My mate worked for Lg Edwards of Bury st edmunds
i done a trip down to Torino with him in a 400 strato
(might have even been that one )
lead ingots out groupage back
spent 24 hrs in customs in torino snowed all the time whilst we were there .
somehow that trip gave me the taste of europe …
Did the flight simulator come from Link-Miles in lancing or Redifusion/ Thomson/ thales in crawley?.
I did my apprenticeship at Link-Miles and always remember chating to the Allport drivers when they were in loading up.
They all used to have these bloody awful talking reversing warnings saying “WARNING THIS ALLPORT VEHICLE IS REVERSING”.
To me it was always a signal to sneak down and buy a couple of cheap cases of beer the drivers were always trying to flog until one bay a snotty security guard put a stop to it.
I did go with the firm when they merged and moved to crawley but within a year I was working weekends to get some experience on my class one and a year after that I left engineering and haven’t looked back.
Cheers
Neilf
Good pics there Coffee.
neilf:
Did the flight simulator come from Link-Miles in lancing or Redifusion/ Thomson/ thales in crawley?.
That one was from Link-Miles in Lancing.
neilf:
They all used to have these bloody awful talking reversing warnings saying “WARNING THIS ALLPORT VEHICLE IS REVERSING”.
Not quite, they used to say “Attention, this Allport vehicle is reversing.” It was always good for a laugh when stopped at a pedestrian crossing to just ease it into reverse, at which point the 'voice would boom out “ATTENTION” then flick it back into neutral before the rest of the announcement. Very funny watching all the pedestrians looking about to see where the voice was coming from and trying to work out what was going on. 
They also were not very forgiving if you were making a right hash of reversing, everyone knew who the numpty was. 
neilf:
To me it was always a signal to sneak down and buy a couple of cheap cases of beer the drivers were always trying to flog until one bay a snotty security guard put a stop to it.
Could never be bothered with that myself, I was too bone idle to carry the beer from the shop to the trailer, or lug it down stairs on the ferry. i had a bit of a fall out with one of our drivers when he bought four cases of beer on the ferry and thought i would be carrying some down to the vehicle deck for him. He was not happy when I pointed out that I didn’t buy beer for myself as I couldn’t be arsed carrying it downstairs so if he thought I was carrying his he was mistaken. He struggled himself and halfway down the stairs he slipped, the beer went all directions. Did I feel guilty? Yes, for about 2 seconds then I was just laughing too much to care. 
neilf:
I did go with the firm when they merged and moved to crawley
I’ve done a few simulators out of there as well, most recently for the Euro Fighter. Best one out of Lancing was a sumbarine simulator to Bergen, in Norway, but that is another story. Happy days.
NICE pictures and written word as well thank you very mch
Prato has changed since I was there. We used to park all around the central railway station . We never had to do cook-ups. We had Brunos gourmet restaurant opposite the station where we would have five course meals alfresco with all the wine coffee & hard stuff for less than a fiver. But UK geezers still used to sneak off with out paying. ( Billy Pilgrim ,you still owe Bruno for five days meals x 2 a day..) PS. That driver in the blue with glasses...Thats not Derek is it..?He was the most useless prat I have ever met. He was very proud of the fact that he did Tehran regularly but didnt even take a screwdriver with him. He used to get all the UK drivers to fix his truck while he made the tea. I was on the same firm as him for a little while & a bigger scrounger you could never meet. Money,diesel ,knowledge he would pick you dry & then leave you for dust on the homeward straight when your money had ran out.
Funny thing was that he used to live in Germany. Bought a car on the knock & left to live in UK & didn`t finish paying for it… Years later he takes a truck across the German border & was slung inside. He said ." It was awfull .I was sharing the same cell with murderers and everything!!" He was a Brummie… 
harry:
Prato has changed since I was there.
Those pics are from around 1990
harry:
We never had to do cook-ups. We had Bruno`s gourmet restaurant opposite the station where we would have five course meals alfresco with all the wine coffee & hard stuff for less than a fiver.
Those pics are from the first weekend of August, not much was open as Italy had gone on holiday. Doing a cook up was also good for a laugh and helped pass the time.
harry:
PS. That driver in the blue with glasses…Thats not Derek is it…?
1990 Harry, I can’t remember what I had for breakfast, never mind names from 16 years ago.
Good pics
See what you can find when you dig back through old posts?
These pics were originally posted over two years ago.
Good snaps. I wish I had taken more. ( I wrote a long piece on Prato.Pressed the wrong button & its gone to that big forum in the sky…Gods will…)
Great pics coffee, i thought i remembered seeing the East Germany pics before. Either that or im psychic 
Nice one, coffee.
Prato: I had really done my level best to erase that place from my memory. What a rat-hole. Though H is quite right about Bruno’s making it a little bit better. It’s sad that there are so many drivers now that will never experience the joy of wasted days waiting for some prat to put a stamp on a bit of paper.
My memory of that place is, sadly, that if there was a driver on the ponce - and there always was - it was always a brit.
David
some fantastic pictures there, i loved the one in berlin with all manner of vws parked everywhere (im a big vw fan too you see!!)
got any more??
great stuff neil got any more pics from your travels ,weve had the films the book and i reckon we should have the picture book now what do ya say
im doing the pictures tonite,so another old topic come up.
great pics again neil.i remember the train station in prato as well,then the tir park where you took the pics.i was there meny times,used to load in albini pitigliani all the time.
got weekended in that park easter 1990.
we had an assorment of nationalities.
opened the side of my stepframe tilt and it became the kitchen and clubhouse.
i also play guitar and always carried it with me,so we could dance with each other as well as there was noone else more suitable to dance with.#i wont elaborate on that bit,we all know about prato.
we went to the supermarket and bought a huge pot and a bit of this and that to cook in it,i put a load of chillis in the mix.
there was a russian driver with us,when he tasted the food poisened with chillis he flew behind the trailer and got sick.
everyone else was quiet happy with my cooking.
a great weekend i will never forget.
we also found the local guy who sold the funny tobacco,it helped as well.
is that black scania next to walkers one of billy potters■■?
Great pics Neil. They brought back some of my happy days memories too.
Your post reminds me that I’ll have to dig some more of mine out…
hope neil clocks it dave.
the last post was 2 years before mine tonite.
greg50:
hope neil clocks it dave.
the last post was 2 years before mine tonite.
I’d noticed that too greg50, and I reckon Neil’s already seen it, but this post was well worth being bumped back up the forum.
Bet you remember those days too eh?:g:
i do for deffo dave.
a lot of it in a haze though.
the vino was weakness with me,too muchof it…