A Low-loader at Home On Road or Rail
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AN ingenious heavy-duty low-loadet has been built by an Australian haulier to overcome transport bottlenecks in under-developed areas. The haulier, Mr. H. J. O'Reagan, whose base is at Sydney, designed the lowloader when he was given the task of moving a 62-ton indivisible load of electrical equipment from Adelaide, South Australia, to Mount Isa, Northern Queensland, a distance of 1,596 miles.
It was obvious from the outset that the load could not be moved by either road or rail alone. A road does go all the way, but the first 600 miles cross Simpson Desert and are impassable for heavy vehicles. However, the second part of the road, from Alice Springs, Central Australia, to Mount Isa is first class.
The railway runs only to Alice Springs. and provides a peculiar difficulty in that the gauge changes after about a third of the journey. But Mr. O'Reagan was undaunted and set about designing a low-loader which would be equally at home on road and rail and would also run on different width railway bogies.
The 77-ft. low-loader was built in Sydney at a cost of £20,000. It was of the conventional double-gooseneck type and could, in fact, run on three railway gauges-4 ft. 84 in., 3 ft. 6 in, or 5 ft. 3 in.
On the start of what is thought to be the world's longest heavy haul by land, the outfit left Port Adelaide with its 62-ton generator stator and travelled 210 miles to Port Augusta. There the 64-wheel road bogies-32 wheels at each end--were removed and in under five hours rail bogies 4 ft. 84 in. wide had replaced them.
This was done by jacking up the frames of the low-loader, as the same turntables at the front and rear could be used for road or rail. The outfit was then coupled to a freight train and hauled to Marree, 223 miles away, where the gauge changed to 3 ft. 6 in. This merely entailed a switch of bogies and the load carried on to Alice Springs, covering a further 411 miles of the route.
At Alice Springs the jacks were out again, and the outfit became a road vehicle once more for the final 752-mile stage to Mount Isa, which was completed without further complications. In all, the journey took 164 days.
Travelling by road, one prime mover was usually able to handle the load, but over difficult stretches a pusher vehicle was used, bringing the total length of the outfit up to 130 ft., with an overall weight of 110 tons. Yet consistently good time was made. Through arid Central Australia the average was 135 miles a day on the road—on one day 170 miles were covered, although the temperature often touched 118 deg.
Despite its size, the low-loader proved remarkably manceuvrable and was capable of turning in a circle of 100 ft. diameter due to the special power steering equipment. Tight corners could thus be managed with comparative case.
There is no doubt that Mr. O'Reagan's low-loader has gone a long way towards breaking the transport bottleneck which has for years held up the development of Australia's vast north. Until he pioneered the way single items of heavy equipment for movement north had to weigh under 20 tons.
Now, single loads of up to 85 tons can be moved to any centre in the potentially rich but undeveloped north. By using road and rail, journeys of this type can be completed in a few weeks, giving a high capital saving to manufacturers who previously have had to assemble and test their gear on arrival at its destination.
The transport problems that have held up the development of Northern Australia are paralleled in many other countries which lack railways and road services over vast distances. The new low-loader offers an ingenious method of overcoming this problem.