The Lovedean Sub-station took delivery today of a new transformer which was manufactured in Europe and brought by road from Portsmouth dockyard.
Collett, a specialist heavy haulage firm, delivered the transformer to The National Grid on a 70m long heavy lift frame and supporting platforms. This complicated arrangement of trailers is able to steer independently of the front truck towing and the second truck pushing it with the 1000 ton gross load spread along the road by about 200 tyres.
Travelling up Day Lane after a period of rain was a bit too much for the trucks which lost traction on the slippery road surface and the load only got moving again with an unplanned tow from a Baldwins mobile crane and a JCB telehandler.
In all it took about 3 hours to travel the 500m from the Bird in Hand pub to the sub station
Photographs Nolan Bird, Guy Shepherd.
horndeanmatters 
Please ignore my previous e email re weight of consignment. is the weight of the transformer only known?
Hi Ronald I couldn’t find the exact weight anywhere online but form experience these transformers are anything from 250T to 500T