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| Photographer / Copyright: Colin Lloyd Images should not be reused without permission. Date added to site:15/12/20 | ||
| Details: Another photo by Colin of demountable 2491M but this time there are a couple of points to note. Taken on Lambeth Bridge on 6th May 1997, the lorry is in general haulage use, with the Emergency lettering and chevrons removed from the front. However, most of the emergency Mercedes demountables were not replaced until the Volvo FL6 lorries arrived in October 1998. The answer again comes from the Rennie/Aldridge book. 2491M was in fact different to the other emergency demountables, in that it was allocated to (and lettered for) the permanent way department rather than the rolling stock department, and its body (DB1) was fitted out differently. The creation of the Emergency Response Unit in 1992 combined work for both departments, and the non-standard 2491M was deemed to be surplus to requirements. I now realise that 2491M was actually the only emergency demountable to have a second career in general haulage. The other ERU trucks were disposed of following replacement. The other matter is to do with the body carried. There is a number painted on the 'solebar' of the body near the front. Although being in black lettering makes it hard to read, I am fairly sure this is DB13. Most demountable bodies were later modified with a cutout in the solebar to clear the larger wheels of the Volvo FL6 lorries. DB13 seems to have gone through various further changes. First it lost its twin dropside doors, retaining just the head- and tail-boards. It was then modified to have three solid doors on each side (instead of two) and side-hinged rear doors, though when seen it only had the rearmost side doors fitted. More recently, the solid metal doors have been replaced by ones with mesh panels, still only towards the rear. | ||
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