I T is possible that without the initiative of Sel!bergs' transport
Page 46
Page 47
Page 48
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
in Sweden, many of the factories and houses might have had different geographical locations in the country, Carrying indivisible loads,. such as transformers, earth-moving equipment and large printing machines, is an everyday task for A. Z. Sel!bergs Akerie, Stockholm, but the unusual loads tackled by this concern include houses, small factories and huge gravel containers complete with sorting machines.
The transport business was started in a humble fashion 70 years ago with a single horse-drawn sleigh. It has since become the largest concern of its kind in the country, with an operating area extending beyond the borders of Sweden into the neighbouring countries
Varied Duties The work of the company now includes municipal contracts for the collection and disposal of refuse and snow, general transpolt from the docks to factories and inland towns, excavating and removing soil for the proposed Stockholm underground railway system, levelling housing sites, carrying building materials,
and aerodrome construction. In addition, there is a special fleet of heavy tractors and trailers for movipg indivisible loads.
It would be difficult to find a greater diversity of makes and types of vehicle than those employed on general haulage in the Sellbergs" fleet. According to the records, there are 88 load carriers of 13 different makes and 36 types working in all parts of the country. They are distributed throughout a widely scattered area, and to maintain them
B12
at a central establishment would be neither economic nor practical, so all repair work is contracted out to the distributors of the respective
makes of vehicle. The payload capacities of the general haulage fleet range from 2 tons (represented by Austin, Chevrolet, Ford and Volvo), to 9 tons (Scania Vabis).
At present, many of the vehicles are employed locally in the Stockholm area on municipal work, housing sites, road construction and on the underground railway sites.
As the work is closely allied with soil removal, an extensive range of bulldozing tractors, mechanical shovels, dumpers and other equipment of this type, has been purchased by a newly formed company and is maintained by a separate organization. This branch of the business employs 32 machines including a Rapier 423 dragline, Blaw Knox dumpers, a Cletrac tractor, Smith mechanical shovels, and Caterpillar D4 and D6 tractors.
For Indivisible Loads
For moving the indivisible loads there are four Diamond and two Ward La France tractors employed with multi-wheeled trailers having pay-load capacities of 11-165 tons. The heaviest load moved by the Sel'bergs concern, a 165-ton transformer, was carried on an American multi wheeled pneumatic tyred trailer, having front and rear steering, with a six-wheeled tractor hauling and another vehicle pushing.
This was not a difficult load to move in comparison with a 45-ton transformer over 20 ft. high, which had be moved by night from the Gothenburg docks to a factory.
Overhead wires of the tramway system added to the difficulties of delivering the transformer, and tower wagons accompanied the outfit to raise the wires at cross-roads.
v House moving; as distinct from furniture removing, is now a fairly common job for the Sellbergs organization, which put its experience to good purpose about a year ago when 43 houses were involved in a landslide at Snrte, 10 miles from Gothenburg.. The transport concern was called upon to right the houses and. in some cases, to shift them to a
more solid foundation. • The "heavy gang" tackled the job, and strengthened the window and door openings of the lower storeys of each house before excavating to put beams below as supports for the floor. Hydraulic jacks were employed to raise the buildings on to an even keel, and where conditions permitted, fresh foundations were built.
"Rolling" a House
Some of the houses had to be shifted to more solid ground, and special tackle was required to " roll " them a short distance or to load them on to trailers when they had to be moved farther afield. Thirty houses were righted in two months, and by making flexible connections to the water, gas and electrical supplies, the families were able to be in occupation while the houses were being moved.
The housing shortage in Sweden is as acute is it is here, and when a man obtains *employment in a dif ferent part of the country, it is not unusual for his house to be moved by road to a site nearby his new place of work. Although this is not a particularly heavy job, the length and breadth of a house may present difficulty to the removers.
An Outsize Load
As an example, a single-storey wooden house which formed a recent removal had floor dimensions of 86 ft. by 25 ft. Digging away the foundations and loading the building on to the trailers by using a series of special skates was not difficult, but hauling two trailers, connected back to back, and having front and rear steering, coupled with an extensive side overhang, was indeed a tricky proposition. It is a feather in the Sellbergs' cap thatnot a single window pane was cracked or broken during the removal.
Because of the labour shortage, factory employees in Sweden can afford to choose their jobs, and the employer offering the best conditions may take most, and sometimes all, of the labour available in a particular area. A new factory was opened recently in a developed area and some of the smaller concerns, including one making plastic units, were left with a critical labour shortage. Nothing daunted, the proprietor of the plastics factory called in Sellbergs to shift the buildings to another part of the country where labour was more freely available.
After such unusual work, the task of shifting a 40-ton gravel container, complete with sorting machine, is of 613
minor importance. When work was finished for the day, the gravel 'container wAs uprooted,, loaded on to a 12-wheeled lowloading trailer, .towed to its new site by a Scania Vabis 9-tonner, and un loaded by the following morning.
Another uncommon task was to collect 33 printing machines from an old factory in the central part of Stockholm and install them in the second storey of a building at Esselte, near Stockholm. Each press was lowered on to a special prefabricated frame supported on a four-wheeled trailer.
At the printing works the trailer was manoeuvred under a 70-ton gantry, specially erected by the house-moving experts, and each press, complete with supporting frame, was raised 23 ft. to the second storey. The gantry was built with an eye to future work of the satne type and can be used to raise loads up to 50 ft. above ground level.
The earth-moving equipment has travelled across Sweden over the borders to participate in ambitious land-drainage and building schemes. Improvization is often required to move these machines from site to site when the heavy tractors are engaged elsewhere. As an example, a special 47-ton digger is often moved to a new site by a team of 5-tonners, each loaded with ballast and arranged fore and aft of the trailer.
Normally, the 9-ton long-wheelbase models are engaged on general haulage, the charge for carrying a load from Stockholm to Gothenburg, a distance of 320 miles, being approximately £4 5s. per ton.
Apart from the drivers, most of the 500 employees in the concern are specialists and receive a bonus above the normal wage. The drivers' wages are pegged, and by far the biggest problem at the moment is to find sufficient staff to man the road vehicles.