Russian Roulette

[pv83]

oiltreader:

pv83:
What’s that in the second to last pic Oily? Looks a bit like a Volvo FL series from the side…? No doubt it will be sommat Chinese…?

It’s a Sinotruk Howo Patrick and yes it’s Chinese.
Oily

That does bring back memories, I’ve loaded some Chinese lorry for the BAUMA in Munich some years ago, it looked like…well it was actually a blend of many makes…most of it looked like Mercedes, Scanny and Volvo…even the engine looked like a copy of the Scanny 6 potter…and the handling was a laugh…
Must have got a pic of it somewhere, will see if I can dig it up.

[oiltreader]

Tipper this time, still in Russia.
Oily

[vodka_cola_cowboy]

oiltreader:

pv83:
What’s that in the second to last pic Oily? Looks a bit like a Volvo FL series from the side…? No doubt it will be sommat Chinese…?

It’s a Sinotruk Howo Patrick and yes it’s Chinese.
Oily

Yeah, Brilliant set of photo’s Oily. Thanks for putting them on. Another master class.
And yes the truck is a Chinese model. C.N.H.T.C made by the China National Heavy Duty Truck Group. If you look at the registration plate the last two numbers give you the area of Russian registration. The area is 35, which is to the North East of Moscow. Maybe Jaroslavl but may be not. Any Russian lads reading this thread may be able to let us know. Because we know Trucknet U.K. is not just limited to British drivers. We have the brilliant Patrick, Tip top, Dirty Danne etc adding some brilliant stuff to this site. And of course there are people like Jeff Elliot chipping in while hiding away from the British winter, down there in Oz. Good luck mate and I hope that you are not too sunburned. As if I give one !
Long may everyone find this thread interesting and keep chucking in photo’s and comments.

[vodka_cola_cowboy]

tiptop495:
Hey, The old border at Terespol before mid '80’s.

Eric,

yeah Eric replaced by the unforgettable Kukariki. I went through Terespol on my first trip in 1981. But it was not snowy like that. It was just Malinki [/i*]Sniyek*. (Small snow)

[vodka_cola_cowboy]

There was the interesting difference between how we describe snow, in the west and how the Russians describe it. We westerners look out of our window or pull back the curtains of our cab and say “Bloody hell it’s snowing”
The Russians, on the other hand, have a large amount of descriptions of snow.

Sneeyek ;- Snow.

Bolshoi Sneeyek ;- Big snow.

Nee bolshoi sneeyek;- Not big snow.

Mokree sneeyek ;- Wet snow.

Nee Mokree sneeyek ;- Not wet snow.

Sukoy sneeyek ;- Dry snow.

Their popular songs were mostly about Beeyelee beeyelee sneeyek. ( White white snow ) which was what covered all of the rural areas.

Except for the Chorneey Sneeyek. ( Black snow) that was the black snow that was beside every road and highway throughout the country. Caused by the exhausts of all of the vehicles passing by. They never ever sang about that though. I wonder why ?

[pv83]

pv83:

oiltreader:

pv83:
What’s that in the second to last pic Oily? Looks a bit like a Volvo FL series from the side…? No doubt it will be sommat Chinese…?

It’s a Sinotruk Howo Patrick and yes it’s Chinese.
Oily

That does bring back memories, I’ve loaded some Chinese lorry for the BAUMA in Munich some years ago, it looked like…well it was actually a blend of many makes…most of it looked like Mercedes, Scanny and Volvo…even the engine looked like a copy of the Scanny 6 potter…and the handling was a laugh…
Must have got a pic of it somewhere, will see if I can dig it up.

Found it!

[pv83]

Found some more in the archives, stuff I’ve nearly forgotten about…

The following shows a factory in Komarno, Slovakia, where they fabricated the under carriages for the CAT works in Grenoble, France.
We got down there on a regular basis, was always quite a enjoyable trip.
Now, this one time I came in, they weren’t quite finished with the load, so I took me camera out and had bit of a look around the premises.
Now idea what they’d made when it was under Soviet regime, but it was absolutely enormous, after an hour walk I still hadn’t reached the end…that place must have covered enough squire miles then I reckon…

[pv83]

And then there was this trip to Olomouc, Czech Republic, where I was weekended…

Got the task to load some industrial machine in Switzerland for a factory in Olomouc.
Ended up on their doorstep on a Saturday, and immediately the “doorman” came to me, explaining several things, which I didn’t understand, because my knowledge of the Czech language is zilch…
No problem, he said, and got busy on the phone, which he handed to me after a minute or so, turns out he’d gave the top man a ring, and explained to me that I could use the facilities whenever I wanted…and that he was buying me supper on Sunday evening. I assured the friendly man that that wasn’t necessary, but he insisted, so who was I to decline the offer eh…

After having a shower, I dropped the trailer on it’s legs and went to the nearest supermarket, got the stuff I needed and thought a visit to town centre would be nice, so parked the lorrie and strolled into town centre indeed!
Now, honestly, I would never have thought that it was such a beautiful place, weather was crap though, but apart from that I quite enjoyed the sight seeing.

And much to my surprise at some point I heard two lasses speaking English…so I carefully came a bit closer, did a bit of detective work and there was no doubt about it, these lasses were 100% English!
They obviously saw me sneaking up towards them and I heard them say, what’s this geezer up to then? I then introduced myself and they turned there and then on the spot and became very friendly indeed! Turned out they were students and were part of some exchange programme, and they’d be studying at the local uni for about a year or so.
I was invited to join them for tea…and…er…well, no need to get into further details eh…

True to his word, the guvnor came round on Sunday to pick me up and took me to some fancy restaurant.
Whatever I wanted, I could choose, he was paying the bill he said. Still a bit uncomfortable with that I just opted for a massive steak which was an absolute treat!
We got on from the very first moment, and we shared a witty sense of humour! Absolute gent he was.
Anyway, tipped that machine on the Monday morning, which wasn’t all that easy, due to a serious lack of room, but got it in the production hall after all.

[dirty_dan]

Some great pics there Patric,your sure get out and about but i think we need to hear more about then english girls

Danne

[pv83]

Dirty Dan:
Some great pics there Patric,your sure get out and about but i think we need to hear more about then english girls

Danne

Cheers Danne! Wasn’t anything recently though, this all took place some 10 odd years ago…and about those lassies…still think about them sometimes

[vodka_cola_cowboy]

pv83:

Dirty Dan:
Some great pics there Patric,your sure get out and about but i think we need to hear more about then english girls

Danne

Cheers Danne! Wasn’t anything recently though, this all took place some 10 odd years ago…and about those lassies…still think about them sometimes

You were obviously a very naughty boy Patrick English and Lithuanian girls to mention just a few.
Brilliant photo’s once again. Some of those Czech towns are very pretty. The last time that I was through there would have been 1993. I came out of the Ukraine into Slovakia and ran into Czecho’. Then drove up into the D.D.R. and passed through Dresden on my way to change trailers in Berlin.
I dare say that the Czech’s have painted up and restored a lot of their buildings after the Soviets left. Probably the same in Poland etc. Because the Russians made them leave the old buildings how they were in 1945. The only new buildings were tower blocks on the edges of the cities, as the cities populations grew.

[pv83]

Vodka Cola Cowboy:

pv83:

Dirty Dan:
Some great pics there Patric,your sure get out and about but i think we need to hear more about then english girls

Danne

Cheers Danne! Wasn’t anything recently though, this all took place some 10 odd years ago…and about those lassies…still think about them sometimes

You were obviously a very naughty boy Patrick English and Lithuanian girls to mention just a few.
Brilliant photo’s once again. Some of those Czech towns are very pretty. The last time that I was through there would have been 1993. I came out of the Ukraine into Slovakia and ran into Czecho’. Then drove up into the D.D.R. and passed through Dresden on my way to change trailers in Berlin.
I dare say that the Czech’s have painted up and restored a lot of their buildings after the Soviets left. Probably the same in Poland etc. Because the Russians made them leave the old buildings how they were in 1945. The only new buildings were tower blocks on the edges of the cities, as the cities populations grew.

I thought that was what they meant with “get friendly with the locals”…
Aye, always thought that the Czech’s were the most “anti” of the lot, always quite liked going up there…and not only for those stunning lassies I’d like to add
Those tower blocks always looked depressing eh, reminded me of those tower blocks in the “better” council estates such as in Manchester and the like… It’s getting better now though, it still might be the same building but with a lick of paint it does look more “friendly”…

And Dresden…now that’s an absolute beauty, passed town centre just the once in the evening but from what I saw, it surely looked the part…hard to imagine that most of it got bombed to shambles… but don’t mention the war!

[vodka_cola_cowboy]

pv83:

Vodka Cola Cowboy:

pv83:

Dirty Dan:
Some great pics there Patric,your sure get out and about but i think we need to hear more about then english girls

Danne

Cheers Danne! Wasn’t anything recently though, this all took place some 10 odd years ago…and about those lassies…still think about them sometimes

You were obviously a very naughty boy Patrick English and Lithuanian girls to mention just a few.
Brilliant photo’s once again. Some of those Czech towns are very pretty. The last time that I was through there would have been 1993. I came out of the Ukraine into Slovakia and ran into Czecho’. Then drove up into the D.D.R. and passed through Dresden on my way to change trailers in Berlin.
I dare say that the Czech’s have painted up and restored a lot of their buildings after the Soviets left. Probably the same in Poland etc. Because the Russians made them leave the old buildings how they were in 1945. The only new buildings were tower blocks on the edges of the cities, as the cities populations grew.

I thought that was what they meant with “get friendly with the locals”…
Aye, always thought that the Czech’s were the most “anti” of the lot, always quite liked going up there…and not only for those stunning lassies I’d like to add
Those tower blocks always looked depressing eh, reminded me of those tower blocks in the “better” council estates such as in Manchester and the like… It’s getting better now though, it still might be the same building but with a lick of paint it does look more “friendly”…

And Dresden…now that’s an absolute beauty, passed town centre just the once in the evening but from what I saw, it surely looked the part…hard to imagine that most of it got bombed to shambles… but don’t mention the war!

Yeah. Dresden was a nice place, right enough. And Leipzig. Did a few exhibitions in Leipzig. Actually, I shipped out from Dover, March 6th 1987, on my way to Leipzig. That was the night that the Herald overturned outside of Zeebrugge harbour. I had come over to Zeebrugge during the afternoon. I heard about the Herald the next morning, on the radio, where I had parked the night at Dortmund, on the B.B.C World Service News.

[pv83]

Yeah. Dresden was a nice place, right enough. And Leipzig. Did a few exhibitions in Leipzig. Actually, I shipped out from Dover, March 6th 1987, on my way to Leipzig. That was the night that the Herald overturned outside of Zeebrugge harbour. I had come over to Zeebrugge during the afternoon. I heard about the Herald the next morning, on the radio, where I had parked the night at Dortmund, on the B.B.C World Service News.
[/quote]
That must have given you shaky legs after hearing that on the news I can imagine…

[pv83]

Stumbled upon some more pic’s…

[pv83]

.

[jelliot]

pv83:
Stumbled upon some more pic’s…

Don’t know where the border queue is but the desert shots look like the road from Astana then round the west side of Lake Balqash… you would come into Almaty from the north west…I managed to come out that way a few times so I could reload out of Omsk… but there was a " special way " to apply for transit papers…

The road into Almaty from the south west looked a bit more industrial…

We didn’t really get a choice which way we went, we were handed a crude map with a red line on it… that was it… approved route… As they say, the judges decision is final, no correspondence will be entered into… so we rattled up and down the M32… some of the Astana road wasn’t really that clever either… dust every where… either that or mud… Snow as well between the dust and mud… The snow was never really that deep but it would blow about and drift up anything that was in it’s way… you could park up at night and find it was almost up to the top of your wheels on one side but there wouldn’t be much on the other side…
If we could we used to park one truck at 90 degrees to the wind then reverse the others up to it on the down wind side… engines running all night, fuel line heaters on all the time as well…

Jeff

[vodka_cola_cowboy]

pv83:
Yeah. Dresden was a nice place, right enough. And Leipzig. Did a few exhibitions in Leipzig. Actually, I shipped out from Dover, March 6th 1987, on my way to Leipzig. That was the night that the Herald overturned outside of Zeebrugge harbour. I had come over to Zeebrugge during the afternoon. I heard about the Herald the next morning, on the radio, where I had parked the night at Dortmund, on the B.B.C World Service News.

That must have given you shaky legs after hearing that on the news I can imagine…
[/quote]
Yes, it did Patrick. Because, as it was a Friday night sailing, I knew that there would be British truck driving friends of mine on the boat, coming back from Germany etc. But, because I was in Germany, I could not find out who was on it and if they had survived.
In those days hundreds if British trucks sailed out of Dover on a Sunday night, which was the busiest day/night of the week for trucks going out. And Friday night was the busiest for them coming back.
As I said, I was in no danger. I had gone out from Dover earlier in the day and was heading East. But I had been on that Friday evening boat many times and knew that it would be packed.
In fact, I got to Leipzig on the Sunday evening, parked up and went into the centre to get something to eat. When the East Germans found out that I was English, they were all buying me beers. I actually saw the Herald on their t.v. and they knew all about it, because it was all over the t.v. and in their papers.

[vodka_cola_cowboy]

pv83:
Stumbled upon some more pic’s…

Some more excellent photo’s Patrick. They must have been taken a while back going by the standard of the shots. The de Lely ones are more recent I would say. That was the problem back in the early days the standard of photo from the old 35 mil cameras. Now, with digital cameras you get much clearer photo’s. And you can see how the shot has come out immediately. With the 35’s you took the pic’ and hoped that it was alright. You did not know, until the photo was developed some time later.
In 1990 I took out the equipment for Kodak to open up 24 hour photo shops in Moscow. I had also taken gear for two in Poland, while waiting to do my first trip to Moscow for Kepstowe. That was while waiting for my Soviet visa to come through, in April 90. And I used to get my photo’s developed in Moscow, because I knew where the shops were.
But, I never had a really good camera, because you ran the risk of having it stolen by the Border Control Staff. I actually lost 3 Zippo lighters due to them. All stolen from the cab during cab controls.

[vodka_cola_cowboy]

Jelliot:

pv83:
Stumbled upon some more pic’s…

Don’t know where the border queue is but the desert shots look like the road from Astana then round the west side of Lake Balqash… you would come into Almaty from the north west…I managed to come out that way a few times so I could reload out of Omsk… but there was a " special way " to apply for transit papers…

The road into Almaty from the south west looked a bit more industrial…

We didn’t really get a choice which way we went, we were handed a crude map with a red line on it… that was it… approved route… As they say, the judges decision is final, no correspondence will be entered into… so we rattled up and down the M32… some of the Astana road wasn’t really that clever either… dust every where… either that or mud… Snow as well between the dust and mud… The snow was never really that deep but it would blow about and drift up anything that was in it’s way… you could park up at night and find it was almost up to the top of your wheels on one side but there wouldn’t be much on the other side…
If we could we used to park one truck at 90 degrees to the wind then reverse the others up to it on the down wind side… engines running all night, fuel line heaters on all the time as well…

Jeff

Hi Jeff.

Oh yes. The fun of sleeping with the engine running all night. Happy days. I was told that when the temperature drops to -14C, the hairs up your nose began to freeze. And I soon learned that this was correct. At -18C the sump oil begins to thicken and will end up like tarmac, which the crank shaft will not be able to turn through. So, if I was parked up and my temperature gauges ( I had four ) said that it was down to -15C I would leave the engine running all night. I did not leave it to chance that the temperature would not drop further during the night.