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TIMES PAST
CM has outlined the movement of heavy loads and the frustrations created by the various statutory bodies including the police in the delays in providing movement authority (CM28 Oct-3 Nov).
This does not provide support for British hauliers to meet Continental opposition. There is every need for trained professionals with appropriate authority to be recruited and used instead of the police in this field where time is important.
I recall some 69 years ago, as a boy of 11, walking to school and seeing a heavy haulage outfit comprising a Scammell tractor and low-bed trailer operated by Marstons Road Service of Liverpool. The load was a bronze ship's propeller for the RMS Queen Mary— some 20 tons payload. The load was travelling from Sheffield to Southampton.
At the time of seeing this "juggernaut" of the era, it was negotiating what was then known as the Scew Bridge just north of
Galley Crossroads where the A5 of those days crossed the Stafford-Birmingham main road.
The Scammell Unit, as I recall, was powered by a petrol engine at a time when steamers were retiring from the road and diesel was just making its debut in haulage.
The trailer of this project provided an enclosed cabin at the rear for the steersman, who operated the steered rear axles. The entire outfit rode on solid tyres.
Should the Hawk have been patrolling the major roads north and south of the main arteries of the country before World War II, no doubt he would have noted some of the major operators of the era. I dare say that your library of the time would reveal two outstanding scenes on the road: one being Fisher Renwick, which operated a continuous service with eightwheeled Scammells between London and Manchester and return, with a like service to Glasgow. These vehicles were loaded to a maximum of 11
tons. At any point en route you could check your watch by their schedule.
Another well known operator of the same era was Cary Davies & Thomas which operated from a brewery at Chiswick, West London, which contracted it to deliver cargoes to the Midlands and other destinations overnight.
Before returning the vehicles were inspected, and tyre pressures and points for lubrication were checked. The war and subsequent nationalisation effected the demise of these and others who had built an industry for the benefit of the country.
I recall, as a boy, reading in my father's copy of the News Chronicle of Mr Stanley Baldwin, the Prime Minister of the time, who said that he foresaw the time when roads would be constructed to cater for lorries to travel at one hundred miles per hour. Heaven forbid—we have our maniacs in their buzz boxes today.
it is hoped that this is good reading matter for the Hawk's consumption, with my respects.
Laurie Frank Soakings, Seekings ge. Seekings Associates,
II Those were the days, Mr Seekings. The Hawk hotly denies that he was on the road back in the twenties, but from the state of the decrepit old bird, I have my doubts!--Ed.