Wirlinmerlins photo of the ERF a series with the 120 Gardner took me back to my time over hauling gardener engines !!! I do go back a long time ? A-J will be interested in the tools I used to scrape the White metal main bearings, when finally fitting the crank shaft with engineers Blue after the Line boar that turned out the ribands of White metal this was very satisfying to get Almost. perfection , I loved this work ,these engines where the early 5 LW s belonging to the Walsall bus corp! I started there in !!! can you believe in1951 Still going strong like The ■■■■■■■ of today Ron
Very thoughtful of KB , it seamed hotter on the east side more drier , working at mid day out side in the yard repairs ,to this and that I had on the fan on fast then a stone hit the fan I stopped ran outside and just saw a white robed Arab disappear into the Mosque !!! Idid not give chase !! this would have meant me taking off my boots ? !!! To tell him he could have blinded me, Ron
ronhawk:
Wirlinmerlins photo of the ERF a series with the 120 Gardner took me back to my time over hauling gardener engines !!! I do go back a long time ? A-J will be interested in the tools I used to scrape the White metal main bearings, when finally fitting the crank shaft with engineers Blue after the Line boar that turned out the ribands of White metal this was very satisfying to get Almost. perfection , I loved this work ,these engines where the early 5 LW s belonging to the Walsall bus corp! I started there in !!! can you believe in1951 Still going strong like The ■■■■■■■ of today Ron
For every job a tool and when not available you make it yourself! In normal life we all depend on tools, remembering the change of a headlamp in my VW Touareg, not a job to do yourself despite the manual says, the mechanic took a fork-shaped-tool and moved the unit,
bringing me on the road again after paying 20x the cost of a simple bulb…woehoe!
Tools are challenging, our curiosity on the goal and how to use…I found a lot of post-war
to measure, to repair, to tinker and it all comes back to basics, lubrification with the right
fitting/connection as well as metric/us thread…remember dreadnaught, belzer etc.
I will photograph the wooden crate-box used to dive under the HIGHWAY or TRAILMOBILE
to lube the stuff for the nextcoming transports in winter and in summer, mind coolant, the
battery and all gadgets and tools, even the tyres with pressure and depth of profile…
I found some of the recovery of trucks was challenging , that one of TMS on the mounting side was the one that stands out mainly because of the distant involved and the tools that we did NOT have , Trans Arabia in the desert again ,they both had to be loaded on to a trailer ? How do you get ERF B. Series on the back of a 40ft ? where there’s a will there a Way !! Some skill as well as luck played a part ,a dried up river bed played its part !!! in the first one ,and a bank of soft sand in the second , to have equipment and men to help makes life easer ,necessity they say is the mother of invention ,but to have nothing to start with calls for experience and calculating risk ,In red hot conditions ,I got away with both thank God , Ron
ronhawk:
I found some of the recovery of trucks was challenging , that one of TMS on the mounting side was the one that stands out mainly because of the distant involved and the tools that we did NOT have , Trans Arabia in the desert again ,they both had to be loaded on to a trailer ? How do you get ERF B. Series on the back of a 40ft ? where there’s a will there a Way !! Some skill as well as luck played a part ,a dried up river bed played its part !!! in the first one ,and a bank of soft sand in the second , to have equipment and men to help makes life easer ,necessity they say is the mother of invention ,but to have nothing to start with calls for experience and calculating risk ,In red hot conditions ,I got away with both thank God , Ron
I wonder who built that bridge system and how many were killed doing it ■■
Driving down the mountains looking for a place to swop one crashed 6x4 ERF for another one on the trailer !!! I found A dried up river bed !! On a bend this looked promising !! with a bit of rock moving made a pathway for the trucks !!! Just hoping not to get bogged down ,to go off road with this artic was risky !!Dug away the bank to get in tight with the trailer to compleat the change over , red hot I thought my head would burst !! The front Axle was still in-tacked after this outfit crashed through steel barrier and went 60ft down the 45 deg rocky slope , coming to rest almost on its side ,and after some repairs to the compressor the crashed truck was drivable !! The change over completed ,"some one was on my shoulder "? Only 900 miles to go,That 5 days was by far the most challenging in my life as a driver mechanic! Ron
ronhawk:
Driving down the mountains looking for a place to swop one crashed 6x4 ERF for another one on the trailer !!! I found A dried up river bed !! On a bend this looked promising !! with a bit of rock moving made a pathway for the trucks !!! Just hoping not to get bogged down ,to go off road with this artic was risky !!Dug away the bank to get in tight with the trailer to compleat the change over , red hot I thought my head would burst !! The front Axle was still in-tacked after this outfit crashed through steel barrier and went 60ft down the 45 deg rocky slope , coming to rest almost on its side ,and after some repairs to the compressor the crashed truck was drivable !! The change over completed ,"some one was on my shoulder "? Only 900 miles to go,That 5 days was by far the most challenging in my life as a driver mechanic! Ron
Hi Ron
Sounds fun!! Notice that they are all day cabs - so where did you sleep? In hamocks under the trailers?
Hello Alan ,thanks for coming on line you mentioned Jack the hat ?" And Slimy Mack ■■? "Tell us some more . I was working outside the villa in Jeddah . When a young lad asked me to have a look at his motor bike he was pushing , i cleaned out his carburettor and he was over joyed when it started up ! The lad put something in my hand ■■? Jack the hat was near by and said what’s that Ron !! I said I don’t know it’s just a ball of silver paper !!! the lad put his finger to his lips ?as if to say keep stum!! Going into our yard i unwrapped this foil , ■■? Jack the hat said that’s the real Mac’coy!!! it looked to me like a ball of Camel muck that had been 1/2eaten ? JTH seemed to know all about this stuff ??coming from the smoke, I thought he knows what this is ■■ he was a bit of a crook , as we all where at TA , he said we will Stoke up tonight Ron It will be fantastic !!! I looked at him as if we had won the pools? . That night JTH rolled up two ■■■■ as big as " Slimy Mack finger "■■? !! Well it was funny !! In no time at all JTH was flying round Tief mountain I could not BELIVE it !!! I had not even taken off the room was full of smoke my throat was on fire , it was a compleat wast of time to me !! Probably because my head was full of nuts and bolts it did not do a thing for me , this was the talk of the day all the lads had a good laugh The good memories keep coming thanks to Alan Ron
ronhawk:
Hello Alan ,thanks for coming on line you mentioned Jack the hat ?" And Slimy Mack ■■? "Tell us some more . I was working outside the villa in Jeddah . When a young lad asked me to have a look at his motor bike he was pushing , i cleaned out his carburettor and he was over joyed when it started up ! The lad put something in my hand ■■? Jack the hat was near by and said what’s that Ron !! I said I don’t know it’s just a ball of silver paper !!! the lad put his finger to his lips ?as if to say keep stum!! Going into our yard i unwrapped this foil , ■■? Jack the hat said that’s the real Mac’coy!!! it looked to me like a ball of Camel muck that had been 1/2eaten ? JTH seemed to know all about this stuff ??coming from the smoke, I thought he knows what this is ■■ he was a bit of a crook , as we all where at TA , he said we will Stoke up tonight Ron It will be fantastic !!! I looked at him as if we had won the pools? . That night JTH rolled up two ■■■■ as big as " Slimy Mack finger "■■? !! Well it was funny !! In no time at all JTH was flying round Tief mountain I could not BELIVE it !!! I had not even taken off the room was full of smoke my throat was on fire , it was a compleat wast of time to me !! Probably because my head was full of nuts and bolts it did not do a thing for me , this was the talk of the day all the lads had a good laugh The good memories keep coming thanks to Alan Ron
The Miraculous Recovery. A copy of an old ditty written about Ron’s daring deed.
I’ve just copied this from another section for those who haven’t followed the various tales of Ron, Martin and all the other repros’ at Taseco TMS Saudi Arabia 1983
Sounds like the start of a good tale of daring do Ron.
I remember the incident very well and like you, I still have a copy of the daft ditty that was written about it.
I will try to copy it onto the site. It’s small writing so the page will have to be expanded to have any chance of reading it. It’s also too big to scan as one page so will try to fold it in half and do it in two parts. This might have the added advantage of making it more readable. (considering 32 years has passed, it’s stood the test of time quite well sitting quietly in the bottom of the wardrobe!)
By the way Ron, I’ve just seen the strange picture you uploaded especially for KB.
I knew you had a money tree down the bottom of your garden but didn’t know you had fairies there as well!
Before we moved into the ‘luxury’ of a ‘villa’, (ie a breeze block garage - but with air conditioning) the O/Ds on caravan had a 20’ container and an old skid mounted 2 bedroom, 6 occupant steel ex drilling rig ‘hut’ for accommodation. Sorry, no pics!
The a/c was run by a petrol generator, not up to the job - if two a/cs kicked in at once it could stall! And anyway it would run out of petrol during the night - however Ron, we were miles from any mosque!
We would eat and socialise in the container, with a14" TV, tuned to Aramco HZ22 TV. then retire for the night in the hut, hoping the coolth would last long enough to fall asleep. Still, better than the trucks!
The container was plastered with poems like yours Merlin. Sadly no copies remain - perhaps that’s mercifully. Also there was a Polaroid picture of Geoff Collins on the wall, cross legged in the sand in his trademark pork pie hat. Someone had graffiti’d it to include a fishing rod and a pond and made an unkind remark about gnomes!
Between the two rooms in the hut was a shower room and ‘kitchen’ the shower was gravity fed from a tank on the roof. Scalding in summer and cold in winter. I brought a caravan type gas fed instant heater in England and brought it back and set it up one November, maybe 1980. Worked a treat!
We had a toaster in the ‘kitchen’. It was amazing how often you put bread in it and wondered why it wasn’t working - then realised the generator wasn’t going!
Well John …I think our accommodation at SARAMAT would have been 4 and a bit stars compared to TA … one trick was if you felt like a break …when admin approached with a handful of delivery notes just scarper into hiding and if they could,nt find you they grabbed the nearest unsuspecting driver !!! another excuse was “my A/C is being re gassed” should be ready tomorrow !!! good hiding place was up on the room catching a few rays ■■? see pic … also another view of the recovery site that was talked about that I can imagine was a feat and a half !!
Martin that money tree was supposed to be a secret ? Now 1/2 the world knows !!! If you do attempt to grow one ? Plant in a sheltered spot !!! Avoid "■■■■■■■■ ". sorry I mean cropping in gale force winds , The main crop normally is in May !!! Ron
hi Ken its Alan I came from Yorkshire I was their when Charlie had the accident we used to take him food and cloths not long after you sent me to Dammam for quite awhile I did two years then did not go back because my then wife had medical problems its great to know that there a good few of us left cheers Alan Newton
I only wish I could name All of these lads Mick Ellis in the foreground and Ernie Hathaway I new well great lads from back home , let’s have some names KB and stories of the work they did
Mick hated flying and went out by sea with the trucks he hated Jedda even more and could not stand the Heat, Smell ,the rotting dead animals of this hell of of a God forsaken place Ron
ronhawk:
I only wish I could name All of these lads Mick Ellis in the foreground and Ernie Hathaway I new well great lads from back home , let’s have some names KB and stories of the work they did
Mick hated flying and went out by sea with the trucks he hated Jedda even more and could not stand the Heat, Smell ,the rotting dead animals of this hell of of a God forsaken place Ron
Ron. - well very interesting
Far one - Bill Renhard - a bully - he made Ken Higleys life a misery to the point of Ken H standing over the rails of top floor at Villa TA with a gas cylinder over his head about to be launched at Bill - he was stopped and council led with a serious talk to Bill R - not that it sank in
Next - Ernie Hathaway. Big buddy with Bill H. Almost inseparable
Guy back against the wall with shirt on. – From Telford. Name ■■ If only I had a list to prompt my memory - didn’t really want to work and was the guy who coursed Stan Brindleys arm injury taking a fridge upstairs in the flats - was pleased to see the back of him
Guy against to wall - no shirt. Mick? Gillings
guy next to Mick are ■■ Is that you Ron
Guy on the end - Mick Ellis. S Jones UK shop steward - a really nice guy - you are correct he was terrified of flying so it was arranged by S Jones that he have a 2/3 weeks holiday on the Ro Ro vessel from
Felixstowe to Jeddah - he wad really shocked the state of the country and Jeddah - he had never xperienced the filth etc etc. unfortunately his stay with TA was cut short and was sent home with 5 others!!! Mick never went out of Jeddah overland as I remember!!
There was no real outside Jeddah work in the first 6/9months ad we were clearing so much cargo - containers/palletised and loose out of the port for Binzagr that had been there for years - Mousy non alcoholic Swiss beer on pallets in that heat - bottles exploding. Matches by the trailer loads from the Korean inland port
Mixed in with traction around the streets of Jeddah for Steeters of Godalming moving plant on low loaders and fuel deliveries. - also port collections for R M Douglas Construction Aldrige for the new Saudi Airforce build on the old airport ( still in touch with 2 people from this company)
We did a number of loads of classrooms on the 60’ ft trombone trailer to Ryhad for Russel Davies operation
Then came the Al- Quarashi work - boats and luxury goods
Binzagr Barber ship work and container deliveries to various places arround the country
Racal Communications deliveries to very obscure place arround the perimeters of Saudi Arabia plus this 3 axle Rage rovers loads full of electronic equipment with about £500k each that went on retailers to Riyhad
Watts Griffiths contract to Almasane
Etc etc
