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A Service Bus Which THERE was perturbation in Ran Without a Fuel I the bus depot. A normally Tank : . . . . most reliable vehicle had broken down some miles away. A fitter and break-down car Were sent, and the trouble was diagnosed as a deficiency of fuel in the large-capacity Autovac. Careful attention.produced no satisfactory results, and !a choked pipe was suspected! However, further investigation showed, to the surprise of all, that the vehicle had no petrol tank, this having been removed fen. repair, and the mileage had been achieved on the Autovac reservoir. M. of W.I. Campaign THE campaign for the for Quicker Vehicle quicker turaround . of
Turn round . . . yehicles which has been initiated
by the M. of W.T., will have as one of its features the display of posters on lorry .doors to bring home to the men the importance of expeditiou. -Operators are asked to help in this move. The posters will be obtainable from the Regional Transport Cothruissioners in about two weeks' time. and measure IS ins'. by 12 ins. The wording borne will : "Quicker Turnround Leads to Quicker Victory," and "Speed Up Loading and Unloading:'
New Task for Drivers
in the Mechanical DRIVERS on the mechani
-"cal-transport side , of the Army are classified as com Transport .•. . . batants. We well remember an exciting ?ccasion in August, 1914, just before the retreat from Mons, when bus and other drivers straight from civilian service were lined u in a ditch arid instructed how to load and fire their rifles, as Uhlans were crossing the road in front. Perhaps fortiffiately, we were not spotted. Nowadays, drivers receive much more comprehensive instruction, but they apparently have, some queer jobs, as, for example, that of the man who had to drive his lorry to and fro in front of a working party at Tobruk, in order to shield it from the enemy by means of the clouds of dust raised: Such a task merits more than ordinary comment.
Hauling , a 70-ft. 150A LTHOUGH it took place ton, 16-in. Gun 11early ,in this war, the way
Barrel by Road . in which a heavy haul was • tackled in America may be of interest. The load was a gun barrel, 70-ft. long, of 16-in. bore and 150 tons weight This was mounted on a heavy trailer, and six lorries were used, four pulling and two pushing up the 6 per cent, gradient with which the task started. After surmounting the hill, the vehicles were changed, one going ahead and the other five being hitched on behind as a drag. The trailer had 40 wheels, and the whole outfit 90, whilst the six vehicles totalled 900 h.p. Heavy cable connected the lorries and trailer, and the leading lorry was ballasted with stone blocks., The average speed was between 1.5 and 2 m.p.h., which may be considered as satisfactory for such a task.'