old rusty replacement parts? yes, please! thank you! (visual story...

Greetings from Russia, dear hiveans! Today I start my reporting from an intresting event I took part this weekend as a photographer. There happened an annual motor show at ForumExpo, St.Petersburg, Russia - and happily I didnt miss it, I was hanging there for two days - the day three, and day four; luckily I was not lazy enough to skip the final day.

There was so much cool stuff to watch for as much as 500 rubles (per each day). I took 2000 (!) pictures... ofc I have to sort them out now, and probably will erase 2/3 to the trash bin... But even 1/3 or 1/4 of 2000 is damn too much to post... so, probably, there will be a series of posts, to tell the full story and show all the cool visuals.

This is ZIS- from 1939 - soviet leaders like Joseph Stalin, used special elite cars of this class!

'Belochka' (i.e. squirrel) is the name of this car.

But look closer at the drawing! It is a strange squirrel, rather bizarre: it is carnivorous: captured a duck and biting her meat. This car, all in all, is very scary looking car, to put it briefly - you better keep a distance on a road :P

Cadillac series 562 (1959). Restored by Novikov garage. It was everyone's fave at the show, many times standing there and taking pics, I heard the passing by little boys confidently were informing their daddies, that 'this is the one they would pick up to have).

I think there was not a single man who passed it by without taking a selfie!

Vintage soviet busses became another highlight of the show and truly everybody's favourite. Any time I was passing by the location, I witnessed a huge crowd waiting to enter.

A memorable logo of Ikarus.

Ikarus 55.14 Lux - the soviet analog of Greyhound (made in Hungary), a bus for intercity and inter-republican trips. The most elite superior bus model in 1960-es. This certain bus was built in 1972 -- it is older than me! // Венгерский Икарус - самый элитный и комфортабельный автобус, предназначавшийся для междугородных и межреспубликанских рейсов.

This bus was found in the village of Oparino (once it was bought by an employee of the fleet where he worked). It looks scary, and could fall apart. We weren't allowed to go inside - but it's a wonderful exhibit from the outside, too: when you look at it, you realize just how much work the restorers have to do to restore the old cars. They often have to use 95% of new parts. About this particular model: in the 1960s ZIL-158B was the most popular city bus, affectionately called by the drivers "Dove".

Этот автобус был найден в деревне Опарино (когда-то он был выкуплен сотрудником автопарка, в котором работал). Выглядит страшно, того и гляди рассыпется. В него внутрь не пускали - н это замечательный экспонат и снаружи тоже: глядя на него, отчётливо понимаешь сколько работы проделывают реставраторы, восстанавливая старые машины. Зачастую, они вынуждены использовать 95% новых деталей. Про конкретно данную модель: ЗИЛ-158В в 1960-е годы стал самым массовым городским автобусом, получив у водителей ласковое название "Голубка".

This is not a bus, but trolley. It was defunct from 1965, and restored back to life in 1990-es. All of those buses are the museum pieces of the City of St.Petersburg Electrical transport museum -- I visited it once in 2008, by the time I had only a cheap 50mm lens -- can you imagine me taking decent pics of those beauties, equipped with 50mm lens only? Of course, I failed :) But now it is another case, I came more prepared... Hope you like the pics?

I could not take a decent shot of this one, if not my 16mm Zenitar - a manual fisheye lens I borrows with me on intention, quite for a cases like this!

The chassis of a real trolleybus also turned out to other highlight of the exhibition, the most popular attraction, a place of children's attraction. The trolleybus itself was decided not to be a subject for restoration, so its parts were used for restoration of other cars, but the chassis was left, preserved in the museum and transformed into a museum piece itself - a wise decision! a great piece it is. Hundreds of children could test / feel themselves as drivers, turning the wheel and pressing the brake pedal (although most of the children could not reach the pedal - they went home tired but happy... to grow long legs).

Шасси настоящего троллейбуса также оказалось одним из самых оживленных мест выставки, самым популярным аттракционом для детей, местом притяжения. Сам троллейбус не подлежал реставрации, его части были использованы на реставрацию других вагонов, а шасси оставили, сохранили в музее и превратили в экспонат - мудрое решение! Сотни детей смогли почувствовать себя водителем, крутя руль и нажимая на педаль тормоза (хотя большинство детей не могли до педали дотянуться - они ушли домой уставшие, но довольныe... отращивать длинные ноги).

Little kidz always very passionate to loon inside a vehicle, to educate themselves about how it is working.

The exhibition consisted of three parts: new models and tuning, retro cars and restoration, a flea market of spare parts ... well, just a flea market. This was the most interesting part for me (and many other boys and girls :) I love to rummage through old things, and I found a lot of interesting things worth seeing, looking at and photographing. But where can one get so much money and space to store all this? You can't play with all the toys at the same time, just one ... People don't really need to have so many things. With age, you understand this more and more.

Выставка состояла из трех частей: новые модели и тюнинг, ретро-автомобили и реставрация, барахолка запасных частей... ну и просто барахолка. Это была самая интересная часть для меня (и многих других мальчиков и девочек :) Я люблю порыться в старых вещах, и нашел массу всего интересного, достойного внимания, разглядывания и фотографирования. Но где же взять столько денег и места, чтобы все это хранить? Ты не сможешь играть в один момент времени со всеми игрушками, только с одной... Людям на самом деле не надо иметь так много вещей. С возрастом понимаешь это все больше.

There were a few shops offering cool vintage items completely unrelated to the cars field... but I will pause here - this is a subject for completely different post.... or a series of posts, for all the vintage stuff lovers. Cheers! and next time.

Тут было несколько магазинчиков, предлагавших винтажный товар совершенно не связанный с машинками. Но это уже тема для совершенно другого поста, а вернее сказать, целой серии постов. Так что, любители ретро и винтажа -- далеко не разбегайтесь!