Answers to Queries.
Page 17
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Our readers will be informed by the Editor on any points connected with the construction or use ol commercial MOSOM Where a direct reply is desired, a stamped and addressed envelope should be enclosed : if a request for privacy is not specially made, any query and answer may be published. Some replies, owing to pressure on our space, are held several weeks. Numerous requests reach us for lists of motorcab and commercial-vehicle owners ; these we never supply. Our advertisement
,,,lumns are open to those who desire to tnake announcements to owners for the Purposes of trade.
Tractor on Offer ?
[2260j (Oxkird).—We do not know of any secondhand Aveling or other good tractor on offer, but you might find one through a small advertisement in our " Sundry " columns.
The Facultative Use of a Tractor.
12261] (Scot).—We think you ought to register the tractor, which you use as a traction engine, under the Locomotives Act, which moans that you pay £10 for the one county, and 2s. 6d.a day if you go into any other county, or 15 per year per second county. If you remove the number plates under the Heavy Motor Car Order, you ought to put on the registration plate under the Locomotives Act of 1898_ We are afraid you are breaking the law by not having so registered the machine in two ways, because you are clearly not paying the applicable traction engine fees.
Costs Issues : Loading Devices.
[2262] (Coventry).—Our issues dealing with costs generally run out of print pretty quickly, but you may have an opportunity to refer to some of them in a. library, or elsewhere. It is almost impossible to pick out particular issues on these lines, as we periodically treat the subject of costs. We think it would he better if you communicated any specific inquiries to us, when we should be happy to answer them. You do not say in your inquiry whether you refer to petrol
driven or steam-driven vehicles. We ppublished" loading and unloading article" in the issue of the 12th Wishful to Try Battery Buses. [2263] (Carnarvou).—You can get particulars of batteries from Edison Accumulators, Ltd., of 49, New Bond Street, W. Probably the best people who would give you information about equipping a power unit are Messrs. Drake and Gorham, of 66, Victoria Street, Westminster, S.W. The Edison cells are undoubtedly putting up very good records in America for traction purposes, and With water power at your disposal you should generate the current very cheaply. Previous failure of electrical vehicles has been partly due to the cost of battery maintenance, and partly due to the high cost of tires. In America, they have to pay per unit, compared with about id. over here for quantity, yet electric vehicles keep to the front in large numbers, and are doing well in the States. See, also, a leading article in this issue. Only 50 Miles a Week. [2264] (Henley-on-Thames).—The reply (No. 2243) did not quite make clear the fact that nothing was charged for driving Cr supervision. We told this correspondent that he must take 4d. per niile to cover the strict running costs, and then add whatever suited his own case for driver's wages depreciation, rent and rates, and interest on capital. Following the reference to the " all in" running cost of 6d. per mile, the words should have been inserted :—" hut not on so low a mileage as 50 miles a week." As you know, experience shows that journeys are usually extended, often by double-, once a vehicle is purchased. In answer to your specific questions : (I) We do not consider it safe to spend £200 on a second-hand vehicle, if the mileage of 50 miles per week cannot be at least doubled ; (2) it was not intended to imply that the " all in " cost of 6d. a mile was applicable to anything below a minimum of 100-miles per week. The Height and Clearance of Railway Overbridges. [2265] (Paddington).—There is no uniform clearance above the highway for railway over-bridges. It appears that the plans of each particular bridge are individually approved by the Board of Trade, and once approved the possibility of remedy is unfortunately most remote. If such plans in any Private Bill of a railway company are not opposed, and are once approved by Parliament, the clause which we quote later is of no effect to alter the approved heights and cleairances shown. Pending new legislation, under which the worst eases might be promptly relieved by lowering the road surfaces (although this, in many cases, would lead to permanent flooding where the level would be brought down below that of the water line iii the district), it will be held that drivers must look out for a particular place as they approach it. We have pleasure in giving an extract from the Railway Clauses Consolidation Act of 1846. RAILWAYS CLAUSES CONSOLIDATION ACT, 1845. (8 and 9 Viet. c. 20.) An Act, for consolidating in one Act certain provisions usually inserted in Acts authorizing the making of railwavs. 49.—Every bridge to be erected for the purpose of carrying the railway over any road shall (except where otherwise provided by the special Act) be built in conformity with the following regulations (that is to say) :— The width of the arch shall be such as to leave thereunder a clear space of not less than thirty-five feet if the arch be over it turnpike road, and of twenty-five feet if over a public carriage road, and of twelve feet if over a private road (b): The clear height of the arch from the surface of the road shall not be less than sixteen feet. for a space of twelve feet if the arch be over a turnpike road, and fifteen feet for a space of ten feet if over a public carriage road; and in each of such eases the clear height at the springing of the arch shall not be less than twelve feet (c): The clear height of the arch for a space of nine feet shall net be less than fourteen feet over a private carliege road: The descent made in the road in order to carry the same under the bridge shall not be more than one foot in thirty feet if the bridge be over a turnpike road, one foot in twenty feet if over a public carriage road, and one foot in sixteen feet if over a private carriage road, not being a tram-road or rail-road, or if the same be a tram-road or rail-road the descent shall not he greater than the prescribed rate of inclination, and if no rate he prescribed the same shall not be greater than as it existed at the passing of the special Act (d). (b) See s. 51, post, p. 778. These dimensions are to be taken irrespective of the footpaths at the side of the road (11. v. Rigby (1850), 14 Q.B. 687). Where a company contracted with a landowner to make a suitable bridge over a street as then planned, and the plan showed that the street was intended to be forty-two feet Wide, it was held that the company could not make a bridge of twenty-five feet under this section, but must make a bridge with an arch of fortytwo feet, (Clarke v. Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Rail. Co. (1861), 1 4. and II. 631). (c) If a company, in order to make the bridge of 1-he height required by this section, lowers the road so that it is liable to be flooded, an injunction will be granted to restrain it in a suit at the instance of the Attorney-General. See Att.-Gen. v. Furness Rail. Co. (1878), 57 L.J. Ch. 776. (d) Where a local Act stipulated that the slope should riot be less than one in thirty, and the company were linable to comply with those terms in consequence of an injunction which restrained them from extending their embankment, the Court of Chancery refused to relieve them by dismissing the injunction, and said they must make terms with the persou obtaining it if they cod& but, if not, the railway must be stopped (Att.-Gen. v. Mid-Kent Rail. Co. (1867), 32..I.P,•244).