Heavier Transformer Traffic : Wynn's Want Bigger Vehicles
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I N anticipation of an inerease in the movement of heavy electrical transformers, Robert Wynn and Sons, Ltd., applied to the South Wales Licensing Authority, last week, to operate bigger vehicles. The Railway Executive and the Special Traffic (Pickfords) Division of British Road Services objected.
Mr. Norman Letts said that the company wanted to replace a trailer weighing 40 tons by one of 60 tons, to substitute a 40-ton trailer for a 25-ton unit, and to add two tractors, one of 19 tons and the other of 12 tons, for the propulsion of the big trailer.
The 60-ton trailer had been licensed on June 20, 1951, and it was now required to be used with 24 wheels. '1 he cost of the conversion would be at least £10,000, The British Electricity Authority urgently needed to raise the capacity of their plant, and wished to employ three-phase„ instead of three single-phase units wherever possible.
A three-axled bogie, said Mr. Letts, reduced road impact and the risk of damage to the load. There was to be a marked increase in heavy loads of over 100 tons in 1954. In 1951„ there were 19 loads of such magnitude and this year there would be 36. Delay in delivering transformers would cost the B.E.A. over £1,000 a day.
Cross-examined by Mr. A. W. Balne, for Pickfords, Mr. H. P. Wynn agreed that the application was one which would enable his company to carry 200 tons on one vehicle, whereas the bulk of the present traffic was under 120 tons,
Mr. G. 0. Oliver, traffic manager of British Thomson-Houston, said that he k■as authorized to support the application on behalf of his concern and the B.E.A. As chairman of the traffic committee of the British Electrical and Allied Manufacturers' Association, he said that the only vehicles suitable for moving heavy plant were two of Pickfords and one of Wynn's.
He undeistood that Pickfords contemplated putting another 120-tonner on the road towards the end of this year and he hoped Wvon a could run their new trailer.
Mr. W. Parthington, for Pickfords, said that existing vehicles were adequate to deal with the traffic. Mr. D. McDonnell, for the railways, said that they were building two 135-ton wagons especially for transformers and it was hoped to have them completed in the autumn. B.E.A. were paying the railways a retainer, which suggested that it was contemplated that a proportion of the heavy loads would be sent by rail. He submitted that such heavy traffic should be kept off the roads.
Thc Authority refused the application, saying that he could not accept that there was need for Wynn's to have a heavy trailer until B.E.A. could give evidence of the loads that they would want to have carried. When this was forthcoming, a fresh application could be made, CONDUCTORS' SAFETY AWARDS
CONDUCTORS of Maidstone and District Motor Services, Ltd., and their subsidiary companies, the Chatham and District Traction Co, and the Hastings Tramways Co., were entered for the first time in 1952 foi the national award of merit for conductors of road passenger vehicles organized by the Royal Society for the Prevention of
Accidents. • Of those who completed the requisite period of service during the year, 820, or 98 per cent., qualified for certificates.