Cammell Wagon,run by a guy from Dagenham,down in Chequers Lane if I remember rightly,just over the level crossing (what was the name of the cafe right opposite?)
I spent a weekend in Athens with Tony (can’t remember his surname) who drove for Cammell Wagon for quite some years,he had an old F88-240 at the time.
He was there with another Cammell Wagon driver,a dutchman on his first ever trip abroad,which turned out to be his last trip for the company.Tony said the dutchman had been six feet from his back bumper all the way down to Ancona,and continually drinking beer and whisky,even whilst driving.
The crunch came on Saturday morning when a crowd of us went up to the supermarket to get some spuds,and the dutchman,as bold as brass,sticks a bottle of Johnnie Walker inside his jacket and walks out.
Tony was straight on the phone to Kyle,his boss,and told him that as soon as they get back the dutchman has to go.
And he did.
I bumped into Tony several years later in Wolverhampton truck stop,he’d packed in the M/E and was working for Abbey Hill out of Dagenham.
The last I heard of Cammel Wagon was when they took on a rookie who had never been over the water. They gave him a left ■■■■■■ for his first trip. He got as far as the first peage in France & ripped the right side out of the truck & flooded the place with cherry from the false bottom tanks that they specialised in.
Dear all
I have just returned to my sunny Caribbean Island, after a short trip to the UK.
While I was there I bought a new scanner so that I can upload some more of my old pics at home instead of doing it at the office.
This is a few of us at the Telex Motel, waiting to see what was going to happen at the beginning of the Gulf War 16th Jan. We were stuck there for 6 days, in the end we just headed for Syria and got through without any problems. The problems started in Jordan, with some very angry crowds…turning trucks over with sheer volume of numbers. The Turks were Sh*!&ing themselves, but we soldiered on in true Brit fashion.
When we got to Haditha, the Saudis thought that we were mad, heading towards the War Zone.
Once we got in, up on the TAP Line near AR’AR, there were several Police road blocks but they let us carry on once the shelling had stopped up ahead!!
" OK, you can go now, the shelling has stopped."!!!
Heres a nice pic of the famous Scammell Scud at the Telex on the same trip.
This pic is in Kuwait, on the road to Iraq, it was called the Highway of Death, because the Iraqi’s were getting bombed as they tried to escape out of Kuwait. They took anything that could move, it was a frightening sight, there werent even any birds, it was just silent and eerie.
This one is of my 112 in Kuwait waiting to clear customs after the war, when Saddam had set the oil wells on fire. Check out the black cloud from the burning oil. It didnt half give you a sore throat, breathing in that ■■■■!!
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Heres one on the TAP Line, on our way home from Doha. Anyone thats been down that way will know that we were homeward bound, because the oil pipeline ( TAP Line) is on the lefthandside of the road.
Heres a different trip, parked up in the desert near Hafar Al Batin. I used to try to get here in one hit, from Haditha. But sometimes I could only make it to the Petrol station at Rafha.
And this one is of my 141 at Khafji border, waiting for the Arab weekend to finish so that I could clear customs into Saudi.
You are welcome, Im glad that my old pics are being enjoyed. Every time I dust off the box and start looking through, I drift off into old memories and think of the good and bad times that I and loads of others had, whilst on the long road to distant places.
When you get there though, that was only half way. You had to get home.
Heres a pic on the road to Dukhan, Qatar.
and here is Al Karama Punchery, the Qatari version of KwikFit tyre services on the road to Salwa border.
We started to have to take off our Belly tanks because the Saudis used to cut big holes in them and make you take them off at the border, when they did the inspection. In the earlier days it wasnt a problem though, you could come back with them full of cheap Saudi deisel. What we used to do to get round it was to fill up everything at the last possible cheap place on the way down, ie Rumo or Bulgy, then leave what was left in drums at Aksaray or Osmaniye, and have just enough on the truck to get into Syria or Iraq, where you could fill up with cheap squirt. Coming home we used to fill up some empty drums in Iraq and strap them down in the trailer, and hope that the Iraqis at Zakho border didnt make you go to the pump to get it pumped out( thats another story ) Sometimes a bribe would work, some bananas, pillows,etc. If you were coming back Jordon/Syria then you were limited to two hundred litres at Bab el Hawa Border, and if you had more,and they dipped you then the cost was astronomical. ( ask Hooperman)
The turks used to get away with it and sometimes so did I but the risk was really high.Then we would get back to Aksaray or Osmaniye and put the tanks back on fill up with the deisel that we left in the drums, and that would give us enough to get back into Bulgy for more cheap squirt. This was when the Turkish deisel was expensive 1DM a litre
As I said in an earlier post, the Turks used to get away with leaving Syria with fuel in Belly Tanks, a little baksheesh no doubt.
Here is an example of what I mean. Ha Ha Ha…
This photo was taken at Ramtha border.
Heres a rare pic.
Me and an Indian friend, with Mark Stewarts S reg 141 in Doha, outside Al Kulaifi Garage.
It didnt last long, caught fire on the way home in Bulgaria…Gutted for him.
This one is me in Kuwait .
And this one is my buddy Johnny Neville, with Ritchie Thornes Volvo at Kaf in Saudi, on our way back from Kuwait. ( John drew the cartoon that I posted on the Old drivers forum)
This one is me and Nick King, coming home from Nicks first trip to Doha, on the TAP Line at Hafar al Batin, in Saudi.
Yes GS i remember black bob also Bob Hedley i had the pleasure of two trips with bob a real character liable to cause a riot at anytime Bob and i were parked outside tarmacs compound for the night just out side basra when a scud missile landed 300 metres behind us it left a 10 metre deep hole with muck scaterred for hundreds of metres.
I tried to take a photo of the hole but to bring a camera out in front of the Iraqi police would have created big problems so i took a pic of the sweet turnip sales stall which were on the roadside next to the tarmac camp which was in the date palms behind.
The picture below was also taken at Basra among the date palms
GS Did you ever meet Gerry pictured below he drove a silver white i think it was his own truck and did a lot of work for Astran as we all did another good man on the job
Another pic of java John who reccons that why Astrans trucks were yellow same as the desert the Iranians could not target them on the al kut road as it was a shorter route from Bagdhad to Basra we used the Al hillah road in the daytime because at night the Iranians would target your lights so it was safer in the day time as opposed to meeting ■■■■■■■■ coming towards you with no light on
Hi Klunk
Yes I remember Gerry, although I wasnt on the job during the Iran Iraq war.
Nice pictures though. I just went to your photo bucket, and pic LWF0047 your T reg 111. Is the 111 next to you a Danish motor, belonging to Danish Tony and his dad.
Yes KW you’re spot on.
That 141 belonged to my mate Mark Stewart from Nottingham and he had the cab extended by fitting a middle section in from another 141. t didnt last long though, it caught fire in Bulgaria one trip on his way home from Doha.
