Hi TIP Top 495 ,yes i get it now no i did not think you were being derogatory , its fine…keep posting you all have a lot to say…
jeffrey ellener:
scud:
Evening all ,great thread jazzandy .What about the lads from here in yorkshire any one got any photos of archbold from leeds or arthur green from steeton also there were firms out of bradford ,kelly brown ran scanias .Keep up the good work.
Cheers,there’s a couple on astran
/middle east thread of Archbold ,Alan Wright the driver was the first to run to m/e for Archbolds
Thanks for that info jeffrey, i remember seeing the guy invincibles of archbolds here in the uk and later the big J s ,wonder if they sent any of the bigJs east ,i know they used fiat ,s there were quite a few parked up in leeds at one time behind there iveco sales depot.
Cheers Richard.
Definitely ‘Not all sunshine and sand’!
By Heck, that yard at Rainham was a mess wasn’t it ? 
hi guesty,
don’t know if i read the comments correctly? though i think you asked if anyone knew the men in this picture.the chap in the yellow vest looks to me like a life long family friend of ours,phil o’reilly from pyle in south wales.phil was and still is a hgv fitter,during the 1970’s he did several middle east trips for j&m transport on stormy down.
regards andrew.
pete 359:
hi guesty,
don’t know if i read the comments correctly? though i think you asked if anyone knew the men in this picture.the chap in the yellow vest looks to me like a life long family friend of ours,phil o’reilly from pyle in south wales.phil was and still is a hgv fitter,during the 1970’s he did several middle east trips for j&m transport on stormy down.
regards andrew.
I worked for Douglas freight in the Seventies - don’t know how many trailers they had built like that, although I remember seeing one in Jeddah that a Subby was pulling - belly tanks and boxes (neither of the guys in the picture). The one I got only had a big belly tank, no boxes.
John.
Evening all, John, am I correct in believing that some of the funding for Douglas Freight came from Don Griffiths at Cheltenham?
Cheerio for now.
Saviem:
Evening all, John, am I correct in believing that some of the funding for Douglas Freight came from Don Griffiths at Cheltenham?Cheerio for now.
Hi Saviem,
I’m ashamed to say I don’t know much about the company I worked for. They were a removals firm in Douglas IOM. Run by Ian? Coulter and Roy? I don’t know where their funding came from.
They expanded into M/E and I got the job thanks to having done a few trips with NODAG, which was run by Mike Conlong, who was a chum of Mr Coulter. I Shunted several trailers within the UK, with an f86 they had, then got the chance to take the silver radiator F88 featured here
m.youtube.com/watch?v=iX1Z31etU-8
To Dammam. This may have been a trip to two later - found on the Astran/ others thread. I was the driver, but unfortunately didnt appear in the film. That was between H4 and Turayf, 1976.
They got a large contract with Westyield homes to ship prefab homes to Dammam. They shipped trailers to Iskenderun, then Jeddah and Yanbu. I originally did overland, then collected trailers from the ferries and delivered them.
While I was in Jeddah, I saw a trailer like the one above, Douglas International Transporters, parked up, apparently abandoned. When I telexed Roy, he asked me to ship it home. However, when I backed under it, a Brit approached me (not either of the lads in the picture i hasten to add!)and said he’d subbed the load down and that was his guarantee of payment, and I should get the flock!
Since he had a large piece of 2x2 in his hand I decided discretion was the better part!
John
pete 359:
hi guesty,
don’t know if i read the comments correctly? though i think you asked if anyone knew the men in this picture.the chap in the yellow vest looks to me like a life long family friend of ours,phil o’reilly from pyle in south wales.phil was and still is a hgv fitter,during the 1970’s he did several middle east trips for j&m transport on stormy down.
regards andrew.
Hiya “pete 359” Sorry can’t remember his name The one on the left was called the Duke
though we ran a few trips together when I was at Bowkers Also L.A.B (Lathams Car Transporters)
We met on the H4 on are way to Damman Maybe one of your family could give you more info.
Take care.
GUESTY44
scud:
jeffrey ellener:
scud:
Evening all ,great thread jazzandy .What about the lads from here in yorkshire any one got any photos of archbold from leeds or arthur green from steeton also there were firms out of bradford ,kelly brown ran scanias .Keep up the good work.
Cheers,there’s a couple on astran
/middle east thread of Archbold ,Alan Wright the driver was the first to run to m/e for ArchboldsThanks for that info jeffrey, i remember seeing the guy invincibles of archbolds here in the uk and later the big J s ,wonder if they sent any of the bigJs east ,i know they used fiat ,s there were quite a few parked up in leeds at one time behind there iveco sales depot.
Cheers Richard.
Hi Richard, no they didn’t send any Guys over, The Fiats were a strong truck the clutch was a bit suspect on the 619s if you rode it too much but we never had one go over there. The depot in Morley served as a transport yard and a Fiat agent. All the best Jeff.
Hi Richard, no they didn’t send any Guys over, The Fiats were a strong truck the clutch was a bit suspect on the 619s if you rode it too much but we never had one go over there. The depot in Morley served as a transport yard and a Fiat agent. All the best Jeff.
[/quote]
Do you know what happened to Bill Robertson. I think he was one of the leading blokes on Archbalds at the time. I only knew him on Whittles, but I’ve often wondered what he’s doing now.
Jazzandy:
Bandar Shahpour - Here I come!Note the Ray Bans and the spade!!
These were second hand Dutch trucks bought by the hundred by Seamanpak in Tehran which we delivered and then flew back for the next one!
On one of my early trips to Baghdad in '75, I met up with some Yorkshire lads in Turkey running a couple of grey Big J’s, I think their destination was either Saudi or Kuwait.
The engine had on one had given up the ghost in Greece, so they had a sturdy tow hitch welded on one trailer along with a tow bar, and had a fine road train of one rig towing the other, which they intended to do right though to their destination.
I have often thought that the well known photo of the Big J unit dumped at Ramtha, if the time frame was right, was that same dead truck.
How about this for a smartly turned out old timer? Taken in Tehran circa 1975
Middle-East spec Volvo at Chingford in 1975.
Rubbing along with Willi Betz down the TIR-trail has been going on for longer than people might think, as this evocative picture reminds us! Robert
Whatever your destination down that way, there was always the chance that Wiili Betz was there first!
When NASA sent the first rocket to the moon they were about 3/4 of the way there when they met a Willi Betz Merc coming back the other way… Not far behind that were a couple of Dutch drawbars…and an Iranian in an old Mack…
Jeff…
Jelliot:
When NASA sent the first rocket to the moon they were about 3/4 of the way there when they met a Willi Betz Merc coming back the other way… Not far behind that were a couple of Dutch drawbars…and an Iranian in an old Mack…Jeff…
But there was already an Asia Trans AEC safely back in the yard when they took off! Robert 