Trans Arabia /S. Jones of Aldridge:A few pics

[wirlinmerlin]

Kenb:

Wirlinmerlin:
A short tale of scullduggery by Ron Hawkins.

I attach below, a photo of three black country lads who worked for Trans Arabia.
On the left. Jimmy Wells. Usually to be found wearing gold chains round his neck and sporting a fancy pair of shades. He was a very kind man. It took him some time to realise that he had been lending me his smart clobber when he had been going off on leave!
I enjoyed, on his return, watching him jump up and down, turning the air blue when he saw the state of his once lovely white socks with red and blue rings. They were now sporting an extra ring! Of axle grease!! And his white shirts! Well what can I say!! Taffy Bill was heard to remark, on more than one occasion- " Blimey Ron, I’ve never seen you so smart. Are you on a promise?"
Ginger Taylor on my right was a great kid. He to was smart, always with a smile on his face and ready to help when I needed a hand.
Great lads.

Ron
Looks as though you at the Jeddah Creek at the Binzagr hut(shack) with the great sailing boat that you lads got from somewhere!!■■ And rebuild to a great standard - great fun falling out in warm water - never mind the odd shark or two as it was rumoured
Cheers. Ken Broster

From the pen of Ron Hawkins.
KB,
Here is a picture of that famous, (or infamous) sailing boat Britannia and a bevy of your most trustworthy and hardworking sailors.
Quote. " Ken! Ken! can I have a Kenworth? " ( Said in a pleading, whinny sort of way!)

[wirlinmerlin]

And here we have a photo of the famous Gypsy Dave pretending to be Ronaldo Hawkins taken when he was in disguise and whilst on the roof, looking for that bottle of " Syd" hidden in the water tank!

[wirlinmerlin]

And not to be outdone in the getting dressed up stakes here are two pictures of somebody who would prefer to plead the 5th amendment and remain nameless.
Which makes me start to wonder why, after our constant, descriptively negative remarks about the dress sense of our hosts, did we each at some time, dress up in the same sort of outfit and generally ponce about?
The third picture is of our junior, trainee accountant. I think his name was Messeur or something like that. I bet by now he has a gold watch, drives a Roller and has 8 shops!

[kenb]

Wirlinmerlin:

Kenb:

Wirlinmerlin:
A short tale of scullduggery by Ron Hawkins.

I attach below, a photo of three black country lads who worked for Trans Arabia.
On the left. Jimmy Wells. Usually to be found wearing gold chains round his neck and sporting a fancy pair of shades. He was a very kind man. It took him some time to realise that he had been lending me his smart clobber when he had been going off on leave!
I enjoyed, on his return, watching him jump up and down, turning the air blue when he saw the state of his once lovely white socks with red and blue rings. They were now sporting an extra ring! Of axle grease!! And his white shirts! Well what can I say!! Taffy Bill was heard to remark, on more than one occasion- " Blimey Ron, I’ve never seen you so smart. Are you on a promise?"
Ginger Taylor on my right was a great kid. He to was smart, always with a smile on his face and ready to help when I needed a hand.
Great lads.

Ron
Looks as though you at the Jeddah Creek at the Binzagr hut(shack) with the great sailing boat that you lads got from somewhere!!■■ And rebuild to a great standard - great fun falling out in warm water - never mind the odd shark or two as it was rumoured
Cheers. Ken Broster

From the pen of Ron Hawkins.
KB,
Here is a picture of that famous, (or infamous) sailing boat Britannia and a bevy of your most trustworthy and hardworking burglars.
Quote. " Ken! Ken! can I have a Kenworth? " ( Said in a pleading, whinny sort of way!)

Ron - Brilliant
Come on lets have some names - you, ken Higley ■■

[kenb]

Wirlinmerlin:
And not to be outdone in the getting dressed up stakes here are two pictures of somebody who would prefer to plead the 5th amendment and remain nameless.
Which makes me start to wonder why, after our constant, descriptively negative remarks about the dress sense of our hosts, did we each at some time, dress up in the same sort of outfit and generally ponce about?
The third picture is of our junior, trainee accountant. I think his name was Messeur or something like that. I bet by now he has a gold watch, drives a Roller and has 8 shops!

Brilliant dress sense Martin
I had a set of the local attire - and went out to local dinner doos in Jeddah - only trouble was when I took a large stride over kerbside crap etc etc. couldn’t get the distance so usually ended up in a heap
All good fun

Our accountant:
Mohamed Monzur from Birmingham - extremely clever young man - was earning cash to get himself through Uni - last I heard from him was that he worked for Esso perhaps in the US
He was the brains behind the bank application/funding for the Kenworths - Citbank were so impressed with his presentation - surprised the bank never offered him a job.
He was also the brains behind buying sterling and US dollars up front to pay the wage bill each month - playing the currency game!! Made good money got me too

Ken b

[wirlinmerlin]

Kenb:

Wirlinmerlin:

Kenb:

Wirlinmerlin:
A short tale of scullduggery by Ron Hawkins.

I attach below, a photo of three black country lads who worked for Trans Arabia.
On the left. Jimmy Wells. Usually to be found wearing gold chains round his neck and sporting a fancy pair of shades. He was a very kind man. It took him some time to realise that he had been lending me his smart clobber when he had been going off on leave!
I enjoyed, on his return, watching him jump up and down, turning the air blue when he saw the state of his once lovely white socks with red and blue rings. They were now sporting an extra ring! Of axle grease!! And his white shirts! Well what can I say!! Taffy Bill was heard to remark, on more than one occasion- " Blimey Ron, I’ve never seen you so smart. Are you on a promise?"
Ginger Taylor on my right was a great kid. He to was smart, always with a smile on his face and ready to help when I needed a hand.
Great lads.

Ron
Looks as though you at the Jeddah Creek at the Binzagr hut(shack) with the great sailing boat that you lads got from somewhere!!■■ And rebuild to a great standard - great fun falling out in warm water - never mind the odd shark or two as it was rumoured
Cheers. Ken Broster

From the pen of Ron Hawkins.
KB,
Here is a picture of that famous, (or infamous) sailing boat Britannia and a bevy of your most trustworthy and hardworking sailors!
Quote. " Ken! Ken! can I have a Kenworth? " ( Said in a pleading, whinny sort of way!)

Ron - Brilliant
Come on lets have some names - you, ken Higley ■■

Ken,
reliably informed by Lord Nelson that those swashbuckling naves clustered on and about the good ship Britannia are Tony T in the water, Ken Higley,( One of the first lads to road train to Dammam- See picture of dollied up graders previously ) Ronaldo, Ginger Taylor and John ?.
W.

[wirlinmerlin]

From the pen of Ron Hawkins.
A story entitled-
How to do the impossible with a cat, butter and a hot, hat pin!

The Manager at Trans Arabia Dammam had lost his keys to the Safe. He was desperate to get it open. I said what’s in there and he said “Money! Money!Money!” his voice getting higher every time he mentioned the word. He asked me if I thought I could get it open. He looked at me as if I was something of a crook!! That’s when I thought of my old dad’s saying about the definition of impossible and it went something like this- “ You have about as much chance of doing that as you have of getting a pound of best butter up a wild cat’s harris hole with a red hot hat pin! “ Well, by now you will know a little bit about me and realise that I have always liked a challenge. So I said yes, I would give it a go.
We dragged the safe outside. It was very heavy and about 3 feet square. Having thought about it for a few minutes we pushed it over onto its back. Then I put the hose pipe on it and filled it full of water through the key hole. This took about a couple of hours. I told the manager that there was no guarantee but he was desperate for me to do it. It must have contained loads of money! Turning on the bottles I lit the torch and soon it was blowing back a fair bit as I started to burn through 1 inch of steel. Molten steel and boiling water was spitting and splattering all over the place. What’s more I still have the scars to prove it !! I cut out about one 1 foot square from the front of the Chub safe and tried using tyre levers to lift it out but it wouldn’t come up. Eventually with some twisting and the use of brute force and animal cunning, it came away. The manager, who had never left my side throughout the whole operation,( I can’t imagine why!) was elated and well relieved. ( Probably because he was going to escape a good rodgering from KB the general manager.) Diving into the safe, he scooped up all it’s sodden contents then with a haunted and slightly frightened look on his face he ran into the villa and locked the door! I presume he spent the rest of the day wringing out the loot. I wouldn’t have said “No” to a hundred rat note or two but no chance. G spanner. Stories

[wirlinmerlin]

Ha! Ha! Good story Ron. Now we all know what your trade was in a previous life.
See below for a photo of Bill who was one of the managers. We were on a wild day out in Al Khobar and going heavy on the coke!

[kenb]

Wirlinmerlin:
Ha! Ha! Good story Ron. Now we all know what your trade was in a previous life.
See below for a photo of Bill. He is the one on the left, and smiling so I presume this was taken after you had opened the safe!
The bloke on the right is smiling to. Probably because he had a spare shirt!!

Hy Guys

Great story - good job it was not that Saturday morning after Mr Widudo from the Indonesian company in Abha had turned up with about 1mill Saudi rials in cash as payment for that contract we did on a Thursday afternoon when the banks had closed and I squeezed the lot into Jeddah safe plus some under the bed at home

Great picture of Bill Smith who went to Jeddah in Sept 76 with myself to set up TA he was the tipper traffic manager at S Jones. Sadley he died some years ago - good honest hard working guy -.God Bless him
There was a good turnout at his funeral including some of the Saudi lads - it was a good meet up afterwards including Michael Jones

[robert1952]

Geat tales! …and all the while I think of those ERF NGCs purring past in the road outside! Robert

[jmc_jnr]

I was based in Jeddah in Medina North, sub-contracted to Raytheon on the Anti-Aircraft missile base buried in the spit.
Ratheon lent us a nissan pick-up and we went paddling in the creek one Friday. Caught an Octopus! They were building
the new international airport (1978) at the time and were burying the old airliners at the first with caterpillars.
After that job I flew to Doha via Dahahran and spent 5 months on Qatar National theatre. Big changes now. Jim.

[wirlinmerlin]

Welcome to the thread Jim.
feel free to post any stories/pictures you may have of those Jeddah times.
Regards,
WM

[backsplice]

Here are a couple of little pictures of big trucks which I feel safe in saying are TRANS ARABIA courtesy of Ian Pender …I would point out that the spare wheel was the giveaway ■■?

[backsplice]

I think we all worked hard and had issues but in the main it was a great adventure …a mate of mine saw me off at Heathrow told me later I had said to him "Well Jim this might be my last chance at Adventure " we had been at sea together so he knew what I meant and an adventure it was
have a look at container haulage SARAMAT style

[robert1952]

backsplice:
I think we all worked hard and had issues but in the main it was a great adventure …a mate of mine saw me off at Heathrow told me later I had said to him "Well Jim this might be my last chance at Adventure " we had been at sea together so he knew what I meant and an adventure it was
have a look at container haulage SARAMAT style

Woah! I’ll bet that rock-and-rolled like a Teddyboy getting on and off the black-top! Robert

[jmc_jnr]

The Jeddah job was my first real overseas trip and the stories that went round suggested a camera was not a good idea. We had to wait a couple of weeks before the airport dried out - storms had flooded it. My first experience was Saudi Customs. Ye Gods what a turmoil! The guy who emptied my case in a heap, and the same with my briefcase leafed through a Readers Digest and ripped out the Hush-Puppies advert that showed a woman’s shins.
A cultural shock indeed but my word they know how to rule a country. I still have a watch that I bought in the souk. They had drained part of the harbour to fill in round the concrete hide-aways and there was a couple of gun-boats lying on their sides where the had been moored. We were fitting out TV studios for military training on the Mole next to a huge De-salination plant about a mile from the guest palace where Idi Amin was rumoured to be tucked away. Travelled to and from work in a Partridge family type school bus. Sorry no photos - I bought a camera in Doha and took quite a few photos there, mostly domestic or beach visits - what a dump that was in the 70’s. One supermarket in the whole city, a rat infested Kentucky Fried Chicken, a Chinese that poisoned all of us, but there was an excellant restaurant near the cop shop and TV studio where our landlord worked as sound engineer. Sorry - rambling on. Jim.

[wirlinmerlin]

A story from the pen of Ron Hawkins.
Entitled-
Good Lads, good memories.

Binzagers container ship had just docked and Trans Arabia had to off load the full containers and then reload with the empty ones, none stop for 48 hours! We were all parked up on the dock waiting for the ship to be cleared by the Customs so we could start. I distinctly remember Jonnie Mathews siting on the bonnet of his MAC with his back against the screen. This was about 1800 hours on a very warm night . His yellow side lights on ether side on the cab roof were on and he was playing his country and western 8 track tape. We all were looking up at the crumpet on the ships bridge who ocasionally gave us a wave. This was a magical scene and will remain in my memory for ever.
Whilst we were working on the off loading there was another company using 6 wheeled Mercs to off load the containers on another ship some of which were coming off on the sharp turns in the port road. The Merc drivers looked puzzled as we zipped round them, smiling to our selves. They did not know that we had twist locks! When at last they caught on, they started putting chains and stretchers round the middle of the 40 foot containers, locking them down so tight they looked like crisp packets pulled in the middle! I don’t remember how many boxes but it was at least 2000 !! It was a massive ship ! KB. will know. Jonnie Mathews was a great kid . Here he is in the middle with John left and Taffie Bill right. He had a very dry sense of humour. I liked him a lot. RIP. The lads by The MACS are Toni T, Ginger Taylor, my mate Mathews and Taffie Bill RIP. The best band of brother Truckers in S / A. G spanner Stories.

[wirlinmerlin]

jmc jnr:
The Jeddah job was my first real overseas trip and the stories that went round suggested a camera was not a good idea. We had to wait a couple of weeks before the airport dried out - storms had flooded it. My first experience was Saudi Customs. Ye Gods what a turmoil! The guy who emptied my case in a heap, and the same with my briefcase leafed through a Readers Digest and ripped out the Hush-Puppies advert that showed a woman’s shins.
A cultural shock indeed but my word they know how to rule a country. I still have a watch that I bought in the souk. They had drained part of the harbour to fill in round the concrete hide-aways and there was a couple of gun-boats lying on their sides where the had been moored. We were fitting out TV studios for military training on the Mole next to a huge De-salination plant about a mile from the guest palace where Idi Amin was rumoured to be tucked away. Travelled to and from work in a Partridge family type school bus. Sorry no photos - I bought a camera in Doha and took quite a few photos there, mostly domestic or beach visits - what a dump that was in the 70’s. One supermarket in the whole city, a rat infested Kentucky Fried Chicken, a Chinese that poisoned all of us, but there was an excellant restaurant near the cop shop and TV studio where our landlord worked as sound engineer. Sorry - rambling on. Jim.

Jim, parts of your story made me smile and brought back some memories for me, especially those first impressions and incidents with customs.
I remember a bloke in the queue in front of me who watched in terror as everyone in front of him had their suitcases turned upside down. Obviously it was his first time in country. He quietly showed me a handful of whiskey miniatures he had brought in off the plane and asked me what he should do with them! I told him to get out of the queue, visit the toilet and leave them there. He scuttled off!
Once, whilst the customs were rooting through my case, they came across a paperback copy of the Koran I had bought. He asked me what it was. I told him. Then he hurled it with all his might across the floor. I was a bit lost for words. (When in doubt, say nowt!)
Another time, the customs man leafed through my latest month’s edition of “Readers Digest” and came across an advert for shower cubicles which featured a “drawing” of a woman stepping demurely into a cubicle but with the curve of her breast and bottom slightly showing. He ripped the page out!! ( I bet he took it home later!)
Another time I had a lucky escape. Having noticed that the customs didn’t seem to go through your pockets, I decided bring a bit of rudery with me and hid it in my inside jacket pocket, next to my passport. After the usual customs bag chucking business, I walked out towards the hall exit and had to pass two Saudis standing there. One of them stopped me and pointed to my jacket front. I reached into my inside pocket and swiftly produced my passport at which point he waved me through. Never again! It was a really foolish thing to do.
Like you, I bought a watch in the souk in 1980 and am still wearing it to this day although with a new expanding strap. What amazed me when walking the souk at night time were the gold shops with doors left open, gold piled high in the windows and on the counters. It just shows the positive effect of the threat of “hand off” punishment!

[wirlinmerlin]

From the pen of Ron Hawkins.
Entitled:
British and Proud!
I was there when the Queen ( not Freddy!) visited Damman in the royal yacht Britannia The port road in Dammam had a shanty town stretching from the port all the way down, nearly to the traffic lights on the Khobar road. It was a sorry state. To hide this from H R H’s eyes the king of SA ordered that a 6 ft tall wall be built down this road in double quick time !! While the queen was being lavishly treated by King the royal yacht Britannia sailed round to Jeddah but I don’t think HRH came to Jeddah (■■?) Maybe they didn’t have enough breeze blocks!!

Well, Britannia docked in the Port and John Davies got a couple of passes for a show that the Royal Marines were putting on. Britannia was lit up and looked Fantastic!! The Marines were in dress uniform with their white safari hats on and standing against the back cloth of the blue and gold Britannia it really was great to be British. The night was hot and the Tattoo was fantastic as they marched up and down on a brand new strip of Tarmac! JD and I were right next to them. The Band and marching was something never to be forgotten.
The Saudi Guards!! Not a patch on our lads. They just Just slouched away out of sight of the search lights. We felt very proud.
G Spanner Stories. P/s Here are couple of photos My Mate. Gogy RIP

[john_west]

I also remember the queen’s visit. Here is one of the Yemeni 'villa’s that were hidden by the wall. They also simply bulldozed some out of the way as I remember.

Black John, who drove for Simons International, who were providing traction for Caravan trading at the time, was in prison in Riyadh for robbing a supermarket. (Yes we were all astounded at his stupidity!) He received a Royal Pardon because of the queen’s visit and was deported. Very lucky!

However, like John and Merlin, I wasn’t above stupidity myself. We all brought VHS tapes back, Top of the Pops, a series on flight called ‘Diamonds in the Sky’, even Coronation Street were all popular. Brother Andy had taped one of my favourite films, Charley Varrick, but had carefully deleted the part where he boxes the compass with the girl!

Some friends had made wine from the freely available grape juice and told me that I needed proper yeast and wine finings. I bought quite a lot whilst at home (obviously not available in Saudi!) and hid it in my underpants toward the end of the flight. The Dhahran customs tended to be less aggressive with the Western flights, but if you arrived at the same time as PIA it was embarrassing to see what they did with their meagre possessions.

The customs guy dug through my bag and found the tapes. Normally they just let you go, but I was sent to a little room, where they played the tapes at about 6 times speed, I was glad Andy had deleted the juicier bits. I must have looked guilty as hell, yeast and wine finings crunching about in my underpants. After about half an hour they let me go, thankfully without searching me. Luckily my ‘booty’ meant that I could make decent wine for the next couple of years. I certainly would never have risked importing any yeast again!

As you left Riyadh for Dammam, there were several ‘bakeries’. These were mud hut type houses with a bread oven in. The flat bread they baked was heavenly, hot at 5 in the morning. If you kept it, by the next day you could cobble a street with it, it had gone so hard.

Geoff Collins and I stopped at a ‘restaurant’ coming out of Riyadh one evening for the usual chicken and rice. Geoff kept saying ‘whats that scratching noise’. Eventually he grabbed my arm and said, ‘good God, look at that’. Up in the roof space was teeming with rats, running about and climbing over one another. We ran out, leaving the other occupants laughing at us.

Our stomachs had become hardened to the ‘fare’. John Longhorn took his brother in law (who worked at BAE and lived on their hermetically sealed compound) on a day trip to Riyadh. We stopped for ‘breakfast’ of spaghetti and lamb stew at the cafe at Hofuf Corner. John and I both liked this.

Ten minutes after leaving, John pulled over. Brother in law had a massive case of the squits. John and I were unaffected. I carried on. I was tipped and headed back for Dammam when I saw John and his passenger still heading for Riyadh. Brother in law had a strained look on his face!

I have a couple of Spencer Tart prints of the Gabel Souk and Baiya Square in Jeddah. I’ll see if I can copy them and get them on here.

John