Further to my last post.
Pictures from near Nevisinja Yugo late 70’s. Unfortunately no pics of the lorry. Had to pick up a load in the hills. The weather had been bad but was starting to clear a bit. I then had to go back to our agent in Mostar to get paperwork. Their office was very close to the famous old bridge which was destroyed in the war in the 90’s. Since been rebuilt I understand. To clear customs I had to go up to Zagreb but at least that was on the way home.
bullitt:
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Yugoslavia 1993… im not a lover of the white stuff either!!
Whoops! That looks a narrow old road. Hope you weren’t lost.
sandway:
…Whoops! That looks a narrow old road. Hope you weren’t lost.
Its actually a dirt track / forest road that ran through the mountains! Great fun! Love the pic of the Mostar bridge, I was there with some others and tipping just up the road from it a few weeks after the (zb)`s blew it up!! 
bullitt:
sandway:
…Whoops! That looks a narrow old road. Hope you weren’t lost.Its actually a dirt track / forest road that ran through the mountains! Great fun! Love the pic of the Mostar bridge, I was there with some others and tipping just up the road from it a few weeks after the (zb)`s blew it up!!
Bridge been rebuilt a few years ago.
sandway:
During the 70’s and early 80’s Promotor did a fair bit of work to Poland. Mainly to Poznan as that’s where most of the big trade fairs where held. In the early 80’s Poland was in turmoil. The trade union Solidarity was formed in Gdansk and although no one knew at the time this was the beginning of the end for communism. It was a very difficult time for the Polish people and a lot of aid was donated to the country from abroad. Promotor picked up a contract through, I think, the “Polish Catholic Society of Ealing” to transport aid from the UK. The society obtained funds and purchased food cheaply from the Common Market intervention scheme. Do you remember at that time there was much made of the butter mountains and wine lakes? Well we transported most things but not wine. I had already done a few trips to Poland late 70’s but in 1982 all our lorries seemed to be heading there.
Hi Sandway, can you remember where the Western European drivers (although I can’t remember seeing many western trucks around) used to park up at a restaurant that we called The Totem Poles. I think that it was just before Poznan and it had several tall Totem Poles with Red Indian head carvings on them. We used to do one full load a month with empty hessian sacks to a salt mine in Bydgoszcz and reload tiny plastic balls in one ton bags at a place called Plock, for delivery to a company called Plysu at Woburn Sands.
I thought that Solidarity was an underground political party until I arrived in Plock and I was surprised to see big red and white banners all over the place saying “Solidarnosh” or something similar. In fact when I drove out of the factory somebody had stuck a “Solidarnosh” sticker on the back tailboard without me knowing until I arrived at The Totem Poles.
I do remember the European Butter Mountain and the E.U. Wine Lake but do you also remember The Meat Mountain.
I have mentioned this before on here because one day, I was parked on top of the hill near Sibiu in Romania when a U.K. fridge pulled up next to me, he must of known that the kettle was on. I am fairly certain that it was one of Grangewood’s and I often wonder if it was Fred or Dave Miller but I do remember that the driver had just tipped in Bucharest with a load of meat from the U.K. In Bucharest he had to back onto a Romtrans (F Troop) fridge that was taking the meat down to Afghanistan for the Russian troops that were fighting there. The annoying thing was that the European Union was selling the meat to the Russians for about 6p a kilo or something unbelievable.
A couple of weeks later I was transiting Rumo with one of our drivers called Alan Morrey who lived in Crewe and we met one of Moorlocks fridges from Stoke coming the other way, he had just tipped at a cold store in Bucharest. Alan knew the driver who he used to work with at Thor Transport a few years before and he showed Alan a copy of the invoice. He also couldn’t believe the low price that the E.U. were selling the meat to The Russians and he confirmed the story about it going to Afghanistan as there were a couple of Sovtrans trucks waiting to load at the cold store where he tipped.
This must of been in about 1981, and just before the Christmas we heard on the B.B.C. World News that the Polish Government had clamped down on Solidarity and that Leck Walensa had been arrested. I was running home through Czech along with a couple of British drivers when we decided to park in a lay bye to have a sandwich and a brew. There was a Pekas truck parked there with two drivers in it and one of the lads who I think worked for Hick’s suggested that we give them all our tinned food which wasn’t much. We gave them about eight tins from the three of us which they greatly appreciated. I know that it doesn’t sound much now but I think that we had a bit of respect for our fellow Eastern European drivers back then.
Bought a few beers for a couple of Hungaro-Camions lads, delivering Milk to the U.S. camps in Northern Italy in the 70’s. Rudolph reckoned they were on about £28 a MONTH. They were 2 up in a new F88 wagon and drag. Great lads but talk about hand to mouth. They hated going to the Northern Europe countries cos they couldn’t afford to shop or eat there. I always respected and helped out the Eastern Bloc guys in those days and they would always stop if they saw you in trouble - especially in the snow. Different now. Jim.
We all heard stories of how commie block lorry drivers would only be allowed to travel abroad if they had close relatives at home who would be held accountable if they failed to return. Also, they had two drivers up as one was always a party member. Dunno if these were only stories or if there was an element of truth in them but am sure foreign travel opened their eyes (not sure about F troop though). This helped ultimately to drive another small nail into the coffin lid of communism.
I mentioned F troop. They were always driving so slowly I’m sure both drivers were asleep!
Another little anecdote.
As I said in an earlier post we were doing a lot of food aid to Poland and I think all of it was delivered to religious establishment whether Cathedrals, Churches or whatever. Sometimes it was stored directly inside the church, sometimes in adjacent buildings. Now all of these large establishments that I delivered to had living accommodation attached, to house no doubt, the large number of priests and laymen required to run them. On one such trip I was down in the south at either Katowice or Krakow. I think it was the former.
Upon arriving at the outskirts of any town or city we had soon learnt to stop someone in a car to get directions as we knew full well they would lead us directly to our destination. No need to know your left from your right in Polish just follow that car. On this particular trip I had parked up late afternoon and undid the tilt (can’t for the life of me remember what happened about custom clearance but it may have been done at the border). We never got involved in unloading and I was immediately invited in to the main living area. There was a group of people (aid workers but not drivers) already there. German, French a few other nationalities and one American woman. Now this woman was one of those self important, domineering types who couldn’t or wouldn’t stop talking and I could see most of the people in the room were already p— off with her. The reason for everyone being there was that one of the top men in the catholic church hierarchy in Poland, Archbishop whatever his name, was to make a visit to thank everyone for their help.
A little later on in the evening we were all invited into the dining room for a simple but adequate meal as the Top Man had still not arrived. There was definitely an air of excitement in the room that evening and maybe thats what was playing on the American woman. She was getting louder and more vocal as the evening went on. And then just as we had finished our meal news came through that the Top Man was in the building and he would be with us shortly. We all stood up as he finally entered the room with white and purple robes flowing out behind him, he was by this time doing a good impression of Roger Bannister as he broke the 4 minute mile record. He swept around the room thanked everyone profusely and was gone in the blink of an eye. It was not quite what I or the others were expecting. We thought he would be staying to chat with everyone but I think----- he had been warned in advance of the American woman!!
The attached photo was taken in 1981 in the car park of the Zagreb Hotel. As Micky T in an earlier post said this is the Hotel where Promotor driver Billy Proudlove was detained whilst awaiting trial for an accident that caused the death of a couple in a car. He was found guilty, I believe, of a lesser charge but still did time in Yugo. Upon his return to the UK he did not drive again for the company but found employment elsewhere. We heard a year or two later that he had died in an accident in roadworks on the M1. Billy had a very bad stutter and what with the accidents it sounds as if he had a very sad short life.
Brilliant Steve, can I send a copy of your photo to Jimmy Walker, a.k.a. Jimmy Dormouse he will be over the moon when he sees it.
The guy in the middle is Chris Turnbull an owner driver who pulled for Dow for over ten years, he bought a new Volvo F12 after he sold the Ford Transcontinental.
And Wing Commander Trevor Long, R.I.P. The Cola Cowboy Kid.
Jimmy Walker and Bullets uncle, Stan Warmbold, it must be Egg Banjo Time.
I thought you might know them all mushroomman. Unfortunately the only Dow photo I have. Please do whatever you want with it.
Bye the way its not Steve.
Sorry Sandway, I remember that on one of your earlier posts that somebody called Steve had made a comment so I must of got confused. 
I once did a trade fair at Plovdiv in Bulgaria one year, early 80’s either 80/81, it was a combine harvester for Massey Ferguson Agricultural, Banner Lane, Coventry. One our drivers called Brian Carter took the machine down on a low loader and I had to take the cutter or the boom or whatever they call it down in a tilt as it was about 30ft long. If I get the time one day I shall try and write the story down as it was one of those strange trips that used to crop up every now and again. 
Regards Steve.
mushroomman:
Brilliant Steve, can I send a copy of your photo to Jimmy Walker, a.k.a. Jimmy Dormouse he will be over the moon when he sees it.
The guy in the middle is Chris Turnbull an owner driver who pulled for Dow for over ten years, he bought a new Volvo F12 after he sold the Ford Transcontinental.
And Wing Commander Trevor Long, R.I.P. The Cola Cowboy Kid.Jimmy Walker and Bullets uncle, Stan Warmbold, it must be Egg Banjo Time.
Good pic there MM 
My wife saw Stan’s daughter a couple of weeks ago and asked about Stans old photos (again ) but I think they are a bit of a lost cause now. Shame as Im sure they would have been interesting.
Put this photo on again just so I can comment on the awful yuk Astran livery they changed over to, for thankfully only a short time.
Promotor supplied and ran many Promotional Display Units for clients during the 80’s and early 90’s. The photos show one such trailer which toured Europe in the mid 80’s. It was used for promoting the Trident Vector 432 music mixer console. The driver and operator of the trailer was David Lloyd known to most of us as Little Dave due to his diminished stature (e weren’t tall). I think he may have gone to Kepstowe to work in Russia when he left Promotor.
In the photo of Little Dave on the roof of the Scania you can just see the head of Trevor Thayer, another Promotor driver. He didn’t go on this job but later toured, first Morocco and then Russia driving an old red London Transport double decker bus. Promotor were working for the BBC on this job who owned the bus.
The Scania unit shown was originally in Promotor colours and then resprayed for a Midland Bank staff training job. It was used on this tour as it kinda matched the trailer and Trident didn’t want to pay for a respray. I have a few more photos which I will post later.
I mentioned in my last post the Scania unit had been resprayed from Promotor livery to a customers requirement. Attached are before and after photos.
Bestbooties is that a GTI Trucking parked with you at Kavala.
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Just blown one of the photos up. I think it says Rome on one of the number plates??