The crows previous maid making coffee…
Nobelly tank on the trailer Tony and no trailer box, early days that was 1977, that Scania had 1, 400 litre and 1, 200 litre fuel tanks. Crow.
geoffthecrowtaylor:
Nobelly tank on the trailer Tony and no trailer box, early days that was 1977, that Scania had 1, 400 litre and 1, 200 litre fuel tanks. Crow.
I posted on the gearbox thread.Geoff,I remember that truck well.It was the first truck I went abroad in,Amsterdam with tyres for Dawnyard.Non sleeper cab with a couchette screwed to the back wall.A mark 2 RR 280 eagle coupled to a 9 speed Fuller box with a Scamell Crusader or contructor propshaft.It was a real hybrid.The biggest problem was the angle of the propshaft to diff,it was too steep and the prop was too heavy and it used to pull the diff pinion bearing loose.It didn’t matter how much torque you put on the flange nut it still used to wear the spacer out and the flange would come loose again.You drove it a lot more than me,you had it all over the place,I bet it could tell some stories eh!
newmercman:
Look at this beauty
I recognise this ERF, it was not Nick Bulls as pointed out, it was owned and operated by Star Commercials on general haulage in Saudi. They were based in Damman, driven by a local. They also kept spares for ERFs and supplied some new vehicles, one of the same spec going to Caravan Trucking (run by an ex-Middle East owner driver called Peter Best) based in Damman driven by an English lad from the North East, I think his name was Angus!
The spec on the ERF was 14 litre 350 ■■■■■■■■■ 9 speed fuller and Kirkstall double drive back end. It was new in 78-79
newmercman:
Jamie, that does look like NB’s ERF, could be the same one or from the same batch at least. Was that possibly from S Jones’s time out east
If it helps, the S. Jones ERFs were 14 litre 290 ■■■■■■■■■ 9 speed fuller Kirkstall back end, also new in 1978, were driven by English lads and were painted in Trans-Arabia bright orange livery.
well hears the story lads young phil is on his way down to abu dhabi he gets the 2 day boat from mersin to port siad 5 days later he was still bobbing around in the sea just out side port siad the shipping co have not paid the port charges (what chance have you got) this service has been running for many months now so this aint just a hickupp just bad managment the whole service is a night mare going when they want sotimes missing sailings by days cant see a lot of future this way
With all that poncing around it has to be quicker by sea now, so it could spell the end of overland to the M/E 
Now there’s a bit more stability in Iraq, compared to Syria anyway, would it be possible to go down that way and drop down into the Emirates 
newmercman:
With all that poncing around it has to be quicker by sea now, so it could spell the end of overland to the M/ENow there’s a bit more stability in Iraq, compared to Syria anyway, would it be possible to go down that way and drop down into the Emirates
Listening to BBC World Service just now Iraqs had its worst day of violence in a long time, I say poke the loads where the sun dont shine & ship em topped deep sea Keith…
fly sheet:
newmercman:
With all that poncing around it has to be quicker by sea now, so it could spell the end of overland to the M/ENow there’s a bit more stability in Iraq, compared to Syria anyway, would it be possible to go down that way and drop down into the Emirates
Listening to BBC World Service just now Iraqs had its worst day of violence in a long time, I say poke the loads where the sun dont shine & ship em topped deep sea Keith…
I can just see Keefy lined up in Tilbury with all the spear chuckers 
cookie1:
newmercman:
Look at this beauty
I recognise this ERF, it was not Nick Bulls as pointed out, it was owned and operated by Star Commercials on general haulage in Saudi. They were based in Damman, driven by a local. They also kept spares for ERFs and supplied some new vehicles, one of the same spec going to Caravan Trucking (run by an ex-Middle East owner driver called Peter Best) based in Damman driven by an English lad from the North East, I think his name was Angus!
Hi Cookie1, that certainly brings back memories, IIRC Peter did well out of Caravan Trucking and left Saudi with his pockets filled. Most of the guys were then doing traction only, pulling Sea Land Air containers between Dammam and Riyhad, I think he had about six trucks based on the Khobar road. Could Angus be the same guy who later lived in Qatar in the early 80’s and had quite a gift with languages ?
ATVB - RDF
Hi All
Details of Tony Somersons Funerall Mon 17th Sept at 12 noon
Garden of England Crematorium
Sheppyway
Sittingbourne
Kent ME9 8GZ
After to The Knoll Resturant
School lane
Higham
All freinds and old mates of Tony still with us please come.
Loose wire i m sure that you are Rita but as the Spanish say no pasa nada which means it does nt matter, i m really sorry i can t get there for Tony s send off and thinking about it the last time i saw him was at Kavala circa 1984 when he was taking Billy Russels broken down Scania topped back to Britain, my wife Susan made breakfast for 14 on that occaision . I never saw Tony after that it was rumoured that he was opening an up market Restaurant somewhere in the smoke give him a good send off regards Crow.;
bestbooties:
john.d.m:
Anyone remember Les Rivett? I remember him telling me of his first trip, I think it was Baghdad,for Spiers and Hartwell.
I real real proper bloke, he`d been at it for yrs when I started on Europe.I only ever met one Spiers and Hartwell driver out east,name of Tony Perkins,spent some time at Ramtha with him.
I used to hang out in hartwells yard when I was a kid.went up the road with les,tony and many others.dunno what les it up to now,he must be getting on abit now.he did work for allelys heavy haulage for a while.top bloke.
Loose-wire:
Hi AllDetails of Tony Somersons Funerall Mon 17th Sept at 12 noon
Garden of England Crematorium
Sheppyway
Sittingbourne
Kent ME9 8GZAfter to The Knoll Resturant
School lane
HighamAll freinds and old mates of Tony still with us please come.
how did it go today when did tony leave us i just found out
bradfordlad9999:
keith the thief:
WELL LADS IM BACK firstly if your offended by missing full stops and capital letters dont read my driving is better than my writing to them lads who want to know how the trip went hear goes as you know the trailer was held for 10 days by customs but released in the end nothing wrong they said still had to pay £680 to dover harbour board proper liberty any way gets rolling thru france and italy and arrives in ancona to meet the lads gary lyons young phil daz nick bull wayne skinner john boy carrot and hamma our bahrain friend he was taking a stack of trailers down they had all loaded valves in italy for dammam we shipped on various boats and made our own ways to turkey i was told by astrans that because of the value i must not go via syria the others planned to. well about aksoray i heard on the world service that the turk syrian border had been over run by terrorists we now know because of u tube it was al quida 31 border guards dead and all the turk trucks burned and destroyed so it was straight to mersin phil had phoned and booked us in advance but all this did was get us in the gate of the port by this time every truck in turkey was trying the same route so very bizzy in the morning we tried to book 2 weeks they told us lol of to the gondol hotel for a sleep it was saturday then we got the ferry not the next thursday but the one after we have an arangement now where we can book and pay in advance saving the 2 weeks but we had to go there to sort this the first time to skip on we loaded about 5am it was very hot the boat was a night mare cabin temps of 34 all night unsleepeable after 60 hours of bobing along at 10 to 12 knots we hit port sied we had to wait half a day for 6 big container ships to exit the suez canal so we could use the shipping lane to enter port getting of by 6 pm it was then we learned that terorists had killed 20 egyptian border guards in th siannai desert very close to were we were so no convoy the next day to unstabled they said the day after we crossed egypt in convoy plenty of police cars and army trucks with us all armed 350 km later we hit port suez now lads if you want me to go on let me know but im knackered now and all this writing is stressing me so il finnish tommorow if you wanthow do we get on this job ive got left ■■■■■■ waiting
Bradford Lad, perhaps you should have thought about leaving slanderous comments on You Tube if you wanted a start on Astrans! You`ve got no chance!!
Loose-wire:
Hi AllDetails of Tony Somersons Funerall Mon 17th Sept at 12 noon
Garden of England Crematorium
Sheppyway
Sittingbourne
Kent ME9 8GZAfter to The Knoll Resturant
School lane
HighamAll freinds and old mates of Tony still with us please come.
I hope everything went well yesterday Rodger and Tony got a good send off.It’s always sad when one more of the pioneers leaves us.“Old truckers don’t really die,they just drive away into the sunset” R.I.P
Isn’t Google wonderful? 
Hi All
I have a couple of pics from the late Tony Soameson’s funeral will post asap ,a good turn out Tony was a popular chap ,I estimate over 100 freinds turned out to wish Tony fairwell, Kevin and Jan from Astrans,Jeff Woods the shunt driver,Alison Moss,John Frost ,John Haffenden,
Dave Poulton,Roger Haywood,Gordon Pierce,Peter Cannon,plus many more from Tony’s other interests including Motor racing and classic cars his freinds from his resturant and of course his love of sailing ,the list is getting smaller and smaller but thats life as time goes by ,R.I.P Tony
R.I.P Mr Soameson
RIP Tony
Wheel Nut:
Isn’t Google wonderful?
No so wonderful for Mr McCann, aka @bradfordlad9999 on twitter.
I wonder if that is McCann’s who used to have the big hp Foden 8 wheeler?