Some priceless stuff on this thread! Bump. Robert
As you say Robert,priceless.At the same time it’s sad to know\wonder how many are no longer with us.It’s nice to see the old faces and remember but sad to think you will not meet them again.Mike
Reading through this thread again reminds me of how many more friends we have lost since the thread started.
Just in case no one had worked it out before, I think it’s safe to reveal now, that The Reddesertfox was non other than our very own Rick Ellis.
I had the distinction of taking Tony out on his ‘makee learn’ trip on OHS to Izmir. Two GMC’s and Tony in a Mack. One of the GMC’s also driven by a rookie, jackknifed in Praque and after sorting out as much as we could, Tony and I continued on to Izmir. Great guy and sadly missed.
bestbooties:
Reading through this thread again reminds me of how many more friends we have lost since the thread started.
Just in case no one had worked it out before, I think it’s safe to reveal now, that The Reddesertfox was non other than our very own Rick Ellis.
Hi Ian, I don’t know if you can remember but many years ago I mentioned on here a story that Trevor Long (a.k.a. The Wing Commander) told me one night in The Windmill in Keskemit. He said to me that he was getting a lift home from the depot with another Astran driver whose name at the time escaped me and for some reason I thought that this other driver owned a Jag or some other high performance car. They pulled into a garage to fill up with petrol and were both distracted by a beautiful young lady wearing a very short skirt, it was a couple of minutes later just before the tank was full that the other driver realised that he had been using the diesel nozzle. They then had to spend the next half an hour draining the fuel tank. I remember asking Alison The Sheep Lady if she knew who the driver of the Jaguar was but she couldn’t remember any Astran drivers who drove one. About twelve months later when Rick joined the site he sent me a P.M. saying that it wasn’t a Jag that he had but a Rover 3 litre which was an ex motorway patrol car and had been fine tuned quite a lot. Rick said that Trevor often reminded him about that little incident. R.I.P. Rick.
This story that was in the papers a couple of weeks ago brought back a few memories of my first trip to Turkey
dailymail.co.uk/news/article … -back.html
The trailer that I was pulling had just been fitted with a brand new shiny “Long Vehicle” plate on the tailboard and Tony Gibbons an ex Tanker Bill driver who I was running with bet me that it would be stolen by the Turks before we reached Adana. As a first tripper I was very interested to listen to any advice that the old hands 
could pass on to me so at the time it sounded like a good idea to put a rasher of bacon at each end of the long vehicle sign. After a couple of hours they looked nothing like bacon rashers as they were shrivelled up, covered in dust and probably half cooked. To cut a long story short the long vehicle sign was still there when I arrived back in the U.K. unlike my G.B. sticker that was stolen in Dyerbakir. 
R.I.P. Big T (Photo from Dave Mackie)
Regards Steve.
Tony Baker at the scene of the crash in Prague.
Jazzandy:
Tony Baker at the scene of the crash in Prague.
Tony looks real concerned there by the body language, Andy.
How did it manage to get in there on a straight road.
Straight wet slippery road downhill - brakes - jackknife !
. As a first tripper I was very interested to listen to any advice that the old hands could pass on to me so at the time it sounded like a good idea to put a rasher of bacon at each end of the long vehicle sign. After a couple of hours they looked nothing like bacon rashers as they were shrivelled up, covered in dust and probably half cooked.
Ha ha…this reminds me about when I used to be on my way home empty from Doha, some of us used to go into Iraq through Ar Ar Border and after clearing the Saudi side there was an area of no-mans land where you would go through the Wadi on a stretch of unmade road. There was an army check-point where the soldiers would always walk you round the trailer and demand that you open the trailer boxes for a control. It was quite common for the guard to ask for some of the tins of food inside the trailer box so when he asked I used to tell him that it was pork and make a piggy grunting sound… 
even the cans of Tuna got the grunt !!
He used to just shout " Yallah" in disgust and signal you to go…GS.
Prague jacknife from the other side.
Czech this out. I hope the link works.
9news.com.au/world/2015/12/1 … h-republic
The roads through Prague were always giving me problems, low tram wires, low bridges, tram lines, cobbled streets with deep pot holes, sharp bends that you had to cross onto the other side of the street to get around and that was on the T.I.R. route which wasn’t very well sign posted. I remember once that they were doing road works, they just closed the road and put up a diversion sign with arrows pointing to the left and right with no other directions of how to get back onto the main road, this lasted for about three months. And when it snowed those cobbled hills were always a P.I.T.A. and that’s looking back while wearing my rose coloured glasses. 
Regards Steve.
Mike has asked me to post the following pics on this site for him. In case you need to have your memory jogged, Mike first subbed for ASTRAN in 1975 with an old red F88. which is when I first met him. He then sold the lorry in 76 and joined the firm I was working for which was Simon Int. and drove one of the roadtrains reg. HMM 121 N. In 77 he moved to Holland and worked for I.T. Holland/Afgan International.
Captions and photos supplied by Mike Sargent and for a bit of fun I’m initially not going to include their names and I won’t post them all at once.
“The Good, the Bad and the Others”
We all have met many people on the M.E. run, some we remember with fondness, others not! Here are some faces from the past. Who remembers who■■?
“I really wanted to be a cowboy”
“God bless the Raj old chap”
Hi Ron
Not sure about the first, but the second picture is the one and only “Gerry Wheelan”……R.I.P. He certainly lived the life of two men……
Reddesertfox:
Hi RonNot sure about the first, but the second picture is the one and only “Gerry Wheelan”……R.I.P. He certainly lived the life of two men……
Hi Red, Gerry Wheelan was another one of those names that I heard alot of in the early 80’s although I am not sure if I ever ran with him. You know how it was, some times you may of shared a table with them at The Windmill and then you might not see them again for another year or so.
The strange thing is that two days ago I received an e-mail from Peter The Plater and he happened to mention a little story about Gerry Wheelan and him at Falluja. It seems that Pete and Gerry had run out of beer and Gerry got into Pete’s cab lifted up the bunk and broke into Pete’s first aid kit which contained a bottle of alcohol for medicinal purposes and just happened to be a bottle of Blue Label Vodka. It must of worked as a seditive because a couple of hours later Pete had to put Gerry to bed. This wasn’t the first time that this had happened as Pete kept reminding Gerry that the score was now Hick’s 2 Astran 0.
Two months later on his way home Pete had parked at Birechek and after a couple of beers he had gone to bed when Tony Skillen and an Astran driver called Rick woke him up. Rick was another of those names that I often heard mentioned but I can’t ever remember running with him. Rick said that to keep up the good name of Astran it was only fair that there should be a rematch so that he could level the score. Pete told them that he was already full up but they wouldn’t have it, so then they went at it round for round. As Pete said, Allah must of been backing him that night because the score ended up Hick’s 3 Astran 0.
As I said before Red, it’s strange that Gerry’s name should be mentioned twice in three days, did he ever relate the above story to you or did you ever hear something similar.
B.T.W. he did say, abi so ile wish u a chok guzel crimbo an iyi yeni yil,pete.
Regards Steve.
Reddesertfox:
Hi RonNot sure about the first, but the second picture is the one and only “Gerry Wheelan”……R.I.P. He certainly lived the life of two men……
Spot on with Gerry Wheelan, Reddesertfox. So in the league table you are in the lead! Still waiting for a name for photo no. 1.
I’ll post another couple now. Good luck.
The Welsh Omar Sharif
Hurry up, I’m shy
Never met the man,but it looks rather like Dave Poulton■■?
hi
the first picture is of CHARLIE NORTON
KW, A good guess on pic Nr. 4. It is without doubt Mr. Poulton.
Pic 3, no idea.
Regarding Pic Nr 1, A wild guess…Could it be The infamous Mr Ruggins.
chalkey:
hi
the first picture is of CHARLIE NORTON
1st pic Def’natly Charlie N. I recognise that hat anywhere, ay Chalkey… 
pic 4. A young and shy (?) Dave P. Love the Scania jacket. Any one got one still?
The Welsh Omar Sharif
Eddie Nixon.
Dave.