mushroomman:
Hi Boatchaser, I am afraid that his name doesn’t ring any bells with me but he may of worked for Dow before I started. There was a guy who I met once in West Germany who I think only lasted for about three months and I never saw him again but sometimes you might of only seen some of the drivers twice in a year. Sometimes you might ship out with somebody and end up doing four or five trips before you saw them again.
On one trip I arrived at a place in Yugoslavia on a Saturday morning and was told that I couldn’t tip until 8 a.m. on the Monday morning so I pulled out of the factory and parked around the back next to a little restaurant. When I drove around the front on Monday morning Tony Macloud another Dow driver was parked there, he had arrived on Saturday afternoon and didn’t know that I was in the area. 
Regards Steve.
Steve thanks for your reply. I know what you mean my dad worked out of S.Ireland for Andrews & Bond then on Tanks for Brit and he would often say the same thing wouldn’t see guys for months then they come like buses
Was in Batman early 80’s at the Turkish Air Force base.
I have only recently found this forum.
Should anyone wish to communicate with the owner of The Dow Group of Companies about any aspect of those great days from the 70,s and 80,s then please do so.
Cheers !
Roger Dowsett.
Nice to see you aboard Roger Dowsett. Attached is photo found on the web.
sandway:
Nice to see you aboard Roger Dowsett. Attached is photo found on the web.
and is this an impersonator?
roger dowsett:
I have only recently found this forum.
Should anyone wish to communicate with the owner of The Dow Group of Companies about any aspect of those great days from the 70,s and 80,s then please do so.
Cheers !
Roger Dowsett.
What was your father’s favourite card game and what was the name of the truck that you named after him.
sandway:
sandway:
Nice to see you aboard Roger Dowsett. Attached is photo found on the web.
and is this an impersonator?
Hello Brian, Mickey Dunstan wasn’t an impersonator he was just a nice man, a very, very nice man. 
Mick at Carrisio.
Photo courtesy of Truckerash.
youtube.com/watch?v=VJcVEh2 … ture=share
Hi David, no I am afraid not, I thought that if it was Roger then he would of been one of the few people who would of known the answer to that question.
Not even a refrigeration specialist from Hull would of known the answer to that one. 
Great photo B.T.W. Robert, I havent seen that one before although I think that the driver was Billy Fuller.
Here is a photo of Billy and one of David’s old work mates Corrie, working on one of Corrie’s old trucks which was a Fiat .
Ramnicu Valcea, Romania.
Regards Steve.
mushroomman:
Hi David, no I am afraid not, I thought that if it was Roger then he would of been one of the few people who would of known the answer to that question.
Not even a refrigeration specialist from Hull would of known the answer to that one.
Great photo B.T.W. Robert, I havent seen that one before although I think that the driver was Billy Fuller.
Here is a photo of Billy and one of David’s old work mates Corrie, working on one of Corrie’s old trucks which was a Fiat .
1
Ramnicu Valcea, Romania.
0
Regards Steve.
Hi Steve,
If I remember correctly,Harry Savage aquired the white Fiat from Ken,as I worked nights for SoM,I used to help Harry during the afternoon,I recall driving the Fiat with a coil onboard to RR in Crewe,the steering shake was horrendous,Harry said many people had tried to trace and solve the problem,but all in vain!
David
Hiya David, your last post has got me thinking, didn’t Ken’s white Fiat have two large Saint Georges flags painted on the doors. 
I am sure that if Ken was still going to places like Pakistan, Iran, Syria or Iraq with that Fiat then it would still be attracting a bit of attention from the locals. 
I remember Ken telling me that back in the seventies, the water pump on the white Fiat packed up in the middle of winter somewhere in Hungary. He took the pump off and after spending sometime trying to get it repaired he ended up hitching to Budapest in the snow and he still couldn’t get it fixed. So in the end he decided to get the train back to Vienna where he knew that there was a Fiat agent and he managed to get a replacement pump. He then had to hitch back to get to the Fiat and if I remember correctly it had taken him three days to get it sorted.
How I remember this story is because Ken said that he had to catch The Orient Express from Budapest to Vienna and the train was a crappy old thing and that it was nothing like the one that they had shown in the film. Another driver started arguing with Ken and said that The Orient Express went from Austria into Italy and Yugoslavia and didn’t go through Hungary. I must admit that at the time I didn’t have a clue which way it went but wouldn’t it have been good to settle a lot of those trailer box arguments back then with access to Google. 
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orient_Express
Budapest, Bridge Over The Danube.
Yugoslavia near Nis.
Belgrade New Customs Area about 1986.
Jimmy Walker.
mushroomman:
Hiya David, your last post has got me thinking, didn’t Ken’s white Fiat have two large Saint Georges flags painted on the doors. I am sure that if Ken was still going to places like Pakistan, Iran, Syria or Iraq with that Fiat then it would still be attracting a bit of attention from the locals.
I remember Ken telling me that back in the seventies, the water pump on the white Fiat packed up in the middle of winter somewhere in Hungary. He took the pump off and after spending sometime trying to get it repaired he ended up hitching to Budapest in the snow and he still couldn’t get it fixed. So in the end he decided to get the train back to Vienna where he knew that there was a Fiat agent and he managed to get a replacement pump. He then had to hitch back to get to the Fiat and if I remember correctly it had taken him three days to get it sorted.
How I remember this story is because Ken said that he had to catch The Orient Express from Budapest to Vienna and the train was a crappy old thing and that it was nothing like the one that they had shown in the film. Another driver started arguing with Ken and said that The Orient Express went from Austria into Italy and Yugoslavia and didn’t go through Hungary. I must admit that at the time I didn’t have a clue which way it went but wouldn’t it have been good to settle a lot of those trailer box arguments back then with access to Google.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orient_Express
Budapest, Bridge Over The Danube.
3
Yugoslavia near Nis.
2
Belgrade New Customs Area about 1986.
1
Jimmy Walker.
0
Hi Steve,
That’s an interesting story re Ken obtaining,eventually a new water pump for the Fiat,typical of Ken though,not many problems had Ken stumped.
When I drove the Fiat it was totally white and that sort of rust red chassis,no writing or anything on the doors,perhaps I am wrong,I just recall Harry telling me who he aquired the Fiat from,and in those days,Harry,Ken and John Roberts were great buddies.
David
Don’t think this photo has been on here before but I kinda remember it from somewhere.
Last few photos not mine but courtesy of Facebook.
6 wheeled unit. Didn’t see many of them on Dows.
Hi Sandway, thanks for showing the photos as there are two of them that I have never seen before. 
The first photo I took in the desert near Fallujah while we were waiting to do customs. I had a full load of whiskey on for a Yugoslavian construction company down by The Army Canal in Baghdad.
Strangely enough, just after you posted that photo Trucknet member Jacks full of aces revamped an old Middle East Hands thread which I had posted a story on about ten years ago. If you want to have a look at it then you will find a few more photos that I took at the time. I always seem to remember the “extraordinary” or the one off trips and after reading that one again I realised that I missed a few things out which some people might of found interesting.
Your second photo which I don’t think that I seen before looks like it was taken in Dow’s Swindon depot and I am not absolutely sure who those drivers are but I have a feeling that the guy on the right wearing the jumper is Bob Kilby. The guy in the middle looks like a fitter who worked in the Stockport garage called John and the other guy might be an old ex Radclive driver called Dave Butland but like I say I am not really sure.
The third photo was taken in Izmir customs by the driver of the Dow truck Terry Smith who used to do continental work for Cawthorn Sinclair back in the seventies. Next to him in the yellow Volvo was a person who you have mentioned before in one of your threads, an Astran subbie called Roger (Rita) Haywood.
The fourth photo I have never seen before and I can’t make out the names on the trucks but I presume that they are parked next to one of White Trux from Canterbury.
The last photo is one of mine taken by Howard Hughes using my camera and you might be able to see me sat in the driving seat. Now at the moment Brian I can’t think where that photo was taken but it must of been in 1986 and I was carrying a load for Courtaulds.
How can you remember that, I hear you thinking
Well if you look at the trailer very closely you might see a few ropes appearing out of the bottom of the sheet.
We did a lot of work for Courtaulds to Turkey and The Commie Block countries from their factories at Flint in North Wales, Grimsby, Coventry and Sponden near Derby as well as from their warehouse on Greengate in Chadderton, Oldham. It was usually large bales of cloth and when we were running at 32 ton on four axles we could load the bales three high. When the 38 ton regs came in Dow bought some M.A.N. 22-321 twin steers and we were able to load the bales four high but unless you roped each row before you laced the sheet up and put the customs seal on, you really were taking a chance. The new tri axle trailers that came along all had a row of rope hooks down each side because if those bales started moving a wooden tilt board wasn’t going to hold them.
If you look at the side guards on the trailer in that photo you can see my old snow chains which I usually stored on my tractor so I must of used them just before that photo was taken and I probably thought that I would be needing them again soon.
I am lucky to say that I never lost one of those bales of cloth but I know a man who did.
Morning Steve. You mentioned Roger Haywood in your last post. I have attached a photo from the Promotor thread. Roger is on the left leaning on the crashed unit with Promotor’s Welly Ward on the right. Met him many times but never ran with him. A nice bloke.
