1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178 
FROM THE ,HORSE'S MOUT
Page 61
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
'Eee, yer don't see 'ossilesh now like what yer once did.' The old blacksmith spat angily into the blazing coals as he selected a favourite pair of tongs and reached out a half-finished horseshoe. The softened metal spluttered gently as he laid it on the cold anvil, its red-hot shell of oxidised iron flaking away from the glowing core like puff-pastry from a French chef's vol-au-vent. `Biggest 'lass 1 ever shod was well over 18 'ands—that's more'n six feet to the shoulder, maybe eight to the tips of 'is ears. 'Oss like that could pull 150 ton provided the load was on water and 'is own 'oafs firm on the towpath, ...'
The smith spat again, then took up a longhandled .hammer and began to beat the red-hot bar into a curve. "Osspower? That word don't 'ave nothin' to do with reality. I've seen one o' them Liverpool dock 'osses shift 11 ton at a time. One 'oss! Two of 'cm got the world record in my time-27 ton on a flat-lurry. Economy,
calls it. Three ton of 'ass, 27 ton o' stooff. 'You can't do hetter'n that wi' all yer new-fangled diesels, now can yer?'
Horsepower
Horsepower. Here was a new twist to an old topic. We'd come to look at one of Britain's few remaining smithies, and the farrier was getting talkative as he waited impatiently for a fresh delivery of bar-iron for his forge. Now if that there was a 'oss-drawn lurry....'
Just then we heard the distant grumble of a powerful diesel engine. It was the steel factor's deliveryman backing in his big AEC 'Mandator' with the blacksmith's puny but vital stock bundled neatly on top of a vast, miscellaneous load.
The farrier's singsong voice called to us over the clatter as he and the driver rummaged about, unloading his next month's supply. 'Eight ton o' truck, 20 ton o' stooff. Warner go back to the old 'osses, they do!' 'The trouble with him is he's talked himself hoarse' quipped the driver with a wink in our direction. 'And good luck to 'ins' the farrier's mate called from the anvil, holding aloft a shiny new shoe. Our eyes wandered to the AEC.
The old smith's horse-drawn `lurries' may have been fine for hauling heavy loads for short distances round the cobbled dockside streets. But a modern truck manufacturer has many more irons in the fire. A mighty modern diesel like this could shift its 20 ton load on the output of only one cylinderand probably on even less, provided the ground were flat and the gearing right. But who cares about level ground? And who wants to move at walking pace in 1965? Today's truck operator is interested in allround efficiency. When he buys a heavy or medium-weight truck he expects it to tackle short-haul deliveries or long-distance motorway runs with never a pause for a change of horses. He demands 100% versatility—and with an AEC he gets it. True, a modem truck seems to Aeed a lot of horsepower to get its load under way. Yet every one of AEC's 192-strong Mandator team pulls its weight when it comes to climbing hills and out-accelerating rival heavies on crowded highway routes. And the Mandators' rugged six-speed overdrive gearbox keeps the power in the right place all the time.
The driver wandered over to where we stood. 'Al). he said as he lit a cigarette with a red-hot coal from the forge 'You can listen to the old chap if you like. He'll find you a good 'oss and hammer you out as fine a set of shoes for it as ever you're likely to see.
'But when it comes to transport work – well, he may be talking horse-sense but it's all a lot of chaff really.'