If you want I cant aproach the admin to see if they can change mine as I can see you deserve yours to be kept the way it is, 
sinbin31:
Wheel Nut, and Wheel Nutz, will have to be careful from now on.Roger Haywood
I had to look twice cosâ I thought Iâd posted something here.
But heâs using my avatar!
I read in Trucking this month that the guy who owns Seymour Transport (They that bought Astran) has sold out to a company from the south west.
So does this mean that Astran is no more?
What2do and sergeant major, well come to Trucknet and especially welcome to the astran / middle east drivers thread. 
If you have the time then start at the begining and enjoy.
If you have been lurking all along then you will know the ebb and flow of this thread, the characters who have contributed and continue to contribute all their past memomories, tales and pictures. If you have any to contribute then jump right in, the more the merrier as it never ceases to interest those of us who never had the chance to do what is no more!!! 
Cheers, bullitt.
KW:
sinbin31:
Wheel Nut, and Wheel Nutz, will have to be careful from now on.Roger Haywood
I had to look twice cosâ I thought Iâd posted something here.
But heâs using my avatar!
This isnt going good eh lads 
WHEELNUTZ:
âŚThis isnt going good eh lads
TypicalâŚturns up half way through the party, nicks someone elses name, then some one elses avtar, drinks all the beer, pulls the best looking bird then (zb)s off home again!!!
There`s always one!!!
KW:
I read in Trucking this month that the guy who owns Seymour Transport (They that bought Astran) has sold out to a company from the south west.So does this mean that Astran is no more?
Here you are Keith, this was on another post. Peter Carroll was a director of both companies. I see no reason for the Astran connection to change with Hugh Thompson and Peter Carroll remaining as directors
adrian gray:
Seymour Transport sold to Evans Transport05 January 2010
TransAction spokesman Peter Carroll has sold his Kent-based haulage business, Seymour Transport, to Barnstaple, Devon haulier Evans Transport, for an undisclosed sum.The sale follows Carrollâs announcement late last year that he plans to run for election to Parliament at the next election, in a bid to become the road haulage industryâs political champion.
Speaking to Roadtransport.com, Carroll says: âItâs been a horrendous period with the fall in construction, which weâre very reliant on, and sometimes you have to take a hard commercial view. To survive in this market, Seymour Transport needs someone behind it with a lot of strength, and Evans Transport fits the bill.â
The companies will continue to trade with their own identities, but will operate under the umbrella of the Evans Group.
The acquisition will expand Evans Transportâs reach outside of its traditional Devon heartland, giving it new depots in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, and Newport, South Wales, along with Seymourâs head ofice in Maidstone.
Managing director Nigel Evans, who will also become MD of Seymour Transport, says: âThis merger is an exciting development for both companies. We can now offer superb nationwide logistics solutions for major customers.â
The combined companies will have a turnover in excess of ÂŁ20m and a fleet of 150 vehicles and 200 trailers.Evans Transport sold its West Midlands subsidiary, Tipton Transport. to Sheldon & Clayton in August last year.
Carroll says he will remain involved with Seymour Transport, âworking very heavily on customer relationsâ, but not on a full-time basis. The rest of his time will be devoted to furthering his political ambitions to stand as a Liberal Democrat candidate for a seat in Maidstone and the Weald.
To support Carrollâs campaign, email: pdcarroll@cix.co.uk
âŚThey havnât mentioned Astran though.
bullitt:
What2do and sergeant major, well come to Trucknet and especially welcome to the astran / middle east drivers thread.If you have the time then start at the begining and enjoy.
If you have been lurking all along then you will know the ebb and flow of this thread, the characters who have contributed and continue to contribute all their past memomories, tales and pictures. If you have any to contribute then jump right in, the more the merrier as it never ceases to interest those of us who never had the chance to do what is no more!!!
Cheers, bullitt.
Thanks for the welcome Bullit.
As soon as I can I will post some pictures up dont have loads, and they arenât the best quality, But they may be of interest to You.
Kenny
To wheelnut (the long standing one!!!), can you let me know if you received the pm i sent you, itâs my first on this forum, thus, iâm a bit unsure how successful it was. cheers.
bullitt:
WHEELNUTZ:
âŚThis isnt going good eh ladsTypicalâŚturns up half way through the party, nicks someone else
s name, then some one elses avtar, drinks all the beer, pulls the best looking bird then (zb)s off home again!!!There`s always one!!!
I can assure you that I wouldânt nick anyone elses bird , but everything else is fair gameâŚheey whoooâŚ! wheres me rachet strap 
"]Forgive me if I am mistaken but Im sure there one of the same,at the finish I heard that John was found dead in his cab at Tonys, Giselwind, Germany can anyone verify this Please
John Williams did die at Geiselwind, not in his cab but in the shower, he had a heart attack.
We gave him a very good send-off as well, unfortunately I donât think any body took any photoâs that day, no one was sober enough.
Dave.
davemackie:
"]Forgive me if I am mistaken but Im sure there one of the same,at the finish I heard that John was found dead in his cab at Tonys, Giselwind, Germany can anyone verify this PleaseJohn Williams did die at Geiselwind, not in his cab but in the shower, he had a heart attack.
We gave him a very good send-off as well, unfortunately I donât think any body took any photoâs that day, no one was sober enough.
Dave.
I am sad to hear that about John(RIP)I did have the pleasure of meeting John on several occasions,a few times at tonys at Geiselwind,and a few times in rumo on way to turkey,He went everywhere in that Ex Iceland Daf,if Im not mistaking it was only a Daf2500 4 wheeler too !,he use to travell with his mate on same job ,Im sorry I cant remember his name,only that he to had a grey beard,nice man to but very straight ,like all truckers
what2do:
To wheelnut (the long standing one!!!), can you let me know if you received the pm i sent you, itâs my first on this forum, thus, iâm a bit unsure how successful it was. cheers.
I havenât received it mate, try again. I will send you the link again and you can then just reply to it.
What2do asked me to post a few pictures from a while back. so here goes, some unseen footage he hopes. Apologies if notâŚ
At the same time as the Overland Bus trips were running, the Europe to Asia transport activity was really growing; in 1964 two blokes set off from London for Kabul with an articulated truck loaded with printing presses. Following the success of this venture they set up a company called Asian Transport - which in later years was renamed Astran. This now large company still runs out to the Middle East today.
Another regular driver, though not of Overland Buses, was a guy called John Frost who drove for Asian International/Astran trucks on the rout to Tehran. There were not many trucks heading East in those days though after 1972 the situation changed quickly.
In 1970-1 Iran began to increase its hunger for trade with Europe so the amount of truck traffic increased in a very short period, all this freight movement overloaded the primitive road systems, particularly in areas like eastern Turkey. Reluctantly in 1977, the Turkish authorities opened an existing military road to create the northern bypass route around the mountain range that peaked at the notorious Tahir Pass - this old road had been a tortuous and twisting climb to over 8000â on an unmade surface. By the late 1970s itâd be fair to say that for every Overland bus, there were many hundreds of international trucks on the same routes - and as the numbers of trucks increased the likelehood of those drivers stopping to help you out decreased.
John, or Johnny, Frost came to Astran after Snow had started (these meteorological sounding names are realâŚ) and as far as I know, is still alive. Mr Snow gave eventually gave up his long-haul driving to run a pub in Essex, and died some years ago. In the picture below he is seen, on the right, overseeing the recovery operation of a European truck that had gone off the road on the Tahir road in eastern Turkey. A truck and a grader, chained together, are attempting to extract a Scania 110 and its semi-trailer from the snow - this was a far too common sight, this one was lucky; some guys didnât survive these incidents.
Here is a pair of ICCâs Macks in Istanbul in 1972 - Iâd been speaking to the drivers; the two trucks were running together, both on their way home from Germany to Tehran. Most of these fellas would help out another driver. The simple white ICC logo on the door is a silhoutte of Iran - an effective piece of minimalist graphic design. And for those interested in truck matters, the tyres on these Macks were 12.00 x 24 on Trilex wheels; and you can just about see the huge belly-tanks slung under the trailer chassis frames - these held extra diesel that was bought cheaply in Iran, for in the early 1970s you could get up to 15 gallons for a ÂŁ1 out there.
Before the first picture above, there should be the following text:
At the same time as the Overland Bus trips were running, the Europe to Asia transport activity was really growing; in 1964 two blokes set off from London for Kabul with an articulated truck loaded with printing presses. Following the success of this venture they set up a company called Asian Transport - which in later years was renamed Astran. This now large company still runs out to the Middle East today.
In 1970-1 Iran began to increase its hunger for trade with Europe so the amount of truck traffic increased in a very short period, all this freight movement overloaded the primitive road systems, particularly in areas like eastern Turkey. Reluctantly in 1977, the Turkish authorities opened an existing military road to create the northern bypass route around the mountain range that peaked at the notorious Tahir Pass - this old road had been a tortuous and twisting climb to over 8000â on an unmade surface. By the late 1970s itâd be fair to say that for every Overland bus, there were many hundreds of international trucks on the same routes - and as the numbers of trucks increased the likelehood of those drivers stopping to help you out decreased.
This is the situation on the Tahir before the northern route was opened up in 1977. In this picture, very few, if any of that lot of trucks struggling to get over the Tahir would have been from the UK - they came from all over Europe, including the eastern countries like Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary and so on; plus the odd Turkish and Iranian ones. Not all the Overland bus firms operated right through the winters, whereas the freight traffic ran whatever the weather - it just kept going. In 1968 there wasnât anything like this number of trucks going to Iran - of course there were a few, but most of the time you had the road to yourself.
When I got into trouble on the old Tahir Pass road in 1971, it was an English Overland truck that pulled the AEC bus back onto the road, but also offering assistance was another Englishman called â â â â Snow who drove for Asian Transport - his yellow Scania truck and drawbar trailer are in the background of the picture picture below. This man went on to become a cult figure among the truck drivers who went out to the Middle-East; his reputation founded on his legendary trip times of 21 days from England to Tehran and back - not bad going in a 40 ton vehicle, with no co-driver. He once told me that he now and again drove as far as Lahore in Pakistan, and that these trips were usually for the British Embassy in Pakistan; and that the loads consisted of personal property of long-serving senior officials out there, or new furniture being sent out to the Embassy. The staff were either commencing or finishing a term of duty.
I hope this is of interest to some of you, the tourist buses are another great interest of mine, especially as they were trecking out there in the '50âs. I often wondered if the truck drivers and bus passengers managed to âget alongâ whilst on the middle east/india routes. I would have thought that there were great differences bewtween a hard working professional and a freeloading hippy out there for the hashish and funky times!!!
what2do:
When I got into trouble on the old Tahir Pass road in 1971, it was an English Overland truck that pulled the AEC bus back onto the road, but also offering assistance was another Englishman called â â â â Snow who drove for Asian Transport - his yellow Scania truck and drawbar trailer are in the background of the picture picture below. This man went on to become a cult figure among the truck drivers who went out to the Middle-East; his reputation founded on his legendary trip times of 21 days from England to Tehran and back - not bad going in a 40 ton vehicle, with no co-driver. He once told me that he now and again drove as far as Lahore in Pakistan, and that these trips were usually for the British Embassy in Pakistan; and that the loads consisted of personal property of long-serving senior officials out there, or new furniture being sent out to the Embassy. The staff were either commencing or finishing a term of duty.I hope this is of interest to some of you, the tourist buses are another great interest of mine, especially as they were trecking out there in the '50âs. I often wondered if the truck drivers and bus passengers managed to âget alongâ whilst on the middle east/india routes. I would have thought that there were great differences bewtween a hard working professional and a freeloading hippy out there for the hashish and funky times!!!
There is a member on here called Spardo, David who drove a hippie tour bus and later a truck for Michael White. I am sure he can answer some of those questions 
KW:
I read in Trucking this month that the guy who owns Seymour Transport (They that bought Astran) has sold out to a company from the south west.So does this mean that Astran is no more?
Hi mate. Just to put the record straight: Astran was NEVER sold to Seymour Transport. Although Hugh Thompson was the original owner of Seymours, he later relinquished control to his partner Peter Carroll. Astran was sold to Carroll and Thompson who bought it between themselves. Carroll later stepped down to concentrate on Seymourâs while Thompson took overall control of Astran. He is still the owner.
Astran continues to trade as normal and operates from the premisis next door to Seymourâs.
BTW: Where does the Seymour name come from?? It is Hugh Thompsonâs middle name. 
what2do:
I hope this is of interest to some of youâŚ
What2do:- Of course it is of interest to us! You may (or may not 
) recal quite some time ago, we spoke on the phone about your driving to IndiaâŚ
Youâll be interested to know the book I was writing when we spoke is almost ready. âThe Long Haul Pioneersâ is a celebration of Astran and is filled with images, stories and anecdotes from the employees who worked there over the years⌠(i wonât go on too much here) ⌠keep your eye out on Trucknet as I will be posting some more info regarding the publishing date, cost and ordering in due course. Should be available during MAY Ash.
Hi guys, I am trying to place this Tonyâs at Gieselwind . Would it be by any chance what was called The Lomo in the early eighties. I.I.R.C. you came off the autobahn where they built a Macdonalds on the right in the mid eighties.
One Christmas we were all given drivers washing bags as a crimbo present. They were green with large white letters which read LOMO and I used mine for many years. Does anybody else remember them or have you still got one .
Hi Steve, I donât ever remember Geiselwind ever being a LOMO, it is a nine hour drive from Zeebrugge, and was always the last stop on the way East & the first on the way back leaving or returning to Germany (Bavaria), from the Commie Block
My normal run would be three hours to Heerlen break, three hours to Limburg break, three hours to Geiselwind, and the same on the return leg.
Dave.