Dave Tapsell
Overland Buses (viii)
Turkey: October 1971
While driving this AEC bus from India to London I lost control of it and slid off the road in north-eastern Turkey. This happened at over 5,500 feet elevation on the old dirt road from Agri to Horasan; a couple of hours previously, I'd driven over the snow-covered Tahir Pass (approx. 8,000 feet) without incident, but as we got lower down, the road became a treacherous surface of snow melting on top of mud.
In the background is a yellow truck, bound for Tehran — this was a Scania 140 truck and drawbar trailer operated by the English company, Asian Transport (later renamed Astran). The Scania driver, Dick Snow, offered to drop his trailer and pull the bus back on to the road with a chain, but then another English truck turned up – this one was an ex-Army Bedford belonging to another of the overland companies. The driver of the four-wheel-drive Bedford took over the recovery operation and pulled the bus back onto the road with a wire hawser. The bus was unscathed, although it had collected even more mud to add to what was on it already. The snow that had been on the roof of the bus, for the last thousand-odd miles, had suddenly melted.
Overland Buses (viii)
Turkey: October 1971
While driving this AEC bus from India to London I lost control of it and slid off the road in north-eastern Turkey. This happened at over 5,500 feet elevation on the old dirt road from Agri to Horasan; a couple of hours previously, I'd driven over the snow-covered Tahir Pass (approx. 8,000 feet) without incident, but as we got lower down, the road became a treacherous surface of snow melting on top of mud.
In the background is a yellow truck, bound for Tehran — this was a Scania 140 truck and drawbar trailer operated by the English company, Asian Transport (later renamed Astran). The Scania driver, Dick Snow, offered to drop his trailer and pull the bus back on to the road with a chain, but then another English truck turned up – this one was an ex-Army Bedford belonging to another of the overland companies. The driver of the four-wheel-drive Bedford took over the recovery operation and pulled the bus back onto the road with a wire hawser. The bus was unscathed, although it had collected even more mud to add to what was on it already. The snow that had been on the roof of the bus, for the last thousand-odd miles, had suddenly melted.