Contributions from Drivers and Mechanics.
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Drivers of commercial motor vehicles and tractors, and mechanics and foremen of garages or shops, are invited to send short contributions on any subject wh.ch is likely to prove of interest to our readers. Long and successful rolls; services with no "lost journeys" ; workshop sips and smart repairs: all are suitable subjects. Send a post card, or a letter, or a sketch to to—no matter how short, or how written, or how worded.
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Snow Shoes for Steam Wagons.
[48o] " A.B." (Glasgow), in the following letter, gives his experience of a patent winter wheel which was mentioned by a correspondent " W.H.W." (Leeds) in our issue of the 19th November :—" I read the letter which you published from a correspondent who recommended the use of a patent winter wheel that is made by a Leeds firm. Perhaps it will interest the writer of that letter to know that I have already tried these wheels, and have not found them successful. In my experience they were expensive to run, and troublesome and unsatisfactory for use on country roads. I am quite willing to admit that these wheels may be suitable enough when used on town streets which are paved with setts, or even on country roads, providing such roads are always covered with ice or frozen snow, but the fact is that no macadam road can be guaranteed to be at all times free from rough metal, and this is why I consider wooden tires to be useless as a general rule. So far as I can make out, we are as far off as ever from overcoming the difficulty of providing a suitable wheel for winter use. I believe I am correct in stating ihat not one of the firms who make patent winter wheels or patent snow shoes is prepared to give a guarantee that their device will stand up for a given number of miles. It stands to reason that, whatever appliance is used for this purpose, it must be able to travel a sufficient number of miles at such a cost that the work may be done at a reasonable charge per ton-mile, It is quite probable that existing patents would be quite satisfactory for the purpose, if some method were to be devised by which the tire could quickly be changed whenever it was necessary for the wagon to pass over rough metal or bad parts a the road. Considering the large numbers of manufacturers who should have a matter like this under consideration at this time of the year, it is surprising to me that, up to the present, so little has been done in his direction."
1 The Spurrier son-skid is a detachable fitting, but it was only introduced at the close of last winter.—En.]
Experiences of a Motor-Trolley Driver in Africa.
The sender of the following communication has been awarded a special bonus, in addition to the 10s., prize this week.
[481] I have returned to England at the conclusion of an engagement during which I have had to see to the driving and repairing of several motor inspection trolleys on the Benguella Railway (Caminho de Ferro de 13enguella) and in the following extracts from my diary I have endeavoured to give an idea of the joys and sorrows that fall to the lot of those engaged in this class of pioneer work in Africa. " The joys are few and far between, the sorrows come in plenty,
For one joy—pay-day once a month—the sorrows muster twenty."
On arrival at Lobito Bay I was very much struck with the strange spectacle that met our gaze, and I thought to myself, " Here's a fine place for a raw Londoner to come to." The " town " is situated on a long, narrow strip of sand some three miles long and only about a quarter of a mile wide, running parallel with the mainland and forming
a fine natural harbour about two miles wide. The jetty pr jects from the shore about 20 yards, and it then curves as to run parallel with the bay, affording facilities for u. loading cargo from all the holds at once. The railway liii. run right round on to the jetty so that goods trucks can I run right up alongside the ships; construction cargo cs be unloaded and sent up country straightaway. Lookir down at Lobito from a ship moored at the jetty, the" town resembles a seaside fair ground laid out on a sandy beadl it is practically one long string of tents and bungalo% stretched out for about a mile along the beach. There is small railway station with a platform large enough accommodate two carriages : this is ample for the passeng traffic here, as there are no Sunday Leagues " in Lobi to tax the railway company's carrying capacity. Thr galvanised-iron goods sheds used as stores, and a galvanise iron fitting-shop for the erection and repair of engines, ett complete Lobito. There are no roads or streets in the tow just sand, sand everywhere, soft sand in which you sink 1 to your ankles at every step you take, and this mak walking a very tiring job. The railway, which runs in the interior, is a single track; this comes down as far the beginning of the line of tents, and then branches into a number of sidings running to the station, coal sidin fitting shop, motor siding, custom house, jetty, etc.
The next day I commenced my motor duties on the railw and was very much impressed with the novelty of things round—black " boys " to clean the cars, fill up with oil a petrol, etc. 1 used to curse these al first, and was alwa afraid that some of them would fill up the petrol tanks wi water or make some other such simple yet fatal mista with the cars, but I soon got used to them and found tf the majority of them were very sensible. I soon found out that it paid to be very careful wh negotiating the points on the rails, for some of the nigg4 had a nasty habit of setting the points over for sheer del ment, just for the fun of seeing the motorcars go off t rails. I was "had " like this once, and that taught mc lesson. I always slowed for crossings after that. The " Alnwick Castle " was in port there for some d; last August. The captain and two first-class lady pass4 gers came ashore one day and had a motorcar ride on i railway lines to 13enguella, the capital town of the coon here, about 23 miles by rail from Lobito Bay. It is not t usual thing to carry any saloon passengers on these pet motor trolleys; they are intended for the use of super tendents, resident engineers, etc., but the captain and : ladies from the " Alnwick Castle " were accorded the spec privilege by Mr. Griffiths, the contractor, who was out th personally superintending the construction of the Bengue: Katanga railway at the time. We had a very success run on the little red " Drewry " car and, at the conclus of the ride, the party expressed themselves as highly lighted with the novelty of a motorcar ride on railway li: in Africa. The ladies said that they would remember exciting ride for many a long day to come. The excitem was caused by the party making the most of their stay Benguella ; they visited the vice-consul's residence, ; delayed their return to the station until the last mint 'hen they wore ready to return to Lobito there was only minutes to spare before a train would be coining on after !. I had been forbidden to start in front of the train less I could get away a quarter of an hour before it was ned to depart. I told the party that they had left it rather te. " Go on, boy ! Go through and race the train ! " as the reply. I knew that I could race the train all right, oviding my engine kept running; it was in the event of stopping that the danger lay, and motorcars have been town to slop sometimes. We started off and soon got into p speed, about 35 miles an hour, with an " easy " on the rves. We bad not gone many miles before we ran into herd of cattle straying all over the line. I just managed pull the car up, but not before we had gently bumped into o of the beasts. We made two or three attempts to got .st the animals, but every time we made a start some are of them would stray across the line. The ladies, who .ire on the front seats, started climbing over to get into e back of he car out of danger. We were losing valuable ne, so the captain got down and drove the cattle off the le. We got through at last, and away we went at top eed. I looked behind occasionally but could see nothing the train which I knew was following us. The car kept
oing splendidly and ran into Lobito in just over one hour. ie train took one hour and 45 minutes, so it did not stand ach chance of catching us unless anything went wrong. The " excitement" on this ride was quite tame to some the incidents we have had. It is a trying sort of time ten you have to do a night journey by yourself up country, d the car suffers from some derangement of its rnec.haml necessitating repairs on the spot, 20 miles from anyiere, and wild country all round you. That's the time at you wish that you had been a better man in your youth. mu get down and examine the car, expecting every minute at some wild animal will come and examine you. When u hear a growl you don't start trembling. Oh no ? it's ly the cold night air making you shiver.
I was stuck up in this fashion one Sunday night, and, men I finally did get the car going, my one solitary lamp rsisted in going out, so I had to fly along on the railway es in the pitch dark ; now and again the way would be up for an instant by a burst of tropical lightning, the it instant all would be inky blackness again.
When I got back into Lobito I found that all the whites the camp had been having a smoking concert that night d had enjoyed themselves immensely. I, too, had been joying myself in my own quiet fashion—a little exciie. Tit is good for one at times.
Dna night a motorcar charged a water tank that had Nell t on the line; the car stopped short but the occupants conned on their journey and only came to earth when coinRed to do so by force of gravity about a dozen yards ahead, ley fell on soft sand and no bones were broken, but the r was severely damaged. These smashes are recognised as inary happenings on railroad construction work, they m to be inevitable.
n Alicia:vs and Onions petrol motor trolley tried to step ailway engine there a short time hack; result, a new petrol inc from England, and three weeks in the repair shop rebuild the scattered 'fragments of the trolley.
ailway trucks would come done into Lobito by the dozen to be repaired after running away down steep grades and coining into collision with something, or else after jumping the metals and piling themselves up on top of each other; they came down chiefly in splinters.
There was a serious accident on the rack portion of the line there in September last. The rack is a steep grade that starts at Lengue, 35 miles from Lobito; a passage has been blasted out of the solid granite rocks, and the permanent way laid up this passage on a gradient of r in is for a mile and three-quarters. A rack, or toothed rail, is laid in between the ordinary pair of lines, and a huge cog wheel on the special rack engines engages with this rack, thus assistlug the engine to climb the stiff gradient. A new engine that had just been fitted together in the engine shop at Lobito Bay ran away down this rack early in September. It left the rails and went over an embankment and landed upside-down at the bottom. Several niggers were killed and injured, but the white driver escaped 'with a severe scalding. When the news Came down to Lobito a breakdown gang was organised and a special train prepared. Long before this lot was ready to leave a petrol trolley had Lake:] sortie superintendents up to the scene of the accident.
It is at such a time as this when these little petrol cars score over the big railway engines; they are ready to start away quicker and can get there in half the time. Of course, this would not apply to England; the rails arc laid very differently at home to what they are in Africa. Out there the speed cf trains seldom exceeds 20 miles per hour : that's about the limit of safety. All African railways would be a commercial failure if they went to the expense of laying the track like the rails at home; the traffic carried would not pay for the initial expense.
It was a common experience for the petrol motor trolleys to leave the rails at bad portions of the line; of course, we expected this sort of thing to happen because we used to run them at twice the speed of the trains. A derailed petrol motor trolley was not a very serious affair ; it only required two people to lift the wheels on to the track again. Sometimes the car would have to have a few days in the repair shop to get over the shock.
The petrol trolleys would climb the " rack " portion of the line in eight minutes (one and three-quarter miles of gradient). These trolleys had no special rack wheel to lit the rack rail; they just ran up on the ordinary metals.
The little red " Drewry " car saved a water famine up the line in September. There is no water at Keystone, 86 miles up from Lobito. It has to be taken up every day in huge bogie tanks holding 3,400 gallons each, from the pumping station at Bembos Road, about 55 miles from Keystone. A steam pipe belonging to the engine that drew the water train had been sent down to I.obito to be repaired; it had got mislaid somewhere and could not be found. The situation was getting serious because the large number of hands engaged on the construction work up the line were without water. A new steam pipe was got ready and a motor trolley was requisitioned to take it to the disabled engine at Keystone. The trolley left Lobito late at night manned by a driver and a mechanic; the journey was to severe for one man to attempt by himself at night; the " rack " had to be climbed, and several other stiff gradients as well. One of the keys in the driving shaft sheared on this journey, hut a new one was made out of the box-key tommy bar; we hammered it out, using the railway line for an anvil I You have to use your wits in the wilderness. The trolley got through to Keystone in the small hours of the morning and saved the situation. On the next day the water train was running as usual.