A NEW TRACTOR IN ITS WAR GUISE.
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The New Roadrail Tractor Adopted for Service in the Moroccan War Zone.
WE DESCRIBED the tractor manufactured for Roadrails, Ltd., of 1, Dover Street, St. James's, London, S.W., by Guy Motors, Ltd., when we dealt with the invention in our issue of September 6th, as being perhaps the most remarkable transport vehicle which has yet been introduced. The other day, during the course of a most interesting run round the Guy works at Wolverhampton in the company of Mr. Gonna (who, with ample justification, is a keen enthusiast for Guy products), we came upon an extraordinary development of the vehicle, and thus discovered the cause of the amazement which the inhabitants of Wolverhampton had that day experienced when it had made its first passage through the streets of the town. It had been described to us as a big hut on wheels" yet it could hardly be a hut because its windows seemed all shuttered up" (said our informant)—as a "land submarine" or amphibian, and as a new carnival stunt.
But Mr. Genna revealed the mystery. It was one of a number ordered by Roadrails, Ltd., who had devised an armour-plated vehicle to be submitted to the War Department of the Spanish Government, for use in Morocco.
It will be remembered that the Roadrail tractor is primarily designed for use in connection with the Stronach-Dutton system of haulage by which the vehicle can (if necessary) haul its loads upon ordinary roads to railhead, where they are trana ferred to railway trucks. There, the fronti of the tractor is raised by running it up ramps on each side of the railway track, and under the front axle is placed a four-wheeled bogie, a spherical cup on the underside of the axle accommodating the head of a ball-headed pin on the bogie. The front of the tractor thus runs on the rails, whilst the rear wheels, shod with solid rubber tyres, run on tracks on each side of the road made sufficiently strong to support the load of the vehicle and give good adhesion. In such circumstances, the tractor is able, on bottom gear, to haul no fewer than 250 tons on level ground, whilst on top gear it will pull 50 tons at 13 m.p.h.
The vehicle is armoured with in. Vickers' armourplate, with an entrance on the near side in line with the driver's seat. There are ventilation apertures on either side, and at the rear and also in the ridge of the roofing, each aperture being protected by a plate of armour steel. The front is also frilly armoured, with small shielded apertures to enalole the occupants to control the movements of the vehicle, but when we saw it, the upper panel had been temporarily removed so as to facilitate driving in the busy traffic of Wolverhampton. In the field of operations there would be less traffic but more bullets, and then the panel would be used with the smallest possible apertures.
We were extremely interested in this development ,of the Roadrail tractor, and shall watch, with great 'keenness, its doings on' the Moroccan war front.