A "Night' s " Work in Yorkshire.
Page 4
Page 5
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
The Carriage of Local Mails is Combined with Newspaper Conveyance.
Recounted by a Member of the Editorial Staff.
After a lapse of many months, during which time I have had many things to occupy my attention, I am asked to resume the series of articles on " One day's work." I hesitate to comply with the request. That sort of thing is quite pleasant during the months of spring and summer, but a long run on a commercial vehicle in late October is an experience I. would avoid—if possible. However, the opportunity to accompany a Royal-Mail van throughout its night's work is not offered every day in the year, so I felt that I ought to take on the job, although it necessitated the breaking of a pledge I had given to a gentleman well known in the commercial-motor world that one of his machines should be the subject of my next " One day's work." But, am 1 breaking my pledge? Is not the present article a record of "One night's work ?"
The G.P.O. is making increasing use of commercial vehicles for the conveyance of letters and parcels, and this development is not peculiar to London and places within a night's run from the Metropolis, but extends to many parts of the country. So far as the services in Yorkshire are concerned, one of the first men to demonstrate their practical value with machines of sound design was Mr. W. Duffield, the managing director of the Bridge Garage, Ltd., of Briggate, Leeds, who, in May, 1908, inaugurated a ser
vice between the General Post Offices of Bradford and Leeds—a service which has been maintained ever since by means of Lotis vans. For the first two years or more, one of the old-type Lotis vans was employed, but latterly the service has been maintained by one of the newer bonneted type, in which a four-cylinder, 16-20 h.p. White and Poppe engine takes the place of the 18 h.p. two-cylinder " V " engine of the former type of chassis. The new van is admirably suited for the work, and Mr. Duffield has spared no pains in his endeavours to make its driver comfortable throughout his night's vigil : high side doors keep the draught from his knees; a high curved dash shields him from the cold winds, and the graceful downward sweep of the canopy affords him complete protection from the rain, even though it be driving " head on." Double sets of lamps—one set of the paraffin type and the other electric—help to relieve the driver of all anxiety concerning the state of his lights. The riding of the vehicle is rendered extremely easy by the fitting, to the front wheels, of Kempshall pneumatic tires—the largest size made by that company— on Shrewsbury and Challiner detachable rims, whilst the back wheels are shod with twin de-Nevers-Marchant tires. A spare front rim and inflated tire are carried on the vehicle. Taken over a long period, the average rate of fuel consumption for this vehicle is one gallon of .760 Taxibus spirit for each 14 miles of running—not a bad record for a vehicle which scales, when fully laden (with its contract quantity of bulky hampers and other mails or parcels), 54 cwt., of which weight 12 cwt. represents the useful load and 8 cwt. the weight of the body. The average distance covered each night is 80 miles, but for about 27 miles of this distance the van carries no useful load.
I arrived at the Bridge Garage, Leeds, on the occasion of my night's run with the mail van, only a few minutes before it left the garage, at 6.40 p.m., for Yeadon—some 9 or 10 miles distant, climbing practically all the way, and arriving at the latter place at 7.25 p.m. The engine pulled remarkably well, as, indeed, it must do, in order to keep up the night's time-table, which necessitates an average speed, including stops en route, of 10 miles an hour. Sixteen miles an hour is the vehicle's maximum speed of travelling with the engine running at its normal number of revolutions per minute, and the gear ratio (8 to 1. on the top-speed) has evidently been most carefully selected for the 'hilly Yorkshire roads. All the running on the outward journey, after " getting a move on" the vehicle, was performed on the top-speed gear. At '(cation Post Office we picked up our first batch of letters and parcels, leaving again at 7.32. We then proceeded to an outlying district named Little London, where we had to wait until the usual time for clearing the letter box ; before reaching that village we encountered a short piece of road which necessitated the use of a lowspeed gear. Our next objective was Horseforth Post Office, at which place we picked up a cargo, including letters, -parcels and one elderly postman, the last named being dropped at the next stopping-place (Craghill), whence he wended his way to Newla.y station, picking up letters from isolated pillar and wall boxes en route. It was 8.12 p.m. when we picked up the last hatch of letters, at Kirkstall, before delivering our collected load at the Leeds Post Office a few minutes ahead of the schedule time. Then followed an interval of nearly two hours, during which time 1 fortified myself for the rigors of the " we sma' hours," and, incidentally, passed a very pleasant time with Mr. Duffield. All too soon the time for starting out on the second journey drew near, and, at 10.20 p.m., after 1 had secured a flash-light snapshot of the van in the Leeds Post Office yard, we left for Bradford (empty), and arrived at that town at 11 o'clock. At 11.15 we were again on the road, with the night mail of parcels from Bradford to Leeds. At Leeds, there was another interval, from 11.55 p.m. to 1.30 a.m., and exactly how I passed that time is nobody's business but lily own. One is not supposed to do entirely without rest on such occasions. At any rate, I got back to the • Leeds Post Office yard in time to see the departure, for York, of an old horizontal Weiseley mail van which is run by the National Road Transport Co., of Richmond (Yorks), and the Dennis van which maintains the -Leeds-Sheffield service ; the latter vehicle is run by Mr. Booker, of Barnsley. The York mail van has had the distinction of being " snowed " up en two or three occasions, the driver taking refuge inside the van until relief arrived.
With a load of parcels, we made the second journey to Bradford in 40 minutes, after a really-pleasant and uneventful run. Then followed another lull in the van's work. We stood by until the supplies of the "Bradford Observer " for Leeds' newsagents were ready for dispatch from the printing office, and it was then I learnt that the cartage of freshly-printed newspapers is one of the privileges of mail contractors. In places where such papers can be picked up and delivered without interference with the timetable of the van, a considerable addition may be made to the vehicle's revenue, the charge for the collection and delivery being 3d. per parcel of about one quire. Whilst the newspaper men were sweating and fuming in a stuffy machine room, I made the acquaintance of two police constables and a police sergeant, into whose good graces I made my way by " taking " their photographs by flashlight. They were immensely interested in the apparatus I employed, but I wonder if they will ever learn that I forgot to put a plate in the camera before I fired the charge of magnesium? Those " coppers " told me a few yarns which I shall long remember, and they helped to pass the time along quite merrily. At 3.40 a.m., we again left for Leeds, and, after delivering the papers, arrived at the Leeds Post Office at 4.45 a.m., shortly afterwards starting out for a second journey, with letters and parcels, for Kirkstall, Iforsforth, Rawdon and Yeadon, but this time the journey was extended so as to include Menston and Guiseley. The return journey was " empty," and we finally returned to the garage at 7.10 a.m.
This vehicle is maintained entirely by the Bridge Garage, Ltd., which company has been doing contract work for the past 3 years, and, at the present moment, it is maintaining by contract no fewer than 17 commercial vehicles. Its two garages are well equipped for this class of work, and in Mr. Duffield the company has a man ager who is at orce enthusiastic and thorough in all his methods. I cannot speak too highly of the performance of Mr. Sturmey's two-speed epicyclic gear ; its metal-to-metal clutch, which runs in an oil bath, lakes up the drive without the slightest shock. I formed a high opinion of the vehicle's worth.