Just a follow up on this post from my trip last year. The bike arrived safely in Vlad. I didn't stay around to collect it, my train got in at 8pm and the bike at 1am, went out and found a few bars instead. The next morning Yuri (who arranged the shipping of the bike back to Australia) picked me up in his van and we went back to the station. He called someone, I assume the stationmaster, and quoted the number on the receipt I had. We then walked amongst the carriages until we found the one with the number we were looking for.

Traveling on the train for the last 4 days it seemed that each goods carriage had at least one person in it at all times acting as a guard / unloader, I guess it helped with the unemployment situation. The time it took us to find the carriage seemed too short for the station master to have sent anyone to help, but lo and behold there were 2 suitably attired Russian men there to greet us and point out my bike in it's crude crate. Having been around railway stations before and considering the scale of the Russian railway system in Siberia, I assumed that someone would turn up with a forklift and lower the bike to the ground. It didn't take long however to realise that not how it's done. A 500rub note later and the two guards helped us to half lower, half drop the bike to the platform. From here we smashed the crate apart with a small axe and I could ride the bike across several sets of tracks to a ramp up to the street!