Qld: Roadtrain rumbles towards record books

AAP General News (Australia)
02-17-2006
Qld: Roadtrain rumbles towards record books

By Bruce McKendry

BRISBANE, Feb 17 AAP - The world's longest ever road-train is revved up and ready to
roll into the record books.

The motorised monster will rumble down the highway outside the tiny Darling Downs town
of Clifton in southern Queensland tomorrow, a place in the Guinness Book of Records firmly
in its giant sights.

To succeed, Brisbane truck driver John Atkinson must use a single prime mover to pull
120 trailers measuring 1,700 metres in length - that's more than 16 football fields -
100 metres down the road.

Organiser Mick Boyce says spectators are expected to double Clifton's usual population
of 600 and cheer on the world record attempt.

"It's taken a while to get it all together but we've had great support from everyone,"

he said today.

"The police, Main Roads and Clifton Shire are helping us close down a two kilometre
stretch of road from 6am and Chris Sheedy from the Guinness Book of Records will be there
to hopefully see us do it."

The Queensland attempt has to beat the current world record of 1,445 metres, set by
Doug Gould in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.

"There's 15 of them flying over from WA and they reckon they are going to sabotage
our attempt," joked Mr Boyce.

"It's a friendly rivalry really and we even have eight people coming from New Zealand,
just out of interest.

"We're looking forward to it but the weather could be a factor. We've had two inches
of rain here in the last 24 hours and that is making things difficult.

"We will only be going first gear, so it will only be a couple of kilometres an hour."

The record attempt, which is raising money for cancer sufferers in rural areas, takes
place at midday.

AAP bmk/sc/drp/de

KEYWORD: ROADTRAIN

2006 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.