Thanks, adr, for clearing up the 88/89 confusion.
Had a photo somewhere of them parked up when new, all covered in dust and desert crud
but have mislaid it someplace (as usual) … 
Endit:
Thanks, adr, for clearing up the 88/89 confusion.
Had a photo somewhere of them parked up when new, all covered in dust and desert crud
but have mislaid it someplace (as usual) …
No worries mate. There are more pics from the article that I will post later, it was a 3 part story that was in Heritage Commercial mag’ May/June/July 2008 issues, if you were interested you might be able to get back issues from them?
David Miller:
Gram 67 wrote:I used to work with Jimmy Connors at Turners (soham) in their Norwich yard on general haulage in the mid 90’s. Was always fascinated by his talk of working for Grangewoods on ME, although it was difficult to get him talking as he was usually very quiet and kept to himself.
When Turners moved into European haulage, mostly pork to Portugal, they asked Jimmy to start driving for them, but I remember him telling me his missus hid his passport to stop him going Top bloke Jimmy.
Top Bloke indeed. I was doubting there whether to say was / is as I have no idea if he is still with us. D!o you know? With us I hope.
But you are right - he didn’t say a lot, Jimmy, which made him a rare asset
David
Unfortunately I left Turners and Norwich in 1999 for the bright lights of South East London, I kept meaning to pop in the yard on my visits but never got round to it. I’ll be in Norwich on thurs and fri with work, I might have time to stick my nose in and will find out.
Turners only had one normal cabbed Volvo F10, all the rest were Wendy house FL’s, which of course they had to give to Jimmy at well over 6ft tall I remember it felt like a space cab after spendng a week away in the FL’s.
His truck was named after a famous race horse… Red Rum (often edited by jokers). I knew him and many other Dow drivers from Yugo (mostly)
Fellow at the back is Geoff Gardener. A colleague from Promotor
I sometimes read on ME forums stories that don’t seem to be as I remember it.
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This may reduce the who did do it, from the claimed they did it.
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What did we regularly do on the rear of a trailer with a.
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“13mm spanner and a hammer.
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No prizes for correct answers
Reminds me of the view from the village of Kici on the Belem Pass descending out of southern Turkey into Syria. Not as high, of course, but still you got that ‘being in an aircraft’ effect of looking down on the clouds.
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Yes, that was a nice spot.
I used to park up on the right for a break just before the descent, then all the way to the outskirts of Antakya, then left through the river valley towards Reyhanli.
If the timing was right I would stop for lunch at the cafe by the lake, with a veranda built on stilts over the waiter, one of my fave stopping points for food.
Now developed as a resort area:
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Reyhanl%C4%B1+Belediyesi+Sosyal+Tesisler±+G%C3%B6l+Gazinosu/@36.2369928,36.5690525,464m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m15!1m8!3m7!1s0x152582d835510a29:0xf06caf44dba8b49f!2zUmV5aGFubMSxLCBIYXRheSwgVMO8cmtpeWU!3b1!8m2!3d36.268523!4d36.567593!16zL20vMGJmZ3d3!3m5!1s0x15259d26ede9544d:0x2f9c85d74e50d505!8m2!3d36.23645!4d36.569967!16s%2Fg%2F1hf3mb_pc?entry=ttu
Never stopped there. It’s quite likely it had finished before I went down there, as I came to the game a bit late. However, the lokanti at the top of the descent to Rayhanli, where the tonka drivers stopped, had a marvellous view and excellent grub just for a handful of Turk lira. Then the nasty hill…
The roads before then, including over the Taurus mountains must have had tarmac by then if you call the gentle curving slope down a ‘Nasty Hill’
yes you’re right, it was metalled and gently curving alright, but it was steep. If heavy, I used to descend in first with the exhauster on most of the way down. That way I could maintain a constant speed in check, without recourse to the brakes.
Hi all,haven’t been on here for ages. Just going through this old thread and what a read it is 
Also found this pic on the web,never seen it before. UK subbie?
I believe AO was a Cumbrian reg. back in the days when the home base of a vehicle could quite often ( but not always ) be identified by its registration plate . This before they centralised the registration zones and gave some smartarsed university graduate the job of coming up with today’s barmpot system that no bugger can make neither head nor tail of .
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A very significant number of ‘Middle-Easters’ had double-drive in the earlier days of the run. My reading of the history is that O/Ds gradually moved to 4x2, then 6x2 as weights increased; as more knowledge was shared with Scandinavians who favoured 6x2s in snow; as the roads beyond Europe improved; as fewer destinations entailed off-road access; as the extra costs of running 6x4 at 38t were realised etc etc.
are you still about Dave