Motorbus
Page 8
Page 9
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Yews contribution are inrited : payment will be made GIL public(' LutonLea grave Service.
To a request from the Leagrave Parish Council, that the service of the Luton Tramways Company's motorbus should be extended, a reply has been received that the alteration would readily be effected, if a sufficient local guarantee were offered against possible loss on the traffic.
L.G.O. Accounts.
The preparation of the annual report and accounts of the enlarged London General Omnibus Company, Ltd., has, naturally, imposed a large amount of additional work upon the accountants' department of the company. It will readily be realized that it is a difficult matter to draw all the threads together for the first time. We, however, have authority to state that the accounts will be issued before the end of the present month.
Luxury in Public Service.
Mr. Booker, of Barnsley, states that he finds his latest Dennis char-k-bancs, which we illustrate on this page, a very-paying speculation. The machine is of a specially-luxurious type, and this fact renders it a simple matter to secure fares on a remunerative scale. During the recent aviation week at Doncaster, for instance, the machine more than justified its reputation as a money-earning proposition. An unusually-large extensible Cape-cart hood, with detachable side curtains, is an appreciated feature, and one which should render the machine capable of much bad-weather service.
A Six-year-old.
Recently, in Melbourne, a correspondent of this journal came across two 28 h.p. Milnes-Daimler buses of the 1900 pattern, with which their
owners are remarkably satisfied. During the summer months, they are used over a particularly-heavy district in Victoria, where eadients of 1 in 6 have to he negotiated, and, during the winter six mouths, they are used for excursion trips from Melbourne, running only between 20 and 30 miles daily. They are provided with 1seated bodies, one with a canopy and the other without. The tires in eacip ease are Continentals.
An Emergency Brake.
We illustrate, on this page, a novel' form of brake which has been patented by Mr. P. Ellison, the general manager of the Eastbourne Corporation Motorbus Department. The first example, which was experimental in the nature of its construction, was. fitted to one of Mr. Ellison's doubledeck machines, and it is this brake which is the subject of the photographs which we reproduce. We are informed by the inventor that this device comes into action automatically, should a road-wheel come off or an axle break, and, in addition, its application is possible at any time by the direct control of -the driver. In view of the dangerous nature of some of the hills in and around Eastbourne, Mr. Ellison considered it to be advisable to provide something in the nature of a powerful brake, which should be entirely independent of the running gear and which, moreover, should be capable of instantaneous. operation in case of emergency. A massive double-ended arm is carried. on each side of the chassis, in a heavy bracket, which is bolted direct to the frame just ahead of the driving wheels. When in operation, these arms are swung round into such a. position that they become wedged between the under-side of the frame and the road. The action of such a brake upon the road surface is naturally of a scarifying nature, but it must be remembered that it is only intended for use in exceptional circumstances. It should easily hold the machine. Mr. &Olin Hinde, speaking at Coventry, on the 2nd inst., stated that
he believed that, within the next few years, aeroplanes would be built to serve as omnibuses to carry passengers.
Motorization Sequels.
"The Financial Times" is responsible for the statement that recent reductions in the number of men employed at the Horwich Locomotive Works of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Co. and corresponding reductions at the Stratford Locomotive Works of the Great Eastern Railway Co., are due to slackness of work caused by motorbus competition. We should say that the former ease is more directly attributable to competition with electric tramcars and motor wagons, whatever may be true in the second CRAP.
Mr. Clarkson's Opinion.
Subsequent to the inaugural run. of the five steam motorbuses belonging to the National Steam Car Co., Ltd., on Saturday, the 30th ult., of which we reproduced photographs, Mr. Thos. Clarkson, M.I.M.E., the engineer and general manager of the company, together with several of the directors, entertained a number of guests to tea at the Waldorf Hotel. Mr. Clarkson. in the course of an address on publicservice motor vehicles, in his anxiety to extol the virtues of his new charges, appears to have been unnecessarily harsh in his attitude towards the London motorbus. He is reported to have said, " the condition of the streets of London had become almost like an inferno, with the heavy deathdealing juggernauts racing madly about, producing nerve-racking noises and emitting foul, poisonous exhalations which polluted the atmosphere." We had no idea things were so bad. City of London Street Accidents. In the quarterly report of the Commissioner of Police for the City of London, Captain J. W. Nott-Bower,
we observe that, for the three months ended 30th September last, there had been two fatal accidents, and 133 nonfatal accidents, due to motor vehicles, compared with four and 111, respectively, for the same period of 1908; for horse-drawn vehicles, the 1909 accidents were one fatal and 220 nonfatal, compared with one fatal and 242 non-fatal in 1908 (September quarter). The fact that. the figures are now presented in analytical form is due to the adoption of a suggestion by Mr. .Alpheus C. Morton, M.P., which followed the publication of a leading article in this journal at the time when certain people in the City of London were agitating against motorbuses on the strength of figures which concerned accidents that took place within the Metropolitan police area. The new arrangement allows the true facts to be appreciated.
Startling the Natives.
The enthusiasm and enterprise. which have been displayed by Commercial Car Hirers, Ltd., by the manner in which it has set to work to develop, road transport in the Ashbourne and. Alfreton districts of Derbyshire, seem almost to have been too much of a shock for some of the inhabitants, who appear not to be accustomed to such energetic local action. In this connection "The Alfreton Journal " says :" We wonder how many hours of dismission there have been in Alfreton during the past 20 years as to how to improve the means of getting in and out of the town. Petitions and letters by the barrow load have been written to the railway companies asking then, to do this or that ; but with very lath effect. And now, without being asked. by anybody, the Commercial Car. Hirers, Ltd., of London, have almost startled us out of our wits by announcing that they intend to run a daily service of motor omnibuses between Alfreton and Derby. We have no doubt that anybody who may read these words 50 years hence will smile, at the mild sensation which the mere advent of a public omnibus has caused in our midst. But the people here today will receive the omnibus service with one sentiment-Welcome! May it succeed! "