The Russian Military Trials.
Page 14
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Trouble with Weak Bridges and Unmade Roads. Commer Cars Did Well, as did the Italian Entrants.
By Our Special Correspondent in St. Petersburg.
I am now able to give you some idea of the difficulties which were encountered during the recent Russian military trials of motor-wagons, which, as your readets will have learned from my previous commumcation—(Issue dated ltelt October. —.En.)—were organized by the Russian War Office with the object of deciding which makes of car are the most suitable for the military authorities' requirements, and which are most suited to the difficult road conditions of the country. They came to a conclusion on Tuesday, leth-29th October, after having extended over 28 days. The list of entries, which you have already published, was correct so far as it went. There were, however, several additions after I had written to you. It will therefore be useful to summarize the entries as follows : — The competing teams comprised : 2 Renault ; 2 Peugeot ; 2 de Dion-Bouton ; 2 Delahaye ; La Buire ; 2 Clement Bayard; Schneider ; 2 Adler ; 2 N.A.G. ; t German Daimler ; 7 Benz ; 2 Stoewer ; 1 Laurin-Klement ; 5 Satire!' ; 4 Saurer ; 2 Spa ; Commer Car ; 3 Buessing ; 1 Skoda Daimler: and 2 Mamesman Mulag.
Of the 28 days of running 19 were spent on the road, the remainder being spent : two days in Moscow on outward journey, one day in Orel, two days in Mo.etow on return journey, and four days in St. Petersburg at the completion of the run, for the examination of the various parts of the cars for wear. The total distance covered was 2316 versts, and the average daily journey 120 versts, the major portion of which was chaussee or military macadam. (1 verst=0.06 mile.) The first 15 versts on leaving St. Petersburg is very rough, but on the whole the road to Moscow is fairly good excepting through the villages and towns, where it is very rough and often fpll of • deep holes. This part of the journey was covered in five stages, the intermediate stopping-places to Moscow being Novgorod, Valdai Vishny Valatschook and Tuer, the respective daily journeys being 178. 132, 84. 121 and 158 versts.
Considerable trouble was experienced with -many of the bridges, which were usually trestle, an iron or stone bridge not being often seen in Russia. Often the trestles were very rotten ; many of the cars broke through, and long delays were eaused while extra planks were obtained and fixed.
Beyond Moscow the roads became worse, and more difficult to negotiate. Parts were very soil and heavy-going ; iii other parts the road crust was so thin that it broke through with the weight of the cars, and very frequently digging out and planking were necessary. In many of the villages and towns, the roads, as such, ceased to exist, being nothing more than tracks through the sand, and in which holes of 1 ft. or 18 in. in depth occurred every few yards. Most of the cars, however, managed to get through with no more damage than here and there a broken spring, a broken shackle box, or broken spring stirrup bolt. Those ears, however, which were not fitted with a low first-speed gear, and those which had insufficient clearance for a stout rope to be wound round the wheels to obtain a better grip, had to have either all or a part of their loads removed and carried to the end of the stretch in carts, or else to be assisted through by gangs of men pulling on ropes attached to the dumb irons, and also pushing the car from every possible spot.
This second portion of the trial occupied eight running days, the stopping-places being Maio Yoroslayety, Yuchnovo, Roslawl, Briansk, Orel (where one day was spent), Toula, Serpouchof, and then Moscow again.
The first day of this portion was uneventful, except that several cars got badly bogged, and for the occasional breaking of a bridge. The second day was a day of soft roads and heavy going, and five versts from Yuchnovo the Volga had to be crossed in a ferry boat of quite small size. It was necessary to run the cars from the landingstage on to the boat at great speed. SQ as not to allow the weight to be on one side of the boat long enough to make it capsize, but to get the whole car on board and so balance the load. The halting-place this night was the Market Yard, and during the night many of the cars sank rather deeply in the soft ground, and difficulty was experienced the next morning in getting out. The Saurer hauling gear. however. Proved very useful here. The road from Yuchnovo to Rostawl was comparatively good, the main incident of the day being the dropping through a, bridge of both rear wheels of one of the 12 Saurers, Progress was stopped for a couple of hours while repairs were effected. At one spot on the jour
ney a detour had to be made from the road over the peasants' carttrack, and repeated planking was necessary here. Orel to Toula is a very undulating stretch, though none of the gra dients are stiff: 1 in 12 occurs twice, and 1 in 15 twice, but 1 in 20 and 1 in 25 were more usual. Two sandy stretches through villages had to be passed, and the latter half of the jorney was over a clay subsoil. From Toula to Serpouchof, and Serpouchof to Moscow, the roads are harder, no soft sand occurring, but they are very rough indeed, and here several more sprmg breakages occurred.
Those of the cars with a greater gross weight than eight tons were not sent over the Yuchnovo-Briansk Rceslavl route, but by the Serpouchof-Toula route to Orel, and then by the same route back to Moscow, on account of the weak bridges.
The return journey, Moscow to Petersburg, was over the same route as the outward journey, the stages to Novgorod being the same, but Novgorod to Petersburg was split into two sections with a stop at
Louban, making the last two days journey 95 and 83 versts respec
tively, and the early morning tem perature these last two days was 18 degrees Fahrenheit, and as hot water was unobtainable, great diffi culty was experienced in getting some of the engines started, more especially the French cars, practi cally all of which had to be towed in gear before a start was obtained. The general consensus of opinion among the officers who conducted the trials is that the Italian cars, S.P.A. and F.I.A.T., together with the English Commer Cars, were the most satisfactory of those entered. but it must be stated that each of the cars which started the trial had arrived back in Petersburg by 15th 28th October, though several failed to arrive in their column posi tion, and some had not completed the whole journey. The only car. however, which suffered mechanical damage that could not be put right on the road was a Stoewer, which broke a differential casing.
Particular interest was evinced in the performance of the two-ton and three-ton Commer Cars, which were
.fitted with paraffin gas producers, the features of which are starting
up on paraffin. flexibility and clean running, and entire absence of sootmg up of valves or cylinders. The rise of paraffin for fuel is of particllar interest In Russia.