Jazzandy:
Peter switched trucks somewhere in Europe. He didn’t come all the way back to UK. What we need to know is where did he do the switch?
Hullo Andy,
Probably at Plovdiv ? and through Zhako, not too bad.
Cheers, Archie.
Many a true word has been spoken in jest Archie .
I remember on two occasions meeting John Lathem at Kapitan Andreevo (the Bogey side of Kapic) when John was working for Mervyn at M.& C. Transport. John was waiting to do a change over with an empty trailer that he had tipped somewhere in the Gulf and was about to do a return trip back down there with the loaded one that he was waiting for.
Dave might remember that this was after John had been subbing for Astran with his Volvo Globetrotter which was painted in Astran colours I.I.R.C. sometime about 1984/85 ish.
Jazzandy:
Peter switched trucks somewhere in Europe. He didn’t come all the way back to UK. What we need to know is where did he do the switch?
Hullo Andy,
Probably at Plovdiv ? and through Zhako, not too bad.
Cheers, Archie.
Many a true word has been spoken in jest Archie .
I remember on two occasions meeting John Lathem at Kapitan Andreevo (the Bogey side of Kapic) when John was working for Mervyn at M.& C. Transport. John was waiting to do a change over with an empty trailer that he had tipped somewhere in the Gulf and was about to do a return trip back down there with the loaded one that he was waiting for.
Dave might remember that this was after John had been subbing for Astran with his Volvo Globetrotter which was painted in Astran colours I.I.R.C. sometime about 1984/85 ish.
Regards Steve.
How to catch out the bulls hitter who once did a change over in the Londra Kamping
Hello Wheelnut and the rest of you.We never set any records or even wanted to,fastest trip to Baghdad and return loaded back from Italy 23 days ,longest trip Falcongates grupage several drops in Iraq again backload Italy 33 days. Longest one hit Telex Ankara Londra camping Istanbul, thats plenty far enough for one day, anybody who has really done the job knows how dangerous Turkish roads were at night.Keep on trucking Crow.
geoffthecrowtaylor:
Hello Wheelnut and the rest of you.We never set any records or even wanted to,fastest trip to Baghdad and return loaded back from Italy 23 days ,longest trip Falcongates grupage several drops in Iraq again backload Italy 33 days. Longest one hit Telex Ankara Londra camping Istanbul, thats plenty far enough for one day, anybody who has really done the job knows how dangerous Turkish roads were at night.Keep on trucking Crow.
Hello Crow, I always thought that The Telex Hotel in Ankara to The Mocamp in Istanbul was a fair days work and I am sure that a lot of the lads on here will agree with you on that one.
One of the great things about this website (and this has happened on a couple of occasions) is that this morning I mentioned seeing John Lathems Globetrotter when it was in Astrans colours, infact it was on it’s first trip. At the time I thought that was the first U.K. registered Globetrotter that I had ever seen but I can’t remember if it was on a “W” plate or a “Y”. I mention this now as I have just been reading Bubblemans Scrapbook Memories thread and N.Z. Jamie was asking when was the first U.K.registered Globetrotter.
Maybe Truckerash has got a photo of John’s Volvo.
Wow this is great ,but surely the greater factor was get the load to the destination and yourself safely no matter how long it took,I know most likley there were deadlines but surely not as bad as the UK or Europe ,and was there a brucy bonus for getting there so many days early or is a MAN thing to prove you were better than the other driver
Steve as far as I can remember Billy Thomas of Brynmawr had the very first Globetrotter and it was W reg no doubt someone else will say different but all our memories fade or get confused as the years keep marching on relentlessly. Corrie went back to the land of the free 3 weeks ago and he s still useless with a computer and to everyone else that isn t Trevor Francis in the pic with him it is Billy Butterbum ,regards Crow,
Hi Geoff, I think that somebody got mixed up with Corrie and Trevor Francis. Now if it was Corrie and Jan Francis instead of Billy in that photo I might of used it as my screen saver .
mushroomman:
Hi Geoff, I think that somebody got mixed up with Corrie and Trevor Francis. Now if it was Corrie and Jan Francis instead of Billy in that photo I might of used it as my screen saver .
Regards Steve.
Hullo Steve,
What,s Billy on with these days ? The last time that I saw him was in France in about 90/91, I was parked up in the Pub at Bourge, when in drove Billy with his very dubious looking Partner. He was at that time on for A1 Transport, driving a Merc.
Cheers, Archie.
geoffthecrowtaylor:
Steve as far as I can remember Billy Thomas of Brynmawr had the very first Globetrotter and it was W reg no doubt someone else will say different but all our memories fade or get confused as the years keep marching on relentlessly.
My understanding is that the first Volvo F12 Globetrotter supplied by a UK dealer was a 1981 ‘W’ reg, only available as a LHD untill 1984 lots of 2nd hand European tractors were imported over the years.
Does anyone remember ‘Sonny’ (Sunny?) from Hereford who used to do Spain, he had a really nice blue ‘Vreg’ Globey which had been previously used abroad?
Hello Archie, I didn’t know that Billy worked for A1 as I only ever saw him once after Dow finished and that was a couple of years later in I.C.I. Heywood when he was loading for Yugoslavia. He had just bought a tidy looking M.A.N. and was venturing into the world of an owner driver. Dave Mackie did tell me that he eventually sold it to Ken Corrigan so maybe Ken has got a photo of it.
geoffthecrowtaylor:
Steve as far as I can remember Billy Thomas of Brynmawr had the very first Globetrotter and it was W reg no doubt someone else will say different but all our memories fade or get confused as the years keep marching on relentlessly.
My understanding is that the first Volvo F12 Globetrotter supplied by a UK dealer was a 1981 ‘W’ reg, only available as a LHD untill 1984 lots of 2nd hand European tractors were imported over the years.
Does anyone remember ‘Sonny’ (Sunny?) from Hereford who used to do Spain, he had a really nice blue ‘Vreg’ Globey which had been previously used abroad? Ross.
Hello Ross, I am fairly sure that I saw John Lathems Globetrotter in 1981 when he had just got it and I knew it was in the summer but I couldn’t remember if it was before or after August as regards the rego. I had noticed Swedish and Dutch registered Globetrotters before but like I say it was the first U.K. registered “Globby” that I can remember seeing. Thanks for the info.
I may well be wrong, but I think the first UK Globetrotter was the ‘Joker’ it’s on the Southampton thread, one of the lads on there owned it, it was a W reg
I just done a trip, bilbao spain to daman, took ten days door to door, however, not a single thing went wrong, and amazingly a border never went wrong, hit it right every time, i would guess that normally it would take 12 to 14 days, however we go via italy greece, in the old days when you went eastern block, you could queue for days just to get into romo, so how the old boys did it quicker is beyond me,I find when i round trip i go faster on the way down and when i return it seems to take me a few days longer…
EAA770W was registered on the 08.08.80 and on the road the very same day,The Joker. EAA769W registered to EC Transport of Poole, registered the same the same day I believe but not on the road for a few days later. Bryan Yeardly had a W reg too that was on the road in Aug. 1980.
Who was the biggest player on the m/e asia run?
Respect to Bob Paul and Michael Woodman for being the “pioneers” but were Asian/Astran the biggest or could it have been Rynart?
gazzer:
EAA770W was registered on the 08.08.80 and on the road the very same day,The Joker. EAA769W registered to EC Transport of Poole, registered the same the same day I believe but not on the road for a few days later. Bryan Yeardly had a W reg too that was on the road in Aug. 1980.
Here you are Gazzer,just to confirm your statment above
1st on the road EAA770W
2nd on the road EAA769W
The biggest player may have been Willi Betz especially after they took over the Bulgarian State Transport Company. I think that the combined fleet totalled in excess of 2500 trucks most of which were running Europe to Tehran and Baghdad.
.
