Contributions from Drivers and Mechanics.
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Ten Shillings Weekly for the Best Communi.cation Received, and One Penny a Line of ten words for anything else published.
Drivers of commercial motor vrhicles and tractors, and niechanics and foremen of garaffes or shops, are invited to send short contributions on any subject which is likely to prove of interest to our readers. Long and successful runs ; services with no "lost journeys" ; workshop tips and smart repairs: all are suitable subjects. Send a post-card, or a letter, or a sketch to us—no mattes-how short, or how written, or how worded.
We will "knock ii into shape" before publication. When writing you must mention your emPloyer's name as a guarantee of bona files (not for p.tbl:ca,ion), and you should state whether you wish your own name, or it fiats only, to be published. Payment will he made immediately after p.thl.cation. Address Your letters to 7 he Editor, Trip. COMMERCIAL Mo ron," 7 15, kosebery Avenue, Lordcn, A Contribution Which Point a Moral.
We reproduce, on the opposite page, the first portion an article which recounts some woeful experiences with a second-hand wagon. Our object in publishing this article is that it may serve as a serious warning to those who are inclined to purchase anything on wheels which may be offered to them second hand without the.r first securing expert advice and examination, and in order that such purchasers may be warned not easily to be hoodwinked by glib statements as to the effectiveness of a supposed " thorough overhaul."
The Cabmen's Deputation to the Home Secretary. 14941 A correspondent" B.K." (Kennington) asks us to find room for a few opinions which he sends to us, with regard to the recent deputation which waited upon the Home Secretary from the Motorcab Drivers' Protection Association.—" I am not, at present, a member of the Motorcab Drivers' Protection Association, al-though I ant considering the advisability of joining some such organisation. I was glad to notice that you published, quite impartially, the whole text of the list of grievances which was laid before Mr. Gladstone by the deputation on
8th February last. As an unattached individu• 1, I suggest that too many grievances ' were enumerated, and that one or two of them were trivial. I think motorcab drivers as a class would have had their complaints received with much more seriousness, if the programme ' had not bristled with so many points. Three or four of the worst hardships, if properly enumerated, would have excited a deal more sympathy than that lengthy programme which appeared to me to give the impression that motorcabmen as a class wished to be regarded as a body of men who, on the whole, suffered very severe hardships, With regard to the revocation of licenses, every driver, at present, feels that he is always running a very serious risk of losing his means of livelihood every time he drives his vehicle through the streets. Reckless driving must be stopped at all hazards or we shall all 'feel the draught ' before long. Cancellation of license, however, should only he resorted to in cases in which there can be no possible doubt that the culprit's conduct has unfitted him to be entrusted with the lives of passengers.
" If a man is unable to pass his Scotland Yard tests in three attempts he should have' to make waxfor better men. Testing of this kind costs money, and I am a taxpayer as well as a license holder. In conclusion I would strongly back the suggestion that one license only should he necessary for public-service-motor drivers."
"Drewry" Railway-Inspection Cars.
In an account which we received from a contributor who had recently returned from West Africa, and which we published in our issue for the 21st January, we reproduced a photograph of a railwayinspection car, which was one of several that our correspondent had been driving. Owing to the wording of his text, we understood that the car, of which we reproduced a photograph, was therein referred to as the Alldays and Onions machine that he had been driving. The photograph, however, has been identified by the Drewry Car Company, Limited, of River Plate House, 13, South Place, London, E.C., as a picture of one of the-railway inspection cars which it manufactures and sells. We regret the error in description, and now reproduce a photograph of one of the standard Drewry cars, which is similar to those in use on the African railway mentioned in our previous article. This type of car, which is being employed on a constantly increasing scale on British and Colonial railways, has a two-cylinder watercooled engine; the cylinders have a bore of 31 inches and the pistons have a stroke of 4 inches ; at L000 revs, about tob.h p. is d:velop.=.4. A three-speed gearbox, with a direct drive on the top speed, transmits the power to a special reverse box, from which the drive is taken by a Renold silent chain. It will be seen that the seatsare reversible ; this arrangement enables the passengers to face in whichever direction the car is travelling.
Two Months' Experience of a Second-hand Motor Wagon. By Its Unfortunate Driver.
The sender of the following communication has been awarded Special bonus in addition to the usual 10s. weekly pri:x.
[495] I had secured a job as driver mechan:c to a firm of removal and general-cartage contractors in Yorkshire, and the motor wagon, which I had to drive and to keep in repair, was of a make which had earned some sort of reputation in London. The town, wherein the experiences happened that I now propose to relate, has a population of about 12,000, and in it there is only one garage. The manager of this garage was commissioned by the firm tor which I was to work to purchase a second-hand motorbus chassis in London, as it was understood by them that such machines could be picked up at very reasonable rates.
The chassis was duly purchased, and was brought to this town by rail. When it arrived it was supposed to undergo a thorough overhaul, and afterwards it was put into the hands of a local wheelwright, in order to have a wagon top fitted, , This top was made in such a on that the van bodies belonging to my employers could be put on or taken off the chassis as circumstances required. In view of the experiences I am about to relate, it should be noted that, when I started on the job the wagon was supposed to have been put into good running condition. The machine in question was fitted wilh a 22-24h.p., four-cylinder engine, a three-speed gearbox, :led a live axle with differential encased therein. The total weight of the wagon with top complete was 3 tons, 2 cwt., 2 qrs., and, when a van body was put on the frame, an extra 18 cwt. was added. It will therefore be seen that, before I started to take any load on board, the total tare weight was 4 tons.
The conditions governing the sale of this wagon included the stipulation that it should take a three-ton load up any hill that should be chosen in the district by my employer. On the conclusion of the trial which was made to fulfil this condition, the state of the road surface was certainly against it, as it was very greasy indeed. However, when we got half way up the hill which had been chosen, the wagon stopped, but we eventually arrived at the top by crossing and recrossing the road. After this we finished the journey of 40 miles, and I presume my employer was satisfied that it could take a threeton load up a hill with a gradient of i in to. The wagon was then turned over to me.
On the very first journey which I had to make, one of the clutch levers broke after I had travelled only six miles, and this happened just as I was going down a steep grade which had a sharp turn at the bottom. I shut off the engine and applied the brakes, for I found that when I pressed out the clutch only three of the levers acted—the fourth was broken. The engine was driving me down hill, owing to the fact that one quarter of the clutch was still gripping. I managed to coast down through thick traffic and to pass several trams in safety, and, just as I reached the bottom of the hill, I switched on the ignition and drove ahead until I could get into a side street off the main thoroughfare. There I set to work and took out the broken lever. After considerable trouble, I managed to find a small machine shop where I was able to get a new lever made. In two hours, I was back and had the new piece fitted up in position, and we were thus able eventually to finish our journey, with a load of three tons both ways, without any further mishap. When I got back to the yard I was forthwith hauled over the coals before I had the chance of explaining why h:d been nearly three hours overdue. I entirely agree with what " Homoc " says about drivers in Ins second article on " Commercial Motoring from the Inside." I wish some of the people who hire drivers to look after their cars would understand that taking care of a motor vehicle is a different matter to looking after a horse. One of my employer's sons told me once that he would much rather drive a pair of 'horses than a motor wagon, and when I asked him for his reason he said that a pair of
horses on a country road could keep going while he had forty winks, but with a motor wagon he had to have his mind, ears, eyes, hands and feet continually working.
For a week after that first journey everything went smoothly, excepting that occasionally I found a bolt missing here and a screw loose there. One morning, however, I was ordered out at 6 a.m. to remove a load of furniture. The house from which I had to load up was situated in a street which had a gradient of one in eight, and the actual house was about 20 yards from the top of [hie hill. I got loaded up all right, but when I climbed into my seat and tried to start away, the wagon would not budge; the clutch was not able to get hold of the load without pulling up the engine dead. I eventually had to get a brick and a long beam of wood, and with this I lifted one of the wheels partly off the ground. By racing the engine and letting the clutch in gently, we were then able to start away. When about live miles on the road, another of those clutch levers broke, and as I had not any spare ones with inc,• and realising that the people for whom we were moving would want to put up their beds that night, I let the machine go. Of course, changing gear was quite easy while I was " coining down," but it was a very difficult job to "change up."
Towards the end of our journey we entered a country lane which was three miles long, and which was too narrow to allow of another vehicle passing, excepting on one short stretch. I got as far as this bit of the road, which was on a heavy gradient and of soft clay, when the wagon stuck, and after trying all I knew for an hour, I had only moved the wagon six yards. We then got a lorry and horse, and took .'the load up to the house in this way. I managed then to get within zoo yards of the house up a stiff hill of loose broken freestone, but at the top of this there was a gate into the farmyard, and I found that this was 18 inches too narrow to allow the wagon to get through, so we took the rest of the furniture out of our wagon, and completed the job with a horse and van. When we had finished, daylight had gone and a thick bank of fog was rolling up. After a hurried meal at the farmhouse. I set to work to get out of this country road as soon as possible. I could not turn the motor round, and I found T should therefore have to drive on the reverse for at least two miles, and, with a troublesome clutch arid inability to see either round or over the ran, it must be realised what an awkward job I had undertaken. Eventually, after a prolonged struggle, we emerged from the lane, and after a tough quarter of an hour, I managed to get the first speed in. On the undulating roads which I then had to follow I had considerable trouble with the gears, and this did not make it easier for me, as I could only get three cylinders to fire on the engine, and on any decent hill the whole thing would stop. I cleaned all the plugs, hitched another cell on to the battery, filed up the contact screws, adjusted the tremblers, and, after a comparatively uneventful run, we arrived back in the yard at 9.30 p.m., having completed a journey of 35 miles. For the rest of the week I was on the sick list with a bad cold, and the motor wagon was in the garage under repair. After starting work again, a series of misfortunes set in that would have overcome the patience of Job if ne had been on the job. It is a good thing that there were no motor wagons in his day, or his reputation would have suffered very severely. was out with the wag,on one day, in a town six miles from home, with a 3.1-ton load, and while I was driving up a stiff cutting which had a gradient of about I in 8, I heard a horrible cracking sound somewhere in the gearbox. It was evident that a tooth had come away on one or other of the gears. After a short examination I concluded it was the differential that was giving trouble. I made for the nearest telephone, and rang up the garage ILL home, telling them to send me some help, for the repair would evidently be too much for two men, as we should have to take out the hack axle, and the hind wheels weighed between 4 and 5 cwt. each. The rear axle and case weighed nearly half a ton.