The record
Telephone poles stand in fields as often as on pavements, and a pavement-bound hoist is no use to a lineman with a fault across two fields of mud. The Post Office's Platform Elevating No. 3 Mk III put a Spencer HM28 platform on a forward-control 30 cwt Land Rover for precisely that reason: the high/low transfer box gives four-wheel drive and lets the vehicle creep along very slowly with a man in the cage.
External Plant News No. 23 of January 1972 described the Mark III in detail. Spring lockouts hold the vehicle stable through the platform's whole range of movement, which reaches a working height of 29 feet and an outreach of 13 ft 6 in. The hydraulic circuit uses steel pipework wherever possible, for a cleaner layout and fewer hose failures, and is powered by an 8 hp Kohler auxiliary petrol engine on a removable sub-frame at the rear, which also drives a 110-volt AC generator; a clip-on canvas cover protects it when not in use. The space between cab and turntable is left clear for recovered line plant. The cabling winch, also at the rear, gained two speeds and an 800 lb line pull on the Mark III, with a fail-safe brake to hold line tension, 250 feet of nylon rope on the drum, and controls in the cage, at the rear, and by foot so the operator can keep both hands on the capstan.
The photograph dates from December 1971; the Post Office record gives no registration, fleet number or total.
