Dave Tapsell
Overland Buses (xi)
Turkey: October 1971
The AEC bus (YRC 45) off the road between Agri and Horosan, in north-eastern Turkey. The bus had an underslung AEC AH470 horizontal engine (7.7 litres) and five-speed gearbox. From new it had been part of the Burton-on-Trent Corporation bus fleet in England, before being sold to Safaris Overland for use on the route(s) out to India and back. The main problem with these particular AEC horizontal engines were the 'wet' cylinder liners which made them prone to overheating, and blowing cylinder-head gaskets, when worked hard or in very hot weather – or both. In the hard winter conditions the engine ran perfectly.
Not far from the road is the Aras River; at this spot it is still a relatively young river since it rises in the Erzurum region, but over a thousand kilometers later it empties into the Caspian Sea.
Overland Buses (xi)
Turkey: October 1971
The AEC bus (YRC 45) off the road between Agri and Horosan, in north-eastern Turkey. The bus had an underslung AEC AH470 horizontal engine (7.7 litres) and five-speed gearbox. From new it had been part of the Burton-on-Trent Corporation bus fleet in England, before being sold to Safaris Overland for use on the route(s) out to India and back. The main problem with these particular AEC horizontal engines were the 'wet' cylinder liners which made them prone to overheating, and blowing cylinder-head gaskets, when worked hard or in very hot weather – or both. In the hard winter conditions the engine ran perfectly.
Not far from the road is the Aras River; at this spot it is still a relatively young river since it rises in the Erzurum region, but over a thousand kilometers later it empties into the Caspian Sea.