Articulated Bus of 18 Years Ago'
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INCORPORATING a Karrier tractive lunit and a Carrimore semi-trailer, the articulated buS' shown in the aceom-, panying.fflustration was a 50-seater and was exhibited at the Commercial Motor -Show in 19,23. We reproduce the picture and recall, the introduction of this 'vehicle, because it can claim to be a forerunner of the Bedford-B.T.C. outfit described in our issue dated August 22 of thia year, which was constructed under Ministerial auspices.
There are many points of resemblance between the two vehicles, but the earlier was perhaps the more revolution. ary because it had .-a steering trailing -axle. This was operated quite automatically, an extension at the rear of the tractive-unit frame being coupled to a telescopic arm on the ffont of the turntable bogieat the .back, so that when the outfit was rounding; say, a left-hand corner,, the-trailing axle turned On its king-Loin through an appropriate nuanber of degrees in a clockwise direction.
Whether this scheme afforded any real advantage or not strikes us as debatable, One can imagine that difficulties _might arise until the driver
became thoroughly accustomed to handling the vehicle, which, 'in effect, had six-wheel steering. There is no evidence to-day to show that it was successful.
Another progressiVe feature -of this Karrier-Carrirnore was the use of pneumatic brakes. The system employed the gas pressure of the engine, • which operated diaphragms actuating brake
gear on the wheels t_f the second and third axles, the apparatus being produced by the well-known Westinghouse concern,
• It was thought at the time that there would be a big future for the 'articulated bits, but legislation, of course, checked the progress of the type, and it has taken g war to bring about a revival of the idea.