Hi Jamie
Sounds a very interesting trip to have been on! Wish i had been around all them years back to have experienced what you all went through on the middle east run. Heard a lot from many a good driver about the job and feel i missed out. Anyway hope all well for you all in the valleys
Reg Colin
Nothing wrong with your attachments Fred (I bet you have heard that before 
).
Didn’t you just love those blinds in the old M.A.N’.s, I thought that they were very practical the only problem was that you had to take all your maps out of that shelf above the windscreen when you were entering The Commie Block or else they would be all over the cab after about five minutes. I remember that my first M.A.N. with the column change was also fitted with a diff lock which came in very handy in those Rumanian winters.
O.K. lads thinking caps on, where was I when I took this photo with Alan Morrey 
Regards Steve.
mushroomman:
Nothing wrong with your attachments Fred (I bet you have heard that before
Didn’t you just love those blinds in the old M.A.N’.s, I thought that they were very practical the only problem was that you had to take all your maps out of that shelf above the windscreen when you were entering The Commie Block or else they would be all over the cab after about five minutes. I remember that my first M.A.N. with the column change was also fitted with a diff lock which came in very handy in those Rumanian winters.
O.K. lads thinking caps on, where was I when I took this photo with Alan Morrey
Regards Steve.
Hi Steve, wasn’t the chap mentioned (Alan) who had an Austrian (A) sticker on his front bumper and in latter years worked for the beer outlet “Eastenders” at DQ ? Regards Fred
Hiya Fred, I think that you are getting mixed up with Derek Robbo who went to work in The Eastenders after Dow finished, although I can never remember going in there I thought that The Eastenders was in Zeebrugge for some reason 
.
Alan Morrey used to drive a Foden for many years until he got a new M.A.N. 22.321., Alan did work for Thor Transport at Stoke on Trent before he moved to Dow. He was a smashing bloke was Alan.
I thought that you might of recognised where that old water pump was Fred 
.
Regards Steve.
freshir wrote - Thanks for that bit of info Steve, Eastenders was definitely at DKQ and like you I never used the place being a TT myself, as for the water pump I must own up to not knowing it but when someone recognizes it then I suppose it will nudge the old memory box, “BUT” I know the two women on the pump !!!
Really Fred 
. Katcha never mentioned you especially when she spent a whole Saturday afternoon showing me around Wenceslas Square and the surrounding area of Prague. Was she wearing that Fruit Of The Loom tee shirt that I took her for Christmas .
Regards Steve.
Hello all. If you find yourself with a couple of hours to spare try this link…
archive.commercialmotor.com/sear … ran&page=1
It is the archive page of Commercial Motor magazine. Type Astran into the search bar at the top and it should bring up 4 pages of all their stories from past issues back to the 1970`s.
Im sure some of you old M/E hands will recognise some of the names.
As for rates to the Gulf. In January 1991, one O/D was getting £6000…but wanted another £300 on top “but only to cover increased fuel and living costs”
Edit…I believe this month there is an article in CM about the overland (and Sea) route via Egypt to the M/E that KTT and the others took earlier this year.
bullitt:
Hello all. If you find yourself with a couple of hours to spare try this link…archive.commercialmotor.com/sear … ran&page=1
It is the archive page of Commercial Motor magazine. Type Astran into the search bar at the top and it should bring up 4 pages of all their stories from past issues back to the 1970`s.
Im sure some of you old M/E hands will recognise some of the names.
As for rates to the Gulf. In January 1991, one O/D was getting £6000…but wanted another £300 on top “but only to cover increased fuel and living costs”
Edit…I believe this month there is an article in CM about the overland (and Sea) route via Egypt to the M/E that KTT and the others took earlier this year.
Thanks for posting the link, it sure made me wish I could turn the clock back. Astrans first load was press machinery back in 64, I left on my first trip for IRC dec 10, 67 arriving in Teheran feb 17, 68. swore I’d never do it again. So much for swearing 
, deadheaded home in 10 days with a ragged truck. Spent a 2 yrs home working for Entress before the bug hit me again, i think thats when I hooked on with Collintor.
tell us more about collintors barney i have an interest …
you wouldnt happen to have a photo of the 140 would you ? or even the DAF drawbar .
bowser:
tell us more about collintors barney i have an interest …you wouldnt happen to have a photo of the 140 would you ? or even the DAF drawbar .
I don’t have any pics from my Collintor days cause it cost me my camera, at the scale house down from the Iran border and never replaced it. My two trips were done in a f88 pulling a van, the livery was brown/silver and yellow. Jason Vick obtained the 140 while I was in Teheran, in fact he caught up to us. 2 brothers I think their last name was Chambers or Chamberlain, drove the other 2 f88’s, and a Titch Westfall drove red f88 with a drag axle fur a subbie. The 1 brother wrecked in Yugo hit the other in the a##, we left him there to get repairs. If memory serves me right Jason and the other brother arrived in Teheran together. The subbies f88 cost us alot of time agro with that drag axle, had to jack it up and chain it, just to get traction. I still hate drags. The Daf had to have been after my stint.
I switched over to Simon Int, where I drove the 140.
freshir:
hutpik:
Hi all.Where the bloody hell have you been Barney.I posted on here about 2 yrs ago asking what had happened to you,If you had died,got shot by an irate husband or moved.The last time i saw you,you were working for the Dutch company with the blue and white motors.[what was their name and where were they]I was working for I.T.Holland then.I remember you saying you were dreaming of going to the States to drive and fall in love lots.Start posting for us whats been happening in the intervening 35yrs.The old guys are dropping like flies so we’re running out of stories about the ‘‘special companies and people’’,like Collintors.Take care.MikeFreshir (Fred wrote)
Hi Barney, what a surprise old mate, I’ll nudge your memory, we run together many times in the mid 70’s when you were with
Gartside from Shepperton Middx: I had my own truck in them days an orange MAN - and in latter days do you recall that I got you out of trouble at the Londra when you were driving for a Dutch company and you had battery trouble ■■ We met up many times after that and you caught me out on one occasion when we were both parked up on the way home just before Kapic and you quietly and discretely changed into your Arab gear and crept back to my veh: and asked if I knew Barney ■■ I think that on that occasion I had my wife with me = = = Remember . regards Fred
Here you go Fred, just foe you hahaha!!!
my stepdad was jason vick … i remember sitting and listening to all kinds of strange tails as a kid .
did you work for pool trucklines in the U.S ?
bowser:
my stepdad was jason vick … i remember sitting and listening to all kinds of strange tails as a kid .did you work for pool trucklines in the U.S ?
No I started off as an owner/operator, with a 74 KW, running as a wild cat cowboy. After getting caught too many times, I leased on to a heavy haul company out of Indiana, running oversize through 48 states. They folded in 1990 so I bought 2 custom built sleeper coaches and started touring with major rock and country music bands, from here in the US and UK. “Cradle of filth” “Saxon” “The Chameleons”
How is Jason? I heard he emigrated to Canada. He is the guy who rechristened me Barney, said he didn’t like my birth name lol.
Teherani:
bowser:
my stepdad was jason vick … i remember sitting and listening to all kinds of strange tails as a kid .did you work for pool trucklines in the U.S ?
No I started off as an owner/operator, with a 74 KW, running as a wild cat cowboy. After getting caught too many times, I leased on to a heavy haul company out of Indiana, running oversize through 48 states. They folded in 1990 so I bought 2 custom built sleeper coaches and started touring with major rock and country music bands, from here in the US and UK. “Cradle of filth” “Saxon” “The Chameleons”
How is Jason? I heard he emigrated to Canada. He is the guy who rechristened me Barney, said he didn’t like my birth name lol.
he died about 7 yrs ago mate , cancer got him .
i know he went to the U.S not long after collintors , alabama as i remember and worked for pool trucklines . he came back with an american fella who’s name i cant remember . i do remember the name barney so that must have been you he was talking about . he also had a load of photos of collintors motors so i would imagine you could have been one of the faces on the pictures maybe .
its a long time ago and its difficult to remember but we would sit for hours looking at his photos , he had a pile of them in his briefcase …
bowser:
Teherani:
bowser:
my stepdad was jason vick … i remember sitting and listening to all kinds of strange tails as a kid .did you work for pool trucklines in the U.S ?
No I started off as an owner/operator, with a 74 KW, running as a wild cat cowboy. After getting caught too many times, I leased on to a heavy haul company out of Indiana, running oversize through 48 states. They folded in 1990 so I bought 2 custom built sleeper coaches and started touring with major rock and country music bands, from here in the US and UK. “Cradle of filth” “Saxon” “The Chameleons”
How is Jason? I heard he emigrated to Canada. He is the guy who rechristened me Barney, said he didn’t like my birth name lol.he died about 7 yrs ago mate , cancer got him .
i know he went to the U.S not long after collintors , alabama as i remember and worked for pool trucklines . he came back with an american fella who’s name i cant remember . i do remember the name barney so that must have been you he was talking about . he also had a load of photos of collintors motors so i would imagine you could have been one of the faces on the pictures maybe .
its a long time ago and its difficult to remember but we would sit for hours looking at his photos , he had a pile of them in his briefcase …
Darn thats tough thing to hear R.I.P. Jason and save me a ride on that highway in heaven.
he’ll be up there , if thats where he went , ■■■■■■■ someone off no doubt … he never changed a bit very sure of himself until the end , infact i dont think i heard even admit he was ill 
Teherani:
How many of y’all remember what this, is and where is it?
Ali Baba roundabout Baghdad.!
Oops i made a mistake, It aint that one…
GS
Thanks Barney - terrific memory - was that taken at the Londra ■■ Also is it ok with you if I copy your photo to my library ? what a pity that that you lost your camera eh. regards Fred
Definitely looks like Ali Baba roundabout on Saadoon Street in Baghdad.
In the 70’s they were laying a massive water main through this roundabout. A French company had the contract which involved a penalty clause if they didn’t make good the road within a certain period. They had huge problems matching the pipes up and as time ran out they virtually crashed the two ends together, filled it all in and tarmac’d over the top. One of the engineers told me that one day the whole lot would blow and the street would erupt, but it doesn’t appear to have happened yet!
