel\trailer chains were never put to the same punishment as the drive axel chains were.
Up here it is quite common to see trucks with front Wheel\trailer chains during the Winter.There is a difference,if you have '‘proper’'front\trailer chains they are much thinner and lighter than drive axel chains.
You just never use it on the drivers side because it might break steering rods or hoses.
In the mid 60s when we were picking up frozen horses from the top of Finland, the Finnish drivers were driving over the frozen lakes, do they still do that? The company’s were trying to stop it.
keating@makita:
What made me wonder was the photo of a depot in Doha, it said 1970 and the lorry’s have Astran, I was there in1970 for a week loading and never came across a depot ore a Astran lorry driver,the only loads coming out at that time was from the RAF.Also I noticed in one of the photos snow chains on the front wheel, which I was told never to do as if they broke they would wrap around the brake pipes.Was anybody there in 1974 when the turks invaded Cyprus, I was coming from Tehran on Simons got to the big hill approaching Ankara, saw big clouds of smoke in the centre, it was the Turks starting up the tanks, going on the road to Istanbul which I think was about 300 miles, it took 3 days as the tanks were leaving the road and going over the mountains and breaking down.
There’s a whole chapter (and lots of pics) devoted to Astran’s Doha depot in The Long Haul Pioneers (by Ashley Coghill). Astran ran some of their older tractive units on ‘internals’ from there, on local plates. Robert
keating@makita:
In the mid 60s when we were picking up frozen horses from the top of Finland, the Finnish drivers were driving over the frozen lakes, do they still do that? The company’s were trying to stop it.
Yes if it’s cold enough. They are actually official roads, might save like 100 kms driving on some routes.
I found these 4 pics at the bottom of a box and I hadn’t scanned them. They were taken through the windscreen of the Eurostar I was driving at various times down the Saudi TAP-line during 2001 and 2002. The three tilts in the last pic are Turks. You can actually see the pipeline itself in each picture. You were in trouble if you got caught taking TAP-line pictures, apparently! Robert
Really nice pictures Robert. Thanks for scanning them and uploading them.
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