THE NEW STEAM VEHICLE BRAKE ORDER.
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After January 1st, 1927, all New Steam Vehicles Must be Equipped with Two Mechanical Brakes. The Engine No Longer to be Regarded as the Equivalent
of a Brake.
TIOR the past year or more the police in many parts of the country have pursued an active campaign of inspection of the brakes of steam vehicles, with a view to ascertaining that the provisions or the Motor Cars (Use and Construction) Order, 1904, and its amending Orders are being complied with, and, as is well known in certain circles, considerable pressure has been put upon users of such vehicles, eventually compelling them to equip their vehicles with additional brakes. Brake equipment for the purpose has now come on the market.
Under the Motor Cars (Use and Construction) Amendment Order of 1913, the original requirement that a motor vehicle must have two independent brakes is waived in the case of a steam wagon exceeding two tons in weight unladen, provided that the vehicle has one brake and that the engine is capable of being reversed. The Order was made on the grounds that, with a steam vehicle running forwards, the engine has a considerable braking effect if it is in reverse gear;. that is to say, if the valve gear be thrown over to reverse. (It may be said that the phrase "exceeding two tons in weight unladen" is employed because the Heavy Motor Car (Use and Construction) Order, 1904, does not apply to vehicles that are less than two tons in weight unladen.) Since the 1913 Amendment Order was enacted, however, change-speed gears between the engine and the rear driving wheels have become much more general, and the authorities have contended (not without reason) that a steam engine cannot always be relied upon as a brake with a change-speed gear in the transmission, not because of the mechanism itself but because the driver is not always able, after a certain speed is attained, to go into gear from the neutral position.
A new Order has now been issued by the Minister of Transport, known as the Motor Cars (Use and Construction) Amendment Order, 1925. It is dated December 1st, and comes into operation on January let next, but its main provision, with which we shall deal, is not operative until January 1st, 1927, in order to give manufacturers time in which to change their design. This new Order revokes the Amendment Order of 1913 and its equivalent Order for Scotland, and provides that in the case of heavy motorcars propelled by steam and constructed after January 1st, 1927, the engine can only be considered as one of the two brakes required if It is incapable of being reversed, but is incapable of being disconnected from the rear wheels except by the sustained effort of the driver as, for instance, through a clutch which does not permit the driver to leave the vehicle with the engine out of gear.
This, obviously, rules out the engine as a second brake when it is equipped with a change-speed gear. Where the vehicle is used as a stage coach or for the conveyance of passengers for gain or hire, a second mechanical brake must be employed.
It will be observed that the new Order continues to legalize existing vehicles which conform to the 1913 Order, and it also legalizes vehicles that may be similarly constructed during the forthcoming year of 1926. This provision has been made in order that the manufacturers concerned may have a clear year in which to effect the necessary redesign of their standard vehicles.
Article III of the new Order deals with the brakes of trailers, and amends Article III of the original Orders of 1904. In this article there is waived the requirement as to brakes in the case of a trailer the unladen weight of which does not exceed 10 cwt., when such vehicle is being drawn in connection with road construction or maintenance works, but it often happens that vehicles exceeding a half-ton in weight are so constructed that the brakes of the trailer cannot be applied by the driver of the towing vehicle, whilst no accommodation is available on the trailer for the person who should be in charge of the brakes. Take, for instance, a tar boiler used on road works ; it is obviously impracticable for a man te be seated upon the trailer. The new Order provides that where the trailer is, by reason of its construction or use, such that it is impracticable for a person to be carried thereon, the person whose duty it is to apply the brakes may walk alongside for that sole purpose when necessary, provided that the speed of the towing vehicle does not exceed 3 m.p.h. The provision as to the braking of trailers comes into operation on January 1st, 1926.
Below we give the Order in full, because to many it will be useful to have the references to the appropriate Acts and Orders and also to have the exact wording of the present Order. A copy of the Order, however, can be obtained from any of H.M. Stationery Offices, at the price of 1d. per copy, at the following addresses :— Adastral House, Kingsway, London, W.C.2 ; 28, Abingdon Street, London, S.W.1; York Street, Manchester ; 1, St. Andrew's Crescent, Cardiff ; 120, George Street, Edinburgh ; whilst any bookseller can always obtain copies for customers.