The French Snow-plough Trials
Page 43
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Snow-ploughs Snowed Under. Creditable Performances Despite Difficult Conditions. Substantial Prizes Won.
THE second annual motor snowplough trials organized by me To'uring Club de France recently took place at Pont Bernell, in the eastern
Pyrenees. On the opening day, it looked as if this year's event would develop into a farce. , The snow fall in the Pyrenees had been unusually heavy, and on the eve of the trials a terrific snowstorm broke over the famous little winter sports station.
Officials, pressmen and photographers arriving at Font Romen station found themselves cut off from the proposed scene of action, because the road between the station and the spot where the trials were to be held was reported to be quite impassable over a length of 5 kiloms.
The various machines that were entered bad an excellent opportunity for demonstrating their usefulness. Nine machines were engaged in the work, six being in the heavy class and three in the light category. During the road-clearing operations, the lighter machines were more than once actually snowed wader.
Machines in the heavy class included two Italian Crosti outfits with turbinefan snow removers, a Cletrac (an American tractor) with a King rotary turbine fan, a Citroen-Kegresse equipped with a wedge plough, a Lap lant-Choate tracklayer with a wedge plough, having hydraulic control for altering the height and angle of the Plough, and a Labourier plough with an F.W.D. tractor.
The lightweights comprised a Latil K.T.L.-type tractor with the Italian Degiorgi appliance, a Citroen-Kegresse with Viking plough and a Citroen-Roul machine.
The Cletrac-King combination attracted particular attention, forcing its way through 8 ft. drifts for a distance of over 20 yds. French War Ministry officials who were present at the trials were particularly impressed by this machine, which eventually obtained the most important prize.
Conditions were infinitely more severe than at Briancon last year, for the frost was intense and, quite apart from the enormous masses of freshly fallen snow to be cleared, hard frozen layers bad to be prereed.
The final classification was as follows:— Heavy-type appliances :—First prize of 35,000 francs, Cletrac-Rotary-King. The Cletrac-King outfit also .obtained the special War Ministry prize of 12,000 francs, receiving 47,000 francs in all. Second prize (20,000 francs), CrostiPavesi. The Latil outfit obtained the A.C.F.•prize of 5,000 francs as well as the second special War Ministry prize of 3,000 fumes.
Lightweight class.:—First prize of 30,000 francs, Latil. Second prize of 15,000 francs, Citroen-Viking.
These snow-clearing trials are of great utility in a country such as France, where scores of road passes over the mountains are for many months of the year closed by Snow. The importance of the event is fully recognized by the great railway concerns, all of which run motor-coach services.
In the present instance, the Orleans and Midi railways provided free railway transport from any point in France to Font Romen and back, for all machines entered. This is a substantial offer, when it is mentioned that some of the outfits weighed as much as 14 tons.