jsutherland:
A Bernard, but not sure of the model.
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Johnny this has the looks of a Leyland Super Hippo 1950/60 build,I googled Bernard and the Renault brand came up but I was unable to find anything else,perhaps Leylands supplied some cab parts.The model I refer to were powered by the 600 engine.
Cheers Dig
This yellow 6 wheeler is certainly not a Bernard, though the shape of the cab is roughly the same. I’d bet for a Super-Hippo too.
Froggy that yellow truck is a Super Hippo I just put it on for a comparison with the Bernard,that is a 60s model the next model had square section mud guards but the cab was pretty much the same.
DEANB:
Heres one for you Dig me old mucker. Where have you been on your travels ■■?
Click on pages twice to read.
1970, Atkinson.
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Thanks Deano we have been in Victoria visiting the son and his family we did it the easy way this trip flew both ways plus a 3 hour coach trip from Melbourne to Sale and back in place of a rail journey as the line had buckled with the heat,we had 2 days on fire watch as a large bushfire threatened the area with 43.5 c the maximum temp,the first time i have seen a 4 jet engined fire bomber at work.
I saw a couple of these Atkinson Shell road trains in the early 70s when in Dunmara area of the NT on the Stuart Hwy pretty impressive they were replaced by Macks at the end of their time,i think they did the hard yards as the Hwy in their time wasn’t the best not like todays super highway.
Froggy55:
Any idea about the fuel consumption of such a road train?
When i first got involved with road trains in 1970ish from memory a triple would average about a litre per kilometre with single deck cattle trailers, the last truck I owned was a Mack Titan the first 300000kilometres it averaged 860metres per kilometre pulling 3 double decker cattle trailers but when I put it on general freight it averaged 1.3 metres per kilometre so I reckon those Atkinsons with 2 tankers would have been about that figure,in those days an 8 wheeler in the NT could pull 3 trailers but a prime mover could only pull 2,after that article they started hanging a 3rd tanker behind the Atkinson and that would have dropped the consumption down to about a litre per kilometre but it was lot to ask on a 335 ■■■■■■■■■■■■■ on Atkinson here in Aus fitted 3408 Caterpillar engines set at 450hp then they would have handled it ok, they were a very reliable but thirsty engine.
Thanks! That makes roughly the same consumption as three traditional articulated trucks, and the only money saving would be on the cost of the two extra drivers.
On the subject of the Shell Atkinson road trains does anyone remember before tv was on all day. I think it was BBC 2 before programmes started there used to be information programmes one which was a shell one about Australia and featured the very same vehicles.
Froggy55:
Thanks! That makes roughly the same consumption as three traditional articulated trucks, and the only money saving would be on the cost of the two extra drivers.
I.m afraid I can’t agree with you Froggy,the 8 Atkinsons between them based on each truck doing a trip a week Darwin to Alice is a total of 712000 litres per week [rough figure 4.565 litres per gallon]. It would take 20 trips single trailer to deliver the same amount that is assuming the singles could load the same as the dog trailers legally so you would need a lot more trucks on the job to deliver the same volume of fuel in the same time frame.
The rail link between Darwin and Alice has been restored so its possible the fuel is delivered that way now,I travelled with a fuel truck about 10 years ago and the driver told me they are legal with 150000litres using quad trailers on tri axle suspension units.A round trip taking 5 days.
Froggy55:
Thanks! That makes roughly the same consumption as three traditional articulated trucks, and the only money saving would be on the cost of the two extra drivers.
I.m afraid I can’t agree with you Froggy,the 8 Atkinsons between them based on each truck doing a trip a week Darwin to Alice is a total of 712000 litres per week [rough figure 4.565 litres per gallon]. It would take 20 trips single trailer to deliver the same amount that is assuming the singles could load the same as the dog trailers legally so you would need a lot more trucks on the job to deliver the same volume of fuel in the same time frame.
The rail link between Darwin and Alice has been restored so its possible the fuel is delivered that way now,I travelled with a fuel truck about 10 years ago and the driver told me they are legal with 150000litres using quad trailers on tri axle suspension units.A round trip taking 5 days.
Cheers Dig
You beat me to it Dig, I have a similar picture which I was going to post. The late John Maddock, writing in 1988 wrote of Shell’s then preference for the Mack Superliner with a Mack V8 460 driving through a 9-speed Mack box (that raises my eyebrows because, like you, I fully appreciated the quad box’s 20 pulling a triple full of cows!). They were still triples back then, semi + 2 dogs, but with some safety mods to the braking systems I believe. Also each semi was a tri but the unit and dollys were tandems.
Froggy55:
Thanks! That makes roughly the same consumption as three traditional articulated trucks, and the only money saving would be on the cost of the two extra drivers.
I.m afraid I can’t agree with you Froggy,the 8 Atkinsons between them based on each truck doing a trip a week Darwin to Alice is a total of 712000 litres per week [rough figure 4.565 litres per gallon]. It would take 20 trips single trailer to deliver the same amount that is assuming the singles could load the same as the dog trailers legally so you would need a lot more trucks on the job to deliver the same volume of fuel in the same time frame.
The rail link between Darwin and Alice has been restored so its possible the fuel is delivered that way now,I travelled with a fuel truck about 10 years ago and the driver told me they are legal with 150000litres using quad trailers on tri axle suspension units.A round trip taking 5 days.
Cheers Dig
You beat me to it Dig, I have a similar picture which I was going to post. The late John Maddock, writing in 1988 wrote of Shell’s then preference for the Mack Superliner with a Mack V8 460 driving through a 9-speed Mack box (that raises my eyebrows because, like you, I fully appreciated the quad box’s 20 pulling a triple full of cows!). They were still triples back then, semi + 2 dogs, but with some safety mods to the braking systems I believe. Also each semi was a tri but the unit and dollys were tandems.
Yes Spardo we had one superliner with a 9 speed box and one with a 12 speed both engines set at 400hp,the 9 speed was so unreliable and used to seize in 2nd gear, Macks finished up supplying a spare gearbox,the 12 speed never gave a problem similar to the quad box but air shift so only one gear stick and I tried to talk the boss into fitting a 12 speed into the other truck but he said while its still under warranty Macks can pay for it we just keep fitting the spare box,we got quite good at it about 5 hours to do the change.When the Macks started doing the Alice run Shell had the draw bars lengthened on the dollys to 14 feet and what a difference that made to the trailers tracking they hardly jigged about at all very smooth and straight to pull.
Spardo:
You beat me to it Dig, I have a similar picture which I was going to post. The late John Maddock, writing in 1988 wrote of Shell’s then preference for the Mack Superliner with a Mack V8 460 driving through a 9-speed Mack box (that raises my eyebrows because, like you, I fully appreciated the quad box’s 20 pulling a triple full of cows!). They were still triples back then, semi + 2 dogs, but with some safety mods to the braking systems I believe. Also each semi was a tri but the unit and dollys were tandems.
Yes Spardo we had one superliner with a 9 speed box and one with a 12 speed both engines set at 400hp,the 9 speed was so unreliable and used to seize in 2nd gear, Macks finished up supplying a spare gearbox,the 12 speed never gave a problem similar to the quad box but air shift so only one gear stick and I tried to talk the boss into fitting a 12 speed into the other truck but he said while its still under warranty Macks can pay for it we just keep fitting the spare box,we got quite good at it about 5 hours to do the change.When the Macks started doing the Alice run Shell had the draw bars lengthened on the dollys to 14 feet and what a difference that made to the trailers tracking they hardly jigged about at all very smooth and straight to pull.
Dig
I’m wondering if I have got the wrong end of the stick (no pun intended ) here, when Maddock says:
‘they have a 9 speed Mack box, preferred to a splitter type transmission because of more favourable fuel economy and better drive axle wear, as well as being less complicated from the drivers’ viewpoint’,
I assumed he meant just that, 9 gears, no more. Hence my indredulity, but it sounds from what you say that they were in fact quad or perhaps triplex boxes, but without the need for a 2nd stick.
If that is so, I am surprised at his lack of clarity because it was from him that I posted many years ago on TN his description of the operation of the quad box with 2 sticks. Certainly ties in with his ‘less complicated’ comment. Juggling 2 sticks at 40 mph on a dirt track road, one at times with the crook of the elbow, is nothing if not …errr, complicated.
Just to add to my comment about the Shell braking systems, Maddock goes on to say:
'…the braking systems for each triple, has undergone modification by Shell transport engineers, with the result that these 50 metre 115 tonne, 62 wheel rigs can be stopped in their own length without skid or axle hop when moving at 70 km/hr. ’
Makes me wonder what Buntine’s tankers had done to them when on the Shell bitumin contract. They were triples, non sleepers with 2 drivers in order to do the full journey Darwin to Alice in one go. There was a metal catwalk across the back of the cab with a low rail round it. Not sure if this is what it was intended for, but it was normal for the spare driver to get into his sleeping bag and stretch out on it. This came to an end when one night, due to a roo or a cow suddenly appearing in the headlights, the driver did an emergency stop. He didn’t hit it or lose control into the bush, but, due to the fact that the pair of them had neglected to check the front tank cap lockings, a great lump of molten ashphalt jumped out and landed on that catwalk. Fortunately the 2nd man was in the cab at the time, otherwise we would have been looking at a Pompeii-type situation. And I don’t mean Portsmouth.
No Spardo you have the right end to play with , the 9 speed was a first gear super low then 4 in a H pattern lift the button on the range change and start again at 2nd/6th simple but as I said was a problem child I had it seize in second gear high range 6th gear and I drove it nearly 400kms trying to get it to release which it did about 5 kms from the workshop,the 12 speed was similar change pattern with a split in the high range and a second gear stick just for low low which you could split so not much of a juggle except if you were in heavy going and needed to change down to bog cog on the move then it could be a problem.The quad boxes you drove were a handful without doubt I never had the pleasure.
All the Mack boxes had triple countershafts.
My 2 up day cab adventures taught me how to sleep in multiple positions sitting in the passenger seat,I don’t think I would have been game to sleep on the hungry board.
DIG:
No Spardo you have the right end to play with , the 9 speed was a first gear super low then 4 in a H pattern lift the button on the range change and start again at 2nd/6th simple but as I said was a problem child I had it seize in second gear high range 6th gear and I drove it nearly 400kms trying to get it to release which it did about 5 kms from the workshop,the 12 speed was similar change pattern with a split in the high range and a second gear stick just for low low which you could split so not much of a juggle except if you were in heavy going and needed to change down to bog cog on the move then it could be a problem.The quad boxes you drove were a handful without doubt I never had the pleasure.
All the Mack boxes had triple countershafts.
My 2 up day cab adventures taught me how to sleep in multiple positions sitting in the passenger seat,I don’t think I would have been game to sleep on the hungry board.
DIG:
No Spardo you have the right end to play with , the 9 speed was a first gear super low then 4 in a H pattern lift the button on the range change and start again at 2nd/6th simple but as I said was a problem child I had it seize in second gear high range 6th gear and I drove it nearly 400kms trying to get it to release which it did about 5 kms from the workshop,the 12 speed was similar change pattern with a split in the high range and a second gear stick just for low low which you could split so not much of a juggle except if you were in heavy going and needed to change down to bog cog on the move then it could be a problem.The quad boxes you drove were a handful without doubt I never had the pleasure.
All the Mack boxes had triple countershafts.
My 2 up day cab adventures taught me how to sleep in multiple positions sitting in the passenger seat,I don’t think I would have been game to sleep on the hungry board.
Cheers Dig
No mate, nor me.
In case you were thinking of getting back into it mate just a reminder where they fit.
DIG:
No Spardo you have the right end to play with , the 9 speed was a first gear super low then 4 in a H pattern lift the button on the range change and start again at 2nd/6th simple but as I said was a problem child I had it seize in second gear high range 6th gear and I drove it nearly 400kms trying to get it to release which it did about 5 kms from the workshop,the 12 speed was similar change pattern with a split in the high range and a second gear stick just for low low which you could split so not much of a juggle except if you were in heavy going and needed to change down to bog cog on the move then it could be a problem.The quad boxes you drove were a handful without doubt I never had the pleasure.
All the Mack boxes had triple countershafts.
My 2 up day cab adventures taught me how to sleep in multiple positions sitting in the passenger seat,I don’t think I would have been game to sleep on the hungry board.
Cheers Dig
No mate, nor me.
In case you were thinking of getting back into it mate just a reminder where they fit.
Oh I do, I practice every day:-
Ignore lo-lo, engage Lo-split with left hand and 1st with right, once mobile move left lever across to Direct, gain speed then move it up to Hi-split.
Now using both hands move the left stick back to Lo-split and the right stick up to 2nd (don’t forget to drop the revs in the compound and build them for the main), then as speed dictates left stick again to Direct and then Hi-split.
Using one hand now (a good non arthritic spread is good here) move both levers back to L-split and 3rd.
Continue as required up to 5 Hi if you want more speed on a decent road and your B61 should be rolling along at 100 km/hr at 2100 revs.
Only problem is with daily practice, my Peugeot Partner only has one box, and that is automatic (old left knee and right shoulder dictated that), and not only that, it doesnt even have one lever, just a clever little dial selector on the dash.
DIG:
No Spardo you have the right end to play with , the 9 speed was a first gear super low then 4 in a H pattern lift the button on the range change and start again at 2nd/6th simple but as I said was a problem child I had it seize in second gear high range 6th gear and I drove it nearly 400kms trying to get it to release which it did about 5 kms from the workshop,the 12 speed was similar change pattern with a split in the high range and a second gear stick just for low low which you could split so not much of a juggle except if you were in heavy going and needed to change down to bog cog on the move then it could be a problem.The quad boxes you drove were a handful without doubt I never had the pleasure.
All the Mack boxes had triple countershafts.
My 2 up day cab adventures taught me how to sleep in multiple positions sitting in the passenger seat,I don’t think I would have been game to sleep on the hungry board.
Cheers Dig
No mate, nor me.
In case you were thinking of getting back into it mate just a reminder where they fit.
) here, when Maddock says:
