This picture neatly brings together the overland bus and truck driving scene. The Bedford RL looks to be an early overland tour truck and behind that is a Asia Trans (Astran) Scania. The coach in foreground is an AEC on Overland India routes. (They’re probably on Tahir Pass.)
All of those look far more modern and posh than ours, which was green I think.
Because there was so much room around the driver’s seat we worked out a way of shift (not gear shift) changing where the new driver would sidle in from the right, gradually moving his right foot onto the accelerator at the same time pushing the retiring driver’s foot off it, thus maintaining the revs, and then sliding into the seat in a similar fashion. Not really to be recommended and perhaps that was what the drivers in the last picture were trying to do. 
Any dates on those pictures? My journey was, I think, about 1967.
There was a driver on TN some years back who had worked officially for several trips for the same bloke as me. He then lived near Peterborough in semi-retirement driving a mobile library, and later tracked down the co-owner of the coach. He didn’t remember me, either I had done nothing wrong, or right, or he was ticked off because I had written some uncomplimentary things about him. 
BTW, did you see those carpets on the road in Tehran? Proper Persion carpets spread out in the street for the traffic to drive over them, to wear them in or something. Amazing.
Ah! I hadn’t realised you did it in the '60s, although that AEC is deffo a '50s / 60s model. The pics show early '70s, I would say; and the Merc later than that. I saw plenty of carpets in Iran, but not in the road. Age-old practices disappeared overnight with modernisation. I wonder if they still lay out hazel nuts to dry along the roadside along the Black Sea route in Turkey like they did when I was last there.
Strewth! That Hamburg 0303 must have scaffold jacks inside, or the roof would be inches from the floor.
Acro-props probably 
. Having said that, I think those 303s had pretty robust roofs because the Turks & Iranians used to load them up with what looked like an entire village.
^^^^ These, for example!
…and I bet they swayed a bit on the hairpin bends in the mountains. I wonder where the centre of gravity lay!
Looking at that elevator, I guess there are not too many bridges nor tunnels.
Yes, they’d have turned it the other way round if there were 
Or laid it sideways? 
That was the piggyback train, run between Port Augusta and Kalgoorlie, before the Nullabor was bitumened.
No bridges or tunnels, but plenty of byo refreshments in the single passenger car. 
Here’s an AEC Regent V that was cut down to a single decker (as opposed to being re-bodied with coachwork):
Or a cut down AEC Regent mk 111 even:
Another Regent mk V with single-deck bodywork:
And a Routemaster version of the AEC mk V cut down to single-deck:
Oh, and for pudding; I’ve found another overloaded Merc 0303 bound for distant lands!
These were indestructible - I remember travelling on them as single-deck service buses in Istanbul. They were ancient but ran like sewing machines. I saw lots of really early battered ones in Cairo serving as school buses. I lived in both those cities.
It’s certainly got some puddin’ on. 
Because of the new format, I’ve only just realised that this is in the Prof UK Drivers forum. Apologies to the OP, as I’m afraid I’ve rather hijacked it!
Mods might like to merge this thread with the Lorries & Buses thread in the Old Timers forum… 
Is that carrying passengers or freight? The curtains all seem pressed up against rhe windows.
There used to be an enterprising bloke running parcels from Sydney to Canberra (IIRC) using a stripped out coach to circumvent the checking station/weighbridge and random roadside inspections.
Some coaches in those parts had a curtain wire along the windows to tuck the curtains behind for max sun exclusion.
The Iranian coaches I used to see plying twixt Tehran and Istanbul (when I was driving lorries) all had passengers. Many of them pulled luggage trailers which were clearly adapted from truck drawbar trailers (drags). I remember struggling in terrible snow in the Bulgarian mountains and seeing the passengers all pile out and push when the bus lost traction. happy days!
Many years ago I dry hired a coach, on behalf of the local Guide and Brownie troupe, of which my daughter was a member. We were going on a weekend, horse riding camp. The itinerary had us leaving the northside of Brisbane, heading for the top of Cunningham’s Gap, 160 kilometres south-west of the capital, just before the evening peak traffic. I chose a route that I thought would minimise gear change embarrassment, through the city. That route took me past Brisbane’s biggest stadium where, unknown to me the local Rugby League (our national winter sport) team were playing in front of a sellout crowd.
By the time we’d reached the city’s edge the sun was touching the horizon. As many of you would know, the closer one gets to the equator, the shorter the twilight is. South-east Queensland is at a latitude that enjoys a twilight of less than an hour. I needed to switch the headlights on at the beginning of the unlit Cunningham highway. By the time we reached Aratula, at the base of the long, steep climb up The Gap, a pair of candles would have provided greater illumination. The troupe leader expressed concern at the rapidly dimming headlights, offering to buy a new battery. I enquired at the local BP, who didn’t have anything big enough. I had to drag the only auto-sparky out of the pub.
The electrician confirmed my diagnosis of a failed alternator, but a fresh battery would get me to the top of the hill.
Once shown to the weekend digs, I parked the coach facing down hill, in the hope it would hold enought air to release the brakes in the morning. In preparation for a clutch start, after breakfast, I got all the girls, from 6 to 14 years old and all the adult leaders, to push; alas, there was not enough air to release the park brake.
As a footnote, all the adults were given a native animal name by the leaders. I was the only male and given the name of an epinephrine, Groper.
Not exactly as cuddly as a Koala. And yes, koalas are not as cuddly as they look.
And with a rather uncomplimentary common name.
And they are protogynus hermaphrodites!
Thank you Jimmy Wales, again.
Rest assured, I’m not trans.
