Hi Roger and Alison, I have no intention or reason to have a dig at either of you and i dont know why you should think so. The topic is about a step frame box trailer that was in the film Destination Doha. You recalled having used it on several occassions and i recalled having seen and being inside one on several occasions in Astrans agents yard in Doha. So i wondered if you knew if it was the same trailer, obviously by your posts you cant confirm that it was so lets leave it at that. As i am now in my seventies there is a still a chance for me yet when i can remember back to those days, I do remember the radio mast and if i recall some of the drivers used to spend a bit of time there in the mid to late seventies until someone also spoilt it. Regards Jamie.
Could Biffo, M&C Jamie or anyone else who did much Iran answer a bit of strange question please? Did you used to see any/many nodding donkey oil pumps on your way through Iran? You never see any in photos but there again they were probably a bit of an iffy thing to stop near and photograph for security reasons - any answers most welcome! Thanks
Point taken looks like I read it wrong ,so sorry if I thought You were having a dig ,someone else brought the question about the trailer I only tried to answer as best I could anyway it should be in the scrap yard by now.
Just to let you know that I have updated Toprun with some Middle-East Run photos of UK drivers going to Saudi in 1983! in some photo you will reconize Frank Hook with his Scania 111
Thanks to the collaboration of Andrew West!
Andew got a fantastic idea with his brother John! They recorded some story on MP3, you can listen to it and enjoy pictures in the same time!
Hi jj72,in answer to your question about nodding donkey’s in Iran, i cant recall any. Round about 77/78 when the shah was getting a bit short of dollars he decided to increase the flow of oil from his wells. Someone came up with the idea of adding more intermediate pumping stations in the oil pipelines to increase the flow. If i recall rightly the pipelines were only about 6" in diameter so the flow was fairly restricted. Astran had a contract to deliver i think it was Ruston Generators to drive the pumps, from Gainsbourgh lincs to the pumping stations in Iran. I took two or three loads down to various sites south of Teheran These sites were out in the wilds and if i recall were not easy to find. at each of them were brand new Ingersoll Rand generators in their packing cases, when i asked what they were for, i was told that they had been told that Ruston were better so decided to use rustons.When i asked what they would do with the others they just shrugged their shoulders. The waste at that time in Iran was unbelievable. On some bends in the roads you would see a load that had fallen from a trailer and being too heavy to lift back on they would get a grader and make a new road around it. on one occasion there was a huge electric transformer lying blocking the road and it was said that it would cost more to recover it and as the oil had leaked out of it, it was cheaper to replace with new.What a crazy Country. The only place that i can recall seeing the nodding donkey’s was in Yugoslavia east of Zagreb and i think maybe south of sofia Davenport D can maybe will confirm this, give him my regards. Jaimie.
Hi Jamie, your mention of the Nodding Donkeys around by Zagreb has just starting me wondering where else we saw them in The Commie Block and I remember that The Yanks called them Nodding Dogs at an oilfield that I once delivered to in Southern Turkey.
I am fairly certain that I saw some in Hungary around by the Letenye border south of Lake Balaton and wasn’t there some around by Pitesti on the way to Bucherest. Most drivers will remember that as they were heading towards Nadlac during the night time that you could see the flames in the distance on the Hungarian gas fields as they burnt off the excess gases. Strange isn’t it that after all these years you never seem to forget the strong smell of being near an oil refinery.
Let’s hope that Andy is not working Dave D too hard
Bullitt, congratulations on your thread reaching fifty pages , after what seemed like a slow start it’s certainly picking up a bit of speed now so let’s hope that it won’t be as long until you reach the 100 mark. I am sure that there are alot of storys out there that some lurkers haven’t told us about yet.
Also bullitt, I have a confession to make to you .
I posted this photo a couple of years back on another thread, it’s of Mrs Bullitts Uncle Stan and a group of us leaving Ankara with some abnormal loads on our way to Sinop on The Black Sea Coast. I think that I said that if you can tell that one of the vehicles in front is a Foden then that would be Stanley . After a bit of research, I remembered that Stan had just bought a new blue Volvo F12 which he called Ospray, he had actually written the Foden off a few months before in the winter while he was going down through Czechoslovakia. I.I.R.C. he smashed into the side of a stone bridge that he was crossing on a cobbled stretch of the road that was covered in ice. Although the Foden and the trailer were a write off he was apparently lucky to be alive but emerged out of it only badly shaken. So if you can tell that one of these trucks in front is a blue Volvo F12, then that would of been Stanley Warmbold .
Congrats on reaching 50 pages bullitt. Let’s not stop now, eh?
A few more of Mike Sargent’s pics.
These next 6 are various views of the old road over Tahir from Horasan up to Tahir village circa 1974
For those that don’t know this route…it could be up to 2 metres of snow in the winter and only kept open by graders and army bulldozers sometimes with a single track and a convoy system. I have mentioned before on the Simon’s thread that I risked taking the “military” road which skirted the Russian border going through the small town of Igdir just to avoid the ‘dramas’ of negotiating Tahir in the winter. Got round the “military” road twice successfully at night-time and was once caught and turned back.
Steve (MM), thanks for the comments mate, yes lets hope hope this thread keeps running to 100+ pages!!
As for the lurkers, come on chaps, sign up and and get posting, the more pics, stories and tales (long and tall!! ) the better. Im sure truckerash`s Astran book will bring out a whole raft of new memories.
Steve, I remember you posting that pic,my wife remembers Stan having a blue truck with the name OSPREY written on it and something about an accident whilst abroad. Apparently he was rather badly beaten up whilst in Turkey somewhere at sometime in his career but it didnt put him off!!
Keep posting the pics and the memories people, and what happened to the “old grey matter test”■■
hi jj72,as Jamie says about the commie bloc there were some in cech just beyond Brno,there were plenty of nodding donkeys in Iran it was your bad luck if you saw them though because they were beyond Teheran heading down to ahwaz, bandar khomeni, bandar shappour, these were probably some of the worst roads I had ever driven on, great waves of tarmac where the heat had softened and rippled the surface with one continous oil slick where crude oil had slopped out of tankers and the heat and humidity with the stink of sulpher it was not somewhere you would want to go twice.All the way down to the Gulf truck debris was every where, loads fallen off trucks, trucks fallen over it was mayhem, I think that the Iranians were probably the worst drivers in the M/East ,they had no road sense whatever and depended on ther mate Inshalla to keep them out of trouble Regards Biffo
Here’s another of Mike Sargent’s photos…a definite write off I would reckon but I was trying to work out what make of vehicle it is (or once was). Perhaps an MAN or even a FIAT. What do you think??
rondavies:
Here’s another of Mike Sargent’s photos…a definite write off I would reckon but I was trying to work out what make of vehicle it is (or once was). Perhaps an MAN or even a FIAT. What do you think??
Yet another brilliant set of photos Ron , can you thank Mike for sharing them with all of us .
What interested me about this one was who did the trailer belong to and how often did they go to India .
Wheel Nut:
That’ll T Cut out, just watch me.
I think that even Aydin would of needed a bit more than a tin of T-cut to sort this one out Malc .
I wonder how many more great old middle east photographs are in a shoebox somewhere, in the shed, up in the attic or even under the bed. If anybody has got any let us know as I am sure that somebody will try and help you put them on the site.
rondavies:
Here’s another of Mike Sargent’s photos…a definite write off I would reckon but I was trying to work out what make of vehicle it is (or once was). Perhaps an MAN or even a FIAT. What do you think??
Yet another brilliant set of photos Ron , can you thank Mike for sharing them with all of us .
What interested me about this one was who did the trailer belong to and how often did they go to India .
Regards Steve.
Mike seems to recall it was a UK firm from “up north”. You know…where men are men and the beer has a frothy head on it. And they have to put all the exotic place names down the side of the trailer (I’ve been everywhere man syndrome).
Good job I’m many miles away from Blighty… ha! ha!
, after what seemed like a slow start it’s certainly picking up a bit of speed now so let’s hope that it won’t be as long until you reach the 100 mark. I am sure that there are alot of storys out there that some lurkers haven’t told us about yet.
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