Modern Accommodation for Birmingham's Municipal Buses
Page 53
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IN our issue for last week we announced briefly that an up-to-date garage for housing some of the buses in the large municipal fleet run by Birmingham Corporation had recently been constructed. As many of our readers may know, this authority operates the largest municipal bus fleet in this country, the number of vehicles. in service being 459.
The new garage, which was opened on Febru-ary 10th, is situated. in Wellhead Lane, Perry Barr, and the formal ceremony was conducted by Alderman A. H. James, C.B.E., J.P., chairman of the tramway and omnibus committee. The total area covered is 21 acres, and the garage, which has a floor space of about 1 acre, can accommodate 120 vehicles.
The layout has been planned to enable the vehicles to be handled with the utmost speed. The main garage has a span of 140 ft. The office block comprises the conductors' pay-in room, cash clerk's office, traffic superintendent's office, tyre stores, mess room for garage staff, sand store, cleaners' room, salt store and electric sub-station, whilst above this block is the social room, anti canteen. A smaller block of offices includes the repair shop, stores and garage superintendent's and clerks' office.
The oil stores are provided with Dowson and Mason pumps, the tanks being carried in the basement. Thu tanks containing gear oil are heated. Just inside the main entrance is the petrol installation, which consists of four Thompson Brothers 12,500-gallon electrically welded storage tanks and Hammond metering columns, with separate electrically driven pumps at the side of the garage, so arranged that all the pumps can work f rem any one tank, suitable valves being provided for this purpose.
After a bus has been replenished with fuel, it proceeds to the washing plant, • where there is a gallery provided with overhead sprinklers. It then travels to another position where hydraulic highpressure hoses are used for cleaning the chassis and mudguards, the plant being of the Roloid type supplied by Mann, Egerton and Co., Ltd. In the third position the' body is washed by hoses, the water being at the City mains pressure. It is next driven over one of the 10 inspection pits, which enable quick examination and minor adjustments to be made. During the day the pits are also used for docking, as well as for other repairs. Flood-lighting is used for the pits and, at the end of the pit nearest the benches, four exhaust fans are installed, these being coupled, for ventilation purposes, to ducts. The walls of the pits are lined with glazed bricks ; all pits are connected by subways.
A special feature of the garage is the system of drainage and ventilation. The drainage ducts run lengthwise in the garage floor, and the main drain in the centre runs across the garage to the usual oil traps and sump outside. These ducts are cross-connected at convenient positions with pipes, each pipe being coupled to a Soroco fan, driven by a 5 h.p. electric motor. The objects of these ducts are to drain the garage floor and -to extract-'air from _the floor level. They are capable Of changing 3 ft. of air at floor level over the whole of the garage once every 10 minutes.
The building is adequately protected against flee, being equipPed with Grinnell sprinklers with a total qf 1,209 heads. Floamite extinguishers are fitted throughout.
A small sub-station, having a capacity of 200 'kW., is included in the layout. Current is supplied at 11,000 Volts, three phase, 50 cycles, and reduced to 400 volts for power and 230 volts for lighting. In all, 28 motors are installed, the total horse-power being 68. —