Orolo tracked barrow

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  • #38903
    rpage
    Participant

    This is owned by a friend with a tracked unit which was a joint venture between John Allen and Ford Ploughmaster tractors its dated around the 1930s its a wooden construction any information would be usefull

    #38904
    aquila787
    Participant

    Do you have photos. I dont know anything about it but I’d like to see it.

    John

    #38905
    aquila787
    Participant

    Found this maybe you’ve seen it already. There’s a few photos there too.
    Practical Machinist.

    https://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/antique-machinery-and-history/ot-crawler-tractors-196276/index16.html

    believe this to be an “Orolo” track unit, or a copy of one. “Roadless – The Story of Roadless Traction from Tracks to Tractors” by Stuart Gibbard has this to say about the “Orolo” track unit.

    “One of Roadless‘s first and most commercially viable ventures was the introduction of the Orolo track units. Originally designed for the British Admiralty to transport a 6 in. naval gun over soft ground, the Orolo unit consisted of a self-contained bogie with rigid girder tracks running around two or three rollers. The track was designed to be self-locking so that it would form a predetermined radius to give it the same performance as an extremely large diameter wheel with very low rolling resistance.
    The Orolo units were available in several different sizes, and could be used in place of the wheel in a variety of applications, including bullock and mule wagons for Africa, India and South America, log carriers and lifeboat carriages – and the Roadless drawing books even show details of an Excelsior washing machine so equipped in 1932, but for what purpose is not known.
    When the Orolo unit was first conceived, a scaled-down version was tested on Philip Johnson‘s garden wheelbarrow. So successful was this unit, that Roadless decided to put the tracked wheelbarrow into production. A couple of hundred were made towards the end of 1927, and it became a popular addition to the company‘s early product line. At the other end of the scale were the D8 Oro1o track units, introduced in 1929 and capable of carrying 12 tons per pair. The company eventually built units during the Second World War which would carry 20 tons on each track-bogie. The Orolo track units remained in production until well into the 1960s.”

    I can’t help but notice that at least two of the gentlemen at the John Allen & Sons (Oxford) Ltd. stand at the Royal Show are wearing spats.

    The pub model(?)…

    …and the export model(?). (Manufactured in 1929 by Khasia Sillimanite Company in India).

    You can see one of the original patent documents for this type of track <here>.

    G2 Orolo brought out in 1930 with rubber jointed tracks.

    #38906
    charlie
    Keymaster

    Is this the sort of unit?

    Attachments:
    #38917
    trusty220
    Keymaster

    They were also used on wartime searchlights to give them increased mobility. An example on tracks is in the Yorkshire Air Museum.

    Another wartime use of the heavier type was for recovering crashed aircraft from inaccessible sites; a pair of tracks was used either side of a platform and the whole tracked trolley was placed under a strong point of a crashed aircraft to allow it to be towed to a more convenient place to be dismantled. It’s surprising how more mobile it makes a load just by lowering the ground pressure this way.

    #38938
    rpage
    Participant

    Heres the pics from my phone:

    Attachments:
    #38952
    charlie
    Keymaster

    The photos confirm it is like the wheelbarrow in the photo I posted.
    I see the makers plate lists several patent numbers but can’t read them. It might be worth looking them up.

    #38956
    rpage
    Participant

    Cheers I will make contact with the owner and try and follow that up
    Thanks again Dick

    #38965
    rpage
    Participant

    Heres the plate.

    Attachments:
    #38986
    charlie
    Keymaster

    The following are links to the patent records.
    248839
    306431
    269644
    I could not find anything for 248838 but the photograph, see below, I have of the plate on the example I saw has 248839 and not 248838.

    Attachments:
    #38993
    rpage
    Participant

    Hi Charlie,
    Thanks for that I Have looked again
    at the images of this and as far as I can see the
    numbers all match up will check my phone and be in
    touch
    Many Thanks
    Dick Page

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