Is that an F86 poking it’s nose out of the queue. I remember one geordie lad with an 86 that had at least a 1200lt tank on the side, it drove very lopsided when full.
Some of the fuel tanks on the Tonkas took some beating.Full length between the front and rear axle and about 3 inches off the ground!
That WAS the the toilet seat but only for guests. I had one just the same welded on the other side…sort of en-suite!
By the way, sorry to bring up the word “welding” again on this Simons thread. I never did trust that seat and was glad to get another trailer for my next trip!! 
I’m afraid that I’m fast running out of stories and pics. Only so much can happen to one in just under two years of middle east work. There are a few more little incidents however and one particular story that I have kept pretty quiet about for the past 33 years. Not sure whether to reveal it but as it happened so long ago, I may do. I’ll think about it over this weekend.
I always had a sort of love/hate relationship with Turkey. Like another driver said in a post, always breathed a sigh of relief when you went through the “sheep dip” on your return back into Bulgaria. It was a country full of history and had some spectacular scenery. Beautiful in it’s ruggedness, if you know what I mean.
Here’s a couple more shots taken in Eastern Turkey
bestbooties:
rondavies:
One little trick springs to mind that my mate Alvin taught me at the time. He showed me how to buy blackmarket ‘leva’ in Istanbul and then when you got to Bulgaria, not to purchase the fuel coupons that were for sale at the border but to buy the coupons at the kiosks within the country with leva. This way you were paying the price for fuel that the ‘locals’ were paying. Worked out a lot cheaper. Anyone else do that? I’m sure we weren’t the only ones.Talking of Bulgaria, here’s a couple of photos that will bring back memories for a lot of you
Queueing to enter Turkey
I remember that queue,with those wallnut trees on either side of the road.
The trailer with PH on it looks like one of Bill Puxley,s old tilts.Before it was just Puxley,s it was Puxley and Hearne.The Hearne was Micky Hearne who done a lot of fruit in the early 70,s.Great story,s by the way rondavies,i have tried to contact Jim Hayley this week to tell him about this site im sure it would bring a smile to his face cause i know he enjoyed all the scullduggery back then.After Jim left simons Paul Miclelef started in the office do any of you remember him?
bestbooties:
Some of the fuel tanks on the Tonkas took some beating.Full length between the front and rear axle and about 3 inches off the ground!
Ian
Like these you mean !!
GS
I think the trailer with PH on it was an old Pierpoint and Halpin from Bermondsey, London.
Remember them?
knowall:
I think the trailer with PH on it was an old Pierpoint and Halpin from Bermondsey, London.
Remember them?
I remember them well,but im sure it was Halpin Pierpoint,they had a yellow F89 six legger unit that my friend jock wilson drove on italys.They had a yard in belvedere and plough way? bermonsey.Some of their trailers were dark mauve colour,they had a lot of flat trailers as well as tilts and they also done alot of glass.Another mate did some traction for them Johnnie Divine when he had a black F10,he later worked in th office for wheatagrove on the fruit.
knowall:
I think the trailer with PH on it was an old Pierpoint and Halpin from Bermondsey, London.
Remember them?
Was there a lot of hanging around with them? 
I know this is diversifying a bit but it was definately Pierpoint and Halpin and I remember running back from Italy with the la, I think his name was Barry, with a six legger F88; we had parked up overnight at a little routier at the bottom of Bellegarde just over a little railway bridge on the old road before it was bypassed. Ten minutes after setting off next morning with me following up the hill the back of the trailer lifted off on a tight left hander and took the whole lot over, being a right ■■■■■■ he was lucky to escape with only a few bruises. He phoned Melvin Pierpoint who asked me if I could stay with him until he arrived later that day which I did and eventually got to the Bakehouse that night so not many kms done that day but they did put some work my way as a thank you.
Chazzer
chazzer:
I know this is diversifying a bit but it was definately Pierpoint and Halpin and I remember running back from Italy with the la, I think his name was Barry, with a six legger F88; we had parked up overnight at a little routier at the bottom of Bellegarde just over a little railway bridge on the old road before it was bypassed. Ten minutes after setting off next morning with me following up the hill the back of the trailer lifted off on a tight left hander and took the whole lot over, being a right ■■■■■■ he was lucky to escape with only a few bruises. He phoned Melvin Pierpoint who asked me if I could stay with him until he arrived later that day which I did and eventually got to the Bakehouse that night so not many kms done that day but they did put some work my way as a thank you.
Chazzer
Was that Barry Siggers by any chance, I know he had a TM with a Detroit 2 stroke for Pierpoint Halpin.
So how did Simons end up with the trailer? I suppose Jeffrey bought it or “aquired” it by some means 
Wheel Nut:
knowall:
I think the trailer with PH on it was an old Pierpoint and Halpin from Bermondsey, London.
Remember them?Was there a lot of hanging around with them?
Subtle and appreciated!! 
Hi Ron, regarding the fuel coupons in Bulgi ? I remember Don Hubbard from Gedney Hill who subbed for Davies Turner for many years,was alway’s scrounging coupons from other drivers. If i remember rightly the bulgi customs gave you one coupon which entitled you to buy sixty litres of diesel per transit. We, the drivers on Frank Whites never bothered in bulgi as we still had lots of cherry on board. Don would ask all thedrivers that he met for coupons and pay for the diesel with black market leva. He would also buy two cases of johnny walker at the bulgi duty free shop and hide the bottles in the cab. These he then sold in Iran for Ryals,which he then used to fill his tanks with diesel. So for around twenty pounds for the two cases of whiskey he could buy enough diesel to run back home to the uk. On his F89 he had two four hundred litre volvo tanks and on the trailer a thousand litre belly tank.
I remember on one trip finding one of simons road train trailers on its side in the middle of the road between tahir and bazargan and later found out that it had been behind Kenny Snooks before it turned over. Do you remember Kenny Snooks who later died of a heart attack in holland.RIP.
I later went on to drive Don hubbards F89 again working for D.T.'s this time to Iraq around seventy nine. I will try to post a photo of me and the F89 taken on the top of Bolu turkey by i think Dave Ketteridge of Funstons. Regards Jamie.
A Scot Lost in the Valley’s
M&C Jamie:
Hi Ron, regarding the fuel coupons in Bulgi ? I remember Don Hubbard from Gedney Hill who subbed for Davies Turner for many years,was alway’s scrounging coupons from other drivers. If i remember rightly the bulgi customs gave you one coupon which entitled you to buy sixty litres of diesel per transit. We, the drivers on Frank Whites never bothered in bulgi as we still had lots of cherry on board. Don would ask all thedrivers that he met for coupons and pay for the diesel with black market leva. He would also buy two cases of johnny walker at the bulgi duty free shop and hide the bottles in the cab. These he then sold in Iran for Ryals,which he then used to fill his tanks with diesel. So for around twenty pounds for the two cases of whiskey he could buy enough diesel to run back home to the uk. On his F89 he had two four hundred litre volvo tanks and on the trailer a thousand litre belly tank.
I remember on one trip finding one of simons road train trailers on its side in the middle of the road between tahir and bazargan and later found out that it had been behind Kenny Snooks before it turned over. Do you remember Kenny Snooks who later died of a heart attack in holland.RIP.
I later went on to drive Don hubbards F89 again working for D.T.'s this time to Iraq around seventy nine. I will try to post a photo of me and the F89 taken on the top of Bolu turkey by i think Dave Ketteridge of Funstons. Regards Jamie.
My memory of fuel coupons was my first foray into Hungary on the way to Greece. I was green, and had never heard of fuel coupons, so thought it rather strange when I pulled into a decent sized fuel station and was refused diesel. Never easily defeated I drove on, this time to a smaller fuel station and I had to wait for a couple of cars to move. The old lady came and said something, shouted and another bloke came from the office. I understood he wanted Deutsche Marks but not what else he was saying. Eventually I worked out that maybe they didn’t have any diesel and were expecting a delivery as he kept pointing at a clock and saying six in French, German and probably Hungarian. He gestured for me to park along side the garage and gave me a cup of very strong black coffee with a brown sugar lump. He knew I was English because he kept saying London & Margaret Thatcher
It must have been dark nights because I noticed the lights were turned off and it looked like they were closing. I went to see and her ushered me away, moment moment, colleaguer. 
The next thing a small door opened in the side of the building and the bloke dragged a long pipe out, Wie viele litres?
Full, as I made a hand signal on my neck which he probably didn’t understand. I watched as he filled my tanks to the brim. If i remember there were two medium sized tanks which held about 300 litres each on my Saviem. I was then ushered through into this darkened office with a single light bulb and the old lady said something and wrote a figure and showed him, he must have agreed and wrote the same figure on another paper, DM120 which at the rate of the day was about 40 of our English quids, it was certainly a better deal than the price of fuel in the West
It was the next day when I pulled into The Hotel National before I understood what the fuel supply problem was and it was explained about my first visit into the black market underworld of communism and capitalist entrepreneurs. It was after that experience I never ever went back to Greece using a ferry
hi all,i just love these middle east based threads.i have some poor quality photos given to me by several friends,ex middle east drivers from a company in south wales called j&m transport.i can post them if you like,but,i don,t want anyone thinking that i am muscling in on you’r brilliant thread.i don,t want to tread on any toes!
regards andrew
chazzer wrote:
I know this is diversifying a bit but it was definately Pierpoint and Halpin and I remember running back from Italy with the la, I think his name was Barry, with a six legger F88; we had parked up overnight at a little routier at the bottom of Bellegarde just over a little railway bridge on the old road before it was bypassed. Ten minutes after setting off next morning with me following up the hill the back of the trailer lifted off on a tight left hander and took the whole lot over, being a right ■■■■■■ he was lucky to escape with only a few bruises. He phoned Melvin Pierpoint who asked me if I could stay with him until he arrived later that day which I did and eventually got to the Bakehouse that night so not many kms done that day but they did put some work my way as a thank you.
Chazzer
Morning all I think your find that trailer with PH on was a early Bill Puxley tilt when he was at west ferry road the early ones had PH and later PE
Think the Pierpoint ones were yellow and brown
pete 359:
hi all,i just love these middle east based threads.i have some poor quality photos given to me by several friends,ex middle east drivers from a company in south wales called j&m transport.i can post them if you like,but,i don,t want anyone thinking that i am muscling in on you’r brilliant thread.i don,t want to tread on any toes!
regards andrew
Don’t worry about our toes 
I’m sure that we would all like to see your photos. I’m running out of mine!! 
Yes Wheel Nut, I can also remember the power of DMs in the Commie Bloc countries. Back in 75/76, 100 DMs and they would fill you up to the brim!
I’ve had to smile a bit about all the speculation of whose trailer it was with “PH” written on it. All I remember was it was one I pulled on a trip to Baghad whilst with Simons. Notice the other photo of it on page 3 where I am parked up in a layby in southern turkey.