AT THE HEART OF THE ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY.

Call our Sales Team on 0208 912 2120

Bird's Eye View

14th October 1966
Page 66
Page 66, 14th October 1966 — Bird's Eye View
Close
Noticed an error?
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.

Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

BY THE HAWK

Modest Estimate

THE 500 road hauliers and other interested parties who attended last week's open meeting of the Western area vehicle maintenance advisory committee surprised the organizers, I imagine. For one visiting speaker said he had been led to believe there would only be "about 40" in the audience. It goes to show the enormous interest operators are taking in the effects of the Road Safety Bill, vehicle plating, testing, braking and the like.

Well Hit, Sammy!

WHEN George Mitchell, secretary of the RHA's highways and vehicles committee, told the Western operators that discussions were in hand with the Ministry to prepare an agreed form of vehicle maintenance records, the LA, "Sammy" Gibbon, wanted to know what was the matter with the existing forms used in the Western area for the past 18 months. Having looked at the admirably comprehensive Western forms it seems to me perverse indeed of the RHA or the Ministry to seek to gild the lily. They could do worse than reproduce the detailed items of the Western scheme nationally.

The Restorers

THE Historic Commercial Vehicle Club is 10 years old if you count its predecessor the VPVS and the HCVC still seems faintly surprised that its membership is in such a healthy state today—in a corporate sense, of course. One section of the HCVC newsletter which always fascinates me is the vehicle preservation list. What prospect of midnight oil and elbow grease is evoked by some of the entries. How about 1910 De Dion Bouton lorry at village 20 miles NE of Amsterdam for £250? Or 1937 Bristol JO5G with body in poor condition, good chassis and dismantled engine, near Leeds, for £25? Never one to exert myself to perspiration point, I stand in frank admiration of those who actually do the restorations that we would all love to do, but without the effort.

D.M.S. to Leave BMMO

NEWS reaches me that Donald Sinclair is to retire soon as general manager of Midland Red; he is now 65. The post will, I am sure, be competently filled, but what a wealth of experience a man like Donald McIntyre Sinclair takes with him when he leaves. He has been at Midland Red for so long (since 1940) and has had such a large part, both as chief engineer and as general manager, in the progressive policies—especially on the vehicle side— for which BMMO is known, that one tends to forget the long and diverse career he had before going to Birmingham. A good, sound start—five years' apprenticeship with Albion Motors at Scotstoun—was followed by several months with a small Perthshire p.s.v. operator for whom he drove and conducted in the daytime and did running repairs and maintenance in the evening. How better can you learn the business? Then came an assistant works managership with a Glasgow engineering works, and two major engineering jobs with BP before he joined Northern General Transport Co. as assistant chief engineer in 1931. It was during his nine years there that he had a hand in the development of those unconventional side-engine two-axle and three-axle chassis that the company produced.

Midland Red was perhaps a "natural" for him after that, and his major part in developing the express coaches meant that immediately Britain's first motorway was built, BMMO had firstclass vehicles to put on the route.

In Anticipation

ANEW transport and distribution depot is nearing completion at Stratton St. Margaret, Wilts, for W. H. Smith and Sons. Built by Ernest Ireland Ltd., who were responsible for the fine Ameys Transport depot opened at Frome last year, the W. H. Smith project has been conceived on such a vast scale that it will certainly rank with the best road transport depots in Europe. This multi-million pound project, I forecast, will make big news when it is opened, probably in January. The Hawk climbed to the top of the tower block by ladder, considerably anticipating the official "topping out" ceremony, and, indeed, the installation of the computer whose "nest" is almost ready.

There is No Such Thing

THERE is no such semi-trailer as a semi low-loader. At the Transport Tribunal last week lawyers and laymen, journalists and court clerks all placed their own definition on a step-frame trailer and there appeared to be a general belief that a step-frame trailer was a semi low-loader. Since that day I have enquired about this from my colleagues who are engineers and I find that they do not agree with this opinion or for that matter with each other.

I have searched through the archives of the engineering files for the answer and here it is as illustrated in a catalogue supplied by J. Brockhouse and Co.: (1) is a straight-frame trailer, (2) is a stepframe trailer, (3) is a drop-frame trailer, (4) is an end-tipper trailer and (5) is a low-loader divided-axle trailer. Let battle commence.


comments powered by Disqus