A picture of Dave Telford hard at work in the office. On the beach car park at Kavala, Sitting beside Tony Soameson’s trailer with one of Daysons topped going home.
All the very best
Mick B
Shared a pot of The Earl with Tony Soameson on Kavala beach more than once. I even introduced him to Coffee with Bailey’s which he thought quite novel.
I’ll never forget the time at the Kiziltepe park when Tony was parked up in the line behind another line of trucks, on the slope.
There was a group of guys sat around Tony’s trailer box chewing the fat over a brew when I pulled onto the park.
The engine was running on Tony’s Daf, (Was it a 3300 or a 3600?), and at some time he must have tried to move it when the air was down, so he’d left it ticking over to build up the air while having the brew.
The only thing was, he’d forgotten to put the parking brake back on, and the next thing we knew, there was a hiss as the brakes came off and the rig started to roll towards the back of the line of trucks in front.
Those sat by the trailer box could not comprehend what was happening as the teapot and mugs suddenly started moving.
But Tony realised in an instant what was happening and I’ve never seen anyone move as fast, he ran around the front of the truck, it was a left ■■■■■■, opened the door and got his hand on the brake pedal, the truck just stopped about a foot from the truck in front.
Tony was shaking like a leaf, it would not have been half as difficult if the truck had been a right ■■■■■■, but it was lucky he did not trip in his haste round the front to get to the drivers door or things could have turned out much worse!
GS OVERLAND:
Hi Chalkey
Here is a photo of Bill Hall’s White RC2 when he was pulling for PanExpress.
I took the picture at the Londra Camp in Istanbul, about 1986-7
GS OVERLAND
I’m almost sure he had a plate on he front of his truck that stated “I’ts hard to be humble when you drive the best” Ran with Bill a few times, back from Barce, one hit to the boat at Cherbourg leaving Zona Franca at 5:00 pm on a Friday…Top bloke, haven’t seen or spoke to Bill in 30 years… Keep the faith …
All the very best
Mick B
A very poor picture of one of Hick’s Transcon’s going through Sofia around 1980.
A Swiss White captured at the Auto Port at Aosta. I seem to recall there were a few trucks captured there in January 1981 most had the same problem transiting Italy with a high value load. Usually 10k lira did the trick, not on this occasion.
A very cold trip to West Berlin late 80’s, the Radiator Cap had a problem and no heater until for a few days.
A few photos of the parking area behind the Stadium in Istanbul. This was a recognised parking area whilst waiting for your agents runner to arrive with some vague directions to get tipped.
[The top photos is of the Mosque looking from the Stadium across the Bosphorus, the bottom picture is of the same Mosque looking up from the Bosphorus, 35 years between the two photos…
A Happy New year to everyone viewing this thread, if you were ever away for New Year, ( I had one or two at the National Hotel in Belgrade) great new year by the way. Total lock in with a few Danish Truck drivers trying to climb in through the windows…
Why not put your New Years experience on here… good and bad.
I believe that Pan Express were bought by Fullers Transport from Slough in the late 1990’s - they were still operating then, i think mainly on air freight.
Nazmi Ozcan:
What happened to Pan Express?? Understand they are not operatıng anymore ıs that so?
Can anybody gıve us a brıef story? Thanks
Hello Nazmi
I’ve been following your OHS thread, very good with a lot of detail. Sadly I don’t have anything like that info on Pan Express, I started driving for them in 1977 and Peter Charalambois and Derek Allen were Principle Directors then. I believe they bought out Gordon Barr’s UK Haulage business in early 70’s and kept Gordon on as UK Transport Manager. Around 1977 they were changing from the Blue and White livery on the 140’s they were operating to the more familiar Red and White on the 111’s they were running then.The chassis were always Ambassador Blue and the wheel rims were white.
About 1979/80 They got into financial difficulties and sold off most of their fleet, keeping two 111’s WOO 707S & WOO 708S that they kept for a BOC Contract they had. I think this was part of the reason they got into trouble as far as I remember they didn’t have a lot of direct work. Shortly after this like a number of firms going to the middlec east, they took on subbies snd owner drivers. The first few owner operators to start back doing middle east work included Johnie Ellingham, Dave Telford, Davy McCullar, Ron Bryant.
I bought John Ellinghams truck in 1980 and subbed for Pans until about 1986.
Pans had a bit of direct hanging garment work out of Rumania and sub contacted quite a bit of work from Davies Turner in Mid 80’s. I lost touch with what was happening to Pans after that but I think they were still doing a bit of European work in early 90’s.
I’m sure there are a few old boys on here that can fill in the blanks.
mushroomman:
I think this photo belongs on this thread.
Hi Steve
Thanks for posting this photo, not seen this one before. I know Dave had a bad accident in Saudi mid 70’s but not sure if this is the same one…have you got any more details on it.
Thanks for digging it out for us all.
Hi Mick, somebody on here posted what I thought was a very interesting story about a couple of Middle East accidents from the 70’s/80’s . I will try and find it and repost it for anybody who missed it the first time around as it mentions Dave Telfords accident in Saudi.
Peter Charalambois
Derek Allen
Dave Telford
Rod Walsh
Brian Young
Steve Young
Ron Crooks
John Crooks
Geordie Foster
Jock White
Ron Bryant
Roy Hopkins
Mick Markham
Frank Doran
Mick Buckingham
Terry Dines
I apologise to anyone I have missed out from those early days at Pan Express, but in the absence of any other contributors this is the best I can come up with at the moment…There were a lot of subbies that I may have over looked, but sorry to you guys it would be great to hear from anyone associated with Pan Express.
There have been so many ex middle east truck drivers on these threads that have pulled the pin for the last time that it would be good to try to keep it all going before there non of us left…
I know that there were a lot of firms running to the middle east back in the day, but Pan’s was the outfit that I had the ME experience with, both good and bad, so it would be great to hear from anyone else associated with them.
All the very best
Mick B
Gerry Davis
Nick the Greek
Bill Hall
Davie McCullar
Worked with Nick the Greek on Simon International, diamond geezer!
Met up with Gerry a couple of times, I found him a bit punchy till you got to know him.
Ran with Rod, (Ace) quite a few times, always good for a laugh!
Yes, I ran with Nick a few times, he would get his baccy pouch out, stick a paper on his bottom lip and continue having a conversation with you for five minutes…before realising it had had become proper stuck on there.
Great bloke as you say. I heard he was running a Pub in Bellingham South London some years back now…“The Tigers Head” maybe.
I think he also worked for Mavertons before coming to Pans.
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Not sure why I have managed to underline the text above……can’t get rid of it.
