Iom Drivers &Mechanics TEN SHILLINGS WEEKLY is paid for the
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best communication received, and one penny a line of ten words for anything else published, with an allowance for photographs.
A Driver's Letter from Australia.
The sender of the following communication has been awarded the .i0s. pri:e this week.
0.274] "W.E.C." (Adelaide, South Australia) Wl : —'I should like 10 supply my fellow-drivers with a few particulars concerning the conditions of the roads and employment generally in South Australia. I arrived here in June last, and had a job to drive the firq. Foden steamer in this district. During the winter I had a particularly rough time on account. of the heavy rains. Many roads here were never intended for the use of five-ton vehicles. Some of them are just composed of virgin soil and have no flint surface whatever.
My first journey was from Adelaide to the South Australian Government quarry at. Belair in the heart of the mountains. The road was dangerous and winding and has a gradient in one place of something like 1 in 4. There was no room for passing any other vehicle, and goodness only knows what would have happened should another machine have come along when I was in some of the places. Eight to twelve inches of mud on the surface sometimes caused the driving chain to sink under the road level, and when I have been coming back from the quarry with 12 tons in all, half of which were on the trailer, I have had to use paddles in. order to get out of difficult situations. On occasion we have had to make up the road for ourselves by means of rocks and stones.
"During the summer we have almost as much trouble with dust as we do in the winter with the mud. I am pleased to be able to tell you that the debate in the House of Assembly, which corresponds to the House of Commons at home, with regard to prohibiting the uSe of the roads to steam wagons has terminated in our favour.. The roads are now being taken over by the Government, and are being built ta suit heavy traffic. I very often transport 32 tons of rock in one day for the Government service. and possibly this has had something to do with it. They have recently bought a heavy traction engine capable of hauling 32 tons in four trailers, and I have recently conducted some trials with it. The climate here is warm, but not unhealthily so. In the summer the hottest day was about 104 degrees Fahrenheit. There are about six Mann steam wagons in the town, as well as one Yorkshire steamer. There is now another Foden, and I am sending you a photograph of this machine. They have had many misfortunes with this wagon owing to the driver's ignorance of how to use it. I am sorry to say that in the last accident which they had, the driver lost control when coming down a steep hill, and the machine crashed over a 20 ft. bank into a stream, killing the steerer, who could not take the curve quickly enough.
" The engine was badly damaged, and when I witnessed the place whereat this took place it seemed to me that the damage would be beyond possibility of repair. Such is the construction of the Foden, however, that when I took charge of the repair work with a couple of men, I had the machine ready for the road in ten days. The photograph was taken when the machine was out on a trial after the smash-up.
"1 should like to add in conclusion to my letter that if any drivers at home wish to come out to Australia I shall be only too pleased to give them any little ad % lee that I can. The rate of wages paid is better here, and the hours are less. The, weather is an improvement, and we have more holidays. I hope shortly to send you photographs of the roads and the hills, and the general conditions here, which I trust will be suitable for publication, and interesting to your readers. Perhaps this information will give the manufacturers at home some slight idea of the conditions obtaining in Australia, though they probably realize them to a considerable extent."
What Kind of Road is Best ?
[1275] Batley) writes :—" 1 heard one of the most exptienced surveyors in the North of England remark the other day that the, best road for the use of heavy motor traffic was taimaced. or else a. road on which the surface had been treated in some similar fashion. Some few hours later. I came across the following in a trade journal:--' The advent of heavy motors made it certain that sett paving would regain its popularity sooner or later. Little straws show the direction that the wind is blowing, and big orders have since confirmed those early indications, notably those recently placed by the Lancashire County Councils. Thank goodness, there, is a great difference between the sett paving of to-day and that of former times. Improved and closed joints have largely removed the old objection to setts.'
I should like to hear what my fellow-drivers-think on this subjert their opinions in regard to ease of driving. i ibration, effect on chassis. etc., would be most interesting to many of us. Perhaps some of them will give us their ideas on the subject. and the, Editor may then be inclined to give the subject still more space."