This is a fantastic description of the M/E era, did he manage to finish the tale?
Pete
petecud:
This is a fantastic description of the M/E era, did he manage to finish the tale?
Pete
Agreed - found all this very interesting - reminded me of some of the driver situations in Saudi and getting locked up!!
Ken b
Brilliant thread, hadn’t seen it before. I’m pleased to say I never went to Iran! Tarsus was mountain enough for me (on the old dirt road, before the motorway was built.)
At Caravan trading in Saudi, the American partner was Behring International of Houston. The boss was Alan Newhouse and he came out with his wife Ginnie and lived in Dammam for about a year in 1979/1980. He was a great man. No edge, worth many millions but ‘just one of the guys’ with us subbie truck drivers.
His son Chris also came out for a visit. Early twenties. Wanted to see Saudi. Peter Best, the transport manager volunteered me to take him on a trip to Khamis Mushayt in the Saviem. It was the last thing I wanted, 3,000 miles round trip, you know what I mean, you can’t ■■■■ or sing along to your tapes…
He was a great guy and we got along well. I’m sure he took a camera and I’d love to see his pictures now!
Alan Newhouse had been in Iran when the Shah was deposed. Behring had had a big operation there and Alan’s exact words were ‘We took a bath in Iran.’
He said that what really stuck in his mind was the difference between the British and the Americans. All foreigners had to leave immediately. Alan went to the Pan American office and said that it was total chaos, people climbing all over each other, shouting, screaming, demanding attention. He gave up and went to the British Airways office. He said it was an oasis of calm. Everyone stood in line, the queue moved forward one at a time. No raised voices, just patiently waiting. He flew home BA!
John.
Hello all, on reading the last few post’s on the Astran/Middle east drivers topic about iran I thought that this subject deserved its own topic.
My thanks goes to Colin for raising the subject in the first place and also the others who replied.
On speaking to Frank White today I was quite surprised to here him say that his trucks were the only british trucks in Davies Turners compound when they went out to collect them.
When i was there at the start of the Revolution their were a lot of british trucks in DT’s compound, owing to a strike with the iranian customs i was there for six weeks with a daily visit to the customs office, to be told Tomorrow God willing. After being cleared and tipped in the customs compound three of us set off for home. As the compulsory turkish currency exchange of Two hundred and thirty pounds per driver was then in force we decided that we would top one of the trucks and there-bye save on the exchange how wrong we were. After going to all the trouble of loading the unit and taking off the front wheels to bring the height down for the tunnels and bridges and the headboard along with the landing legs on the trailer we arrived at the turkish border to be told that the compulsory exchange was per driver and not per truck we were fit to be tied hung and quartered. By this time we were really short on cash and so Bobby Erskine had to take the Turkish Lira that we had just received from the bank and leg it back down into Iran and change it back into hard currency so that he had enough for the compulsory exchange, so much for all our hard work in Teheran and in a station yard in Yugoslavia unloading and putting it back together again.
However getting back to the topic when we left Teheran there were still several britts there so when did they get out ■■?. I know that we met about six of Franks trucks on there way in to Iran when we were on our way out as well as other uk hauliers so it does seem strange that Franks appeared to be the last out. Where are all these drivers■■?.
Regards Jamie.
A Scot lost in the Valley’s.
Hi Jamie, at last, a positive remark to Colin’s questions 
although I don’t think that we will ever know all the answers as sadly a lot of the guys who were in Iran at the time have by now passed away. You might be aware that I never went to Iran but I am surprised that a few drivers on the Astran thread who allegedly were doing Iran and The Middle East at the time have had nothing to add to Colin’s request.
Hopefully you can shed some light on what did happen to all the drivers, where they rounded up by the Revolutionary Guard and sent straight to the airport, or were they put on a bus and escorted back to the Turkish border. Did the police just turn up one morning and ask all the drivers for their keys to the vehicles or were Davis Turner told to take charge of the vehicles and loads. What happened to any drivers who were transiting Iran or coming back from Afghanistan or Pakistan, were they stopped and told to park up at the side of the road ?. Were any drivers under armed arrest in a hotel until they were deported, there are so many questions and I for one would love to hear some answers.
It would be good if all those driver who said that they drove for Davis Turner for years could come up with something, surely they must of heard something about it and what happened to Davis Turner in Iran were they nationalised ?.
The Flying Foden heard that there were some red Scania’s there, do you know if they belonged to Duncan Macrea from Darlington and did he get them back.
Any memories that you can share Jamie would be greatly appreciated
When I first saw Colin’s post I thought WOW this is going to be very interesting but it seems that we all remember the job with different reasons.
Best regards Steve,
P.S. Jamie you have got a P.M.
if you can give me some date’s about the time you are talking about i have a couple of good mate’s who can
probably answer your question’s unfortunatly they dont come on here and i never did middle east so i aint got a clue
but i am prepered to find out if i can for you guy’s. 
steve i will try and get some more info off bunchy . regarding the red scanias he did say that he thought that the loss of the trucks sent the firm under .
cheers jeff
CRACK ON TO MACON:
if you can give me some date’s about the time you are talking about i have a couple of good mate’s who can
probably answer your question’s unfortunatly they dont come on here and i never did middle east so i aint got a clue
but i am prepered to find out if i can for you guy’s.
Iran became the Islamic Republic on the 1st April 1979 (Wikipeidia)
Hi jamie
There will be different stories going around im sure but only the drivers who were in that area like yourself will know what went on in that time. I remember frank telling me on the flight out geordie scott wanted to punch the lights out of the iranian guy in the seat in front of him as he put his seat back fast while geordie was eating his meal so geordie launched the guys seat forward at a great speed causing a bit of commotion. Knowing geordie im sure a few pleasant words were said!!
Before someone pulls me up about it, i made a mistake about the compulsory exchange. The old grey matter is getting a bit fuddled. It was a hard Currency only exchange and not re-fundable, it was Three hundred US Dollars,Six Hundred D Marks or one hundred and sixty eight pounds for which you got over seven thousand turkish lira.
On our way back up to the Iran border as we went round the truck diversions at each town where they had those massive sleeping policemen as some of you know there was no option but to creep over them, that was where the people had gathered piles of rocks to throw at the passing vehicles there were even coaches with most of their windows smashed. I dont know how we managed to get out intact and without injury. At Bazargan there were people wandering about with bandages round their heads covered in blood and shaking with fright.
At that time i think the Afghan work was drawing to a close as there had been a coupe their a few months earlier, so i dont know if there any trucks on their way back from Afghan. Marples Ridgeway were building a new road in southern Iran to byepass Afghanistan into Pakistan and i think that they were being supplied by OHS transport. It will be interesting to here from any of these other drivers. I do know that there were some brits went as far as Tabriz with loads in the eighties, one of whom was our own poster (Biffo) who had a quite an amusing pastime whilst locked up in a police station in Iran.
Regards Jamie.
A Scot lost in the Valley’s.
Hi Jamie
I never went to Iran, it was well before my time, being as I never started till 86 !! But I seem to remember one trip, I ran down with " Nice Nigel" and he was going to Tehran for Peter, in the yellow/red F12 Globetrotter, and he would have been the first brit back in Iran since the Shar, that was about 1991 I think, do you remember that trip ?
That was the last time I saw Nigel. I often wondered how the trip went…
GS
Rick Ellis & Kim Belcher went to Tehran in early 80’s but like Dave never did so much of it…
I seem to remember Nigel , went to Tehran early 1996, then the cost of his visa was more than £800, & took a few weeks to obtain. As far I I am aware he was the only Brit to to do this at that time.After that trip he went on the Zarafshan Trips.
Dave.
M&C Jamie:
Before someone pulls me up about it, i made a mistake about the compulsory exchange. The old grey matter is getting a bit fuddled. It was a hard Currency only exchange and not re-fundable, it was Three hundred US Dollars,Six Hundred D Marks or one hundred and sixty eight pounds for which you got over seven thousand turkish lira.
On our way back up to the Iran border as we went round the truck diversions at each town where they had those massive sleeping policemen as some of you know there was no option but to creep over them, that was where the people had gathered piles of rocks to throw at the passing vehicles there were even coaches with most of their windows smashed. I dont know how we managed to get out intact and without injury. At Bazargan there were people wandering about with bandages round their heads covered in blood and shaking with fright.
At that time i think the Afghan work was drawing to a close as there had been a coupe their a few months earlier, so i dont know if there any trucks on their way back from Afghan. Marples Ridgeway were building a new road in southern Iran to byepass Afghanistan into Pakistan and i think that they were being supplied by OHS transport. It will be interesting to here from any of these other drivers. I do know that there were some brits went as far as Tabriz with loads in the eighties, one of whom was our own poster (Biffo) who had a quite an amusing pastime whilst locked up in a police station in Iran.
Regards Jamie.Jamie thats some memory I was stunned to read about my pastime while I had an enforced holiday with the Revolutionary Guard I had forgotten that episode
A Scot lost in the Valley’s.
Hi This is a newspaper clip I got from John Henderson who works for Scottish Transport news
I knew it would come in handy at some point the only thing its not got at date on it still its
very intresting.
Cheers scania 142
I only ever did Teheran twice,the first time in 1976 when the Shah was still in power,great time,lovely place,alcohol available no problem.
Next time I went was in 1983.What a difference,it was a shock going in at Barzagan and did not get any better the nearer to Teheran you got.I was driving for Expo Freight and taking a load out for Pro Motors to the Teheran Trade Fair so I suppose I was as lucky as anyone not to have had too much grief.
Apart from the fact that if you were English,no one wanted to sell you any diesel and I only just made it back into Turkey after the legendary queue at the border.
i remember telling Ray Philips when I got back that if I never went to Teheran again it would still be too soon.
When I went in 1976 I was driving for Brit European delivering for our big customer Twyfords delivering sanitary ware,(Bogs and sinks etc.)
After I came off the m/e,I went into engineering before I retired,working in the Kiln building industry.In 2000 I had to go out to Qazvin,which if any of you remember is a couple of hours drive short of Teheran.I was there at a factory to commission a large kiln my firm had sold them so they could make their own sanitary ware!
I had plenty of time to talk to the factory owner while I was there,he asked me if I’d bought any duty free Scotch in,I said I wasn’t prepared to take that chance.he told me visitors are OK,they can bring in alcohol,but not the locals.However,the apartment I had on the factory had plenty of beer and Scotch in the fridge,which I made an impression on!
He told me things were a little better since the Ayatollah had gone,now you only got a flogging for being drunk.When the Ayatollah was alive,it was the death penalty.
Watching the TV every night was a real education,many English and American films,but the funnyest thing was the English language news,read by some bird with a bag on her head!
At that time they were still having demo’s,burning flags and effigies of George Bush,with crowds of protesters on the streets.I asked the factory owner who were all these people on the demonstrations.He told me they were all government employees who were ordered out onto the streets,he and his employees,like most people in Iran, were too busy working to get involved.
Hi Scania142, nice to see the article you posted. Frank had told me it did eventually make the television news but he is not sure which channel or if it was national tv or scottish news tv.
Hi biffo can you post some story of your time with the revolutionary guard as i and many others would love to hear it!
Reg colin 
For some reason I thought that no British trucks had been allowed to drive into Iran since the Iranian Revolution in 1979. Reading through this thread over the last couple of days has since reminded me of something that happened to me about 1980/81.
I.I.R.C. I was parked up somewhere in Bulgaria having a brew, when an English truck coming the other way saw me and pulled across into the lay-by where I was parked up. This other driver realising that the kettle was on came over with his cup and climbed into the drivers side which was the normal procedure. I asked him where he had been and when he said Teheran I must of slightly switched off or I was concentrating on making the tea. I do remember him saying what a asses hole it was and that he would never ever go back there again.
I do remember him telling me that he had been locked up for two days in a Iranian police cell with hardly any food. He said that he was having a spreader under the trailer when much to his surprise an Iranian guard appeared from out of nowhere and arrested him. He was taken to a police post where he was told that an Iranian woman had made a complaint about his indecent exposure. This surprised him as he had checked that nobody had been around at the time and could only presume that the Revolutionary Guard had been spying on him as he appeared at the trailer so quickly. I think that he said that he had to part with a large sum of money before they let him go.
What made this story suddenly sound so real was that he told me that his wrist’s had been handcuffed with wire for a very long time, he then showed me his wrists. Around each wrist there was one continuous scab about two inches wide where the wire had been.
I can’t remember the drivers name or the company ( although at the back of my mind it might of have been Funstons ) after giving him some tea bags we then went on our separate way’s and I don’t think I ever met him again.
It’s only after reading this thread that I have remembered this incident after all these years and now realise that he might have been telling me the truth.
Regards Steve.
P.S. It’s good to see an old photo of Errol .
Scania142… I think the news cutting was from 16th Feb 1979 as it mentions Feb 9th being last week. very intresting cuttings you have posted, a very good thread, keep it up.
Wish I could help you d/dog, but the last one I did was in 1977, I enjoyed it there, only the borders were the bother then, my mate john bland, did it for several years after BRS Overland packed up, because he lost his “L” for drink driving, but some how, he used his international one, but he never drove in UK, his loads were put on the ferry, and he picked up in Holland, this was for at least 3 years, then still went back when legal. The only ones who would know if still alive, are the brothers of Knights of Old firm, near Northampton, for john died two years ago aged 62, but they must be similar age, and they was going at least4/5 years after I finished, Will post any information I find out. Sandman Norman