mushroomman:
Mike Ponsonby:
does anyone have Any jenkinsons from manchester pics please they were m,east regularsHere ya go Mike, an old workmate of mine called Barry Longden worked for Jenkies in the 70’s although they were actually from Salford. He told me that he took this photo while he was transiting Austria, probably on his way to Graz.
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Les Higgins drove for Jenkies.
mushroomman:
It’s good to hear from you again Gavin.You have just reminded me of an accident that I once had in West Germany, with a Schweinshaxe.
Without sounding like your Uncle Albert, during the war, The Cold War, I was running with Brian Hurst and an old workmate of yours Tony Gibbons, a.k.a. Big T, on our way to somewhere out East. We were heading for the West German/ Czechoslovakian border one Friday lunchtime when Tony pulled onto the supermarket carpark in Furth-am-Wald. It gave us a chance to do a bit of shopping, but Tony had also mentioned that they sold Schweinshaxa and cooked chickens. I had never tried a Schweinshaxa before but Tony kept on telling us how good they were, so I decided to give it a go.
We went back to our cabs and put the kettle on and while I was eating mine, I heard what sounding like a bit of bone breaking which happened to be a bit of one of my back teeth.
Do you think that I stopped eating straight away, no chance, there was still plenty of hot ham left on the bone, which I just had to finish.I must admit that it tasted delicious and it was also the first of many that I had over the following years.
Now the problem was that for the next two weeks we would be travelling through The Soviet Block and into Turkey and the thought of having to pay a visit to a Turkish or even a Commie dentist didn’t bear thinking about, I just had to get my tooth sorted out right away.
I asked a German taxi driver if he could drive me into the town to where I could find a dentist. Tony came with me while Brian looked after the trucks. We soon found a dental surgery but the receptionist said they didn’t have an appointment until the Tuesday morning. I tried to explain to her the situation and she said that she would have a word with the dentist, after he had finished with his patient.
About ten minutes later the dentist came out and had a quick look in my mouth. He spoke good English and told me to come back at 6 p.m. that afternoon. Tony and I got another taxi back to the supermarket and I suggested that he and Brian carried on and that if they parked up on the first services on the Prague motorway, then I should be able to catch up with them in the morning.
At 6 p.m. that Friday evening I was sat in a German dentist chair having a filling put onto my back tooth. I thought at the time that the price wasn’t cheap but over forty years later it’s still in there.
Vorsprung Durch Technik.
Tony Gibbons at the Londra Camp. Photo courtesy of Dave Mackie.
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Czechoslovakian Border.
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A friend of mine Bruce Bates from Manchester ran a couple of motors under the the name of Helmark with a gold band around the black cab,I know he ran a Merc on containers around Manchester,that DAF could be another of his as I know he tried Middle East work,anyone recall Bruce Bates?
David
Is this the guy David. 
I think that his son or somebody who lived near him posted these photos on here many years ago.
They might have been on this thread somewhere near the beginning but they probably have the word Photobucket scrawled across them now. 
mushroomman:
Is this the guy David.I think that his son or somebody who lived near him posted these photos on here many years ago.
They might have been on this thread somewhere near the beginning but they probably have the word Photobucket scrawled across them now.0
Yes MM,that’s the fella,a regular out of the Container Base in Manchester,then tried Middle East I believe along with Harry Savage and maybe Ken Corrigan.
HELMARK referred to his children Helen and Mark.
David
Hi hope everyone is well,
Yes it was me who posted a thread a few back entitled Helmark (droylsden and audenshaw trucks)
Im a huge fan of Helmark as I was friends at school and lived near Bruces nephew Russell. I love the old mercs he had and the transcon was a very special sight indeed to me, loved it.
Bruces son Mark did actually join in on tje thread which was superb!!!
i really would have liked to have chattwd with him more and possibly seen some more pics of his trucks, I recall at the time my messages didnt seem to be working for some reason?
if you are still around on here ‘Wingnut’ it would be great to hear from you again, im still building a 1.24 scale model of the s reg merc here, best wishes,
stew
A fine picture Les Sylphides.
Birdie4x4:
Not seen this picture before.
Probably on its way to Iran if the detached trailer in the background is anything to go by!
ERF-NGC-European:
Birdie4x4:
Not seen this picture before.1
Probably on its way to Iran if the detached trailer in the background is anything to go by!
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From what I’ve read about it this lorry was stolen in the UK and driven to Iran.
I thought at this time, a reminder of Sammy our Palestinian refugee friend/mate/pal (who helped so many of us) and all of his kin is in order.
Thanks for sharing that Geoff.
I have just come across this video which I have never seen before. There are a couple of guys and trucks that I remember from way back.
Thanks for sharing these video’s, it’s so nice looking back and rekindling old memories, looking at the reg numbers many of these lorries are after my time (76/78) I seem to remember there weren’t many Volvo F10’s about, I looked at them with envy when one was seen. The roads were improving every trip particularly in Turkey so I presume the journey got a little better as time went by but credit due to the drivers that stuck at it.
P.S. It was nice to see Maurice Gray part way through one video.
You might like this one Birdie. 
I don’t know who makes these videos but they are doing a great job.
youtube.com/watch?v=AuBtCBPowso
Thanks for that last video, I think I saw Jeff Stringfellow in there, I remember seeing the silver Volvo of PIE’s on the road when I was running, along with quite a few of the others.
A bit daft of me to be querying this 50 years later, but I’m surprised Astran sent a step-frame tilt to Pakistan when the superior ground-clearance and more robust tyres of a straight-frame tilt might have been a better choice. Perhaps it was the altar of fashion: super-cube step-frame enjoyed a brief, fairly disastrous heyday on the M/E run simply because high-cube low-weight trailers made money. But pity the poor driver in rough terrain. 
this 143 was owned by everts transport from holland , my dad used to work there for a long time , the owner of the firm died suddenly and the company was sold to the nijhof-wassink group in the late 90`s , also know as nij-wa , can anyone tell me who the owner of the 143 is at the photo 
the 143 was in use for agriculture transports in holland
At the time I took this photo, This vehicle was owned and driven by Rollie Long from Hampshire .
The photo was taken on the M32 in Kazakstan May 1996.
hope this is of some use to you.
