Heavy load test for rebuilt bridge
THIS picture from the Bugle collection is some 90 years old and it appears to show two traction engines passing each other on the road. However, the truth is a little more complicated.
Quite a crowd had gathered to watch the spectacle on July 3, 1927. The steam engines belonged to the Oldbury firm of Screen Brothers, scrap merchants, specialists in secondhand boilers and heavy haulage contractors.
On this occasion the company had been contracted to stress test the recently reconstructed Stone Street bridge in Olbury.
Each engine weighed 20 tons while one pulled a loaded trailer weighing 14 tons 10 cwt and the other a trailer loaded at 14 tons 8 cwt. That’s a combined dead load of 68 tons 18 cwt.
Deflect
They were parked on the bridge, which had been rebuilt at a cost of £8,163, and it was measured to deflect under the stress by only 8/1000 of an inch!
Having passed with flying colours the bridge was later officially opened by Councillor K.H. Wilson.