josh:
Hey John,
Nice one and love the CMM on your top lip. Took six weeks Paris to Toulouse on the barge. Laissez les bon temps roulier
After Bolu dropping towards Ankara 1975
Turkey / Iran border 1975. The goats always got priority
AEC without driver between Marand and Tabriz Iran 1975
Being tonkered Tahir 1975. Hope you likeEven I was only a boy when I took these
Anyone know of anymore AECs on M/E work??
im thinking an A E C was NOT the best truck to have on the middle east run? 
brenics77:
im thinking an A E C was NOT the best truck to have on the middle east run?
Looking at the picture above i agree but i wonder what was going through the mind of the mandator driver when he was setting off from over here
I agree ramone i seem to remember jj72 seeing the trailer being pulled by another unit and its not a standard trailer so maybe not a run of the mill transport company. That boy must have had ballls the size of boulders.
brenics77:
im thinking an A E C was NOT the best truck to have on the middle east run?
Didnt Spiers from Melksham do a bit . .and they bought secondhand 
brenics77:
Can you guys tell me the best motor to have on the middle east run? The F88/89 or scania 110/140 are the most obvious but having ridden in both the scania has way more room but my number 1 all time truck is the
F88! never having driven any i cant say to drive. But lets say breakdown and living space.best truck for the 60`s
best truck in the 70`s
best truck in the 80`s
john
dont bother mate they wont be intrested 
jerry truckartist:
dreva:
is the question to hard.or are you just plain rude.whoâs the longest serving m/e driver from any of you on here that has done it
Dreva, I donât think its a difficult question, and I donât think people are being rude, Itâs probably a case of âdoes anyone give a tossâ ?
The old case of people who talk about all theyâve done, are usually the oneâs whoâve done the least !
like a lot of people on here, I never had the opportunity to do the middle east, being too young at the time, I look back in awe and with envy to those who did it in the 70âs.
I was fortunate enough to be invited to Ashleyâs book launch last year, where I had the pleasure to meet, Bob Paul, Gordon Pearce, John Frost, Peter Cannon, Bobby Vallas, Ron Bell, Tony Soameson, Charlie Norton, Terry Tott, Frank Hook, Dave Poulton, Joe bowser, John Bruce, Roger Haywood, Nick Bull⌠amongst others, All were extremely nice , modest men, who must have done , millions of kilometers between them.
Dave Poulton did 123 trips in his sixteen years at Astran, then many more working for other companyâs⌠When I asked him to sign my book 'he replied " Donât know what all the fuss is about, Iâm only a lorry driver"
Enough said !!!
Jerry
jerry that was one my things you can still do it now.so why do people make excuses saying i was to young,sure you could get a trip of someone on here 
dreva:
jerry truckartist:
dreva:
is the question to hard.or are you just plain rude.whoâs the longest serving m/e driver from any of you on here that has done itDreva, I donât think its a difficult question, and I donât think people are being rude, Itâs probably a case of âdoes anyone give a tossâ ?
The old case of people who talk about all theyâve done, are usually the oneâs whoâve done the least !
like a lot of people on here, I never had the opportunity to do the middle east, being too young at the time, I look back in awe and with envy to those who did it in the 70âs.
I was fortunate enough to be invited to Ashleyâs book launch last year, where I had the pleasure to meet, Bob Paul, Gordon Pearce, John Frost, Peter Cannon, Bobby Vallas, Ron Bell, Tony Soameson, Charlie Norton, Terry Tott, Frank Hook, Dave Poulton, Joe bowser, John Bruce, Roger Haywood, Nick Bull⌠amongst others, All were extremely nice , modest men, who must have done , millions of kilometers between them.
Dave Poulton did 123 trips in his sixteen years at Astran, then many more working for other companyâs⌠When I asked him to sign my book 'he replied " Donât know what all the fuss is about, Iâm only a lorry driver"
Enough said !!!
Jerryjerry that was one my things you can still do it now.so why do people make excuses saying i was to young,sure you could get a trip of someone on here
devra you like to throw rocks! lol
ramone:
josh:
Hey John,
Nice one and love the CMM on your top lip. Took six weeks Paris to Toulouse on the barge. Laissez les bon temps roulier
After Bolu dropping towards Ankara 1975
Turkey / Iran border 1975. The goats always got priority
AEC without driver between Marand and Tabriz Iran 1975
Being tonkered Tahir 1975. Hope you likeEven I was only a boy when I took these
Anyone know of anymore AECs on M/E work??
Asain transport/astran ran a aec in there early days
kr79:
ramone:
josh:
Hey John,
Nice one and love the CMM on your top lip. Took six weeks Paris to Toulouse on the barge. Laissez les bon temps roulier
After Bolu dropping towards Ankara 1975
Turkey / Iran border 1975. The goats always got priority
AEC without driver between Marand and Tabriz Iran 1975
Being tonkered Tahir 1975. Hope you likeEven I was only a boy when I took these
Anyone know of anymore AECs on M/E work??
Asain transport/astran ran a aec in there early days
would that be the one that blew up just over the water?
brenics77:
would that be the one that blew up just over the water?
If I remember rightly from âthe bookâ it was the Guy that blew up on itâs maiden voyage.
Ross.
bigr250:
brenics77:
would that be the one that blew up just over the water?If I remember rightly from âthe bookâ it was the Guy that blew up on itâs maiden voyage.
Ross.
freshir:
Reddesertfox:
Hi FredI think I have covered this in an earlier thread somewhere, but It was back in 1978 when the Ogem site was being built on the Dammam to Khobar Road. It consisted of 32 high rise apartment blocks and was not that far out from the football stadium, which if you remember was located on the corner at the traffic lights.
Rynart had a dozen or so trucks on the project when they were working internals.ALVBâŚâŚRDF
Thanks for that interesting bit of info RDF you have got to be right on that but how on earth do you remember all that detail, when I was on sight at that place I had a very welcomed shower until I went to rinse myself and the water was so hard that it would not rinse the soap off, I always remember that. - I have got 23 diaries in my archives and my wife is always suggesting that I get stuck into them and have a stroll down memory lane, I remember that our old mate âSnowyâ (RIP) had a detailed account of all of his trips and I would bet that many old muckers out there have diaries tucked away - Come on lads lets here some comments on this eh ?Regards Fred
That was an easy one Fred , because I was based there at the time In fact, now I remember, so was Jeff Lipwin from Simons even though I am told he is/was a Jew, if that is true, then the almighty must know how he acquired a Saudi Visa 
I am also intrigued by the re-call of some of the guys who post on here and the collection of photoâs people like âmushroom manâ have, all I can think is that he must have done very slow trips and thought he was a paid tourist
I bet people like Mike Walker have almost no photoâs in their albums as GS will probably confirm.
jj72:
Cracking photos Josh, that trailer/container behind the AEC is identical to the one pulled by the Crusader MUR501H - know anything about it please? And was the motor abandoned?
Hi Andy, I donât know if this trailer has been discussed before but my first thoughts were that the colours on that trailer were similar to Phillips Electrical although back in the seventies they may have still have been using the green colours of London Carriers. Can you remember which page that photo of MUR 501H was on ?
Regards Steve.
bigr250:
brenics77:
would that be the one that blew up just over the water?If I remember rightly from âthe bookâ it was the Guy that blew up on itâs maiden voyage.
Ross.
Mike Sargent did three trips to Kuwait for Astran with this!!
dreva:
bigr250:
brenics77:
would that be the one that blew up just over the water?If I remember rightly from âthe bookâ it was the Guy that blew up on itâs maiden voyage.
Ross.
& you wonder why people ignore your postsâ â ? Spanner!!
Reddesertfox:
I am also intrigued by the re-call of some of the guys who post on here and the collection of photoâs people like âmushroom manâ have, all I can think is that he must have done very slow trips and thought he was a paid tourist
I bet people like Mike Walker have almost no photoâs in their albums as GS will probably confirm.
Hi Red, well I wouldnât exactly say that I was a paid tourist but I also wasnât expected to drive twenty four hours a day, seven days a week to make a decent wage. I did work it out in 1980 and it came to I.I.R.C. something like two quid an hour if I would of worked 24/7 so I opted to do what I called a fair days work for a fair days pay and the bosses seemed happy enough with that. Although I do remember seeing on a couple of occasions some of those guys who used to work for other transport companies whose colleagues used to brag about giving it big licks, (allegedly setting a new world record for getting to Baghdad in the fastest time) when they were parked up, sometimes with the truck on itâs side or with half a donkey stuck through the front grill.
As The Plater told me in one of his e-mails, âa lot of them were miserable gits who liked to run alone, unless they had a problem and then they didnât mind running with other peopleâ but having said that it always used to be every drivers prerogative to run to suit himself.
As you know Red and I have mentioned it on here before, I never went past Iraq in a truck
I know that a lot of my posts have been penned while wearing the old rose coloured glasses but I always find it hard to describe exactly what it was really like sat in a queue like the Bulgarian / Turkish border for three hours until the line moved up a couple of hundred yards but I did hope that the mention of these experiences could ignite an interest to a lot of the old guys who remember these situations only too well.
Some of the photos that I have posted recently are not mine but belong to older drivers who were going down to places like Iran and Saudi in the early seventies and I think that I have always mentioned the name of the driver who the photos belongs to. I have asked them to put THEIR stories on here themselves but they have refused preferring to enjoy seeing other drivers photos and reading about other drivers stories. Unfortunately some of these older middle east drivers who retired years ago do struggle with technology and find it a bit of a battle to put their anecdotes on here, so their stories are going to be lost forever.
I.M.H.O. if I couldnât stop for two minutes to take a photo then I was either doing the job wrong or the wrong job.
Regards Steve.
bigr250:
dreva:
bigr250:
brenics77:
would that be the one that blew up just over the water?If I remember rightly from âthe bookâ it was the Guy that blew up on itâs maiden voyage.
Ross.
& you wonder why people ignore your postsâ â ? Spanner!!
oh you finaly replied you ignored it.probaly because you were a one trip wonder you tool
mushroomman:
Reddesertfox:
I am also intrigued by the re-call of some of the guys who post on here and the collection of photoâs people like âmushroom manâ have, all I can think is that he must have done very slow trips and thought he was a paid tourist
I bet people like Mike Walker have almost no photoâs in their albums as GS will probably confirm.Hi Red, well I wouldnât exactly say that I was a paid tourist but I also wasnât expected to drive twenty four hours a day, seven days a week to make a decent wage. I did work it out in 1980 and it came to I.I.R.C. something like two quid an hour if I would of worked 24/7 so I opted to do what I called a fair days work for a fair days pay and the bosses seemed happy enough with that. Although I do remember seeing on a couple of occasions some of those guys who used to work for other transport companies whose colleagues used to brag about giving it big licks, (allegedly setting a new world record for getting to Baghdad in the fastest time) when they were parked up, sometimes with the truck on itâs side or with half a donkey stuck through the front grill.
As The Plater told me in one of his e-mails, âa lot of them were miserable gits who liked to run alone, unless they had a problem and then they didnât mind running with other peopleâ but having said that it always used to be every drivers prerogative to run to suit himself.
As you know Red and I have mentioned it on here before, I never went past Iraq in a truck
I know that a lot of my posts have been penned while wearing the old rose coloured glasses but I always find it hard to describe exactly what it was really like sat in a queue like the Bulgarian / Turkish border for three hours until the line moved up a couple of hundred yards but I did hope that the mention of these experiences could ignite an interest to a lot of the old guys who remember these situations only too well.
Some of the photos that I have posted recently are not mine but belong to older drivers who were going down to places like Iran and Saudi in the early seventies and I think that I have always mentioned the name of the driver who the photos belongs to. I have asked them to put THEIR stories on here themselves but they have refused preferring to enjoy seeing other drivers photos and reading about other drivers stories. Unfortunately some of these older middle east drivers who retired years ago do struggle with technology and find it a bit of a battle to put their anecdotes on here, so their stories are going to be lost forever.
I.M.H.O. if I couldnât stop for two minutes to take a photo then I was either doing the job wrong or the wrong job.Regards Steve.
dont put your pics on mate.like i said its only astran that ever done the job and it pees me off that you tried so long to get an m/e thred going,then when one does get going all your input and pics are pulled apart by the astran lot.what was it gs said about dow fly by nights yeah right 
from reds post they must have been night and day cowboys them that run for astran that didnt have time to take pics
Dreva,why are you so bitter about Astran,maybe cos you would never in a million years get on there,or my view is your some little prick that keeps poppin up from your little Harem in islammabad/bradford.Keep stackin them shelves,Britain needs U
