bullitt:
Wasn’t sure which thread to link this to so there is now a duplicate on the “Off to Almaty” thread.This is from 13 years ago nearly
… viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3381&p=29437&hilit=irkutsk#p29437
A trip to Irkutsk…
Yeah, that is an interesting post Bullitt. Glad that you added it.
That’s exactly the same as here, blistering hot in summer and frigid in winter. It plays havoc with the roads.
Dirty Dan:
Ah i had forgot about that one! Now that is a good thread!
And were is jj72? Havent seen him posting for a longtime now.Danne
+1 Dan.
Yes, I used to enjoy reading Andy’s posts, I hope that he is O.K. and he returns to the Trucknet site sometime soon.
We only have one year left now before we can buy his book which will include loads of interesting photos I hope. 
Of course. Talking about road surfaces. Here is one that we got used to.
It may have been a little bit slippery but it did fill in the potholes and cracks.
Finished reading your book and my word, what an absolute pleasure it was indeed!
Right from the start where you describe that you nearly suffered frostbite to your hand, and you descripe the scenery as well, I was hooked…and it sort of reminded me to the openings scene of “Fargo”…
Now, I’ve found some other pic’s to jog your memory… 
Cheers, Patrick
pv83:
Finished reading your book and my word, what an absolute pleasure it was indeed!
Right from the start where you describe that you nearly suffered frostbite to your hand, and you descripe the scenery as well, I was hooked…and it sort of reminded me to the openings scene of “Fargo”…Now, I’ve found some other pic’s to jog your memory…
Cheers, Patrick
Hi Patrick. I am glad that you enjoyed reading the book. It is great to get some positive feedback.
Another set of great photo’s that you have added. I remember all of those companies.
The Nico Mooy photo reminds me of a place that I used to load from near Vyazniki, a couple of hundred Kilometres East of Moscow. They used to produce flat pack furniture for M.F.I. When you loaded, you backed onto the side of the building and everything came out through a single door. Just like the door in your house. They walked every pack through this door and through the trailer. It took forever. But, because I used to leave Moscow really early in the morning, I could get there, load and be back in Moscow that evening.
Bliteb I knew from Yugoslavia, when I was working for Pro-Motor. A good friend of mine on Bliteb was Jimmy Cadwalleder. His father was English and his mother was Dutch. He could speak both languages perfectly. I used to see him in Belgrade, or Zagreb, when we were weekended. Another driver on there, Jan was a fully trained chef. One weekend we were stuck at the Yugo/Italian border, on our way home. He cooked up a roast beef dinner, using an oven that he had in his trailer box.
Mode Express I remember as well. I used to see them all over the place.
Yes. You have jogged my memory Patrick. Thanks very much.
Mick
Hi VCC, your impromptu roast dinner from the chef has me posting this, no doubt you’ll recognise some of the fare on offer.
Oily
quote from Farhad Sadykov
“Life in the protest camp.
Starting from November 15, 2015, Russia has introduced a new toll collection system, called Platon, for collecting fees from trucks weighing over 12 tons for using federal highways. Even before Platon came into effect, long-haul drivers had started protesting against the new levy”.
oiltreader:
Hi VCC, your impromptu roast dinner from the chef has me posting this, no doubt you’ll recognise some of the fare on offer.
Oilyquote from Farhad Sadykov
“Life in the protest camp.
Starting from November 15, 2015, Russia has introduced a new toll collection system, called Platon, for collecting fees from trucks weighing over 12 tons for using federal highways. Even before Platon came into effect, long-haul drivers had started protesting against the new levy”.
Hi Oily. Yes, I used to eat that kind of food at home in Moscow and also out on the road, when I ate with Russian drivers. The Azgurz (the small cucumbers) are eaten with everything. The bread rolls are a bit dog, but the flat bread is usually good.
pv83:
Preparing a roast dinner seemed to be the most important task during some trips…
You are right there Patrick. But I cooked most of mine out of tins, to be honest. ha ha ha
I used to take MDF from Northfleet out to Poland, it was then transhipped onto Russian lorries for onwards delivery, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was going to that place in Vyazniki as the unloading process was similar, each sheet came out one at a time and went straight into the Russian trailer! It was a long day! We cleared at the bus terminal in Warsaw and then went north east an hour or so to unload, Minsk something or other the place was called. From there it was back to Hamburg asap for a load home.
Sent from my SM-T805W using Tapatalk
Vodka Cola Cowboy:
pv83:
Finished reading your book and my word, what an absolute pleasure it was indeed!
Right from the start where you describe that you nearly suffered frostbite to your hand, and you descripe the scenery as well, I was hooked…and it sort of reminded me to the openings scene of “Fargo”…Now, I’ve found some other pic’s to jog your memory…
Cheers, Patrick
Hi Patrick. I am glad that you enjoyed reading the book. It is great to get some positive feedback.
Another set of great photo’s that you have added. I remember all of those companies.
The Nico Mooy photo reminds me of a place that I used to load from near Vyazniki, a couple of hundred Kilometres East of Moscow. They used to produce flat pack furniture for M.F.I. When you loaded, you backed onto the side of the building and everything came out through a single door. Just like the door in your house. They walked every pack through this door and through the trailer. It took forever. But, because I used to leave Moscow really early in the morning, I could get there, load and be back in Moscow that evening.Bliteb I knew from Yugoslavia, when I was working for Pro-Motor. A good friend of mine on Bliteb was Jimmy Cadwalleder. His father was English and his mother was Dutch. He could speak both languages perfectly. I used to see him in Belgrade, or Zagreb, when we were weekended. Another driver on there, Jan was a fully trained chef. One weekend we were stuck at the Yugo/Italian border, on our way home. He cooked up a roast beef dinner, using an oven that he had in his trailer box.
Mode Express I remember as well. I used to see them all over the place.
Yes. You have jogged my memory Patrick. Thanks very much.
Mick
Everything came out through a single door…that reminded me of a trip to Lithuania, me old man took me out for yet another trip, and we had to load clothes and such in Lithuania, to be more precise in the capital, got round to the place to find we were a bit early…as in two days early…so we’ve then headed back to the Hotel Vilnius (Wilna) parked up the lorry and wonder about for a bit.
Beautifal city that is by the way, I’ve never been back since, but from what I can remember is that I never had the thought I was all that close to Russia…everything was absolutely tidy and eveyone seemed quite friendly…will come to that later on…
After two days wondering about, we then got back in order to load, I remember asking how long it would take, the dry but simple answer was; er…I reckon about three days… I couldn’t believe it, so I got round to the back of the trailer and watched the workforce (all women…) set about… and as you said before, everything was done by hand and through a single door…so after the first day, they’ve managed to get 1/3 of the trailer loaded…
Coming back to that friendliness, in the days that we were stationary, dad was doing a crossword and I was in the drivers seat, pretending I was driving all over Europe (bear in mind that I was 12 at the time), whilst suddenly this beautifal looking lady came past, the doors of the cab were open, so she came to my side of the cab and asked me “if I wanted to ■■■■”… I looked at her, feeling me cheeks go as red as you can imagine, she then climbed up, kissed me on both cheeks and said that I was such a sweet lad, and walked away again… I was quite puzzled I can asure you…Looked at me old man and he just laughed his arse of…
Cheers, Patrick
newmercman:
I used to take MDF from Northfleet out to Poland, it was then transhipped onto Russian lorries for onwards delivery, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was going to that place in Vyazniki as the unloading process was similar, each sheet came out one at a time and went straight into the Russian trailer! It was a long day! We cleared at the bus terminal in Warsaw and then went north east an hour or so to unload, Minsk something or other the place was called. From there it was back to Hamburg asap for a load home.Sent from my SM-T805W using Tapatalk
You’re probably right Newmercman. I used to load MFI flat packs, from Veliki Luki, on the way to the Latvian border from Moscow and from Gagarin, as well as from Vyazniki. The Russians had a lot of flat pack furniture, but they also made some impressive hard wood furniture.
The single door idea was common at these flat pack factories. It was probably a security system, to stop British drivers from stealing their high quality products. (Or not) 
pv83:
Vodka Cola Cowboy:
pv83:
Finished reading your book and my word, what an absolute pleasure it was indeed!
Right from the start where you describe that you nearly suffered frostbite to your hand, and you descripe the scenery as well, I was hooked…and it sort of reminded me to the openings scene of “Fargo”…Now, I’ve found some other pic’s to jog your memory…
Cheers, Patrick
Hi Patrick. I am glad that you enjoyed reading the book. It is great to get some positive feedback.
Another set of great photo’s that you have added. I remember all of those companies.
The Nico Mooy photo reminds me of a place that I used to load from near Vyazniki, a couple of hundred Kilometres East of Moscow. They used to produce flat pack furniture for M.F.I. When you loaded, you backed onto the side of the building and everything came out through a single door. Just like the door in your house. They walked every pack through this door and through the trailer. It took forever. But, because I used to leave Moscow really early in the morning, I could get there, load and be back in Moscow that evening.Bliteb I knew from Yugoslavia, when I was working for Pro-Motor. A good friend of mine on Bliteb was Jimmy Cadwalleder. His father was English and his mother was Dutch. He could speak both languages perfectly. I used to see him in Belgrade, or Zagreb, when we were weekended. Another driver on there, Jan was a fully trained chef. One weekend we were stuck at the Yugo/Italian border, on our way home. He cooked up a roast beef dinner, using an oven that he had in his trailer box.
Mode Express I remember as well. I used to see them all over the place.
Yes. You have jogged my memory Patrick. Thanks very much.
Mick
Everything came out through a single door…that reminded me of a trip to Lithuania, me old man took me out for yet another trip, and we had to load clothes and such in Lithuania, to be more precise in the capital, got round to the place to find we were a bit early…as in two days early…so we’ve then headed back to the Hotel Vilnius (Wilna) parked up the lorry and wonder about for a bit.
Beautifal city that is by the way, I’ve never been back since, but from what I can remember is that I never had the thought I was all that close to Russia…everything was absolutely tidy and eveyone seemed quite friendly…will come to that later on…After two days wondering about, we then got back in order to load, I remember asking how long it would take, the dry but simple answer was; er…I reckon about three days… I couldn’t believe it, so I got round to the back of the trailer and watched the workforce (all women…) set about… and as you said before, everything was done by hand and through a single door…so after the first day, they’ve managed to get 1/3 of the trailer loaded…
Coming back to that friendliness, in the days that we were stationary, dad was doing a crossword and I was in the drivers seat, pretending I was driving all over Europe (bear in mind that I was 12 at the time), whilst suddenly this beautifal looking lady came past, the doors of the cab were open, so she came to my side of the cab and asked me “if I wanted to [zb]”… I looked at her, feeling me cheeks go as red as you can imagine, she then climbed up, kissed me on both cheeks and said that I was such a sweet lad, and walked away again… I was quite puzzled I can asure you…Looked at me old man and he just laughed his arse of…
Cheers, Patrick
That’s a great story Patrick. Yeah, I bet your dad laughed.
I drove through Vilnus quite a few times, when I was using the border at Kaliningrad, to avoid Kukariki and Grodno. I never loaded or stopped there, as I was pushing on, to Kaunus and through to Kaliningrad. I seem to remember that it looked a nice place.
rastone:
Belaz
Hi Rastone. Those are interesting photo’s. I was looking at Belaz and they have produced the 75710 dumper truck, which can carry 450 tonnes. It is rated as the largest truck in the world.
tiptop495:
Hey, The days before Sovtransavto existed.Eric,
Two very interesting photo’s Eric. Old and New. I expect that you would be alright for spares for the Maz if you were driving to Vladivostok.
