HEAV R LOADS A More of Them
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London Area Haulier, Specializing in Machinery and Awkward Traffic, Weathers Difficult Nationalization Period and Puts His Business on New
Footing for Busier Times
GROWING impetus of road-building programmes and increasing industrial activity have brought more business to machinery carriers. Adams and Adams, Ltd., Transport Wharf, Dickerage Lane, New Malden, Surrey, who have specialized in this work for about 20 years, have found it necessary to augment their range of liftingappliances and to avail themselves of heavier vehicles to cope with greater demands. Not only is traffic in larger volume than ever before, but individual loads are weightier.
Mr. A. W. D. Adams, a director, explained to me that the business was in two sections. In 1926, Adams Bros. (Super Transport), Ltd., was started as a haulage company, and 10 years later Adams and Adams, Ltd., began business as crane hirers, machinery warehousemen, also motor agents, repairers and bodybuilders.
In 1946, 26 vehicles and II trailers belonging to Adams Broi (Super Transport), Ltd., were nationalized. Adams and Adams, Ltd., continued as before, retaining the necessary handling plant but hiring road transport whenever necessary from British Road Services and other operators.
Building Up Fleet
With the coming of denationalization, Mr. Adams has formed Graham Adams, Ltd., to operate the fleet of vehicles he is again building up. Adams and Adams. Ltd., carry on as machinery carriers, the provision of transport by Graham Adams, Ltd., being in practice an internal procedure.
Mr. Adams is not, however, a director of Graham Adams, Ltd. Neither is his brother, with whom he began business in 1926, any longer directly associated in his enterprise. Mr. Adams considers it politic to keep the transport and machinery-handling departments of his business separate, nominally and financially. His son will take control of Graham Adams, Ltd., when demobilized from the Royal Army Service Corps.
The first purchases of B.R.S. vehicles were from list 1 and comprised four Commer 7-tonners based at Croydon, and three E.R.F. articulated semi-low-loaders with detachable rear axles from the Special Traffics Division. Mr. Adams assigned three of the Commers to his brother, who is still in haulage.
Later purchases included three Bedford 7-tonners, one of which was replaced by a Karrier Bantam 2tanner. The Bantam was only an interim replacement, pending the delivery of a Dennis specially designed and built to the company's requirements. This is a modification of the Pax and has a 19-ft. platform. The chassis members are parallel and there are no longitudinal runners between them and the body. The latest low-loader tyres are fitted and there are steel plates over the wheels instead of 1-in.-thick wood. Springing is progressive and the final drive has a ratio of 44 to 3. The wheelbase is 13 ft. 101 in. and there is a butt-welded extension at the rear of the chassis to take a skid bar.
A Vulcan outfit purchased from B.R.S. Was replaced by a Seddon. A Bedford 5-tonner, a Bedford tractor with a platform semi-trailer and a boxvan semi-trailer. and a Morris-Commercial 1-tonner were bought in list 9. These vehicles were based in various parts of the London area.
The semi-trailers ot the three E.R.F.. and the Seddon tractors • are interchangeable. Two extra are held in reserve. Normally, one E.R.F. has a 15-ton tandem-axled semi-low-loading semi-trailer with a 25-ft. platform, another a I5-.ton semi-trailer with a detach: able axle and a 14-ft._ well, and the other E.R.F. a 20ton semi-trailer with detachable rear axle and 17-ft. well.
The semi-low-loading semi-trailer of the Seddon has a 25-ft. platform and can carry 8 tons. The spare semitrailers are a 10-tonner with a 35-ft. platform and a 10-tonner with a 20-ft. deck.
Loading Height Reduced
The bodies of the Commer and the two Bedfords first purchased are 16 ft. long. The loading height of the Bedford 7-tonners was reduced 4 in. by cutting down the cross-bearers.
All vehicles are equipped with winches, skids and other gear necessary for handling awkward loads. Other equipment, such as boat stools and two sets of 15-ton tower jacks for out-of-the-ordinary loads, is kept in stock. There are three lorry-mounted mobile cranes, one a Canadian Cranomobile 4-tonner, the others being Coles 6-tonners based on A.E.C. and Thornycroft chassis. A Rapier 6-ton mobile crane is also used. together with a Yale 5-ton machinery remover and a Mercury tractor.
Work is countrywide and diverse. Factory removal is contracted, as well as the installation of plant. Often a large piece has to be placed on the first floor of a factory, in which case a lorry-mounted crane is employed. At highest elevation, there is 34 ft. 9 in. under the hook of the big lorry-mounted appliances. The company usually employ their own skilled labour for this work, although extra men have sometimes to be hired There is a large warehouse for the storage of machinery, such as that awaiting export shipment. The doors are 26 ft.' high to enable a crane to enter with the jib elevated. Together with a smaller building, there is 13,000 sq. ft. of storage space. The storage charge is 2s. 6d. per ton or 21d. per sq. ft. for bulky items. to which a loading and unloading charge is additional. The company's facilities are frequently used by drivers of vehicles arriving in London with loads of machinery, but who find no special appliances at the destination for unloading. Adams vehicles are sent to all parts of the country with machinery, and membership of the National Conference of Road Transport Clearing Houses usually enables return loads to be obtained. Because of the possibility of bringing back a heavy consignment, it is often found advisable to send a vehicle which may be too big for the outward load.
Having premises near the boatyards at Kingston, the company do a "steady trade" in boat haulage, carrying about three a month during winter, but more during the season. Boats are placed on a 35-ft. vehicle and vessels up to 40 ft. long and 8 tons in weight can be carried, or up to 45 ft. long and 5 tons.
Some notable jobs in this connection have been arranging transport for the late John Cobb's Crusader, and the craft with which Donald Campbell is essaying the world water-speed record. A special trailer was built in the Adams workshops to carry Mr. Campbell's vessel. Before the war, his father's Bluebird boat was taken by Adams Bros. to Switzerland for recordbreaking attempts. The company were also entrusted with the transport of Capt. G. E. T.
Eyston's Thunderbolt car. '
An interesting recent job was to bring in and later •take away a 37-ft. 6-in, gondola brought over from Venice to be exhibited in Bentalrs store at Kingston in connection with ,a special display of Italian wares. Weighing only 9 cwt., the craft was fragile and required delicate handling.
"Romantic" jobs such as these add interest to bread-and-butter machinery transport, -although the most prosaic loads often pose handling problems. Much recent work concerns the transfer from site to site of civil-engineering plant, and cranes are often hired to engineering works to turn over large fabrications,
Adams and Adams, Ltd. hold agencies for Foden, Ford, and Morris and a speciality of their bodybuilding section is the construction of utilities. It was started for the building of the bodywork of the machinerytransport vehicles, but this activity, lapsed after nationalization.
Comparing his business today with that before the war, Mr. Adams pointed to the heavier vehicles and equipment he had had to provide to suit the altered nature of the available traffic. He welcomed denationalization, as it afforded him a readier means for obtaining transport by reconstituting a fleet based at his own premises. Customers can therefore again be offered a comprehensive service. •