Trans Arabia , Jedda ,going down the Suke with the lads on Friday Night sitting having Shi sitting next to the locals smoking there hubly bubly pipes !! It was a different world ,Ron
A-J my employment with GCC Was Jan 6th 1981 till Sept 22 1982 give or take a couple of weeks Ron
ERF-Continental:
Not exactly belonging to this thread but herewith two small movies from Damco-Van Swieten (later Nedlloyd
Road Cargo and a sister-company of Damco GG) heading towards KSA. Because of the file-size it’s in two parts.youtu.be/otKYI5YGuNI?t=838
youtu.be/rteS44ILYbkDamco-Van Swieten has been formed in 1848 and quite some companies as “Koopvaart” and “SBS” (Van der Schuyt,
Boom en Stanfries) were absorbed into Van Swieten. Damco by the way still exists being a part of Maersk now.
I’m glad you posted these - I haven’t seen them before! The footage is most entertaining (even if the choice of music is weird!). I never could understand this ghoulish fascination with horrific accidents, though: I saw hundreds on long-haul work but it never even occurred to me to take photographs of them. Nonetheless, I recommend a viewing. Robert
My wife got up for a call of nature at about 5am ! She then awoke me to look at a bright star in the east !!!, this was worth seeing it was completely on its own it really was a beacon of light very bright indeed in this of a light mouve twilight setting , looking up the info on the eye pad , finding that this is Venus , and apparently it is brighter than our Sun , and is a Crescent shape ■■ This then immediately took me back to TMS ■■ I had a Thie driver who was suffering from dehydration and was very ill ! I got a Shrilankan man to drive him to the Hospital in our Ambulance , which had the Crescent moon emblem on the side!!! " get the connection " now this vehicle was used to fetch and carry our food etc ,spuds greens rice meat the lot ? Well I told him to go QUICKLY ■■? the man was very poorly , the next thing that I heard !!! Was that the ambulance had rolled over on the Desert. Rd and was a right off ! The Thie driver who was covered in his own blood and rice was in a bad way but thankfully survived this ordeal , this Storie was printed in the local Damman paper , Ps Wirlinmerlin must remember this ■■? It was hilariRice !!! But only coment on the second part of this story , Ron
Picture this …Me and my mate were running back empty as usual from Riyahd I was in the lead we were cruising about 100 K,s ph or a bit more and had thought to get down Taif before dark, anyway cruising ahead was a Bedouin in a Datsun pickup carrying the proverbial camel he must have been dosing because every time I tried to overtake he wandered all over the road …well he did it once to often and swerved in front of an oncoming pickup who then swerved to avoid him running up onto the sand at the side of the road ricocheting under the front axle of my trailer and then it few out from underneath and the driver went literally flying through the air Me and my mate pulled up a wee bit firther up the road my matesaid " geez Bob he went through the air like a rag doll must be dead has to be brown bread !!!" That was a worry I pulled on a pair of jeans and put on a shirt after a bit of twoing and frowing I was taken in a pickup to the next village “police” hut this was about 200 k,s east of Taif the locals did,nt know what to do so I was piled into another pick up and between 2 police was taken to Taif HQ … I might add that before going to the local nick another pickup pulled up with the injured driver in the back covered in blood he was saying tell them it was not my fault …I said your not Saudi then he replied "nein I am German "all I could think of was thank #@&% for that
Anyway I ended up in Taif for 4 days My truck was picked up and taken back to Jeddah next day my mate saw that I was ok and went on right through to the depot to report you all know how phones were the German I believe was attended to somewhere but his company whisked him out and flew him home toot sweet as soon as he could move …I got out as I said 4 days later and nothing I know about was done about it I was given a desk job for a few weeks could have settled into that easily but when the big man came back from leave I was given my keys back as I had the correct work permit and licence… all good Fun see the pics
Inshalha
Nice one Backsplice , that pick up looked familiar!! it looked like the one I used for the Brridge ? Ron. A.-J your videos look like it was for us, the sand funnels they where plentiful in the desert and the American cars where the same this must have about late 70 s the one town may have been Jeddah ? Ron
Hey Ron, I see you driving (a bit disguised like the Mission Impossible team with the rubber face-masks) that
ambulance…and after reading your today’s morning experience…did Crescent Transportation had some
kind of a relation to Trans Arabia (see picture with WM on the hood) or just the competition?
There was no contractual relationship with Crescent/Sealand and Trans Arabia or anyone else, but we all worked together - I remember hiring Crescent fridge trailers to unload maybe 20 trailers full of frozen goods for Souks Supermarket - sheik Ali of Caravan was a big chum of the owner of the Souks, whose name I can’t bring to mind.
Merlin would always come to us for trailers and sometimes traction when he had a shipment of BP 45 gallon drums.
John
Thank you John for your explanation! I notice Crescent Transportation still exists with Iveco in their fleet.
By the way, quite extraordinairy the Autocar and Dodge, I assume with ■■■■■■■■■■■■■ under the hood.
@Ron, an example of a Dodge in allmost TA-livery… 
Headlights are doubles compared to the Crescent
and I guess you would like to replace the Chrysler V8?
J W & A-J Crescent did have some good gear , the fitting of the wheels to the hubs ?like the Mac I never liked the slippers that held them on and always kept checking the alignment of the thread to make sure that they ran true ,!!! I have seen this shot of the accident they had ? Thankfully Trans Arabia had good fortune Ron
Just for my mate Mirlin !! The fruit is ripe and ready for picking , Ron
Wow, what a harvest…I guess you’re on ebay selling baskets now?
Serious now, I am aware that ABC (Anorak, Bewick and Carryfast) asked/commented frequently…
but I am curious about S. Jones respectively Trans Arabia were crisp and thorough in their choices
for ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ would a Gardner, Caterpillar or even Perkins be ready for the M/E-job?
I notice that because the Dodge had Perkins and Caterpillar as an option next to ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■
Correct me when I am wrong but the Dodge was quite friendly in terms of
mechanics-access…just move the fenders even with battery and do it!
Copy of sales brochures, 1960-1962, quite a rare marque nowadays…?
A-J, S Jones of Aldridge certainly had a mixed fleet in the early days I worked there the trucks that stand out in my memory mainly Leyland 680s and Comets they where worked hard both had problems with Head gaskets , Dennis with Perkins not much trouble , although you could ratchet up the hand brake and burst the steel rope cable with this long leaver hand brake, Foden 8 wheelers Gardener , the double drive must have comparable tyres other wise you could wind up the diffs , Atkinson gardener .later with the ■■■■■■■ , ERF Gardener ,later with the ■■■■■■ , this proved to be the engine of Choice because of its strength and reliability, Ron
A remarkable repair to a Leyland Comet !!! This unit came in on my Night shift and on inspection was found to have the NS chassis member completely , cracked across the top web to the bottom ? Just behind the cab !! The fuel filter housing was the only thing that held it together .I phoned Frank Hicken and told him the bad news ■■? He said that this truck MUST roll whatever it takes !!! Well I picked the best 4men and set to , this truck did go back on service that next morning , quite a feat of engineering completely stripping out the chassis including the Turn table , the side cheeks had to widened to take in the new chassis member etc etc it was a job which Frank RIP was proud off , my men and I where praised for pulling off this extrordanery feat Ron " A Very True story "
This shot was taken at the rear of the Behring/Caravan yard, probably in about 1980, during winter, after heavy rainfall, when the shortcut from the Port to the Dammam Khobar road always flooded. I think it’s from my website.
A lucrative business for about 10 of us Brit owner drivers pulling trailers from Crescent/Sealand to Riyadh ended when Crescent imported about 40 of these Dodges and some Autocars from their Elizabeth, New Jersey terminal and employed Philippinos to drive them. I think the dodges had V8s in, but Ron will remember better than me.
We were lucky that Behring/Caravan was starting up - as mentioned elsewhere, as one door closes…
John.
The solid mass of the ■■■■■■■ engines with there cyl head bolts torqued down to over 300ft -lbs , the head gasket was bullet proof,together with its unique fuel system this engine was ideal for all temp from the cold climates of North America to the Heat of the Middle East ,with its AFC control it was proved to be the Engine for Trans Arabia , and with the Jake brake it was the best !! in my opinion !To touch the hub reductions ,on The ERF at the top of Tief mountain it would burn the skin of your hands, the loads of 40ton plus pay load ,told me that the engine was capable but the transmission will eventually brake down ? And so it was proved to be , The fitting of the Jake brakes and the rebuild of the Macs was full on ,there’s no denying that the trucks had trouble free 2years of back braking work ,hubs diffs clutches brakes tyres ,yes they where tested to and beyond there limit, I can only praise the skill of all the drivers and mechanics who kept T/A,rolling in 45deg plus , with a mountain to climb just outside the back door it was the early men who earned and the found the way to beat KSA. Ron
ronhawk:
The solid mass of the ■■■■■■■ engines with there cyl head bolts torqued down to over 300ft -lbs , the head gasket was bullet proof,together with its unique fuel system this engine was ideal for all temp from the cold climates of North America to the Heat of the Middle East ,with its AFC control it was proved to be the Engine for Trans Arabia , and with the Jake brake it was the best !! in my opinion !To touch the hub reductions ,on The ERF at the top of Tief mountain it would burn the skin of your hands, the loads of 40ton plus pay load ,told me that the engine was capable but the transmission will eventually brake down ? And so it was proved to be , The fitting of the Jake brakes and the rebuild of the Macs was full on ,there’s no denying that the trucks had trouble free 2years of back braking work ,hubs diffs clutches brakes tyres ,yes they where tested to and beyond there limit, I can only praise the skill of all the drivers and mechanics who kept T/A,rolling in 45deg plus , with a mountain to climb just outside the back door it was the early men who earned and the found the way to beat KSA. Ron
Ron
How old were thos Macks when they ended up like that?? Very disturbing & disappointing
Ken
On the old road from Dammam to Riyadh, before they built the more direct dual carriageway, head on smashes were a daily event. Impatience was a terrible killer. The RHD day cab Scania that I bought from Paul Kerr only had 5 gears (Paul said he only went across H4 in it once and blamed the lack of gears for getting stuck).
This of course made overtaking even more difficult. First you’d go over as far right as possible and count the trucks coming towards you. Then you’d wait, counting them off as they went past. Then you’d edge out, watching in the forward facing mirror fixed to the grab handle on the off side. A miscount and a swerve back in would raise the heartbeat somewhat! When you did overtake - Oh Lord won’t you give me some more power and more gears!
I’m one of the lucky ones. I saw on average an accident a day - that’s actually saw them happen, mostly due to the ‘me first’ mentality of the Arabs.
One accident on that road that wasn’t an accident, was the Mercedes 1418 and car transporter trailer belonging to a certain Lancashire haulier who had done a deal with Toyota in Dammam. Abdul Latif Jamil.
For about three years his drivers had taken seven Hilux pickups per day from Dammam Port to the dealer in Riyadh. When he bought a bigger Carrimore (I think) trailer, I subcontracted from his men using the old trailer (the owner remained in England and built a double glazing empire with the thousand pounds a week sent home from his Dammam operation.)
However, all good things come to an end and eventually the work dried up. Allegedly the order came from England to write off the Mercedes and trailer in order to claim the insurance.
On the Dammam Riyadh road there was an embankment about 150 miles from both Dammam and Riyadh. A driver, who shall remain nameless, took the empty truck and trailer and as it started to roll down the embankment jumped out. It just went down and toppled on its side - looking exactly like a truck that’s been rolled off the side of an embankment! Despite the photographs the insurance refused to pay, reasoning that it had been done deliberately and was actually fairly easy to recover!
We used to see it every day as we drove back and forth.
I guess it’s still there now! No accident ever seemed to be removed - or certainly didn’t then.
Just wondered if Ron remembered the car transporter at the bottom of the embankment?
John.