Istanbul 1974 skidded out giving my mate a tow
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Hi all.Jsutherland.I think that because most of us had no idea what to expect when we went to the M.E. we just made the best of things as we went along,both in the winters and summers.Yes,we got bloody cold in the winters when the diesel froze or the truck broke down.Fortunately there was a camaraderie at that time so you almost always got help,even if it was only a warm meal or sleeping in another guys cab.Fitting chains was not so bad,you just accepted that it was part of the job and most of us got quite good at fitting them due to the amount of ‘‘on and off’’ work involved during the winters.I dont know if anyone died but i know a couple of guys who got frostbite.
Budgie,a question please.Did you work,at any time in the early 70s for Thor,and is your first name Graham[spelling,sorry]Mike
hallo mike yes my name is graham smith from littlehampton sussex .no never worked for thor but did run whith them on occasion . i worked for frosty trucking out of allgate simons, beckensall, tug transit and ilford internatioal
Hi Graham.Sorry,memories going.the last time we ran together was in about 1975 to Tehran.Iremember there was a Thor truck there.I thought you had that but i think it was a big guy[maybe colin].You must have been on for Simons or Allen Alltug maybe.It’s such a long time ago and now drivers seem to be dropping like flies.I won’t say ‘‘happy days’’,but certainly they were interesting and full of adventure each trip.Take care.Mike
Hi Graham,
The photo of you rings a bell. I’m sure there were 3 of you another was called Colin I think,sometime between July and Sept 1975 at Davies Turner compound in Tehran and there was a bloke in an old Atki with his daughter and some rotten barsteward threw a hose-pipe in his cab.
I seem to remember you got friendly with the female half of a couple of hippies hitching out to India that trip, and the bloke was getting worried when he couldn’t see his girl when the truck he was in overtook you.
Happy days.
What have you been up to in the intervening 36 years?
Good to see you on here anyway
josh
Nice pics Graham, keep them coming!
Regards,
Mark.
josh. it was a non sleeper mandater and both were manky ,who would take their teenage daughter to tehran in a non sleeper mandater. it wasnt davis turners it was dannys mocamp we were working internals for crane frauhoff. do you rember beckinsalls bar in the back of my trailer? and we all went on the ■■■■ the night elvis presley died, and the hippy coudnt see his bird as she was resting her head in my lap as i was driveing along try to consentrate on the traffic ! will sort some more photos out soon regards budge
josh i neglected to answer all your questions . yes there were three of us colin drove for ilford trucking john wise drove for atlas i was on for backensall int ,which was the same copany as ilford trucking but for some reason (permits) i think . now john wises firm ran from avonmouth owned by an iranian.they were in money trouble and just left the drivers to get on with it as i recall, then in to the camp walked jeff litwin and although i worked for him for a couple of years i had never met him on account of his holiday somewhere on the isle of white or it could of been dartmoor.any way john had nothing, so jeff said take this motor home (volvo dumped in customs) which he did leaveing his motor ,any way jeff had money taken to johns wife in cornwall that day two days later she phoned simons to say .if john didnt get back in atlases truck her and his kids would suffer ,a warning she had been threatened with by two blokes on her doorstep .so next morning ajag pulled into atlases yard and out got four of the biggest ugliest blokes you ever did then procceded to explane it was very naughty to threaten anywives of any of his drivers the moral of this story is don f***k with jeff litwin john stayed with simons for three years then worked insaudi then came back now owns apub in cornwall. colin i heard had passed away. he had very bad eyesight and got in afight in the west berlin took off his glasses swung round and knocked his mate out by mistake got photos of aydin somewhere when his garage was in dodge city oppisite the londra will put them up soon regards budge
G’day Budgie mate,
I remember seeing those photos in Truck and Driver magazine years ago. I’m too young to have driven overland in the 70’s or 80’s and I’ve never met you,but it always good to see another bloke sign up and tell his stories.
He’s a pic of a Tug Transit F88 that I found in a kids book,I reckon it could have been one of White Trux’s old motors.
Here’s the White Trux’s pic.
Hey mate,when you were on for Simon’s did you ever work with a young Kiwi bloke called Mark?
budgiesmith:
… he had very bad eyesight and got in afight in the west berlin took off his glasses swung round and knocked his mate out by mistake …
…PMSL, excellent!! There has got to be a good story to go with that! 
Don’t know if anyone saw it but there is an article in this weeks commercial motor by truckerash about the life and times of bob Paul. Well worth a read if you see a copy.
1974 the year i wrote off a train i was pulling a super cube on simons, went to koln for the train .my turn to load ,now i knew the trailer wasnt quite right but as i started driving down the train i could hear this wooshing noise cos where the trailer was running crab i was ripping out the trains brake lines. not a lot of happy germans that day, they had to change all the carraiges behind me lots of trouble for me but nobody thought about the other end in ludswigburg cos when we unloaded i wrote the other half of the train off so that was my last train ride (lucky me) anyway got down the road a bit got the tape the chalk and adog and chain out chained axels to a tree and mostly straitened it out and of i went to saudi for my tyre changing course (11 blow outs one trip) ended up with middle axel chained up all part of the game
budgiesmith:
1974 the year i wrote off a train i was pulling a super cube on simons, went to koln for the train .my turn to load ,now i knew the trailer wasnt quite right but as i started driving down the train i could hear this wooshing noise cos where the trailer was running crab i was ripping out the trains brake lines. not a lot of happy germans that day, they had to change all the carraiges behind me lots of trouble for me but nobody thought about the other end in ludswigburg cos when we unloaded i wrote the other half of the train off so that was my last train ride (lucky me) anyway got down the road a bit got the tape the chalk and adog and chain out chained axels to a tree and mostly straitened it out and of i went to saudi for my tyre changing course (11 blow outs one trip) ended up with middle axel chained up all part of the game
Great story budgie…it was certainly never boring on Simons!!!
sir aydin the best man in turkey alot of us owed a lot thanks to this man from mending your truck to getting you to a doctor to getting you out of jail god bless him
Hi Budgie, A pat on the back mate, interesting photo’s and memories, the thread was getting a bit quiet and your contribution has certainly put a bit of life back into it - keep them coming regards Fred
budgiesmith:
sir aydin the best man in turkey alot of us owed a lot thanks to this man from mending your truck to getting you to a doctor to getting you out of jail god bless him
How did you you guys find this man, sir aydin, in the first place? I assume good news travels fast. What was his job - mechanic? Did he have his own business?
I have just finished reading the Long Haul Pioneers. It seems that Astran ran mainly Scania trucks. Was the main reason that they had a mechanic who was a guru on Scanias or just that the truck was the most ideal for the job?