Meat Loaded by Monorail at New Market
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EQUIPPED. with the most up-to-dale I—, refrigeration plant and meathandling aids, the new market operatedL by the Luton Meat Co., Ltd., at Cresceut Road, Luton, sets the highest standaids. of hygiene. At the same time, the layout of overhead carcass conveyors, from storage freezer to delivery vehicle, has been designed to remove ,much of the heavy manual .labour from the porter's job.
The insulated fleet worked by the Luton Meat Co. is used to collect from the docks and cold stores, ,and from a local abattoir, and to deliver to retailers within a. radius,of about 30 miles. For • these tasks, six Thames Traders are continually in use: of these, five are 5-7tonners and one is a 10-tormer, All the trucks have soecial Litex bodywork, by Walkers and County Cars, Ltd., Fleet, Hants. Based on the long-,wheelbase six-wheeled chassis, the bodies are of light alloy with stainless-steel inner skins and flat, seated floors. The meat is suspended on hooks carried on roof mounted tubular rails and these are arranged to connect with the overhead track system in the market building.
Although there is no particular difficulty in conveying carcasses about the building on tracking — a two-way system serves sales hall, freezer and loading bay — it has not previously been practicable to extend the conveyor system into the interior of the delivery vehicle, because of the problem of making an accurate connection between the roof-rails of the van and the cads of the conveyor. Some lateral error in reversing the vehicle is inevitable, and vertical movement will occur as the load settles the springs.
This problem has been solved by the Luton Meat Co. by the use of ingenious spring-loaded and universally jointed male ends on the loading-bay tracks. The bayonet junction with the rails in the truck has several inches of tolerance in both vertical and lateral directions, and meat is slung on its hooks directly to the position it will occupy when travelling.
In addition to this loading device, which, of course, can be used only at the Luton depot, the trucks carry a Market Loader to assist the driver elsewhere. This is a 10-cwt.-capacity framework of tubular steel, pivoted at the points of attachment to the floor of the truck by hydraulic rams, and equipped with hooks for handling meat.
The hydraulic pump is driven from the starter of the vehicle. To prevent the top of the framework interfering with monorail loading, slotted and sliding sleeves can be moved aside to give access to the trackway.
The loading bay is designed to deal with six vehicles at a time, and is flanked by two control towers housing weighing machines. Every facility is provided for retailers who wish to collect their meat in their own transport.
Routine maintenance of the Luton Meat Co. fleet is done on the premises, under the supervision of the transport manager, Mr. E. Barton. The vehicles have been supplied by Luton Commercial Motors, Ltd., Dunstable. Major repairs are carried out by Motor Bodies (Luton), Ltd., who also painted the current series of Traders. The 10-ton example was an attractive exhibit on the stand of the bodybuilders at the Commercial Motor Show last year.
Formally opening the market on Monday, Dr. Charles Hill, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and M.P. for Luton, welcomed the new private venture as an imaginative enterprise.
The public, he said, were no longer blissfully unaware of what happened to food after it passed the tonsils. In the new market the hygienic standards were unrivalled and the company were doing their work with foresight and ingenuity impossible under State control.