HI you old dow freight drives its hector here been wondering where you all were .Went to see the ■■■■ the other day told me you all get together sometimes would be nice to catch up with you . As regards John Conneely was with him the other month at Malc Hollaways funeral in Swindon one of the old drivers from the Swindon depo his still driving out of Peterbrough i think we both had a bit to drink as you do when go back to the good old days. Hope to hear from some one soon .
Hello Wayne and welcome to Trucknet 
, it’s great to hear from you as I haven’t seen you since Ken Singleton’s funeral back in the nineties. Sorry to hear about Malc Hollaway but it’s good to know that John Conneely is still around.
Dave Shawcross and Barry Longden still organise a get together every year and if you send Roy The Boy a P.M. then I am sure that he will put you in touch.
Here is a photo of yourself that you might not of seen before which was taken by Jimmy Walker, I bet you can’t remember what Eric was saying which seemed to be so amusing. 
And one from a reunion that we had a couple of years ago, we all missed you Hector .
And a photo of Don Gibson and Brian (Nobby) Clark on their way to Sinop on The Black Sea Coast in Turkey.
If you have a look on the Astran/Middle East thread there are loads of names that you will recognise and quite a few places.
Regards Steve.
mushroomman:
merlin2:
hi this roger hambleton the volvo you are asking about tony and myself bought that n reg and also an m reg
the n reg was driven by frank andrews i drove the m and tony stuggled along in our daf 2600 we used to do turkey i can still remember the weekends at the harem hotel.great days!.reading your message brought a lot of memories back.Hello Roger and welcome to Trucknet
I don’t think that we ever met but you and your Tony’s name was one of those names that I heard quite a few times many years ago. It would be great if you and Tony could share some of your Middle East or Commie Block driving experiences with us all on here.
Frankie Andrews was one of the blokes who I did my first trip to Turkey with, I suppose you know that he got killed when the tanker he was driving rolled over somewhere in France while he was working for Norbert Dentressangle. Sadly his wife Brenda died last year after losing her battle with cancer but before she died she gave Terry Smith a few of Franks old photos which he sent to me and I put them on a D.V.D. along with some more of my old Dow photos and sent it over to her. Terry said that she was over the moon when she received it and she passed away a couple of months later.Here is a photo of Frank and Brenda which was taken in The Grand Bazaar in Istanbul when he was working for Dow.
Take care Roger.
Regards Steve.
I just thought I would tell you all that Franks Widow Brenda died of cancer last year. RIP
rocky 7:
mushroomman:
merlin2:
hi this roger hambleton the volvo you are asking about tony and myself bought that n reg and also an m reg
the n reg was driven by frank andrews i drove the m and tony stuggled along in our daf 2600 we used to do turkey i can still remember the weekends at the harem hotel.great days!.reading your message brought a lot of memories back.Hello Roger and welcome to Trucknet
I don’t think that we ever met but you and your Tony’s name was one of those names that I heard quite a few times many years ago. It would be great if you and Tony could share some of your Middle East or Commie Block driving experiences with us all on here.
Frankie Andrews was one of the blokes who I did my first trip to Turkey with, I suppose you know that he got killed when the tanker he was driving rolled over somewhere in France while he was working for Norbert Dentressangle. Sadly his wife Brenda died last year after losing her battle with cancer but before she died she gave Terry Smith a few of Franks old photos which he sent to me and I put them on a D.V.D. along with some more of my old Dow photos and sent it over to her. Terry said that she was over the moon when she received it and she passed away a couple of months later.Here is a photo of Frank and Brenda which was taken in The Grand Bazaar in Istanbul when he was working for Dow.
Take care Roger.
Regards Steve.I just thought I would tell you all that Franks Widow Brenda died of cancer last year. RIP
sorry Steve I should have read tour post fully I didn’t realise you had already said it.
Hello everybody just joined and found this site and found it really interesting it roused my memory regarding my late father i think some of you fellas may have known him he was well known and liked, his name was Ken Owen and lived in Stalybridge and Ashton Under Lyne i remember in the early 80s he drove to "the commie block"as he used to put it and i definitely remember going to Dow Freights yard with him but not sure if he worked for them or not,I cant ask him has he passed away 18 months ago and my mother Mary died 8 years ago but would be interested and love to hear any tales or escapades he got up to, just a long shot but thought id give it a go,
other firms I know he worked for were,but sure there were more
Sammy Scotts
Joesph Hoyle
Blue Dart
Trendsetter
Ray Dakin
tydsley Wilkinson
Brian and Dave Hollinghurst
DrakaFoam
John Jaques
R Plevin and Sons
we also lived in a pub for a while called the Asshetton Arms in ashton,any info at all would be great cheers all
Regards Jase
Hello Jase and welcome to the Trucknet site. I can’t remember your dad from the eighties but if he was a stocky fellow with thick black hair then he might be the same Ken Owen who I worked with at Blue Dart in the early seventies. Rocky 7 probably knows him as he also used to run a pub near Oldham which was often frequented by lorry drivers. Your dad probably knew Jimmy Walker but did he ever mention a really tall fellow called Granville (I can’t remember his surname at the moment) who used to do Middle East in the seventies and also came from the Ashton area.
If you do a search at the top of the page for Scott’s of Oldham or Joseph Hoyle then you might even find a photo of one of your dads old lorries and if you have got any of his old transport photos then please put them on the site so that we can all see them.
Your dad no doubt knew Ken Singleton who I mentioned on one of the other pages of this thread as Ken also worked for Blue Dart in the early seventies. It’s seems strange mentioning Singo today as he lived for over a decade in the same street on Langley as that soldier Lee Rigby who was murdered in Woolwich on Wednesday.
jasetrucker:
Hello everybody just joined and found this site and found it really interesting it roused my memory regarding my late father i think some of you fellas may have known him he was well known and liked, his name was Ken Owen and lived in Stalybridge and Ashton Under Lyne i remember in the early 80s he drove to "the commie block"as he used to put it and i definitely remember going to Dow Freights yard with him but not sure if he worked for them or not,I cant ask him has he passed away 18 months ago and my mother Mary died 8 years ago but would be interested and love to hear any tales or escapades he got up to, just a long shot but thought id give it a go,
other firms I know he worked for were,but sure there were more
Sammy Scotts
Joesph Hoyle
Blue Dart
Trendsetter
Ray Dakin
tydsley Wilkinson
Brian and Dave Hollinghurst
DrakaFoam
John Jaques
R Plevin and Sons
we also lived in a pub for a while called the Asshetton Arms in ashton,any info at all would be great cheers all
Regards Jase
Hi Jason,I have a pic somewhere with you as a very young baby sat on my knee.(not gary glitter style)My ex and I used to knock about with your mum and dad back in the 60’s when we both worked for Vitafoam.
I was sorry to hear that your dad passed away, and your mum Mary.we had some good times in those days.
mushroomman:
He certainly did and John like most of us used to take the rough with the smooth
I remember the guy on the right in the pic, but I haven’t a clue as to his name.
I remember a guy called “Steve” on DOW Freight and another driver called “cowboy.”
Cowboy had the hat and boots and told me that they call us cowboys, so he thought he might as well look like one!!Of course, just like any other firm, there were rumours and scurrilous tales flying around about DOW Freight at the time.
Half forgotten stories about truck registration numbers, a visit from the Ministry and something to do with a submarine come to mind, but I’ve no idea of the truth of the matter.
Can anybody fill in the gaps?
dieseldave:
mushroomman:
He certainly did and John like most of us used to take the rough with the smooth
I remember the guy on the right in the pic, but I haven’t a clue as to his name.
I remember a guy called “Steve” on DOW Freight and another driver called “cowboy.”
Cowboy had the hat and boots and told me that they call us cowboys, so he thought he might as well look like one!!Of course, just like any other firm, there were rumours and scurrilous tales flying around about DOW Freight at the time.
Half forgotten stories about truck registration numbers, a visit from the Ministry and something to do with a submarine come to mind, but I’ve no idea of the truth of the matter.
Can anybody fill in the gaps?
“Steve” would probably be Steve Crewe(Mushrooman), Cowboy was Bill macdonald,and Billy(Bradford) Murry ran into a low loader carrying a submarine on the M6M
rocky 7:
“Steve” would probably be Steve Crewe(Mushrooman), Cowboy was Bill macdonald,and Billy(Bradford) Murry ran into a low loader carrying a submarine on the M6M
Bill McDonald was the little Scotsman that used to work for Chapman and Ball,I think he has sadly now left us.
bestbooties:
rocky 7:
“Steve” would probably be Steve Crewe(Mushrooman), Cowboy was Bill macdonald,and Billy(Bradford) Murry ran into a low loader carrying a submarine on the M6MBill McDonald was the little Scotsman that used to work for Chapman and Ball,I think he has sadly now left us.
Yeah! thats the same Bill macdonald, when Dow packed up, he went driving onn the UK for antler luggage , sadly he passed away with cancer about 20 years ago.
dieseldave:
mushroomman:
He certainly did and John like most of us used to take the rough with the smooth
I remember the guy on the right in the pic, but I haven’t a clue as to his name.
I remember a guy called “Steve” on DOW Freight and another driver called “cowboy.”
Cowboy had the hat and boots and told me that they call us cowboys, so he thought he might as well look like one!!Of course, just like any other firm, there were rumours and scurrilous tales flying around about DOW Freight at the time.
Half forgotten stories about truck registration numbers, a visit from the Ministry and something to do with a submarine come to mind, but I’ve no idea of the truth of the matter.
Can anybody fill in the gaps?
Hello Dave, I shall have a go at filling in some of the gaps for you although bits of it might be a case of M.M.T.M. as you can’t be in all the places at the same time.
As far as I can remember there were three drivers over the years called Steve and a subbie from Liverpool called Steve Nicholls who everybody called Stevie Nicks in the days when Fleetwood Mac were very popular. I have a feeling that he might of done a bit of work for Eric Lucas or Norseman out of Birkenhead, along with Bob Matthews so I wonder if this is the one who you met.
Stevie Nicks on the right with Howard Hughes on the left at The Mocamp in Istanbul. Photo from Terry Smith.
There was a Hungarian guy in his fifties called Steve Pinter who we affectionately called Stevie Goulash. Steve escaped from Hungary in the 1956 uprisings and spent some time in a refuge camp in Austria before being recruited by The National Coal Board to work on The Staffordshire Coalfields. Steve told me that after he had become a British Citizen he had always dreamed of driving back to see his relatives that he had left behind all those years before and in the seventies he got the chance. While he was waiting at the Hungarian/Austrian border at Sopron he saw a Dow Freight lorry and noted that it was from Stockport. Shortly after arriving back in the U.K. he was made redundant by The National Coal Board and he decided to take his H.G.V. class one. After he had passed his test he drove up to Stockport and asked for a job, even with him not having much lorry driving experience it was probably felt that a Hungarian/German speaking driver could be a good asset as most of Dows work at the time was in The Commie Block.
The last time that I heard about Steve was a couple of years ago when Jeff, The Flying Foden told me that he had met him a couple of times going across to Europe on the ferry when Steve was driving a tanker for somebody in The Midlands (possibly Shirleys).
Billy (Jock) Macdonald, the original Cowboy. Billy was in his late fifties when I first met him, he was one of those old blokes who everybody got on with and had worked for a number of Middle East companies one of which was Chapman and Ball. He had been around the block a few times calling in at places like Iran, Pakistan and Saudi but he always managed to get home… eventually. As Bestbooties might agree Billy wasn’t really as good as he thought he was when it came to “tinkering” about with mechanics or electrics. As far as I am aware Billy was one of the early users of the C.B. in the U.K. in the early seventies after spending a lot of money on a C.B. in Holland and he used the name “Cowboy”, soon after he started wearing the cowboy hat although I can never remember him wearing boots. The problem was that using a C.B. in the U.K. was illegal at the time and Billy used to have to disconnect it and hide it every time he came into Dover.
Billy was spotted adjusting his trailer brakes at Carrisio one day and was asked do you know what you are doing Bill. No problem he replied and I took this photo a couple of days later after Billy’s trailer brakes had set on fire going UP Mont Blanc on the Italian side somewhere near Aosta.
R.I.P. Billy you brought a lot of smiles to a lot of drivers faces.
And the story about the submarine, well actually it was a Robotic Submersible on a low loader.
In 1985 Billy Murrey who lived in Bradford arrived in Dover on a Thursday afternoon and was told that once he had cleared he had to run up to Stockport, drop his trailer in the yard and pick up an empty one to load somewhere in The North East on the Monday. Billy didn’t get cleared until late Friday night and another driver who lived in the Bradford/Leeds area asked him if he could have a lift home as he couldn’t get cleared until the Monday morning. It wasn’t unusual to give other drivers a lift from Dover who would only end up weekending in The Albion and spending a lot of money.
Billy told me that he had run up to Watford Gap where they had a 30 minute break and a meal and somewhere around Birmingham the other driver asked did Bill mind if he climbed into the bottom bunk to catch forty winks. Billy didn’t mind and the other driver was soon asleep with his head lying behind the drivers seat. Somewhere between Hilton Park and Stoke Billy hit the abnormal load that was parked on the hard shoulder and was partially in lane one without any lights on just after midnight. This stretch of The M6 didn’t have lights at the time and I never found out why the French driver had turned his lights off.
It later turned out that an Indian Airways Jumbo Jet from Canada had exploded due to a terrorist bomb over The Atlantic a couple of days before. The submersible robot on the low loader was being taken from either Marseilles or Le Harve by two French drivers to a port on The West Coast Of Scotland where it was to be loaded unto a ship before travelling to the suspected crash site. I never did find out why they had stopped on the hard shoulder and nobody ever mentioned anything about a breakdown. Billy was very badly shaken and was off work for few weeks and the other driver was trapped in the cab by his legs for a couple of hours before they could get him out.
Does anybody on here know who the other driver was.
Billy Murreys motor after the accident.
And as regards all the Dow Freight lorries all having the same registration number, well that’s simply not true.
Regards Steve.
mushroomman:
Billy (Jock) Macdonald, the original Cowboy. Billy was in his late fifties when I first met him, he was one of those old blokes who everybody got on with and had worked for a number of Middle East companies one of which was Chapman and Ball. He had been around the block a few times calling in at places like Iran, Pakistan and Saudi but he always managed to get home… eventually. As Bestbooties might agree Billy wasn’t really as good as he thought he was when it came to “tinkering” about with mechanics or electrics. As far as I am aware Billy was one of the early users of the C.B. in the U.K. in the early seventies after spending a lot of money on a C.B. in Holland and he used the name “Cowboy”, soon after he started wearing the cowboy hat although I can never remember him wearing boots. The problem was that using a C.B. in the U.K. was illegal at the time and Billy used to have to disconnect it and hide it every time he came into Dover.
Billy was spotted adjusting his trailer brakes at Carrisio one day and was asked do you know what you are doing Bill. No problem he replied and I took this photo a couple of days later after Billy’s trailer brakes had set on fire going UP Mont Blanc on the Italian side somewhere near Aosta.
R.I.P. Billy you brought a lot of smiles to a lot of drivers faces.Regards Steve.
When I was on for C & B,and they had an office in Amman,I was returning from Saudi entering Jordan up the King’s Highway from Al Mudawarrah with instructions from the Amman office to turn off the main drag at Karak and follow the road down to the Dead Sea where I would find a work camp run by an English and American consortium,Wimpey Laboritories and Brown Root.
They had been drilling in the bed of the Dead sea for Phosphate,a valuable mineral,used in agriculture,as Jordan had no oil this was to be a big earner for them
I was told that as they were packing up their operation,we had the job of loading the drilling equipment back to the UK.
I was also told that Billy McDonald was on his was back from Dammam on the same errand as myself.
However,he had suffered a gearbox failure on his 290 Volvo,and only had first and second gear in the main 'box.He was lucky enough to meet up with Tony Khan who towed him up the tapline and into Jordan,leaving Billy to limp down to the Dead Sea to meet up with me.
I had been asked to see if I could fix Billy’s motor,(As I was roving fitter for all the firms I worked for),so when Billy arrived,I suggested that he load my trailer while I checked his gearbox out.
After taking off the gearbox top it soon became clear the the third/fourth gear selector had broken,so I removed it and borrowed a pickup truck from Wimpey’s and went into the Volvo agent in Amman and obtained a new part,came back and fitted it,by which time Billy had loaded my trailer.
I think Billy was better employed loading my trailer than working on the gearbox.
I was wondering how he had managed to break the selectors in the 'box,but while I was in there I noticed that in the oil at the bottom of the 'box there was a lot of bronze filings,and I mean a lot,from the selectors and synchro cones.
Obviously,Billy was a bit heavy handed on the gearchanging.
Now my memory has been awakened again,when I first applied to C & B for a job,I was taken out on a driving assessment by another of C & B’s drivers,another Jock McDonald,(Not Billy or even big Ron Mcdonald!),but another big fella.
He recommended me and I got the job.
It was not long after,I came upon his 290 Volvo abandoned at Kapicule,his last message being that he had no brakes on his unit,and he was not driving a truck with no brakes.
I checked the truck over and only found that the front brakes had been wound right off,so when the footbrake was applied,the rear wheels locked and the truck jacknifed,surprise,surprise!
Once the front brakes had been adjusted the brakes were perfect.
The truck was empty on the home run,and I forget now who was with me,but we had no other driver in the vicinity and were told by HQ to top it and bring it home,what a waste.Never saw or heard of this Jock again!
steve the last time i met Stevie Goulash he had just had a engine failure in Germany and was calling it a day when he returned to the UK . it wasn’t Shirley’s he was on for but can’t for the life me think who he was doing traction work for . the few times i met up with him he came a cross as a decent bloke .
the flying foden:
steve the last time i met Stevie Goulash he had just had a engine failure in Germany and was calling it a day when he returned to the UK . it wasn’t Shirley’s he was on for but can’t for the life me think who he was doing traction work for . the few times i met up with him he came a cross as a decent bloke .
I think Steve was on for S.Jones the last time I met him, I think that Joe Toole was on there too.
Some good pics, tales and memories there chaps!! Keep em coming!
Hello Jeff, it’s great to hear from you again after all this time any news of Alan Morrey ? Foden 46 bumped into him at a truck show in Sandbach a few months ago. Alan said he was just going to find a cash machine and then he would come back and go for a pint but he must of got lost as he never returned. 
Bestbooties, your last post was very interesting and has just reminded me of a few incidents that I saw on a couple of occasions. There were some blokes who were great with “The Spanners” and some who were good at making the tea whenever somebody broke down, old Billy Mac used to make a good cuppa. I met a few owner drivers over the years who would adjust the brakes on their hired trailer so that the brakes on the trailer came on just before the brakes on the unit came on, or that was the idea. When they arrived at The Mocamp or The Harem they would turn them back again and then wind the trailer brakes on once they had crossed Turkey. The idea was to save a bit of wear on the units brake shoes. 
Did you ever meet anybody doing such a thing.
Regards Steve.
Hello Archie, Stevie Goulash was the quite kind of bloke who liked to run on his own and do his own thing. I remember that he would go as fast as he could with minimum breaks to get to Szeged where his girlfriends family came from and then have a day off. He once showed me a friends garage just off the T.I.R. where we got three litres to the Deutsch Mark when everybody else were getting two on “The Black”.
I did a trip up to Gdansk in Poland with him once and he wanted to buy a thick winter coat to keep in the truck. After changing D.M.'s into Polish Zloty on the Black Market we went into a fairly big clothing store where I bought what looked like a new Polish Army green combat jacket which was very well padded and it was very cheap. The sad thing was that it fell apart after a couple of winters but I remember Steve telling me to cut the labels out of it before we got back to the Polish border.
I remember dropping him once at his house near Coven but think that I had to drop the trailer on the A449 as he told me that I wouldn’t be able to get the trailer down the lane where he lived.
I can’t remember if this was Eric Etchells photo or if it belonged to Ken Corrigan but the photo shows the end of The M67 near Hattersley just before it opened.
Pretty sure this one was taken on Foden 46 kitchen table.
Regards Steve.
mushroomman:
He certainly did and John like most of us used to take the rough with the smooth
John joined Dow after working for Bob Kilby International from Swindon doing Middle East work. I think that the guy on the right was called Dave Farmer who was also from Swindon although Farmer might of been his nickname
.
Farmer was his nickname ,his name is Dave Butland,he took me on my first trip over the water for Radclives…