1917 Road Train Trailers

Looked at these Daimler Renard trailers ex Isis Downs station when at Ilfracombe. The centre axles are driven from the prime mover power take off, the drive shaft continuing back to each trailer.
Each axle is sprung to chassis with no compensation, guess when on uneven ground the hope would be that one drive axle is doing it's job.
Both front and rear axles steer, king pins at hubs, tie rods to drawbars. A tee bar on drawbar has wire ropes crossing at trailer centre to a similar set on rear axle to have trailers tracking.
Interesting engineering although broken steering components and U joints showed weaknesses, but then if bogged in that clay something would have to give.
I believe the prime mover was petrol powered, did one come up at auction in S Aust earlier this year? David.

David, RTHOF at Alice Springs bid on it, but I don't know that they bought it, I think they thought the SA one wasn't completly origonal or something, and they would have owned it at a price, but obviously not as much as whoever bought it.

David - The antique road train sold at the "Geralka" sale in March 2010, most certainly was a Daimler "Renard" (Farina) road train, and it sold for $104,000. I do not know who the purchaser was.
This road train was dated by the auctioneers at 1909, and was used on the Union Copper mine to haul ore. It's Lot number 4005 in the following auction list of photos.

www.farmclearingsales.com.au/clearing-sales/?sid=184&view=ads

Road Trains of Australia article about the Daimler Road Trains .. www.roadtrains.com.au/article_article.php?ArticleId=79

One of the more interesting points of the Daimler design is the Knight sleeve valve engine. Sleeve valves are a fantastic idea for IC engines, they are deathly quiet, never suffer from valve seat or valve head wear, and the power level of the engine increases with age, rather than drops off, as with poppet valves. This is because the carbon buildup makes the gas seal even better with age.

The only thing that stopped sleeve valves from becoming dominant, was because poppet valves are cheaper to produce, and the old sleeve valve mechanisms were no good at speeds over about 1800 RPM.

This was due to the small crank mechanism that was used to rotate the sleeve. The lugs on the cast-iron sleeves would break off at high RPM, and no-one figured out a better system, because the manufacturers rejected sleeve valves in favour of poppet valves.

Thus, we have a classic example of a superior idea being abandoned by manufacturers, who have lumped us with troublesome, weak poppet valves, for over 100 years .. >

Regards - Ron.

The AEC experience with sleeve valves was that they had to be well lubricated to avoid seizure, which wasn't a problem if you didn't mind a smokey exhaust and carbon build-up. It's possible that with modern technology such as ceramics they could be made to work.

Thanks Big Cam and Ron for the info, I wonder if the PTO drive was reversible. Regards David.