Details in the New Renard Trains.
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Since the Renard road-train system was demonstrated to a number of in terested gentlemen at the garage of the London and District Motor Bus Company, Limited, at Farm Lane, Walham Green, S.W., on the tsth February, 1907, the Renard Syndicate, Limited, the Renard Road, Rail and Transport Corporation Limited, and Mr. Percy Martin, managing director of the Daintier Motor Company (1904), Limited, of Coventry, have effected many improvements in the design and construction of the Renard tractor, and of the trailers which are used for the transport of merchandise; these improvements have been in the direction of greater simplicity and increased strength. The accompanying illustrations have been prepared from photographs of a train that has recently been shipped to India. An examination of the two views of the tractor, especially that which gives a full front view, will show that, in order to ensure perfect cooling for the engine in such a hot climate as that in which this train is intended to be operated, an extra-deep radiator has been fitted, and connected with this, and mounted directly over the heads of the engine cylinders, there is a large water drum (see page 31).
The engine is one of the Daimler Company's own design, and has four separate cylinders, each of which is 185mm, in the bore, whilst the pistons have f 1 stroke of isomm. At 1,000 revolutions per minute, the engine can develop about noh.p., but, of course, it is not intended—except on rare occasions—to run the engine at such a high speed. Vhen the train is being driven at the rate of five miles an hour, the engine speed is about 700r.p.m.
So far as the transmission gear is concerned, the only parts that have been altered are the universal joints which couple up the articulated propeller shaft. The old " star " pattern has been superseded by one of the double-fork-and-ring type, which has been designed with the idea of reducing the intensity of pressure on the radial pins of the joint. A new hand-operated brake has been It will be seen, also, that the road
added to each trailer; it is of the locowheels are of the traction-engine type,
motive type, and can be operated, by means of a hand wheel and screw, from either side of the trailer. This brake and that they have rolled T-rings, wrought-iron spokes, and cast-iron naves. The spring-drive device has been retained, but the scheme of interconnection of the bearing springs of the si-wheeled trailers has been abandoned, in favour, as is generally adopted on four-wheeled vehicles, uf the system of separate suspension for each pair of semi-elliptic springs. We are informed that the in levers for the spring-suspension system, as fitted to the French model, has not lawn found necessary for road trains employed in goods transport.
Another direction in which the design has been simplified is in connection with the steering gear : the rigid rods, with their various balancing levers, which formerly were employed to connect up the leading and trailing axles of the "six-wheeler," are now replaced by stout steel cables, in much the same way as chains are employed in traction-engine practice. This method ofconnecting the steering axles, by means of cables, should prove more reliable, for goods transport at slow speeds, than that which employed numerous jointed rods and levers.