Ah John its as it was !!! you could set off in the morning and wonder if you would make it through the day !!! I myself was one of these lads that Ron was on about up early and over the mountain before the real heat set in and about car transporters see attached Mah Salahm
.
The accidents !! SA was littered with some laughable and some Whow !!! That must have hurt ■■? Taffie told us about this Arab swerving round his front end ! Then his car did a 180 and went sideways down this pipe line trench perfect fit , unable to get out Taff stood on the side of the car and opened the door like a hatch ! The Arab struggled out , all the lads in the canteen shouted , did he give you a drink Har Har , Taffie said No the tight so and so!!! the story’s in the canteen where fantastic ! I can imagine the chaos left behind !! the likes of JW in his R hand drive with a forward facing mirror , !!! Trans Arabia road trains left a trail of destruction from the bottom of Tief to the foot ball ground in Damman !!! Like JW and Backsplice they where up front don’t look back just get clear and park up ?!! It’s got nothing to do with me settling down for the night for some kip with a smile on there face , Ron
Making sure all the trailer lights where working !! Then winding up the slack adjusters on the the brakes . I waved it off , .!! After Tief !! With tonkers to the left tonkers to right and a clear Desert road ahead .■■ Good luck to any body that would attempt to get by this juggernaut on the old road , you will have to have a certain type of Religion and even then it’s an inshallah job ■■ Ron
ronhawk:
Making sure all the trailer lights where working !! Then winding up the slack adjusters on the the brakes . I waved it off , .!! After Tief !! With tonkers to the left tonkers to right and a clear Desert road a head .■■ Good luck to any body that would attempt to get by this juggernaut on the old road , you will have to have a certain type of Religion and even then it’s an inshallah job ■■ Ron
ronhawk:
Making sure all the trailer lights where working !! Then winding up the slack adjusters on the the brakes . I waved it off , .!! After Tief !! With tonkers to the left tonkers to right and a clear Deseret road a head .■■ Good luck to any body that would attempt to get by this juggernaut on the old road , you will have to have a certain type of Religion and even then it’s an inshallah job ■■ Ron
Ron
The only real problem with these motors is that they should have been 6 X 4. Not. 4 X 2
Ken
KB I agree but the work they did was rememberable , the new 6x4s Gogie and Taffie where well pleased , so was I the work load was immediately shared across the drive Line ,!! John , I saw a few Europeans driving south from Damman to Najran with news paper covering the best part of the wind screen ? Did J longhorn do this ? Ron
Some superb pics of Trans Arabian ERF NGCs there, Ron. Thanks for posting them! Robert 
Wow Ron, very nice pictures again! You keep this thread very much alive and kicking.
On one of the pictures I am again intrigued by the anti-slip profile on the coupling-bar
as also can be seen on the (first NGC of) Van Steenbergen (AFU.615) and the Thibaut
(JJ.393)…without having the files on hand being abroad now…I remember some
of the newly bought/delivered TA’s and even one of the Groenenboom had those.
A simple addition to enable safe cleaning of the windows, to step on the bar.
Great stuff Ron … I though in light of the tragedy in Mecca I would recall the Haj lots of pilgrims in the yellow buses crammed packed like sardines all dressed in terry toweling robes we had loads of them camped out side the depot gate in Jeddah …cominh in off the roundabout its a wonder lots of them were,nt flattened the Haj hotel if memory serves me was almost diagonally across from our depot but that might,nt be accurate …attached is a pic at the gate … also a couple more “MISHAPS” on the road some pics courtesy of Ian ( the pig )Pender…and Friday night down the souk sitting drinking cold drinks we used tom head down in the VW Combi bus buy some cassettes to have blaring across the desert… I,ll save some stuff for another day for another day but most of us that had the experience are getting on but most of the memories are vivid !!! keep yup the great work where,s Merlin ■■?
Mah Salahm
backsplice:
Great stuff Ron … I though in light of the tragedy in Mecca I would recall the Haji lots of pilgrims in the yellow buses crammed packed like sardines all dressed in terry toweling robes we had loads of them camped out side the depot gate in Jeddah …cominh in off the roundabout its a wonder lots of them were,nt flattened the Haj hotel if memory serves me was almost diagonally across from our depot but that might,nt be accurate …attached is a pic at the gate … also a couple more “MISHAPS” on the road some pics courtesy of Ian ( the pig )Pender…and Friday night down the souk sitting drinking cold drinks we used tom head down in the VW Combi bus buy some cassettes to have blaring across the desert… I,ll save some stuff for another day for another day but most of us that had the experience are getting on but most of the memories are vivid !!! keep yup the great work where,s Merlin ■■?Mah Salahm
Hi
On the roundabout by the Saramat depot was the Seaport Haj/Umra terminal, so all those coming off ferries from Sudan/Egypt/etc used to stay there - in our early days(1976) after the Haji which was in October/Nov if I remember correctly about 2million descended upon Jeddah sleeping and ■■■■■■■■ on the streets awaiting there return flights or ferry - it was horrendous - everyone was getting flu and stomach bugs - this went on for a couple of years at Haji time intill the government sorted out the Pilgrim centre at the new airport and bused them to and from Mecca. All these people who decended on Jeddah were looking for work and many stayed illegally - then there would be an amnesty and work visas issued. This is how TA got Hamza our v good Indonesian cook.
I also remember one year there was heavy rain at the end of the Haji with hundreds living around that sea terminal centre roundabout - the roundabout was flooded and the Transport manager from Saramat - Graham Hertbert from Yorkshire - I think was his name went round the roundabout at speed in his 4 X 4 drowning them!! Pictures all over the local press and he was put inside for a while!!
Keep them rolling
Ken Broster
ronhawk:
KB I agree but the work they did was rememberable , the new 6x4s Gogie and Taffie where well pleased , so was I the work load was immediately shared across the drive Line ,!! John , I saw a few Europeans driving south from Damman to Najran with news paper covering the best part of the wind screen ? Did J longhorn do this ? Ron
Ron
I don’t think you were there when the 6 x 4 ERFs came - yes they looked good and both those lads liked them but I think Taffe Bill moved on to A !ack when they came?? Those 2 motors both Burke down on there first trips into Almasarne Mine - middle of nowhere - I was with them - it was the thermostatic switch on the fan - you had to wind in a nut on the front of the flan blade unit to lock them in to overcome the failure - we found that every time these units went into Almasarne they needed a week in the garage to be rebooted back together - the route used to shack them to pieces - hence why we used the Macks to shunt into site from the main road compound - if I remember we had 2 Macks based there for a month straight a time.
The Macks were purchased through the UK Mack agent based in Bolton!! Yes Bolton - with hindsight we should have had ■■■■■■■ engines fitted - I think Catterpiller was an option.
So when did those 2 Macks in your picture get into that state??
The original order was for 24 but the balance were cancelled after Hines started to blow up with valve float issues caused by Uk drivers not understanding operating instructions for the Mack Engine brake which wad different to the Jake Brake system - they never you us this until afterwards !!!
Ken Broster
PS
And in the end they ran and still run a fleet of Volvos - bloody good trucks they are too with good dealers
Ok I need to wash my mouth out!!
Thinking back on some of the things that happened I have a chuckle to myself when I remember an incident that happened to me not on the road but while doing a delivery Jeddah local … I had a 40 ft container loaded to the gunwales with Italian Floor tiles I arrived at the drop and was proceeding to open the container doors when the owner came out of the warehouse and started to beat his foreman (Indian or Pakistani) around the head shouting and screaming in Arabic I let go the handles and turned round to see what the commotion was !!! he explained the poor man was supposed to open the doors not me it was,nt my job. I had done my part just getting there ■■?
work that out ■■?
While I,m on it some of these Jeddah deliveries you had to watch for stupid balconies when going down narrow streets the corner of a container could likely bring them crashing down ■■?
Inshalah
Wow, that painting might indicate Rembrandt or Van Gogh was in KSA…
A- J that photo was painted by Binzagres daughter , Ron
Reminds me on business with Al Jehat (Damman) and Bin Moosa (Dubai) for many years
ronhawk:
Backsplice’. sounds like you had some very local drops , !! Any thing like the painting ! Ron
Hi Ron
Do you have the original picture?
It’s panted by Wahib Bizagrs sister he had no children
There were 4 brothers( Wahib, Faisal, Mohamed, Abdullah) and 1 sister
The Binzagr family originated from a region of the Northern Yemen called Hadromut as did the Binladins, Binmafoz and Bugshan families etc all merchant traders and even much further back came from Northern Sudan
Sorry for the history lesson
I have a few of her pictures - they are worth a few shillings in London
Ken
