Loch-Light comes to Scotland
Page 53
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—and Austin horse-power helps to bring it
DOWER ENOUGH to keep a town the size of Aberdeen going1. that will be the daily output of electricity from the Breadalbane Project (part of the vast Scottish hydro-electric scheme), now nearing compktion.
That power will come from thousands of tons of water; water collected from the mountain streams of Perthshire and channelled through an elaborate system of tunnels to Glen Lyon. Here, at the threshold of the Highlands, a mighty dam is almost finished. Here the pipelined tunnels converge after cutting through mountain and rock for up to 9 miles. And here the waters are already held in check .. a great man-made loch now stretches miles back between gaunt mountain slopes, The rocky road to Glen Lyon To reach construction sites, 22 miles of road had to be cut over the mountains between Glen Dochart and Glen Lyon. With alarming hairpin bends, the single track zig-zags perilously up the bare hillside. Overall gradient on this road is r in 5. Steepest drags are I in 3.
Twice a day, si days a week, an Austin 7 tanner climbs this steep, rocky road, carrying wet sand. The sand is collected at Doune, over so miles from the site. Over 2,000 tons of it have been delivered so far. And, clocking up a daily average of 225 miles, over 35,000 miles have been covered by this one lorry on this job alone. "Aye, I will that." Of its performance, owner Walter Knights, haulage contractor of Rintry, Stirlingshire, says: "I bought the Austin in May 1957 from Mr. Carlisle of Carlow (Cars) Ltd., Glasgow, Since then it has given me no trouble, but for one or two footery wee things. I'm getting 15 miles to the gallon out of it the now and I'm very well satisfied with it." Asked if he would buy another Austin, Mr. Knights was em-phatic. "Aye, I will that," he said.