New Life for War-weary Plant
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By, J. ,D. M cLintock
FEW people, even within the road transport industry, realize how great and how direct a contribution to national reconstruction and rehabilitation is being made by many comparatively small transport-cumcivil-engineering concerns throughout the country. These are times, like those of the early days of the war, when „ important things are being done by skilled but by no means pretentious specialists. Little publicity, however, is given to these great campaigns of specialized transport, of earth-moving. aerodrome building, forestry and agriculture, at home and abroad.
Skilled Work on Heavy Plant
An example of one of these peacetime "shadow businesses" is provided by the case of the Merton Engineering Co., Ltd., Faggs Road, Feltham, Originally confined to sand and ballast haulage, activities have been extended to contracting for excavating and other public works, to tractor reconditioning.
servicing and sales, and to the export of special vehicles and trailers. When I visited the company, one or two big Scamrnell tractors were being reconditioned and fitted with welded steel bodies. These were for the New Zealand Government. Several ex-U.S. Army Tank-transporter units were being converted into heavy-duty low-loading trailers, for home and overseas users.
International tractors from Germany, with Roustabout mobile crane attachments, were being thoroughly reconditioned and fitted with bulldozer blades instead of the cranes. One or two are kept in the original form however, for B2 use about the yards, where heavy machinery is constantly being moved, and dismantling and re-erecting are often taking place.
Mr. G. S. Hadfield, director and onetime motorcycle trials rider of note, said, Frankly, the yards look like a junk heap, but our policy is to have far more than a working margin of spares."
The large workshop where reconditioning of tractors, trailers and the maintenance of the company's own small haulage fleet takes place, does not boast a self-contained machine shop, but is unusually well equipped otherwise. Machining operations can, if necessary, be done in a separate large
machine shop which. I will mention later, but generally speaking, rebores. crankshaft regrinding, line boring and other work of this nature is sent out.
Equipment includes a Black and Decker electric valve shop. a Wolf bench drill, Weaver 60-ton press, power paint-spray, two big sanders and grinders, two sets of overhead lifting tackle, and two compressor plants. There are also many portable power tools and the usual measuring instruments and precision tools.
Electrical equipment includes a Heayberd charging set, and a Pink Mouse fault-finder, also one or two rigs made up by employees, who are given freedom to initiate their own systems, and are encouraged to improvise where necessary.
There is a small sawbench inside and a larger one outside. Welding sets total six, including those sent out on service jobs. The company has a bodybuilder and carpenter among its staff of more than 100 men. Garage staff total 14.
Mr. A. J. Mitchell, works manager, who gave me much of my information, is keen on engineering of every calibre. I saw a Jeep which he has had converted into a remarkably attractive utility. The composite body and pleasingly contoured cab and mudguards were built to his own design by Ridgeway Motors, Ltd., Isleworth.
Finished in varnished wood and cerise cellulose, with chromium fittings and Eezi Kleen wheels, the car has been kept structurally as near as possible to the original. The new front mudguards, for instance, cover the original stout Jeep "fenders." The chassis has been lengthened to the extent of 14 ins, by simple channel bearers, extending the frame rearwards.
• Hospital for " Navvies "
Mr. Mitchell and Mr. Hadfield showed me the hangar-like shed that houses big "muck-shifters" brought in for reconditioning or for a kind of research which will be explained. The components of these excavators, navvies, etc., like gargantuan mangle parts, are handled by a 25-ton electric gantry crane. There is a portable press of 200-ton capacity and Dorman 2.D.L. Diesel mobile welding plant.
Extensions and improvements to this department of the organization are already in progress.
Harking back to the mysterious machine shop, it contains modern heavy machine tools of various kinds, and on them, in various stages of fabrication, finish or repair, are outsizes in gears, shafts, bushes, etc. These are parts for the excavators, dredgers and allied plant., and are being made to Government contract.
The research to which I referred
relates In the knowledge and experience of wear and tear on particular machines, and the highly important technique of pattern and prototype construction for spares. Machines are completely dismantled and art " inquest " is held on each of their organs before they are reincarnated.
The company had much experience of this type of work during the war, when it was doing its bit towards the widescale mechanization demanded in all fields. A certain amount of work was also done in connection with the " po rcupi ne " Tank, forerunner of the flail Tank and used similarly for " banging off " mines without prejudice.
Before I left 1 looked in at the power house, so called because it once housed a Mirrlees Diesel which drove all machinery and provided a form of lighting. For many years now, however, the grid has provided all light and power. Half the space in the shed is now filled by a Dean, Smith and Grace lathe of outstanding proportions. On the face-plate was a cog bigger than a
cart wheel. The other half of the shed is used as an extra tractor shop, and contains a Walker test bed.
This interesting company, which once used steam wagons to haul sand and ballast from its own pits, now operates 11 tippers, all 13edfords, of 4 and 5 cubic-yd. capacity, five Bedford articulated outfits for general haulage and long-distance work, and four lowloaders, these being a Bedford, a Diamond T and two &aril mells. Various trailers are used as occasion demands and as they are purchased— sometimes with a view to reconditioning, conversion and sale Civilengineering plants comprise seven excavators and 23 Allis Chalmers and International tractors. There are four service vans.
There are few labour troubles in this organization. The men are happy enough, and the work is interesting, if not by any means kid-glove. Opportunities are not wanting to show individualism, initiative, and the right kind of toughness.