Astran / Middle East Drivers

[hlb]

bullitt:
[quote="hlb"Think I posted a bit on here a few years ago, but got slagged off, so have not been back till today.

Well welcome back anyway Haydn. Ignore the trolls, there is always someone getting slagged off!!

Did you post up any pic sof your travels last time you were here?? Have you got any pics from your travels to M/E?? Post em up if you have Haydn, you will always have an audience that is interested here.
[/quote]
Getting a mate to scan some pics, but most are fairly rubbish, then got a new camera, but the film hardly ever seemed to load right, so hardly anything turned out.

Then alot of what did, seems to have got lost in the mean time.

Anyone remember Jethro?? the Greek archaeologist. ■■ Hmm, might have been a Greek mythologist.

[wheel_nut]

bullitt:

hlb:
Think I posted a bit on here a few years ago, but got slagged off, so have not been back till today.

Well welcome back anyway Haydn. Ignore the trolls, there is always someone getting slagged off!!

Did you post up any pic sof your travels last time you were here?? Have you got any pics from your travels to M/E?? Post em up if you have Haydn, you will always have an audience that is interested here.

As we all know these forums are great, they never get deleted, so welcome back hib, and to remind you here is your first post.

hlb:
Hi folks, I’ve just found this site and spent all last night reading it.

I cant think theres many who got into the middle east job as I did. I was a fruit and potato merchant, all our customers were closing down and I got sick of it. I’d only ever drove a 3 ton truck, but got a class one by accident. The trainer only had a little bedford artic.

I bought a new DAF 2800. The salesman laughed at the daft questions I asked him.

Anyway I got a job and off I went to Abba? Saudi arabia, learned to drive on the way. Abba is on a mountain just short of the Yemen boarder, they had not built the road there yet, so I got dragged most of the lat 60 miles with a D9 bulldozer. That was in 1976. Did alot of internal stuff after that, plus 25 trips to Saudi Iraq and Kuwait. Stopped in about 1981, the money had gone out of it.

I must have 100’s of stories, hardly any pictures though. I always put the film in the camera wrong!!

[hlb]

mushroomman:

hutpik:
The next day i was directed up a small dirt track to a ramshackle little ‘‘garage’‘run by a man called Aydin who later became a good friend and who was a mechanical genius.Many a truck that was given up for dead was given new life in that little garage.
Aydin looked at the truck and said smiling’‘no problem,we fix,take out box,put in new bits you order from UK and fit other bits we get here,take maybe 5days.’‘The chief mechanic and his helper[12 and 10] started taking the box out while i went to see the agent,a mr Kochman,a very astute man who seemed to be related to most of Istanbul.Everything was on a roll with Astrans help.Now all i had to do was wait.The first evening some guys kindly asked me if i wanted to go with them to the West Berlin,’‘a sort of club’‘i was told.We went inside,it seemed like going inside a london fog with all the smoke.There were a lot of women inside of all shapes and sizes and colours who seemed very friendly.When i sat down a lovely looking lady came straight away and sat on my lap.’‘Do you want ficky ficky’’ she said.Thinking this was some sort of Turkish food i said’‘no thanks,i’ve just had a kebab’'This seemed to offend her and she stomped off muttering.Everyone else was laughing fit to burst
Mike

Great story Mike , I can’t wait for episode three and thanks for taking the time to share it with us.
Do the names One Eye and One Leg ring any old bells .

Regards Steve.

One had one eye, one had one leg and one was a hunchback.

Did’nt belive a word of it, till I was taken in and who shoud sit on our knees.

Took the EX in there once, she wanted to go to the toilet, but it was right at the end of a long line of men.

I said, shout if anything goes wrong. No idea what me and trevor was going to do about it.

Anyway the woman colecting the money off the men, looked after her and gave her some soap.

[brenics77]

er ok, soap.that is good too. er Laurance think you need to start a thread as YOU , everyone one this thread will follow! guess you shop at Morrisons now tho… Guys we have our King, dont loose him!

[aidey]

Yeah come on lawrence you inspired quite a few of us from a certain generation of truck mag readers.
Get that thread started.

[hlb]

hlb:

mushroomman:

hutpik:
The next day i was directed up a small dirt track to a ramshackle little ‘‘garage’‘run by a man called Aydin who later became a good friend and who was a mechanical genius.Many a truck that was given up for dead was given new life in that little garage.
Aydin looked at the truck and said smiling’‘no problem,we fix,take out box,put in new bits you order from UK and fit other bits we get here,take maybe 5days.’‘The chief mechanic and his helper[12 and 10] started taking the box out while i went to see the agent,a mr Kochman,a very astute man who seemed to be related to most of Istanbul.Everything was on a roll with Astrans help.Now all i had to do was wait.The first evening some guys kindly asked me if i wanted to go with them to the West Berlin,’‘a sort of club’‘i was told.We went inside,it seemed like going inside a london fog with all the smoke.There were a lot of women inside of all shapes and sizes and colours who seemed very friendly.When i sat down a lovely looking lady came straight away and sat on my lap.’‘Do you want ficky ficky’’ she said.Thinking this was some sort of Turkish food i said’‘no thanks,i’ve just had a kebab’'This seemed to offend her and she stomped off muttering.Everyone else was laughing fit to burst
Mike

Great story Mike , I can’t wait for episode three and thanks for taking the time to share it with us.
Do the names One Eye and One Leg ring any old bells .

Regards Steve.

One had one eye, one had one leg and one was a hunchback.

Did’nt belive a word of it, till I was taken in and who should sit on our knees.

Took the EX in there once, she wanted to go to the toilet, but it was right at the end of a long line of men.

I said, shout if anything goes wrong. No idea what me and Trevor was going to do about it.

Anyway the woman collecting the money off the men, looked after her and gave her some soap.

The first time I went to the West Berlin club, it must have been all of 8PM. Three guys on the door, all in dinner suits.

A big guy, one a bit smaller, then about a ten year old. They ushered us in and sat us down, then asked what we would like. I thought this a bit OTT for two beers. But anyway. Orders two beers with the big guy, who then cuff’s the smaller guy, he then cuff’s the kid and sent him sprawling on the floor. Anyway the beer arrived pritty sharpish.

Each time we put ash in the ash tray, it was emmediatly cleaned out withe a flury, with the contents dropped on the floor.

Then the girls came round. I seem to remember it was about 50P a go, but never tried it.

[hlb]

hlb:

hlb:

mushroomman:

hutpik:
The next day i was directed up a small dirt track to a ramshackle little ‘‘garage’‘run by a man called Aydin who later became a good friend and who was a mechanical genius.Many a truck that was given up for dead was given new life in that little garage.
Aydin looked at the truck and said smiling’‘no problem,we fix,take out box,put in new bits you order from UK and fit other bits we get here,take maybe 5days.’‘The chief mechanic and his helper[12 and 10] started taking the box out while i went to see the agent,a mr Kochman,a very astute man who seemed to be related to most of Istanbul.Everything was on a roll with Astrans help.Now all i had to do was wait.The first evening some guys kindly asked me if i wanted to go with them to the West Berlin,’‘a sort of club’‘i was told.We went inside,it seemed like going inside a london fog with all the smoke.There were a lot of women inside of all shapes and sizes and colours who seemed very friendly.When i sat down a lovely looking lady came straight away and sat on my lap.’‘Do you want ficky ficky’’ she said.Thinking this was some sort of Turkish food i said’‘no thanks,i’ve just had a kebab’'This seemed to offend her and she stomped off muttering.Everyone else was laughing fit to burst
Mike

Great story Mike , I can’t wait for episode three and thanks for taking the time to share it with us.
Do the names One Eye and One Leg ring any old bells .

Regards Steve.

One had one eye, one had one leg and one was a hunchback.

Did’nt belive a word of it, till I was taken in and who should sit on our knees.

Took the EX in there once, she wanted to go to the toilet, but it was right at the end of a long line of men.

I said, shout if anything goes wrong. No idea what me and Trevor was going to do about it.

Anyway the woman collecting the money off the men, looked after her and gave her some soap.

The first time I went to the West Berlin club, it must have been all of 8PM. Three guys on the door, all in dinner suits.

A big guy, one a bit smaller, then about a ten year old. They ushered us in and sat us down, then asked what we would like. I thought this a bit OTT for two beers. But anyway. Orders two beers with the big guy, who then cuff’s the smaller guy, he then cuff’s the kid and sent him sprawling on the floor. Anyway the beer arrived pritty sharpish.

Each time we put ash in the ash tray, it was emmediatly cleaned out withe a flury, with the contents dropped on the floor.

Then the girls came round. I seem to remember it was about 50P a go, but never tried it.

Remembering back, I’m sure that the second girl had one arm and not one leg. Other wise perfectly beautifull.

Does any one remember. Gulf Link in Jeddah. Trailers all painted marroon. I’d arrived back from Abbah with 50 P in my pocket and eventually found them and some work.

They had two Scammel prime moveres and there idea was, to conect two trailers on the back with four containers on them.

The idea never worked, because they got to the the first bend on the road up the Tief mountain and got stuck. It must have been about 130ft long…

Anyway as I said, I was pennyless, so they gave me this job of taking a trailer to the Doha border, about 1200 miles away. Also gave me some running money as well. 800 quid as I remember when the job was done…

So I drove up to there yard, umpteen 28ft trailers, all test demics with six, seven ton elecric reals on them, 8.50 tyres all on the mettal. Advised to take three spare wheels.

I spend the next day jacking trailers up and pinching wheels. About 120 deg. No idea how I got them on the trailer.

So off I went, about 50 tons on the back, no brakes, no lights. Passed alot of maroon trailers in the desert.

Thing was, the old trailers did not fit the truck, so going round corners was either dfificult or imposible. The chassis just met up… Tuther prob was the big reals kept wanting to roll off the side. So I had to keep finding a big buldozer to push them back on again.

Got back to the office and said, yep, job done. They looked at me in awe. No one else had actually got one there.

Did a few more jobs for them, then realised there prices were crap, others offered £1200. Mind I was in a hole and got out of it.

Told you about the bricks, years ago, and got slagged off. All we knew was we saw wall to wall bricks when we opened the 40 ft containers.
.

[ozzyhugh]

G’Day HLB

Just love your story - keep them coming please.

Others operated the two 40ft trailer idea - you’ll probably remember SARAMAT (Saudi Arabian Road & Maritime Transport) in the mid * late '70’s onwards - based in Jeddah ? They were a joint venture funded by the Saudi Bank & Aristotle Onassis.

They operated mainly internal transport in Saudi and later a couple ferries - here’s couple photo’s from old magazine, an English driver with 2 x 40’ trailers connected by a dolly - called " double bottom " rig, the rear trailer is one of my Merriworth 40 ft trailers - obviously loading weights no problem !

What a fleet they had and loads of cash

Regards

Ozzyhugh

[david_miller]

Welcome back hlb.

I recalled an incident at the West Berlin which amused me at the time but got no replies here at all when I posted it before - lots of ‘err umm never went there, me!’

Anyway there was a bloke, Welsh as it happened, who felt that he had been badly treated in the said West Berlin and so, after a considerable Efes Kontrol decided to teach them a lesson and launch the Guy Big J that he was fortunate enough to be driving through the front window. He neglected to remember, probably until it was too late, that he said establishment was separated from the road by a pavement that went down from the road and then the club was up some steps again so it had a kind of a moat in front of it. Anyway undeterred he launched to Big J down into the pavement but the nice cross-mounted silencer under the front bumper fouled with the steps and there he became stuck and good old Aydin had to go and get a wrecker the next morning to haul him out.

Surely I can’t be the only one who remembers that incident, can I? Pat Seale, who was there, even had a photo I remember of the stranded Big J. Happy days!

David

[hlb]

[quote="OzzyHugh
Others operated the two 40ft trailer idea - you’ll probably remember SARAMAT (Saudi Arabian Road & Maritime Transport) in the mid * late '70’s onwards - based in Jeddah ? They were a joint venture funded by the Saudi Bank & Aristotle Onassis.

They operated mainly internal transport in Saudi and later a couple ferries - Regards

Ozzyhugh[/quote]
Yep, but not all on a draw bar, behind a 30 odd foot long Scamel. (Not an artic)

I’d just got a driver to work for me and I flew back to buy another truck. Just as SARAMAT turned up with about 50 brand new trucks. They totally killed the job.

[wheel_nut]

David Miller:
Welcome back hlb.

I recalled an incident at the West Berlin which amused me at the time but got no replies here at all when I posted it before - lots of ‘err umm never went there, me!’

Anyway there was a bloke, Welsh as it happened, who felt that he had been badly treated in the said West Berlin and so, after a considerable Efes Kontrol decided to teach them a lesson and launch the Guy Big J that he was fortunate enough to be driving through the front window. He neglected to remember, probably until it was too late, that he said establishment was separated from the road by a pavement that went down from the road and then the club was up some steps again so it had a kind of a moat in front of it. Anyway undeterred he launched to Big J down into the pavement but the nice cross-mounted silencer under the front bumper fouled with the steps and there he became stuck and good old Aydin had to go and get a wrecker the next morning to haul him out.

Surely I can’t be the only one who remembers that incident, can I? Pat Seale, who was there, even had a photo I remember of the stranded Big J. Happy days!

David

Just to slightly derail this thread for a moment. I was in the Autohof at Scharnding / Suben when a real Dutch Harry Vos driver had an altercation with the management. He drove a loaded high cube drawbar straight through the doors of the club next door, police were called, he was arrested and the truck was parked there for several days until it was recovered. I had never seen road rage like that before, certainly not over a prostitute

Absolutely nothing to do with the Middle East or Astran, but it is lorry related.

[freshir]

Wheel Nut:

David Miller:
Welcome back hlb.

I recalled an incident at the West Berlin which amused me at the time but got no replies here at all when I posted it before - lots of ‘err umm never went there, me!’

Anyway there was a bloke, Welsh as it happened, who felt that he had been badly treated in the said West Berlin and so, after a considerable Efes Kontrol decided to teach them a lesson and launch the Guy Big J that he was fortunate enough to be driving through the front window. He neglected to remember, probably until it was too late, that he said establishment was separated from the road by a pavement that went down from the road and then the club was up some steps again so it had a kind of a moat in front of it. Anyway undeterred he launched to Big J down into the pavement but the nice cross-mounted silencer under the front bumper fouled with the steps and there he became stuck and good old Aydin had to go and get a wrecker the next morning to haul him out.

Surely I can’t be the only one who remembers that incident, can I? Pat Seale, who was there, even had a photo I remember of the stranded Big J. Happy days!

David

Just to slightly derail this thread for a moment. I was in the Autohof at Scharnding / Suben when a real Dutch Harry Vos driver had an altercation with the management. He drove a loaded high cube drawbar straight through the doors of the club next door, police were called, he was arrested and the truck was parked there for several days until it was recovered. I had never seen road rage like that before, certainly not over a prostitute

Absolutely nothing to do with the Middle East or Astran, but it is lorry related.[/quote

freshir wrote - Hi David, No surprise that you had no feedback on the West Berlin venture, obviously no one has ever heard or it or ventured into it and the majority of the old jockey’s were far to shy anyway !! Nice to hear from you David hope you are keeping well, regards from myself and the management, Regards Fred/Shirley

[hlb]

My driver came over from the UK. He’d been recomended by a friend who said he was a good mechanic as well.

I thought I’d better take him on his first trip and show him the ropes. As we were going across the desert, I told him that there were loads of tins of food in the truck.

He said. I Cant Cook. I said, well just open a tin of beans then, and warm them up. He said. I CANT COOK!!

Just imagine, a bloke who could weld. But not warm up a tin of beans.

Anyway I stopped at a desert cafe for the usual chicken and rice. I’m not going in there he said.

So all the time I was with him, he ate nothing but Crawfords custard creams.

[hlb]

As I said, I did alot of work internally in Saudi.

So I gets this trailer and got as far as Tiefe. But it was Ramadan and I could not find any diesel any where.

Well, I was not about to set off across a desert, without a full tank of juice. So I then remembered a Lockheeds camp, that I’d passed a good few times, so thought I’ll see if they have any.

They welcomed me, like all the camps did and could not be more helpful, But said they were a training camp and did not have any fuel.

They showed me to a nice bungalow, that they said I could have for the night, because some one was away on leave.

Then they showed me the restaurant, the bar and the swimming pool. Having done allot of work for British Airospace, it was always like that. I mostly had some welcoming bar I could go to, if I had the time.

So in the morning, two of the guys called round to my bungalow. They said they could find me some diesel.

So we all jumped in the truck and off we went.

We look after the Saudi Airforce Early Warning System, they said, we can get some out of their generator tank. :shock

So as we arrived, they said, dont stop, just keep going very slowly and leave it to us.

There were a couple of police type guys there with machine guns, the two guys in the cab kept waving there pass cards at them, but course the guards kept pointing at me. So more waving of cards and we got in.

Inside, we drove to this humungus diesel tank. But course it was plumbed into the generators, so no real way of getting some out.

One of the guys went off and came back with a bucket. So we unscrewed the bung at the bottom of the tank and smartly put it back in again when each bucket was filled. All this with two armed guards looking on puzzled.

So after umpteen bucket fulls, the tank was full.

Dropping them back at camp, they asked if I could help them out.

They were running out of malt to make their beer and asked if I could collect some Blue Label malt from there depot in Damman.

No probs I said, so off I went. Nothing illegal about carrying malt.

At damman, it was same as usual. Pub, swimming pool, restaurant and room.

Bit of a shock the next time I went there, there was a queue of arabs at the back door of the pub, all with jugs in their hands.

I told them that they had better be more carefull, but they took no notice.

Next time I went, they were all very glum, the bar man was in jail for two years and the bar closed down.

[riverstick]

David Miller:
Welcome back hlb.

I recalled an incident at the West Berlin which amused me at the time but got no replies here at all when I posted it before - lots of ‘err umm never went there, me!’

Anyway there was a bloke, Welsh as it happened, who felt that he had been badly treated in the said West Berlin and so, after a considerable Efes Kontrol decided to teach them a lesson and launch the Guy Big J that he was fortunate enough to be driving through the front window. He neglected to remember, probably until it was too late, that he said establishment was separated from the road by a pavement that went down from the road and then the club was up some steps again so it had a kind of a moat in front of it. Anyway undeterred he launched to Big J down into the pavement but the nice cross-mounted silencer under the front bumper fouled with the steps and there he became stuck and good old Aydin had to go and get a wrecker the next morning to haul him out.

Surely I can’t be the only one who remembers that incident, can I? Pat Seale, who was there, even had a photo I remember of the stranded Big J. Happy days!

Ahhhh…The good old days!..Real trucks…real drivers…real hookers and corrupt policemen you could bribe!

David

[dinger_bell]

bullitt:
Just a thought but did any of the ex Astran or Middle East drivers on here know the driver who took the author of Cola Cowboys on his trip to M/E for the book?
I think his name was Trevor somebody and was quite an established M/E hand at that time.

No particular reason for asking, just wondering thats all, and was the tale of him being nearly lynched by a mob of Turkish villagers, leaving scars on his neck true, or abit of journalistic licence

Cheers, bullitt.

PS, come on chaps, about time we had some more tales and memories (with pics if possible) of those Middle East heydays.

I think my mate timmy newport drove for this lot.He went everywhere and as far as i know he had a ford transcontinental?

[gunnerheskey]

A bloke who was my driving instructor about 87’ used to be a M/E driver, his name was Chris Du-grai, from leicester, had a spell driving for a company called SAMT ( saudi arabian movement transport ) in saudi, white F89s with SAMT in black writing on the side. Showed me the photo’s of his time with them, but unfortunately lost contact with him. Blonde haired chap, bit of beegees throw back, just wondered if anyone came across himm or SAMT.

[gunnerheskey]

gunnerheskey:
A bloke who was my driving instructor about 87’ used to be a M/E driver, his name was Chris Du-grai, from leicester, had a spell driving for a company called SAMT ( saudi arabian movement transport ) in saudi, white F89s with SAMT in black writing on the side. Showed me the photo’s of his time with them, but unfortunately lost contact with him. Blonde haired chap, bit of beegees throw back, just wondered if anyone came across him or SAMT.

[hlb]

[quote="dinger bellPS, come on chaps, about time we had some more tales and memories (with pics if possible) of those Middle East heydays. [/quote]
Last time I came here and told tales of 40ft containers, filled to the brim with fire brick. I got told it was “■■■■■■■■”.

I got the same in the pub at home. Folk asked what happened and I told them. But they just looked away.

After that, I just said yep, had a great time and left it at that.

Same things happened in the war, few folk would tell what actually happened as no one would believe them, or insult them for doing the wrong thing. With no idea of the circumstances.

I’ve had a boat for donkeys year, twin engined, 400 HP. Been to the CI’s and France umpteen times, but also Ireland and IOM.

Folk always asked whats the further-est place you have been. Birmingham I always said.

They had no idea that, to get to Birminham by sea. From Plymouth was far further than France.

Why dont you go down to the Med then. Only take you a couple of days.!!

To explain why, would have taken at least a week of education. Not that the boat could not do it, it could. But more like six months and not in two days. Plus a truck would be a far cheaper and easier way.

The point I’m trying to get at is. The person asking the questions, has to know at least half of the problems, or it dont make sense.

Try and explain a modern diesel engine to some one who has not even seen or heard of a fire.

I could tell you hundreds of stories, but they would not mean much to you, not that it’s your fault.

If you can believe, that you can be doing 60 MPH on a damp M Way, take your foot off the peddal and the rev counter drops to tick over. A few rev’ up’s proves the fact. Total zerro grip. So you try to slow down to a crawl, this does not include brakeing, it only causes more problems. Just queitly getting the speed off. If you can believe that, I’ll maybe tell you some more stories.

[laurence]

The last time I drove VAR it cracked a liner between Instanbul and Kapikule, border with Bulgaria. It was between Christmas and the New Year. Limped back to Oktay parking, using snow to keep topping the cooling system up as ran out of water, and the fitters there installed a new replacement liner.
Luckily I did ask to see this ‘new’ liner before it was fitted. These Arbis no doubt meant well as they pointed out that in Turkey a brand new liner would be very expensive whereas a ‘previously owned’ one would be far cheaper. Replacing all which should be done would have been sky high.
‘But,’ I cried in amazement, ‘there is a grey line running from bottom to top inside this ‘new’ liner. Put a brand new one in please.’
So they did.
‘Teshy koo, Arbi.’ (Thank you my brother/friend)
That together with ‘Backsheesh’ meaning 40 Marlboro to whatever bent cop you met that day, was the only Turkish I knew. Oh and Chi (tea). Drank plenty of that whilst this repair was undertaken. M+C Steve, where were you!

That picture is not one of the best but it came from a Freecycle slide scanner. A far bigger and clearer pic can be found at
http://www.laurencekiely.co.uk

Meanwhile, not sure which truck I had on this trip, an easy one to Greece, but many British lads were stuck there as the Greek customs were on strike, go slow, not go at all, nothing unusual really. We all got bored with the various watering holes in Piraeus so decided to go upmarket where we met VAR’s graceful owner!

Mr Mervyn King Esq. refuelling in Glyfada, a posh Athens suburb. We simply added to its elegance.