The long haul

This photo was taken on 29th June 2014 at the Banbury Rally, an event that takes place every year at Bloxham in Oxfordshire, England. It is basically a steam and vintage vehicle rally that features displays of various kinds that entertain the huge crowds that turn up over the weekend.

What can be seen here is a string of heavy haulage vehicles that are all connected by solid towing bars. There were nineteen vehicles in total, but only the leading one (which cannot be seen in this shot) was under power. It was therefore towing all the other eighteen trucks, which weighed a total of 343 tons.

The “convoy” made its way slowly round the grass arena, which included two sharp bends and was far from level. The lead truck was clearly having to work extremely hard, with its wheels slipping at times but just about managing to keep going. One felt that if one more truck had been added to the chain it would have been one too many.

The stadium announcer said that this was a feat that had never been attempted before in this country. I cannot say if he was right or wrong about this, but it was certainly an amazing sight to see. I was glad to have been able to be there at the time!