Going underground

Bradshaw has supplied a vehicle to work within the extensive constraints of underground tunnels in London.

The application required a vehicle just 450mm wide that was capable of towing 800kg, while being shorter overall than previous supplied vehicles. Greater manoeuvrability and improved driver comfort were also requested.

The key criteria and starting point was the width of the vehicle, which led the design team at Bradshaw to use the T80 tow tractor as the base vehicle. From here they worked to ensure that drive axles, steering axles and components would function effectively and together with the AC control systems were able to meet the stringent health and safety criteria as well as maintaining performance and braking requirements.