Re: truck mass increase (VIC)

[telljb@OZozemail.com.au (< Tell >)]

mauried@commslab.gov.au (Maurie Daly) wrote:
> 
> Thanks for this info Andrei, I knew that the road trains were about to hit , 
> but not this quickly.
> Your right though there wont be any drop in prices to you and me , just greater
> profitability for the trucking companies and worse still , more bloody trucks 
> as more truckies enter the market.
> If rail cant get its act together very quickly , like in a couple of years, 
> then rail is finished, apart from the coal trains .


Just the start Maurie, just the start o'l mate.

[pedantic mode on]
A road train in the NT is MORE than two trailers.  
A two trailer combo, ie second trailer with a dolly and
draw bar, is a DOUBLE, if the second trailer swings off
the back of the first trailer, it is a B-double.

Road trains were part of the Northern Territory well
before World War 2, the name was "hi-jacked" by the
Southern cowboys.
[p mode off]

___ _________ _________
0---00  ----000 ----000  
B-double (nowhere near a road train)

___ __________   __________
0---00  ---000===00  ---000
Double (wrongly referred to as a road train)

___ _________ _________ __________
0---00 -----000 ------000 -----000  
C-triple or C-train (once again, name changed down
South to B-triple) 
There are a few buzzing around up here in the NT.

___ __________   ___________   ___________
0---00 ----000===00 -----000===00 -----000  
ROAD TRAIN (Semi trailer with two dog trailers)
By far the most used combo in the NT these days.

__________   __________   __________   __________ 
00-----00====00 ----000===00  ---000===00 ----000
ROAD TRAIN (Long wheel base "body" truck usually with
twin steerers and long tray with three trailers, 
aka, the genuine Road Train which moved through the
Northern Territory for years.}

If you would like to know more, may I suggest a book by
Colin Maddern (hope that's right) called ROAD TRAINS of
the NORTHERN TERRITORY.  Back in the fifties, RT's were
running up the Stuart Highway with 7, yep thats SEVEN
trailers, heh heh ....imagine them on the Hume.
    
----Terry Burton