whether they are stationary, on tracks, in boats or on the road,
in fact back in 2010 when Diana and myself were in the UK we went to a steam fair to look at traction engines, like the steam road roller above, bearing in mind these are powerful machines you have to have a licence to drive them,
so Neil Urquhart, pictured on his roller above, took a day off of work and booked a test in his 10-tonne roller in Redditch, Worcestershire, for Thursday, all was well until the night before he was called by the
Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) and was told he needed rubber tyres! a spokesman for the DVSA apologised for the inconvenience,
and said it would contact Mr Urquhart to rearrange the test and refund the fee.
Mr Urquhart said he was baffled when he was told he would need rubber tyres fitted before he could take the test, "It's kind of absurd,
because how could any road roller work it if only had rubber tyres? It wouldn't
flatten the ground properly," he said. "They seem to have come up
with a new rule which myself and the National Traction Engine Trust [NTET] are
certainly not aware of, and so we're asking them to find this UK legislation
and put it to us, because this kind of means that everyone who has a vehicle of
this nature can't operate it on the road." David Smith, head of technical
services at the NTET, said there was no legal requirement for rollers to have
rubberised tyres, and said other steam roller owners were "aghast" at
the "bizarre" decision. "It's a mystery, bluntly," he said,
so has the law been changed or has a ‘jobsworth’ made a fool of himself, time
will tell, but it is a shame if a piece of British heritage and engineering is not
allowed on the road when it has been since it was built in I am guessing the
1930s.
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