AT THE ROYAL SHOW.
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Fresh Variety in Method of Frame Attachment to Boilers of Traction-type Steam Wagons.
First-published Illustrated Report.
The Roy-al Show at Liverpool, by the time this report is in the hands of our general body of readers, will be in full swing. As we go to press, the weather conditions are favourable to a record gate, but we seriously question whether attendances so high as those at Manchester and Newcastle-on-Tyne will be obtained. We hope they may, but it cannot be forgotten that Liverpool is in a corner of the country, and not so good a centre of population— whatever its trade rank—as is frequently supposed.
Arrivals of the exhibits, in the implement section, which includes all classes of self-moving vehicles and tractors, largely occurred on Friday and Saturday last. The latter day, unfortunately, also witnessed the arrival of hordes of children, all bent upon amusement in one form or the other, such as the turning of taps, the spilling of buckets of water, and the tracing of their own or friends' names on the newly-varnished sides of van and wagon bodies. These incidental worries were of considerable annoyance to exhibitors, at least one of whom had to do some repainting and re-varnishing. The change from the accustomed privacy of the showyard during the spell of preparation was due to the terms of the deed of gift of the Wavertree Playground, under which the Liverpool Corporation may not legally close the area to the public on more than seven days in any one year : those seven days run from the 19th inst. (Sunday last) to the 25th inst. (Saturday next). Hence, unfortunately, the same unwelcome crowds of free and unrestrained sightseers will be on the ground to harass exhibitors and their assistants during the period of removal. We think the Liverpool Corporation might have taken the law into its own hands in this matter, or that more police might have been provided to keep the crowds of curious and idle spectators in better order and within bounds.
The best ways of getting to the show, from the centre of Liverpool, are by electric tramcar: either the Smithdown-road or the Wavertree services land a would-be visitor practically at the entrance gates, cars of the former service passing the main entrance. Sefton-Park station on the L. and N.W.R. also adjoins the main entrance, and inward passengers have no occasion to go as far as Lime Street ; they can change at Edge Hill. Practically
all trains running through the Warrington-Liverpool, Crewe-Liverpool and Chester-Crewe sections will be stopped at Sefton-Park station. Extra trains will be run, to and from Lime Street. We might add. that there is no Cheshire-lines within two miles of the show.
Visitors who take tramcar, particularly along the Smithdown-Road route, certainly cannot fail to be apprised of the presence at the show of Belsize Motors, Ltd., of Clayton, Manchester. Numerous wall-posters announce the fact that the " Incomparable Belsize motorvan " is on view. We congratulate this enterprising Manchester company upon the effectiveness of its road-side announcements, and upon the way they are distributed. The heat, on Friday and Saturday last, was not so acceptable, from the exhibitors' standpoint, as equally-fine weather will prove during the show period. Motor vehicles, tractors and traction engines moved into their allotted spaces with the greatest ease and the minimum of discomfort to their owners: all whose duties took them to the showyard had to be on the lookout, as these machines —variably spaced by horse-drawn carts of all sizes— travelled over the improvised track, to avoid the " jumping" off individual sleepers. One of the Great Western Railway Company's 15h.p. Straker-Squire vans was doing yeoman service in the delivery of small consignments. Amongst the general impressions which were noted by representatives of this journal, we have to mention the following: that more horse-drawn lorries are on view in the showyard than have been seen at a Royal Show for many years, and that this reflects the prevailing view of Liverpool master-carters to which we make fuller and further references on pages 320 and 821; that the low shedding, which the R.A.S.E. has found to serve all purposes in the past, will not do in future years, at least in respect of sections where motorvans can be shown, and that it is a distinct hardship upon any exhibitor to have to remove the body from a chassis, take each under the shedding separately, and then remount the body when beneath the roof ; that Sir Gilbert Greenall, the MO President of the Society, and Chairman of Greenall, Whitley and Co., Ltd., Wilderspool Brewery, Warrington, takes a deep personal interest in his company's third " Sentinel"
steam wagon, which vehicle occupies a prominent position at the front of this Glasgow maker's stand; that the continuance of a horse-equipped fire-station as the official fire-station in the showyard will soon become an anachronism, and that the Society might at least call for selfpropelled fire-fighting plant to be in part installed that too many makers are retaining wood-block shoes as linings or facings for their brakes, and that several of these might with advantage consider the claims of " Ferodo " and " Ray-bestos," or of other approved linings of compressed and treated fibre; that the Jones-Willcox wirebound hose, in substitution for rubber hose, is becoming more generally the vogue with builders of wagons and tractors; that detail improvements in the Foden steam wagon have greatly added to the smartness of its appear
ance ; that some makers of steel-tired machines still prefer rigid mountings for head and tail lamps, but that a. majority elects to fit lamps with spring mountings.
It would have been of considerable advantage to thecommercial-vehicle exhibitors, had they not been so inextricably mixed up with all kinds of other exhibits. The Alley and MacLellan stand is a very-long way from the Belsize position; the Leyland and " Karrier " machines are near neither the first-named two. Any visitor who wants to get into his head a general idea of the possibilities of petrol-propelled commercial vehicles should count himself fortunate in having the present issue of THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR to help to guide his footsteps and his decisions. The only exhibitor " off " our map is Mann and Overtons, Ltd. (Unic vans)—Stand No. 951.