Thanks Backsplice ? I was just eating my breakfast when I opened up the thread ,And you reminded me of the Arab killing the goat out side our compound , he faced the Petro Chem Plant , !!! and cut its throat skinning it ,he threw the skin over our wire fence of the trailer park , For the Mad dogs , the leader of the pack had a infested OSF club foot it was a horrible memory , PS the full English went down Great . Ron
Talking of Petro chem plants ,this is a Bullet tank heading for Ras Tanura 680tons to The oil refinery plant , The plant is the size of a small town ,the place was lit up at night ,glistening in the still hot night , unusual sight after seeing nothing but sand sand and more sand , on the flat plains on the East side , Taseco TMS ,we had a service bay at Al jubayl Further on towards the Tap line , Runing 185 ERFs day and night with oil pipes for ARAMCO Ron
Thanks for the pictures Ron. Running 185 the lorries must have been quite an operation!
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Ras Tanura … I had been there a couple of times while at sea …my first trip in Saudi was from Jeddah to Ras Tanura with a 20 box loaded to the roof with scaffolding pipes …some initiation to the job …got there and back unscathed but learned a lot about tonkas ! Mah Salahm
jsutherland:
Thanks for the pictures Ron. Running 185 the lorries must have been quite an operation!Sent from my Hol-U19 using Tapatalk
Hi jsutherland ,first of all. (in a nut shell so to speak ) TMS had the contract with ARAMCO to supply transport for there massive organisation in Saudi Arabia , TMS had a start date , and must be in fully operational , to hit the ground running , to do this they had to be sure of the stature of the men that they chose to run this enormous task, where up for the job ,Fortunately I had the pedigree to be one of there team , and although I say it myself i certainly knew about trucking , ERF & ■■■■■■■ engines , and proved my worth in the Field ,having traveled all over Saudi Arabia , They gave me the job of Project Engineer , (I knew that you are only as good as the men that you employe ) Now how to find the 300 drivers to run this day and night service from scratch ? So Vic Turner and myself traveled to Bangkok Thailand , and recruited 320 young men road testing every one on the busy roads with an articulated vehicle , can you imagine doing just that in Bangkok , we must have tested over 500 to get the best , This story will continue , Ron
To continue ,we had Porto cabins to house the men , about 15 klicks down the Abqake rd from Dammam, behind a walled enclosure , the desert was rolled flat with heavy rollers and water making the desert hard ,for our rolling stock ,not having an inspection pit to service the trucks , I had made up 2 steel ramps about 50 ft long and 4ft high until the workshops could be built ,it was just right for me teaching the Basic to the mechanics and maintenance men all about the ERF .we had office Porto cabins just out of Dammam , for the operation managers John Hill Martin Mears and Vic Turner the GM , The workshops where built back at camp and in Jubail , I opened a ERF school and Taught the men everything that I could to make sure the rolling stock was correctly maintained , we had some accidents some fatal but not to our driver thank god ,we also had top man Geoff lloyd as driving officer from high arcle in Shropshire , ( thereby hangs a tail )? one in Jeddah and the other i attended outside Jubail in a sand storm ,the hand picked men where fantastic with no A/C.s they worked hard , dehydration was the worry to us all , I found two concrete bulk tankers and converted them into Effluent tankers they where realy good , they dicharged the waste creating a blue pool In the desert , Ron
ronhawk:
Thanks Macadam- woman for your interest and your input you are most welcome on this thread , tell us more ,we took rebar to the hospital in Khamis , like the. ( Autocar ) ? Who is that behind the wheel ? Ron
Ron,
Still enjoying your stories! Unfortunately I don’t have many stories nor pictures as I worked
from Belgium in terms of planning. We had local drivers coached by some of our best own
drivers. Some of the equipment (with then quite some miles on the clock) were transferred
to KSA like Autocars (I really like the sturdyness, not to say the hard springs) all fitted with
■■■■■■■ 250 and some were from cancelled tipper-orders which were offered cheap by CDB.
Also some Mack F700’s both from our own fleet as well as from Wagner’s (Jumet/Gosselies)
who were a dedicated first transporter for Caterpillar despite the Mack engine installed. We
also had three ERF’s NGC ex-Wagner (one of them 6x4) with all ■■■■■■■ 335 showing off!
As you are so dedicated on ■■■■■■■■ I today found a picture of a International for the promo-
tour through South Africa during 9 days. What a difference with the mechanical state we had
with the Autocars, Macks, ERFs from the seventies. We left KSA after 3-4 years when the job
was done, somewhere I have a brochure on Ziegler with generators loaded, I will search for.
Keep up the good work with this highly special thread and don’t get yourself hindered to express
what your experiences in KSA were.
Jean-Pierre
Some quick images of the compound (housing for the hospital) and the generators.
No ■■■■■■■ but by Cockerill it started for ■■■■■■■ on the continent. Cockerill had
the supply for steel ■■■■■■■ needed on this side of the ocean.
Thank You, Macadam Woman, i must say your International truck looks brilliant and together with the ■■■■■■■ what a good truck , I agree with you on the sturdiness of the Autocar , to have that look in Saudi would be comforting , the ERF ngc where great ,and to feel there strength put a smile on your face ,considering the loads we carried at Trans Arabia in that heat our ERF s where tested beyond there limit but still got the job done with good maintenance and repairs . I have just seen your photo of the Cockerill gen and planed site very impressive ,you certainly need air flow to run any gen set in S/A , that was the failing of the Kings Bunker under the desert just out of Khobar , the VTA gen sets Did not have the air flow to run under load ? Forward Planing is essential ,for the planing of that Massive Bomb shelter under ground in Khobar, Was irreversible !! it’s probably now used for growing mushrooms ? Ron
ronhawk:
jsutherland:
Thanks for the pictures Ron. Running 185 the lorries must have been quite an operation!Sent from my Hol-U19 using Tapatalk
Hi jsutherland ,first of all. (in a nut shell so to speak ) TMS had the contract with ARAMCO to supply transport for there massive organisation in Saudi Arabia , TMS had a start date , and must be in fully operational , to hit the ground running , to do this they had to be sure of the stature of the men that they chose to run this enormous task, where up for the job ,Fortunately I had the pedigree to be one of there team , and although I say it myself i certainly knew about trucking , ERF & ■■■■■■■ engines , and proved my worth in the Field ,having traveled all over Saudi Arabia , They gave me the job of Project Engineer , (I knew that you are only as good as the men that you employe ) Now how to find the 300 drivers to run this day and night service from scratch ? So Vic Turner and myself traveled to Bangkok Thailand , and recruited 320 young men road testing every one on the busy roads with an articulated vehicle , can you imagine doing just that in Bangkok , we must have tested over 500 to get the best , This story will continue , Ron
Thanks Ron for the explanation of how it started. Must have been a tad challenging getting the operation of the ground. Finding so many drivers and all the administration work with a tight timescale… very impressive.
Johnny
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ronhawk:
the ERF ngc where great ,and to feel there strength put a smile on your face ,considering the loads we carried at Trans Arabia in that heat our ERF s where tested beyond there limit but still got the job done with good maintenance and repairs . Ron
Nicely put! Robert
Just for the record , Geoff Lloyd took the temp at midday for one month 44 44 44 44 his chart looked, like a straight line with hardly any variation and this was in the shade , Ron
Testing the Thi drivers , in Bankok first day was bedlam Thep Yavarnit was the agent he had organised a old Nissan truck and 40 ft trailer ,there were crowds of blokes ! All keen to get started , ( now let’s get going ) !!! cranking the truck over & over it would not start then changing the battery and I bled the system eventually it fired up ,to say this vehicle was a wreck would be flattering ? It was hot and very humid We where on a rd which was like being outside a football match in WALSALL after they had Won !!! No comments Backspice , traffic chaos Street venders barrows bikes every thing going on We planned a route where we could drive, and back up into a side road Vic Turner gave the first demo of how it must be done to get a pass .I sat in the cab with the first Batch of Thi’s along with the owner of the truck ? After the first 1/2dozen and nearly running down the Thi population I was aware of this bloke on the bonnet shouting instructions to the driver in his own language! when Reversing the trailer ? As they where getting into a knot ? to avoid a jackknife , he was an artic driver and I STOPPED him Shouting while the test was carrying on? This only made matters Worse they were failing one after another , I though bloody hell let him shout I could sort out the weeds from the chaff afterwards , this went on for days & days but eventually we got our men , all 320 drivers ,I’must say that , I was aware of saying yes to some and saying No to others ? It was there chance in there lifetime ,i would have liked to give them all a pass , as they where all keen to do well , ( but it was no picknick back in Saudi.). Ron
I know the importance of forward planning ,and to have Jean Pierre on this thread she had this job so I appreciate her Input . The main work in Saudi with TMS was oil pipes , this is a dangerous cargo to carry ? Back at S Jones in the 60s one of the transport office workers was killed when the pyramid of pipes that where on a trailer in the yard had slipped , with this in mind I had fabricated cross steel beams to go across the trailers with stop ends on ,try and stop this happening , this worked with chains, and it gave the drivers the knowledge of how Dangerous there loads where and gave them a chance ,when unloading , Ron
TMS , Coming back from leave ? John Hill was waiting at the air port to pick Us up , Vic Turner and myself , where’s my estate car Vic bellowed at JH it’s in for repair John said getting into A03 JH,s Pontiac we drove back down the Abqake rd to our camp , John seemed to be a bit quiet when Vic queried him about his estate car ? Then he confessed that he had an accident in his car And it’s round the back of the compound ? ( Normally this is where we put the scrap )? It’s now about 1/30am pitch black , take us round the back Vic Said let’s look at what you have done ,circleing the camp the head lights shone onto Vic,s American Estate car ■■? Vic really loved his wheels , then he just could not BELIEVE what he saw nor I ,in the head light as John put them back to dip ,in shame !! Bloody hell bloody hell you’ve had an accident all right Is a f–cking right off he screamed , me and John could not stop laughing , (he is even laghing in the photo ), Ron
Oh dear… a nice welcome back. Did you manage to straighten it out Ron, or was panel work not your specialism?
Johnny
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Hi Ron.
Remember Vic and the other ‘characters’ on the TMS photo, including Mr Morrison and the legendary MM! Julie, my wife, was a teacher at the British School and of course Pat and Pauline Conway were great friends. Chris Metz and Camilla were in the social circle that revolved at the time.
When it came time for us to leave (I think my ‘just one more year’ T shirt was getting a bit faded!) I discussed leaving terms with Sheikh Ali. Julie was 7 months pregnant with our daughter (28, getting married this year!) I hadn’t paid into Zakat, or whatever it was called, so couldn’t claim it, but Sheikh Ali owed me quite a lot - I’d worked for him for about 6 years after working for myself.
I’d had an argument with the Pakistani accountant about 18 months previously. One of the office staff wanted to leave and he was due about 3,000 Riyals - a fortune to him. The accountant had said ‘we can save this money - he can’t do anything about it, he will still leave.’
I gave him an absolute rocket! ‘How about when you leave?’ Pay him everything he’s entitled to!’
I think I was due about £10,000. I can’t remember the exact figures. Sheikh Ali said ‘we’re a bit short of cash at the moment, I’ll pay you half and send the rest on.’
Since I normally signed all the cheques I knew we weren’t short of cash, but it was an argument I couldn’t win - unless I wanted to go to jail and…
So I agreed. However, I did manage to book first class home, British Airways from Bahrein. The causeway, and presumably your huge rock were recently in place. Approximately 29 years ago today we crossed that causeway and caught the overnight flight home.
You’ll be staggered to know I didn’t get the other £5,000!
John.
Thanks Pete ! The second drop arm on the steering link on that 4inhand was aways playing up Ron
