Astran / Middle East Drivers

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS OLD TIME LORRIES, COMPANIES AND DRIVERS (INTERACT
5341

It’s one for mythbusters that’s for sure!

How do you get a 130ton lump inside a box with inches to spare, that’d need a fairly hefty fork lift, more to the point how did they get it out? Also from what I’ve seen, the equipment they were using out there in the 70s was one step away from a scrapyard, can’t see a flat or skelly being able to handle that weight, let alone the tyres. An axle with a 10ton rating could probably handle 20tons without too much trouble, any more than that & it would pulverize the bearings, bend the axle etc, the springs could probably take it too, the chassis wouldn’t bend if the load was, as said, spread evenly, but you’d need 5 axles on the trailer alone, at least three on the unit & some pretty beefy springs, on a standard 2800 & 40’ flat, I don’t think so somehow :open_mouth:

I hear what you say about Roger, I don’t doubt you for one minute, you don’t work for somebody like Astran for such a long time by being a muppet, I understand his frustration (& laugh at his rants) BS demeans what you blokes have done, but I like to keep an open mind, like you say it’s a valuable learning tool & as you also say, it could be the years affecting memory & there could be an element of truth in the tales, it may turn out that the refractory bricks were hollow & then we’ve all got on our high horse for nothing :laughing:

5342

newmercman:
It’s one for mythbusters that’s for sure!

How do you get a 130ton lump inside a box with inches to spare, that’d need a fairly hefty fork lift, more to the point how did they get it out? Also from what I’ve seen, the equipment they were using out there in the 70s was one step away from a scrapyard, can’t see a flat or skelly being able to handle that weight, let alone the tyres. An axle with a 10ton rating could probably handle 20tons without too much trouble, any more than that & it would pulverize the bearings, bend the axle etc, the springs could probably take it too, the chassis wouldn’t bend if the load was, as said, spread evenly, but you’d need 5 axles on the trailer alone, at least three on the unit & some pretty beefy springs, on a standard 2800 & 40’ flat, I don’t think so somehow :open_mouth:

I hear what you say about Roger, I don’t doubt you for one minute, you don’t work for somebody like Astran for such a long time by being a muppet, I understand his frustration (& laugh at his rants) BS demeans what you blokes have done, but I like to keep an open mind, like you say it’s a valuable learning tool & as you also say, it could be the years affecting memory & there could be an element of truth in the tales, it may turn out that the refractory bricks were hollow & then we’ve all got on our high horse for nothing :laughing:

Let us all be honest, the M/E run was frequently challenging but seldom difficult, most guys did it because it was enjoyable and in some ways a form of escapism from the mundane life in their country of origin……
Some guys consider they were special to have done it and been there, or maybe they consider that they are/were better drivers because they had done it. I consider that those who did the M/E were privileged to have been around at the right time and let us not forget, like all other routes, for every good driver you would meet on the M/E there was also a bad one.
There were also times when the old Eastern Europe could be just as challenging as the M/E if not more so.
Contrary to what some believe, there were no Supermen or if there were I never met them… :astonished:

5343

Reddesertfox:
Let us all be honest, the M/E run was frequently challenging but seldom difficult, most guys did it because it was enjoyable and in some ways a form of escapism from the mundane life in their country of origin……
Some guys consider they were special to have done it and been there, or maybe they consider that they are/were better drivers because they had done it. I consider that those who did the M/E were privileged to have been around at the right time and let us not forget, like all other routes, for every good driver you would meet on the M/E there was also a bad one.
There were also times when the old Eastern Europe could be just as challenging as the M/E if not more so.
Contrary to what some believe, there were no Supermen or if there were I never met them… :astonished:

An honest & frank admission, I know Destination Doha & Cola Cowboys sentationalised the job, but there was still a wow factor to it, it was a league above regular european stuff, I did my fair share of that in the 80s/90s, both eastern & western with a few oddballs thrown in, you could make that job a white knuckle ride if you didn’t do it right & many didn’t. That’s what we sometimes forget, I’ve seen the smashed up lorries in Ian Taylors pictures, but none of Ian’s lorries were involved, the same goes for the Astran boys, the odd one may have had a mishap, but generally they did their 10/12 trips a year as easy as if it were a London-Manchester trunk run, that puts them & others that did the same in a higher echelon, making something look easy is a very hard thing to do. It’s that coupled with the exotic destinations that holds an appeal, for me at least, I would’ve done it but for my age, by the time I was old & experienced enough George snr was giving out free lead to the Arabs, so it never happened & the closest I can get is through these pages, I will be doing a trip down there sooner or later thanks to one of the posters on here, just got to sort out my Canadian residency first so that I can take the time away, but even then it won’t be the same as you lot have done, all motorways & reliable lorries now, where’s the fun in that :open_mouth: :laughing:

5344

G’day
I found this while looking through some old truck and driver magazines.It came from T&D may 1989. Hope it is of interest to those who knew him.
Cheers Jamie

5345

Well done newmercman and Red Desert Fox those last few very interesting posts I.M.H.O. certainly summed the job up. I think that everybody had a white knuckle ride at one time or another driving through Yugoslavia in the snow and the fog in the winters.
Was it only me or did anybody else always breath a sigh of relief when they were driving through that Bulgarian disinfectant truck wash as you were leaving Kapicule. It always made me feel alot happier except that time that I forgot to close the sun roof :cry: .

5346

I’ll try again,I wonder if ■■■■ carryed a shovel or had a a trailer box on his little merc?

5347

baghdad bernie:
ron davies is this the one we used to call depression who worked for lobo tpt :smiley:

No. I’m the Ron Davies that pulled for Simons 1975/76

Taken at Londra Camping

5348

Steve

The Astran driver who had the cards made I think was Tony Somerson.

Hlb

Sorry if I started world War 4 I never said you didnt go to the ME I just wanted to know if I knew you ,I know sometimes drivers never cross paths but stories about other drivers do,so its our loss we never met ,I still dont know your real name or have I missed it,my picture is on the last page submitted by Sheeplady ,and yes I was born old ,not sure when this was taken ,about 30 years ago maybe,what a good looking geezer still look the same less hair :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

Roger

5349

Would I be right in saying that Astran were the only Brit outfit back in the mid 70’s that went beyond Iran?
I seem to remember talking to one of their drivers back then who told me that they used to take goods to Phillips who had a place in Karachi. Am I correct?

5350

sinbin31:
Steve

The Astran driver who had the cards made I think was Tony Somerson.

Hlb

Sorry if I started world War 4 I never said you didnt go to the ME I just wanted to know if I knew you ,I know sometimes drivers never cross paths but stories about other drivers do,so its our loss we never met ,I still dont know your real name or have I missed it,my picture is on the last page submitted by Sheeplady ,and yes I was born old ,not sure when this was taken ,about 30 years ago maybe,what a good looking geezer still look the same less hair :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

Roger

You have to give it to Roger…he has one heluva smile… :slight_smile:

5351

ron, mr J Litwin was definatley still taking loads down to pakistan right up until the russians invaded afganistan, the last 2 got out by the skin of their teeth.

5352

Well I suppose we will never know the answer to the brick question, maybe they were light weight bricks, or the front container was empty. They had not been loaded by a fork lift or anything, because it was bricks wall to wall, well at the back door anyway.

Dunno why folk go on about Astran’s. Apart from the time they made the film, I hardly ever came across them.

5353

Let us all be honest, the M/E run was frequently challenging but seldom difficult, most guys did it because it was enjoyable and in some ways a form of escapism from the mundane life in their country of origin……
Some guys consider they were special to have done it and been there, or maybe they consider that they are/were better drivers because they had done it. I consider that those who did the M/E were privileged to have been around at the right time and let us not forget, like all other routes, for every good driver you would meet on the M/E there was also a bad one.
There were also times when the old Eastern Europe could be just as challenging as the M/E if not more so.
Contrary to what some believe, there were no Supermen or if there were I never met them… :astonished:
[/quote]
The hero or gungho types were always the bad ones. In allot of ways It was not the driving but the ability to talk to the customs or police calmly and get out of a situation as easily and quickly as possible. Many folk could not hack it, fell to bits and flew home. Some thought that because they were miles from home, they could behave any way they wished.

Treating folk with respect, might have looked a bit soft to some. But then maybe they never got invited to the many social clubs in Saudi. Yes there was plenty of beer and Sadiky?? in Saudi, if you knew where to find it. A free bed in lovely suroundings as well. Goda go.

5354

hlb:
Well I suppose we will never know the answer to the brick question, maybe they were light weight bricks, or the front container was empty. They had not been loaded by a fork lift or anything, because it was bricks wall to wall, well at the back door anyway.

Dunno why folk go on about Astran’s. Apart from the time they made the film, I hardly ever came across them.

Mister hlb…You appear to be trying to make enemies rather than friends. With statements like your last, I can now understand why people like Roger get stuck into you from the start…My apologies to you Roger this guy is full of B/S as you recognised from the start…

5355

I am interested in all the stories about local, distance, intergalactic or round the houses deliveries. Maybe Hib describes a low density fireproof building block as a fire brick which would have been handballed into the container :confused: . They have been making them and using them for over 50 years after all.

If the container weighed 30 or 130 tonne, so what? Surely it shouldn’t detract a driver who didnt work for Astran (or more correctly Asian Transport) as Bob White frequently reminds us :wink: relating his memories.

Maybe it is this reason that some of the other long distance guys are reluctant to poke their heads over the parapet for fear of ridicule. I met many drivers, some I remember, some I don’t. I reckon it is the same with me. I was the quiet lad who listened a lot, learned even more, and did the next job even quicker, and more importantly with far more running money left over for me.

5356

Hi I have just worked out that you can get around 40700 bricks (house brick size) into a 40ft. container which make those bricks weigh around 7 pounds each to make up 120 tons so they were very heavy bricks. I have done a fair amount of heavy haulage and when you put around 10 tons over weight onto a 40/45 ton trailer you could visually see that the load was more than they were trying to tell you it weighed as I have seen people try to load 20/25 ton ingots onto a 40ft flat and they have broke the trailers back with the load being concentrated in one small area when the trailers were not made to carry such loads

5357

I would really like to know where this container originated from.
Dave.

5358

davemackie:
I would really like to know where this container originated from.
Dave.

That I cant tell you. Trailers were mostly test demics and loaded on the docks, with just as much as could be fitted on them. There were no rules in Saudi, even if there were, no one took any notice. However as I remember, the brick trailers seemed in quite good condition.

I’m not trying to brag here, or fall out with anyone. Just telling it as I remember. We did not actually pick one of the bricks up, but they just looked like house bricks. It was the other guys idea to look in the back, because he thought it was bloody heavy.

Anyway I’ll refrain from telling you some of the memories, as they seem to be to contentious.

Do you want to know about some of the bars round Saudi, or the day we nicked the diesel out of the Saudi early warning stations fuel tank. Tell me now. It makes more sence to know beforehand. it’ll save me the bother.

5359

hlb:

davemackie:
I would really like to know where this container originated from.
Dave.

That I cant tell you. Trailers were mostly test demics and loaded on the docks, with just as much as could be fitted on them. There were no rules in Saudi, even if there were, no one took any notice. However as I remember, the brick trailers seemed in quite good condition.

I’m not trying to brag here, or fall out with anyone. Just telling it as I remember. We did not actually pick one of the bricks up, but they just looked like house bricks. It was the other guys idea to look in the back, because he thought it was bloody heavy.

Anyway I’ll refrain from telling you some of the memories, as they seem to be to contentious.

Do you want to know about some of the bars round Saudi, or the day we nicked the diesel out of the Saudi early warning stations fuel tank. Tell me now. It makes more sence to know beforehand. it’ll save me the bother.

Hi hlb.

Keep posting the stories, always good to read peoples memoirs of the M/E. What difference does it make how much they weighed ? You will never know now as it is long since.

Come on Guys weres the old camarardrie of the road ? Is this gone with the Haulage industry ? The way things are going all we will do is be able to talk about it
as there wont be any companies left to work for

Regards
DM46

5360

Keep posting the stories, always good to read peoples memoirs of the M/E. What difference does it make how much they weighed ? You will never know now as it is long since.
…
Nope it does not matter at all, it was just a matter of interest. I was also not pulling Astran down. I ony came across them once, as they were doing the BBC thingy. Just dunno why they have this seemingly cult status. They got there and got back, same as most others did. Course if we are compareing them to the idiots that went without a spare wheel, or the guy who just took a cup and expected every one else to feed him. Then yes, they were excelent.

So enough of the bickering. The names Haydn by the way. Oh and I’ve 20’000 posts on another forum, so if any one thinks I can be intiminated, think again. If you just want to be friendly thats great.

Most of the work I did for Whittles, was for BAC, or British Aerospace as they became. BAE I think now. Between them and Lockheeds, they more or less run the Saudi airforce. Most loads came from Salmsbury near Preston. It could be anything, aircraft parts, things for the canteen or compound. I even took a motorbike once, for a guy to ride back to the UK on. The daftest thing I took, was three loads of foam rubber, weighing three tons a piece. Daft thing being it was just sheets on about five ft long pallets and about three foot high. So they only fit down the middle and about six foot high, even dafter, there was just a heap on the floor at the other end. All three loads could have gone as one.

BAC work was great, you were not expected to do anything, except maybe advise on loading. Once at their camps in Saudi, you’d get allocated a bungalow or whatever, shown where the resteraunt was, the swimming pool and the bar. It was like, stop as long as you want.

Beer was brewed on site from Blue label malt and put in coke bottles, so you could hardly see the difference. Then there was Sadiky? which was fermented sugar and was very dangerous less treated right. It had to be first diluted 50%
then a whisky measure was just about right with a bottle of coke.

All the big camps had a bar, the Saudi’s did not bother, as long as it was kept quiet. But if caught, it would be two years inside.