Wolseley-Siddeley Material,
Page 21
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Looking through the official list of entries for the recent R.A.C. trials, one finds that four out of the original vehicles did not start from Chiswick. One of these, the Wolseley brewers' lorry, did not arrive at the London depot, as it was the victim of an accident, which we briefly reported at the time, while being driven from the works at Birmingham to London. Proceeding in the dark, well up to its legal speed, this wagon ran off the road about five miles north of Dunstable, and was wrecked. The weather was
particularly dirty, and a driving rain made travelling anything but pleasant. The vehicle, the laden weight of which was I30 cwt. (6 tons), ran into a ditch,
and caused damage to such an extent that it could not be repaired in time to take part in the initial stages of the trials ; it was, therefore, withdrawn.
Considering what must have been the force of the impact, and the consequent stresses that were set up, when the vehicle fell into the ditch, and struck the oppOsite bank, it is rather surprising that so little damage was done to the machine. Beyond bending one of the front dumb irons, the top plate of one of the leading springs, and the leading axle and its connecting rod, but little hurt had been done to the lorry, yet the concussion was sufficient to shift the load, and we believe that two of the barrels, each of which weighed about 6 cwt., only narrowly missed the driver in their flight. The excellence of the materials of which the Wolseley-Siddeley chassis are made is well shown by the photographs of the leading axle. These
views illustrate the state of the axle after the accident, and it is interesting to note that there was no sign of skin, or other fracture, at any point. These axles are made of Vickers axle-steel, of I section, and are drop forgings. The jaws for the axle arms are forged solid with the bed of the axle. It may be noted that, throughout the entire construction of the vehicles made by the Wolseley Company, the same relative quality of material is employed.
We reproduce, herewith, a photograph of the lorry, with its load : this was taken at Birmingham previous to the accident.