LTSV - Forum Post

Title:	Tree Loppers
Category:	Central Fleet Owned Vehicles
Posted by:	Arun
On:	30/01/2013 00:06
Text:	I had the opportunity today to have a close look at the preserved 971J [ex-1/10/STL/6 1470]. What intrigued me was that I was sure I had read somewhere that in LT days the upper deck floor had had a large hole cut in in and the tree bits fell through this into the lower deck saloon whence they were eventually removed through the rear emergency exit. Interestingly, the windows on the vehicle are painted glass rather than plated over and it would be surprising if the windows would survive having small branches continually falling on/against them. Does anyone know, or have a picture of, what the upper deck floor looked like on these vehicles in tree lopping days? or how they were used? I should have added that currently, the upper deck floor shows no evidence of ever having had such a hole cut into it.

1 reply, shown below.

Posted by Ray at 09:56 on 11/02/2013
A photo of the top deck of 971J can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/rw3-497alh/5465944670/ From my memories of 970J at Northfleet in the early 1960's the only hole on the top deck was for the staircase, down which some smaller items could have been thrown or fallen. Certainly with this batch, and later pruning vehicles, some side panels were cut, able to be folded down and used as standing platforms. Any further changes (holes) to the top deck floor would presumably have made the upper deck unsafe and the body not rigid. The cut branches would have fallen straight to the pavement (as they do today) and may have been loaded through the rear 'emergency' door. The windows remained painted glass in most cases.