# The Forgotten Vehicles of Chernobyl



## UrbanX (Feb 16, 2015)

I thought I'd celebrate the quiet removal of the 'No vehicles in the shot' rule by doing a piece on the abandoned vehicles of Chernobyl.

Whilst no one want to see endless shots from scrapyards, this is a forum about derelict _buildings_ Hopefully, there is enough history associated with these to keep everyone interested. 

I'll do a couple of posts on the Reactor 4 Robots, and meeting the firemen based out in the sticks, and their vehicles, before moving onto four different vehicle graveyards if that's OK? There's six locations in all, but I'll post them all in this thread to keep the number of 'Vehicle heavy' threads to a minimum! Unfortunately if you're a non-member, you will only be able to see the first part! 

Reactor 4 robots 

Many of you will know the plight of the initial liquidators which were sent to the roof of the crumbling Reactor 4 roof to clear the roof of radioactive debris. 

Young soldiers were given the choice of two year on the front line of bloody Afghanistan, or 20 seconds on the roof of the plant, with all the vodka they could drink. It was an easy choice. 

They were told safety was paramount, and therefore they would only be allowed on the roof for 20 seconds. They took the vodka, they were told it would save them as the radiation would just pass through their system along with the vodka. They weren’t given any official uniform or protection so many decided to fashion their own from leather, and any lead they could find. 

They were sent up in pairs, every 20 seconds, for 24 hours a day, for 3 weeks.

All bar a handful were dead within a week of going on the roof. 

By that time engineers had built robots to go and take the job of the seemingly disposable humans. The first few that went up have never been seen since: They ignored all commands from their operator, and all headed straight for the hole into the reactor core. Seemingly committing suicide rather than facing the agonising death of their human predecessors. 

Some however made it back.

Despite researching the zone for hundreds of hours: I’ve never seen any photographs of these before I first saw them in 2009, so felt quite proud of myself for spotting them in a small non-descript, un marked paddock in Chernobyl town. 
































*Update:*

When I revisited these this year, there had been a major refurbishment. The robots had all been given a lick of paint, the types inflated, and axle stands introduced to relieve the pressure on the tyres.


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## UrbanX (Feb 16, 2015)

Fire fighting is taken very seriously in the Chernobyl zone of exclusion. Summers are hot and dry, and there's several million acres of highly radioactive forest. A forest fire could potentially cause more global contamination than the original disaster. 

Therefore there are 'spotters' located strategically around the zone, with access to basic firefighting equipment. So a few of us decided to drive out to one of these posts to meet some of the brave men keeping Northern Europe safe. 

The Firefighters of Parishev:

All of the vehicles here are serviceable and can be used when needed. 

When we arrived they were all like: _"You can look but DO NOT touch the vehicles"_ But a few hundred notes later they opening up all the hatches, trying to throw us in as many vehicles as possible! 















_Local fire fighter shows how deeper water the truck can go through_





















_Back of the truck, with authentic soviet camera_


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## UrbanX (Feb 16, 2015)

Right, onto the four vehicle graveyards: We'll start with some military vehicles shall we? 

I was attending a Russian Orthodox ceremony at the (functioning) church in Chernobyl town itself. After the ceremony I spotted a tall chimney poking up from the adjacent park so went off to investigate what it was attached to…






It’s a snorkel! 
They’ve given this tank the ability to drive through a river! 

There are radiation warning signs everywhere. Some thorough testing with a Geiger counter reveals they’re mainly for decoration:









































Right, lets start heading towards the abandoned city of Pripyat, through the infamous 'Red Forest' see if we find any vehicles lurking in the highly radioactive woods. 

Red Forest Scrapyard

Hidden in the Red Forest is a sparse vehicle graveyard...

Although the background radiation wasn't too bad here, some of the vehicles got really hot! Due to the misreading of a decimal point MrDan spent some time standing on a trailer reading 114mSv! (Well over 1,000 times background radiation!) 










I loved that the holes for the light fittings were in the shape of wine bottles...or is that just me?! 









Over 100 times background radiation:












Remember, do not lick the moss...



"Jupiter Vehicle Graveyard"

I don’t even think this vehicle graveyard has an official name, but it’s quite near the  Jupiter Plant, so I’ve simply called it the “Jupiter Vehicle Graveyard” – Imaginative. 






















Police scrapyard: 

Right, now into Pripyat itself. 

This is literally on the roof, and at the back of the Police station. I first clambered onto the roof in 2012, where I spent a fair bit of time playing in the vehicles, sitting in them, and generally just enjoying the hot roof in the sun. 

I went back this year, with a geiger counter.... shit. 

It went nuts before I'd even got over the parapet.The roof is around 270 times more radioactive than the surrounding area  




































Time to go I think... 





I hope you've enjoyed me going on endlessly about this lot, if you've made it down to here give yourself a pat on the back.


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## brickworx (Feb 16, 2015)

Nice set of reports and real interesting info....sad times for the 'vodka and 20 secs' soldiers' my heart goes out to them.... Those robot pics are way cool ...thanks, enjoyed these a lot.


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## King Al (Feb 16, 2015)

Really enjoyed looking through these UX, there are some excellent machines there. Really like the robots, good to see they are now getting some respect from the authorities!


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## Mikeymutt (Feb 16, 2015)

Another great report from there..thank you..you prob know that place like the back of your hand.


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## flyboys90 (Feb 16, 2015)

Really enjoyed this report and great shots too.


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## LittleOz (Feb 16, 2015)

Fab report. Looking forward to seeing some of these soon. Hopefully MrDan will have learnt how to read his dosimeter by then!


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## stu8fish (Feb 16, 2015)

Interesting selection. Thanks.


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## BikinGlynn (Feb 16, 2015)

Vehicles or not, that's one of the most interesting reports I have read for a long while.
Thanks for sharing!


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## smiler (Feb 16, 2015)

Read up a bit about this place after the first reports on here,they're all good and this is one of the best, Screw that for a game of soldiers. Thanks


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## Lolpeacock (Feb 16, 2015)

Mikeymutt said:


> Another great report from there..thank you..you prob know that place like the back of your hand.



Which now has probably a few more fingers than it was designed with.


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## gingrove (Feb 17, 2015)

Great set of photos! was Mr Dan standing there for long? I hope that you meant 114 micro Sv. The legal limit for a classified radiation worker is only 20 milli Sv per year or 20000 micro Sv so he would have got nearly 6 years dose in an hour at 114 mSv/hr doserate . Sorry if I seem picky but having worked in the radiation safety field for the last 30 years I get worried when I hear about people wandering into those sorts of doserates without realising it.


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## DirtyJigsaw (Feb 17, 2015)

Awesome report and a great read. Nicely done indeed sir  I love that tank with the snorkel haha! Great photos and what history. Thanks for putting this up


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## UrbanX (Feb 17, 2015)

Cheers for the lovely comments everyone! I wasn't sure how it would be received! 



gingrove said:


> Great set of photos! was Mr Dan standing there for long? I hope that you meant 114 micro Sv.



Yes, this is what I meant! Soz, we always just shorten it to "114 mSv" as that's how it reads on the counter. 

It was 27 *MICRO* Sv when I was doing my naked selfies on the roof,  I absorbed around 6 *MILLI* Sv overall on my last stay there.


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## tumble112 (Feb 17, 2015)

Fantastic images and write up. Many thanks.


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## Rob2210 (Feb 17, 2015)

Awesome work guys  My first stop when returning from there for me would be to get my white blood cell count checked


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## UrbanX (Feb 17, 2015)

Ha ha! I had at least 3 full body scans per day while staying in the zone to ensure I was safe


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## Doodle (Feb 18, 2015)

Thanks for sharing, I've wanted to explore Pripyat area for years, maybe one day!


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## Dugie (Feb 18, 2015)

Awesome photos and thanks for taking the time to put them all together. Chernobyl is my main goal for this year... Fingers crossed I can make it happen.

Dugie


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## night crawler (Feb 18, 2015)

Awesome post as ever. 20 sec on the roof but how long to get there and back. No wonder the poor blighters were dead in a week. Fogotten hero's all of them


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## Potter (Feb 18, 2015)

Superb! Awesome stuff. I find anything to do with Chernobyl fascinating. Great work.
Also, interesting stuff on the Jupiter Plant on your site.


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## LadyPandora (Feb 22, 2015)

All I could think of was the programme 'robot wars', he he. The first few shots look like toy cars. Very interesting


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## GPSJim (Feb 23, 2015)

Nice to see! Thanks for posting, mate. Love the river going tank.
It won't be the same without you this year, who will go naked on a radioactive roofs?


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## Locksley (Feb 26, 2015)

3rd time I've looked through these photos, they are brilliant. I'd have been sooo tempted to ask if I could have had a go in that BRDM-2


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## UrbanX (Feb 26, 2015)

Locksley said:


> 3rd time I've looked through these photos, they are brilliant. I'd have been sooo tempted to ask if I could have had a go in that BRDM-2



Cheers! The time that I visited was during the Russian invasion at the start of 2014, I got the distinct feeling they were keeping that one with a full tank of petrol in it....


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## Ghostrecon (Mar 7, 2015)

Awesome pictures, I love the basic technology of the vehicles of the eastern block. The pics truely are amazing.


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