SIX-WHEELERS IN SOUTH AFRICA.
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Thornycroft Vehicles Doing Well in the Service of the Railway Authorities.
ALL those who are intimately associated with the commercial-vehicle industry will know that the rigid type of six-wheeled vehicle has made considerable headway in this country, where it is giving good service to a number of users both for passenger and goods transport. Not only in this country, however, is this type proving popular, for British examples of it are employed in quite a number of countries overseas.
There can he few instances, however, where such valuable service is being performed by six-wheelers as in the case of those vehicles in the service of the South African Railways, which uses many of them for haulage in the remoter parts of South Africa. The accompanying group of illustrations gives a fairly vivid impression of the arduous conditions under which some of these vehicles have to work.
As a result of the enterprise of the SouthAfrican Railways, a big fleet of Thornycroft 2-3-ton six-wheeled vehicles is now being used on regniar goods and passenger services which have been established across many hundreds of miles of bush country far removed from railway termini, the services passing through districts where, to put it mildly, many of the roads are in a deplorable state. The successful operation of these vehicles has undoubtedly been responsible for inducing the South African Railways to acquire a fleet of the latest Thornycroft type-XB 3-5-ton six-wheelers, and vehicles of this type are depicted in the illustrations.
In the picture at the foot of the page two of the vehicles are to be seen on a mountain road between Mayer and Calvinia, which rises over 3,000 ft_ in 92 miles. The route includes the Van Ryns Pass, a four-mile winding climb with a maximum gradient of 1 in 6. This road has a good surface, but it is narrow in places and demands the exercise of considerable care when driving a big vehi
cle in order safely to negotiate the bends. At other parts of this route the roads are nothing like so good as that shown in the picture to which we have referred, and the other illustrations show the conditions which mostly prevail. The surfaces are moderately good in dry weather, but in wet weather they become absolute quagmires. No better illustration of their condition can be cited than by referring to a recent trip, when 20 minutes were occupied in travelling 100 yards at a point where the road was in a particularly bad state.
We understand that the new purchases of the South African Railways are giving good results and that careful records of their performances are being kept. Their success augurs well for the fleet of similar vehicles which we learn the authorities will shortly be placing into service in other districts.