20,000 VARIED VEHICLES Under Tight Control
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FOR every mile of overhead telephone wire which one can see in this country there are 15 miles underground, or more than 36m. miles altogether, plus the length of coaxial cable between main centres. This gives some idea of the magnitude of the task confronting the engineering department of the General Post Office on the telephone side alone..
Responsible for the installation, maintenance and repair of all G.P.O. equipment, the department's diversity of work is matched by variety in a fleet of over 20000 vehicles and appliances. Although the telephone network and equipment are the chief concern, tasks range from looking after Ernie to checking the scales on post office counters. .
The fleet is spread over The whole country. England is divided into six regions, and Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are each a directorate. Each region and directorate is made up of areas, of which there are 56 in all, and in every area is a telephone manager. He is responsible for the work Of the vehicles under his control.
The department do not use their vehicles to operate transport in the usual sense, and in fact their aim is to run their vehicles for no more miles than necessary. Their problem is to provide staff with the means of tackling any job wherever it may occur, but at the same time to avoid having an excessively large number of vehicles. This is overcome by .making full use of aVailable body space, fitting-out vehicles so that each may be employed for several kinds of duty, and exploiting the use of trailers.
About half of the fleet is composed of Morris Minors, which models aro also widely used on postal work described in The. Commercial Motor dated August 14, 1959. -Large groups among the remainder comprise 3,000 Morris 1-toriners, 2,000 11-ttinners of similar make, 2,000 Karrier 2-itonners, and 1;000 Morris J-type 10-cwt. vans. There are also some 1,600 -trailer toolcartS. • .Other vehicles making up the total include 250 4-tonners, almost-standard types such as Land-Rovers, tippers and articulated low-loaders, and highly Specialized vehicles.
Seventy-two . mobile automatic telephone exchanges, 17 mobile repeater stations, and two mobile coastal radio stations are examples of the last-mentioned category. Makes represented other than those already giVen. are Austin, Bedford-Scammell, Commer and Seddon. About 1,800 vehicles are widely distributed throughout the country to replace those out of service for maintenance or repair. The department's vehicles are painted in middle bronze green so that they may suitably be less conspicuous than the red mail vans, which they outnumber by about a third.
The-most noticeable feature of the Minor van is the 20-ft. triple-extension aluminium ladder mounted on the roof. Inside, a pair of steps can be accommodated immediately under the centre of the roof, and on each side there are FIG
racks for equipment. The basic pattern of rack is known as the A-type, and two of these are intended to contain a specified range of stores and tools. If more equipment is necessary, B-type or C-type racks may be installed above the two A-types. There are concise instructions about how each individual piece of equipment is to be placed in the racks so that no space is wasted.
Minors are provided for use by linesmen, and there is a passenger's seat for occasional use by fitters or others.
Behind the occupants' seats is a security screen for the protection of the equipment carried.
Morris J-types are used on the same kind of work as the Minors but where more equipment is required. They are also occasionally employed in towns by jointers, whose usual vehicle is a 14onner. So ingenOusIy has the interior of the J-type been arranged that for many duties it has superseded previous 1-ton models.
This is what a J-type may carry: jointer's kit, 20-ft. ladder, steps, four tent sections, tent seats, motor pump and lighting set, Calor-gas plumbing set, bins for stores and tools, digging tools, pruning rods, stretcher bars, tarpaulins, books and papers. The passenger's seat has a writing table in front. A towing hitch may be fitted at the rear.
The explanation of the J-type's extraordinary capacity —achieved without any attachment of pieces of equipment to the exterior—is the provision of a false floor about a foot above the main platform. This was primarily conceived for the accommodation of the ladder, which, because of the roof height, could not be so easily carried on top of the vehicle as on a Minor. The ladder lies on the standard floor, and the false floor is in three sections resting on steel channels.
Battery Removed As the ladder, being 8 ft. 4 in, long, extends from the rear of the van to a point beneath the driver's seat, it was necessary to replace the maker's seat with a special design with the needed clearance. The battery was removed from its standard position under the floor on the off side, because it could not be reached beneath the false-floor supports, and placed under the passenger's seat.
This is set back farther from the windscreen than the driver's, and provides more leg room for the passenger by the offset engine than the standard fixture. There are also the advantages of unimpeded visibility to the left by the driver, and that either seat can be reached through the
sliding door to left or right.
A variation of the J-type is a mobile office for use by engineers on outdoor duties. Behind the two front seats are, on the near side, a bench seat for three men, and, on the off side, a seat for one and a folding table, together with boxes for charts and books. A ladder may also be carried in this vehicle.
The Morris LC5 chassis forms the basis of the 1-tonner, the standard type for use by twoman overhead-line parties, or jointers and mates requiring more equipment than can be
carried in a I-type. There is a full-length locker on the near side, and the forward part is accessible from the outside. Above the locker is a cupboard for telephone apparatus, test sets and wire, and on the off side are open racks. Tent sections can be accommodated without obstructing the gangway. Digging tools can be carried on the off side behind a trap door in the body side.
A ladder may be held on a shelf above the off-side wheel arch, and a longer ladder can be carried at cant-rail level on the off side protruding through traps in the front and rear of the body. Two spindles for drums of wire are provided. The 11-ton vehicles are broadly similar to the LC5.
Quartermaster's Inventory Although the items making up the loads of these vehicles read like a quartermaster's inventory, in the case of the Karrier 2-tonner the list is even more remarkable. In addition to holding all the gear required by pole-installation gangs, the vehicle can carry two or three 36-It. poles.
This vehicle has a crew cab for five men and a boxvantype body, at the front and off side of which is a racking installation. At the rear on the same side are hatches giving access to digging tools, and above them is an aperture for ladders. These are longer than the type used by linesmen and protrude through the front over the cab as well as at the rear.
There is a floor area on the near side enclosed at the rear by a full-drop tailboard and a roller shutter. At the front above the cab are hatches, and when poles are carried they rest on supports and extend a few feet to the rear, and out of the forward apertures some way ahead of the front of the vehicle.
Austin, Commer and Seddon chassis are used for the 4-ton cable-gang vehicles. The cables are actually-drawn on drum trailers, of which about 350 are held. A special vehicle for heavy-cable installation is being developed. This will provide hydraulic actuation of the capstan and loading devices and have space for accommodating various pieces of equipment, including one known as .a " rod, 'ContinuouS." This is a 178-yd. length of steel used to introduce cable through a duct. Cable vehicles sometimes operate in conjunction with Land-Rover crew carriers.
Another introduction will be an articulated vehicle with a straddle-type semi-trailer to pick up cable drums directly from the ground. This will be used to supply gangs with cable extra to that which they can carry on their own vehicle and need for a day's work.
Cable testing is the purpose for .Which some 50 vans based on Commer 25-cwt. chassis have been .built. A problem which presented itself in their design was the-need to maintain a dry atmosphere inside to ensure that the electrical insulation of the apparatus is kept at the level required for accurate testing.
Ordinary paraffin heaters were found to be unsatisfactory as they gave off undesirable combustion products, and flameless catalytic heaters were also unsuitable as they produced carbon monoxide. Means were devised, however, to carry off the combustion products of a paraffin heater to the outside, and the design which was evolved consists of a one-gallon container (holding enough fuel for 16 -hours' burning) with a double-gauze cylinder around the chimney, inside which are baffle plates. The flue is surmounted by a roof cowl to eliminate downdraughts.
This heater produces the equivalent of 2.9 kW. (10,000 B.T.U.), and might merit examination by vehicle operators in other fields because of its obvious economy. Its degree of safety is such that it can be left burning overnight when the vehicle is garaged. Loss of heat is reduced by insulation material between the body skinning.
. .Appeal of Trailers
Trailers are of great appeal to G.P.O. engineers as they may be left for use on site and so not tie down a prime mover. Many of these trailers are broadly similar to the general run of civil-engineering plant, but an interesting special type is designed for erecting pre-wired telephone kiosks. A hundred of these trailers are in use, and they can carry 161 cwt„ the weight of a cast-iron kiosk of the kind now superseded by almninium types. The kiosks are painted and made ready for use in alew hours. The trailers have hydraulic actuation.
Between November and March, the department's turntableladders are in use for lopping the branches of trees'
which -foul telegraph wires. For other high-level work, such as attending to wiring on buildings, there are about 50 hydraulic platforms. The department at first designed their own but now use the Simon product
Other equipment in use includes Coles, Jumbo and Stanhay mobile cranes, bulldozers, trailer-mounted _winches, concrete mixers and pumps, fork-lift trucks, and other mechanical-handling aids. Two Karrier-Yorkshire gully emptiers are used to cleanse manholes. '
Drivers of the department's vehicles must be among the best instructed in the country. Each is issued with a manual of detailed information on his responsibilities in respect of his vehicle. A random page is headed "Vehicles on Airfields: Precautions to-be Observed by Drivers," and another "Safety Devices for Use in Tyre Inflation." The manual is in loose-leaf form, and new sheets are published whenever necessary with revised instructions, or when there are changes in the law affecting vehicles and drivers: Model Manual
The pages in the manual dealing with the Construction and Use and other regulations are dear summaries of legal requirements, supplementing the departmental information and making the manual a model of its kind.
• When drivers complete their daily log sheets, they, also return details of fuel used. The sheets are scrutinized each week by supervisors, and monthly summarieS of mileage, fuel consumption and days out of service are made out on cards in—the transport section of the area telephone manager's office. Details about time spent on cleaning and minor repairs done by drivers are entered on the cards, such information deriving from another source. From these summaries the supervisor, can check the economy of the vehicles.
Each -year the area engineer. reviews the distribution and use of the vehicles under his control to ensure that they are all fully employed. .A summary is initialled if he is satisfied that a vehicle should be retained. 'Any considered surplus is declared so, and the engineer personally certifies to the telephone manager that each vehicle to be retained has been adequately employed during the year. The telephone manager draws up a certificate on similar lines to the director or regional headquarters when submitting requests for extra vehicles for inclusion in the annual estimates.