PRL Polish transport - my guilty pleasure.

Stan Krawczyk • 31 December 2019

PRL (Polish Peoples Republic) Transport my guilty pleasure!

Growing up, instead of milk, I must have been fed petrol, due to my love of transport!

I admit to being a self confessed petrol head even today. Mum said unless she bought a toy car wherever we ventured I went into a strop! I am not too bad these days, its coffee instead!

Until I passed my driving test we never actually owned a car but still managed to survive.

I was a lot thinner, healthier and still had money in the bank! I also attribute my size 11 feet to all that walking, which today is a good thing since most shoe shops tend to have size 11's in the sales because not many are sold. But I am going off at tangerines now.

During the 1960's/70's Polish transport was completely different to the UK. Everything seemed to be at least 10-20 years behind, not least the Trams which I absolutely loved, but looked as though they were from the 1930's and probably were?

They did have more modern-ish Fiats like the 125p which was actually a 1960's design anyway!

The FSO Warszawa M201 Garbus (fastback) was my all time favourite. I have always loved the shape especially from behind. They were a Russian copy of an American car from the 1940's I think?

It was built by Gaz and called Pobieda M20. The Russians offered it to the Poles built under license, however as always the Poles had their own ideas and managed to change it and manufactured all of it in Poland instead.

Technically it the first Polish car!

I am sure its a can of worms by most standards even then, however wearing my rose coloured glasses it just reminds me of those long happy summers more than anything else?

I did have a crazy idea once to buy one and drive it back here but fortunately common sense prevailed.

It was probably the Warszawa that seeded my interest in classic cars, however mine were British Classics like , Morris,Wolseley, Armstrong Siddeley and Rover to name a few. The other reason for owning a classic was lack of funds plus they are easy to fix,work on and service, no computers in sight!

I still check out the online sales but honestly the money they go for now! They are basically rot boxes dragged out of farmers fields the same as old Land Rovers are in the UK! Other than visiting a museum in Poland one day, I wont be buying one anytime soon.

Trams hardly changed from the older type but I still loved them.

The trams in Manchester actually remind me of the tatty old 1930's ones from Poland, noisy, cramped and uncomfortable, the Edinburgh ones however are superb.

Should you ever visit the Riverside Museum in Glasgow, they have a number of old trams which look very familiar to the Polish ones? I expect a trams a tram!

I loved the Polish single decker buses. Like something from 1950's America, affectionately known as cucumbers (ogórek)!

Officially built by Skoda then under license to Polish company Jelcz 043 they were called.

Getting inside was fun they seemed to be really wide and went on for miles.

Some had trailer cars attached later they even had joined ones with a swivelling floor and concertina around them. Very noisy very smokey. plenty of windows and luggage space plus fold out seats in the middle. People then had a much smaller personal space area but didn't seem to mind!

To my dismay later in the 70's the Warszawa was built with a large boot rather than the coupe (Garbus) style that I loved, its a fugly looking thing. It was more comfy and quieter but still stunk of petrol.

My cousins had a Warszawa Garbus which I remember when I was very young - see the Toilet incident blog!

Other cousins had a Syrena which I always remember being a great looking 50's type car but very noisy inside and very uncomfortable! 2 stroke engine, mix oil and petrol in the tank, you can imagine the fumes!