Cheers Oily!
Can’t believe it’s already more then a year since the last post, how time flies eh… 
Time to put some new footage on then I reckon 
Well, since I’ve been back with the orange brigade, time to post some new pics I reckon, the following is from a trip that will last forever in my memory, and not only because of the emotional impact…
On the 17th of July 2014, the MH17 of Malaysia Airlines was shot down, and…well, we all know what happened with the ones that were inside the airplane…
In November v.d. Vlist got the task to recover the parts of the MH17, and bring those parts back to Holland where a thorough investigation awaited.
So after some serious planning, and much paperwork, v.d. Vlist got the green light and we were off…
I was asked to join the third convoy, and after some hesitation (didn’t know what to expect over there) I agreed to take part.
All convoy’s existed of 4 lorries, in total there were 4 convoy’s.
The group I was in departed on friday the 28th of November and it took us a week to get to Charkov were the remaining parts were, Charkov being a “safe” zone at the time…
All went well, things have certainly changed in Poland, it’s all motorway these day’s, just the last 30 km or so to the Ukrainian border takes you up on the old national roads.
The border itself is all looking quite newish, but the manners of personel haven’t changed a bit since the commy day’s, the polish authorities weren’t a problem, but the Ukranian on the other hand…
We all had experience with the Eastern Bloc countries, and how to deal with certain “problems”, but this was a new one for us as well, they were quite unfriendly, to put it mildly, and after some discussion and paying a certain amount, we got the right stamps and we were off…
And I must admit, roads weren’t that bad either, well up to Kiev that is, after that it got a bit less comfy…
Local people were friendly as well, they seemed to know what we came for and even tried to speak some German or English, police was something else though, at every county border there’s a police checkpoint, and we got stopped by each one, but after showing them coppers a special letter we were on our way in no time…
Alas, we finally reached Charkov, parked the lorries at the loading site and went to a hotel, loading took place the following morning…
And that’s something I will never forget, that first moment when you see parts (the cockpit was the first thing I saw) that used to be a airplane… and thinking of what happened to those poor people… But we got on with the job, humour is a life saver sometimes.
Another thing I will not forget easily is the bitter cold, at some point it was even -35, working temp.during the day was a staggering -20…
But once back inside the cab the vast landscapes made things good again, 'cause honestly, the scenery is beautifal, just a vast emptiness it seems.
Anyway, we got the job done, returned safely back home before the end of the year and hopefully helped a bit with the still going investigation.
I can’t show everything, hopefully you understand why that is.
Cheers, Patrick
Thats one special job eh? Thanks for charing it must have been tough for you. Some good pics to.
Danne
Dirty Dan:
Thats one special job eh? Thanks for charing it must have been tough for you. Some good pics to.Danne
Hiya Danne,
Well, what can I say…it was most definitely a trip to remember… but it wasn’t that hard for us, the people who lost family and friends, those are the ones still trying to cope with things…
Excellent and thanks for sharing! Bet that’s a trip you won’t forget in a hurry. Notice your Scanias are only 400pk? Not much for a heavy transport outfit, did you have any more cold weather related mishaps other than the fallen air tank?
Very interesting and great photos. Nothing much changes in the East does it?
David
short walk:
Excellent and thanks for sharing! Bet that’s a trip you won’t forget in a hurry. Notice your Scanias are only 400pk? Not much for a heavy transport outfit, did you have any more cold weather related mishaps other than the fallen air tank?
Hiya,
These were all second hand ones, and 400bhp isn’t enough I must admit. If you stick to around 35t to 40t GVW it’s coping, anything heavier is just a burden…
We did had some more technical failure, on the second day of arrival the bloody thing wouldn’t start anymore, and not the one I was driving but all second hand ones… still don’t know what the fuzz was about, but we got it working in the end, just had a external heater on the tanks and engine and fiddled about with the diesel pomp.
And some air leakage on the day we left, first thing that came off was the air tank, later on some airpipe thingy went t… up, but I’ve managed to repair that as well, apart from that everything else worked without missing a beat.
Cheers, Patrick
David Miller:
Very interesting and great photos. Nothing much changes in the East does it?David
Hiya,
No, some things will never change I reckon (thinking back at the “warm” welcome at the border), but I was a bit surprised about the road conditions, apart from a deviation round Lviv which took us right back 50 years or so, the rest of it wasn’t that bad at all. Ring road of Kiev is bit of a laugh, it’s normally 3 lanes, but they’re quite keen on expanding that to 6 lanes…
One other thing that was really surprising, within every 5 miles or so it seemed, there was a petrol station…
The majority of the people were friendly too, it’s tough for them as well being in the situation they’re in. Doesn’t seem likely that things come to a end soon…
Cheers, Patrick
A couple of old friends who i worked with on Nijman\Zeetank are now working for Zwaar Transport Twente which i am told is now part of the V.D.Vlist Group.There were a few of them up here in February going to Harstad for the NATO.They managed to stop here for a chat so that was nice.Benny said that V.D.Vlist is now one of the few ‘‘old fashioned’’ transport co’s who still go almost anywhere,so he is quite pleased by the variety of work.
hutpik:
A couple of old friends who i worked with on Nijman\Zeetank are now working for Zwaar Transport Twente which i am told is now part of the V.D.Vlist Group.There were a few of them up here in February going to Harstad for the NATO.They managed to stop here for a chat so that was nice.Benny said that V.D.Vlist is now one of the few ‘‘old fashioned’’ transport co’s who still go almost anywhere,so he is quite pleased by the variety of work.
Yup, v.d. Vlist is a bit “old fashioned” it seems, majority of the work is roughly said France, Germany, England. But for NATO you get to see all sorts of places 
Cheers, Patrick
Hi Patrick, Your detailed account with pictures of the Charkov trip I found interesting, thank you. Hopefully you will have similar journey reports to share with us at a later date.
Cheers
Oily
oiltreader:
Hi Patrick, Your detailed account with pictures of the Charkov trip I found interesting, thank you. Hopefully you will have similar journey reports to share with us at a later date.
Cheers
Oily
Cheers Oily!
About other journey reports, it’s not all that “spectacular”, you just try to get from A to B, that’s it basically…
But come to think of it, there was a trip down to Croatia that took a bit longer than was suspected, when I get back home I’ll look into that, jog my memory a bit like
Cheers, Patrick
Footage from last week…
A few FTF photo’s for you heavy haulage fans. First photo is of the FTF in big lift livery, the second photo is same FTF with the Magnaload livery which was driven in the UK by my uncle, it was brought over mainly for one contract in Milford Haven.
Last photo is one of my uncle in front of FTF restored by Geoff Makinson, he managed to get in touch with my uncle and he got to drive the FTF which brought back many memories, they did sound well with that Detroit Diesel screaming away!
jshepguis:
A few FTF photo’s for you heavy haulage fans. First photo is of the FTF in big lift livery, the second photo is same FTF with the Magnaload livery which was driven in the UK by my uncle, it was brought over mainly for one contract in Milford Haven.
Last photo is one of my uncle in front of FTF restored by Geoff Makinson, he managed to get in touch with my uncle and he got to drive the FTF which brought back many memories, they did sound well with that Detroit Diesel screaming away!
Hiya,
Thanks for sharing mate, proper work horses those FTF’S were, shame they don’t build 'em anymore, only thing that was similar to it was a Scammell I reckon.
I’ve got the Big Lift FTF as a model, came as a limited edition (or so I thought) together with a similar one in Stoof livery. What happened to the FTF after that UK job was done? Thought I saw some pics of it once doing hard labour somewhere in the desert like…
Cheers, Patrick
Hi Patrick
This photo has an FTF and a Scammell nicknamed Betsy for you. Have spoken to my uncle and he said that after this specific job the FTF returned to Holland it did come back to Britain in Stoof colours a few years later when Econofreight had become part of Mammoet operations but he did not drive it then. He was abroad in Saudi for Atalas Big Lift mostly driving a Titan Mercedes. He also thinks that an FTF that was in the middle east was being brought back to Holland on the ship that grounded on a sand bank off Southampton a few years ago, not too sure if this got salvaged and saved and repatriated, would like to think so.
Nice footage once again mate!
Now, I’ve done some digging in my own vast archive and I found the following, according to the small amount of info penned down on the back of the pic, the drivers name was Lenny Peacock… would that be your uncle then perchance?
Cheers, Patrick
