backsplice:
Think about it lads …leaving Riyadh late afternoon hot and dusty .keep going for a couple of hours looking for a nice hill away from the highway just before dark leaving the tarmac and thinking of parking up !!! oh ! oh!..strike a bit of soft sand manage to bounce the F89 over it slowly find the spot in the headlights and open the doors put the kettle on make a nice cup of tea well a kraft cheese glass of tea make a bully beef sandwich on the fresh loaf bought before leaving town sit back listen to “The Shadows” while watching the lights flash past away down on the highway …lonely yes but sometimes someone would pull up and join you but not often … then after a few hours kip head back to Jeddah before the sun gets up and it gets to hot should manage it back before nightfall ■■?
on something else do any of you remember the Finnish mob with the big SISU trucks ■■?
Mah Salam
Finnish company actually a ferry company ran Green Sisu trucks and also road trains - where did you think I got the idea from for Trans Arabia
The Finsh guys in there container yard were very miserable as most Fins are!!
Let’s be honest, open and crisp…Scandinavian characteristics were very similar to the Saudi Arabian,
extreme (controversial) temperatures, remote villages, hardly roads, challenges with raindeer and camels
and so on…every nation had its advantages and threads…till about 20 years ago I very much respected
the situation Eastern (Hungary, Russia, etc) drivers were working, home made lorries, no gps, no cell phone,
limited currencies but a lot of requirements to do this and to do that…nowadays politics rules transport
I still remember many conversations with drivers of Afghan International (a joint venture between then the
by far largest transport-company Van Gend & Loos and Afghan Government with HQ in Kabul) on their diffi-
culties, challenges and threads…customs, road conditions…the job of a driver is not the same anymore
ERF-Continental: @Kenb…you left your manners in the desert? My wife is finnish(ed)
Kenb keep it to the content…global thoughts are not done anymore
Sorry but I speak as I find - look at the F1 Finnish drivers - characterless - having said that they make good ralley drivers
I remember going into there container yards and you could not get a smile out of them
ERF-Continental:
Let’s be honest, open and crisp…Scandinavian characteristics were very similar to the Saudi Arabian,
extreme (controversial) temperatures, remote villages, hardly roads, challenges with raindeer and camels
and so on…every nation had its advantages and threads…till about 20 years ago I very much respected
the situation Eastern (Hungary, Russia, etc) drivers were working, home made lorries, no gps, no cell phone,
limited currencies but a lot of requirements to do this and to do that…nowadays politics rules transport
I still remember many conversations with drivers of Afghan International (a joint venture between then the
by far largest transport-company Van Gend & Loos and Afghan Government with HQ in Kabul) on their diffi-
culties, challenges and threads…customs, road conditions…the job of a driver is not the same anymore
I met some v interesting Arabs a the better ones being outside the cities - would always help you - money was not in it - it was honour
Diff with Saudi drivers and there trucks - the Goverment give them there trucks to keep them quiet - then no insurance(not allowed under Muslim law!!) no road tax and cheap fuel - sounds a good living to me
ronhawk:
Being mechanic, the challenges of putting your skills to the test ,stand up and be counted are always tested !! Rebuilding an Scania engine in a Coach with quite a few miles on the clock , this small company asked if I and my wife would like to go to Spain as a reward for my work ? I said yes thanks!! What Coach are we going on ? The one you have just rebuilt was the reply. This was this firms first trip abroad , the holiday was great and the coach ran fine, fully loaded with family’s on board they where pleased , and so was I This holiday illustrated below was another great Holliday trusting your own skills ! But after all it was the job I have done all my life!! But the confidence of the ■■■■■■■ engines !!! That I have rebuilt gave me 100pc faith to work in all conditions ,even to work above and beyond the call of duty Ron
Ron
Great article - trip down memory lane - wish you still had the car?
ronhawk:
kb Errors of opinion may be tolerated where reasons is left free to combat it " Thomas Jefferson " Ron
Ron…what happened? I did > 500k annual business with Downton but then ‘he’ was gone…
Wonder how a booklet on Trans Arabia would look, a sound mix of KW, Mack, ERF and with
your (and predessor Jerry Cooke) sauce on the technical stuff. The logistics is quite amazing
as SA is by far more than icecream, soft drinks, spare parts, oil rigs etc
I assume you happen to know Herman Meijers from Holland, an ex-CDB-manager from Belgium?
He did quite some business in Oman and Quatar.
Four of the lads who played up front for Trans Arabia in the late 70,s photo thanks to Yoyo’s son, this is Jeddah Stadium L to R, Billy Clem, Kenny Jillings , Micky Jillings , & Yoyo , n/o 21 always ready to score ? I remember going to the matches in the "pick up " driving across the flat hard dusty desert with the back full of our lads , hundreds of cars no road ,all going I one direction , making the sand dust into a cloud , trying to get as near to the gate as possible ,mad really, like flies to a ■■■■■■■■■ . The scene inside was very different , a banked deep circle of Arabs all in white , surrounding the green of the pitch, with vivid colours of there strip , the flood lights just lit up this unreal football match ,the rhythm of there hand clapping was really good , very very different Ron
ronhawk:
Four of the lads who played up front for Trans Arabia in the late 70,s photo thanks to Yoyo’s son, this is Jeddah Stadium L to R, Billy Clem, Kenny Jillings , Micky Jillings , Billy Jackson, & Yoyo , n/o 21 always ready to score ? I remember going to the matches in the "pick up " driving across the flat hard dusty desert with the back full of our lads , hundreds of cars no road ,all going I one direction , making the sand dust into a cloud , trying to get as near to the gate as possible ,mad really, like flies to a ■■■■■■■■■ . The scene inside was very different , a banked deep circle of Arabs all in white , surrounding the green of the pitch, with vivid colours of there strip , the flood lights just lit up this unreal football match ,the rhythm of there hand clapping was really good , very very different Ron
Football was never really my game, so I can’t remember whether it was an England team or a club team playing. Pat Conway and I went to the stadium in between Dammam and Khobar to watch a floodlit evening game. It was definitely the Saudi National team probably 1983. Kevin Keegan was the English star, complete with curly haircut I think! The English team won 2-1 I think. Still it was a friendly!
This truck that Stan Brindley was so proud of with the Ntc 335■■■■■■■ deserves to be on again ,From England’s Green and pleasant land, the ERF lives on somewhere in the Desert of Saudi Arabia if only in the minds of the lads who had the worked along side it ,Ron
ronhawk:
Stan the Man ,some truck ! Some driver ! photo thanks to Yoyo’s son , Bill Smith striping down the Tilt Ron
A possibly unique photo of Trans Arabia 104 still on its UK plates! Robert
No tilt - the trailers came out stripped and stacked with one retailer with 2 containers(1 spares and the other flat pack furniture !! Days of building!! Making ready for the boys
Bill was putting in side support for carrying steel and tubes for one of our first jobs
Trans Arabia trucks where maintained to a high standard ,any part that needed replacing that was not in our limited stock ,got picked up at S Jones by the local lads going back off leave the parts may well be any thing from a B series cab door to spicer clutches and 1/2 shafts you name it S Jones had it ,a very well run store dep , the lads got these parts back to us by excess baggage , I remember John Davies an " unsung hero " by the way , repairing a brake relay valve in an emergency situation with supper glue and fibre glass until a new one was found ,also I found a B ERF abandoned in the desert just north of Jeddah which I used for spares ,the hub reductions had very little wear this was very useful ? I remember that B in the desert when I opened the door The engine had been stripped out and was rusted up with the condensation on the con rods etc this truck looked good and eventually towed to T /A ,the ■■■■■■■ engines rarely gave trouble This was a testimony to the ■■■■■■■ engine Ron
