The Coal Strike and Last Year's Transport Strikes in Relation to New Demands for Motor Transport.
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Produetion itself, and not only the transference of supplies, commodities and manufactured articles, has been adversely influenced by the coal strike. Seven months ago, when the railway and transport strikes were in progress, production was not seriously affected. We find in these differing circumstances, the explanation for the fewer special uses of modern road iliokirs. during tlie. past three weeks, compared with the universal recourse to them in August last.
We have, as may be gathered from the illustrated article which appears on pages 68 to 70 of this issue, a certain number of advices in regard to what may be termed coal-strike services, but it would be ridiculous were we to pretend that road-motor transport, in its present state of development, or in any state of development which can be foreseen, is suitable for the total replacement of railway haulage in the mineral-traffic and other heavy classifications of raw mater:als and goods. To-day, however, were a sufficiency of road motors available, which is not the ease, owners could not obtain delivery of loads in an enormous total of instances, due to the complete or partial cessation of production, following the stoppage of coal output. We consider that the coal strike has had distinctly less. beneficial effect upon the heavy-motor industry than did the transport strikes of last year. There have, of course, been opportunities to utilize heavy wagons for the conveyance of coal, or for its re-distribution between commonly-owned depots, factories or works, but there has not been any new direct and considerable substitution of road motors for other transport methods, based upon the wider recognition of any fundamental principle, such as was the case, in Lancashire particularly, upon the occasion of the previous series of labour troubles, by reason of this coal strike.
We are glad, on the other hand, to know that. the coal strike has not had any adverse influence upon motor transport. The consumption of coal by a steam wagon or tractor is relatively insignificant, compared with demand for other steam-raising or process requirements, and we have not yet heard of any heavy steam motor which has been laid up on the score of shortage of fuel. That fact disposes of one possibility of damage to the cause which we have at heart.. A posii iv' gain, and not a small one, has none the less been achieved in relation to the further development of the general sense of the public at largo in regard to the claims of internal-combustion engines. The arrival of the Diesel-engined " Selandia " in the
London docks, at a time which was practically coincident with the inception of the strike, created a marked impression on the public mind, and, writing generally, we may briefly state the effect of the coal strike upon road-motor transport to be this: another educational step in the direction of common acceptance of petrol and oil engines by the community as integral factors in the nation's life and well-being. the value of that result may not be appal.: t at first sight, but we happen to know that it is of real importance when consulted in terms of the diminishing local tendencies to take harassing action of any kind—whether in regard to alleged extraordinary traffic, or alleged technical breaches of acts and regulations. This country, no matter what may be stated to the contrary, is governed by the general sense of the community, except during incidental periods which are of no real account in the long run, and the coal strike, in spite of the production difficulties which no form of transport could have wholly overcome. has at least helped further to establidi ill:, inOu.try and the mov7ment in public esteem.
Probably the most-noteworthy instances of aids to production have been those furnished within the experience of motor manufacturers themselves, arising from the direct collection of urgent supplies. There have, as may be read in the daily Press, been some unusual bookings for passenger conveyance. The sum of them does not affect. the correctness of the case as now stated by us.
To Prevent Sinking-in he Use of Metal Track-troughs.
Delays and other troubles, which are the inevitable consequences of a heavy vehicle's sinking into a loose or weak surface, are happily low in proportion, compared with experiences ot eight and mor.3 years ago. Prior to the issue of the Heavy Motor Car Order of 1904, under which tire-widths and axleweights are specified by the Local Government Board, makers and owners who made a sincere effort to comply with the three-ton limit of tare, under the Motor Car Act of 1896, were obliged to use driving wheels of only 3 ft. in diameter, and to fit them with steel tires of only 5 in. in width. The writer recalls, as an owner and user in those early days, the undulyhigh intensity of pressure upon the small areas of running contact which were thus rendered possible. For example, when carrying loads of wood pulp which had arrived in Preston as deck cargo, and which had added, by the absorption of water en route, fully ;50 per cent, to their bill-of-lading weights, it was not an infrequent occurrence to find that a wagon had 13 cwt.. per inch of width of tire on a :3 ft. wheel. Naturally, under those prohibitive conditions of running, and especially over (or through, to be correct) water-logged and limestone roads, sinking-in was an average happening. Nowadays, of course, with wheels of greater diameter and tires of at least double the width, the same net loads may
be carried without difficulty, unless when a wagon has to travel over soft or unmade ground, such as may be encountered on building estates, the approaches to farm buildings, and in like places.
The above brief reference back to incidents which will still live in the memories of many readers of this journal is prompted by the fact that our attention was recently drawn, on the occasion of the annual dinner of the Scottish A.C., to a new form of .metal trough-way. This track-trough, the pronary Apo: of which is to prevent a fire-engine from settling down into soft ground when running for a continuous period of pumping operations, is the joint outcome of the experience of Captain Despard, the chief constable of Lanarkshire, and Messrs. J. McGregor, of the Craighead Iron Works, Blantyre, We illustrate the simple arrangement on page 74, together with a few lines of descriptive text. A glance at the details will be sufficient to satisfy chiefs of fire brigades, owners who are engaged in the building and contracting trades, very many of our Colonial reitth,r,, and some motor manufacturers, that this type of metal track-trough may prove to have claims unon their immediate attention. These accessories, hereafter, might well be developed to serve as temporary plateways, to insure the negotiation of stretches of treacherous or yielding ground, but they will undoubtedly have their applications, merely as supporting trough-ways, to prevent the sinking-in of stationary heavy vehicles when they are broughtto rest upon unconsolidated land.
Chars-a-bancs in Easter Service.
We have received some interesting communications from owners of motor chars-aebancs, in respect of their preparations and intentions for the opening-up of the coming season. Many a smart-looking char-abanes is to see service upon the road once more, beginning next Thursday, and we heartily wish our numerous readers whose capital and other interests are identified with this branch of commeraial motoring the best of good fortune. The older proprietors can hardly expect to excel the results of 1911.
• We recommend newcomers in this section of motor hiring, the majority of whom wisely placed orders not later than November last, to arrange the charges so that they can yield aminimum average earning of 2s. 6d. per mile run for a 30-seated vehicle, and to achieve this result the-y must occasionally see earnings as high as 5s. per mile run. People who use motor chars-h.-ha-nes are ready to pay for the unrivalled advantages and conveniences of travelling in them, and cut rates are quite unnecessary. A holiday-maker will, as arule, as readily pay 1c1. or 2d. per mile, as he will pay Id.—especially if there be no alternatives but a triangular railway Journey, or weary jog behind horses.
The Effect of Motor Traffic Upon the Cost of Street Maintenance.
The Metropolitan Paving Committee has issued its ninth annual report. We may recall that this committee was formed as the result of a conference between representatives of Metropolitan borough councils, and that its constitution dates back to the beginning of the year 1903. A few years ago, members of the conference were much exercised about the damage to asphalt by oil and grease droppings from motorbuses, but they were quickly deprived of that source of objection. Shortly, we hope, they may turn their attention to the disadvantages caused by the survival of a fraction of horse traffic, and may even be found ready to recommend an annual tax upon horses which enter the inner zone of the Metropolis.
We regret to observe that the report under notice appears to endorse the view that motorbus traffic may still be harmful to macadamized roads. We quote "Complaint is made that motor-omnibus traffic is detrimental to macadam-paved roads, but in the absence of any statements to the contrary it would appear that such traffic is not particularly detrimental to the surface of wood-paved thoroughfares, provided that an extra thickness of concrete foundation is laid." Has the Committee fully taken into account the essential differences between so-called macadam description has for many years wrongly been applied to the alleged practices of Macadam, who did know how to make a good road without any binding whatsoever—and up-to-date systems of tar-bound and asphaltic-bound construction? It is, surely, time that this committee had the courage of the knowledge and convictions of the better men upon it, and that it specifically drew the vital distinction between the old and the new methods of road-making. It is scarcely fair to motorbus traffic, that the paragraph which we have quoted should be embodied in the report, and above all in a prominent position, without any expression of opinion that the complaints are unjustifiable.
The report is accompanied by various tabular data in regard to the comparative costs of scavenging, watering and maintenance, before and since certain roads were tar sprayed. Taking 00 odd miles of road in the borough of Fulham, for which Mr. Francis Wood is responsible, we observe the following reductions: scavenging and watering, from £12,697 in 1907-1908, and £11,000 in 1910-1911. This is typical, but it does not represent the real saving effected, for the loads of slops removed, in the same periccl, fell from 13,409 to 5,751. The trouble is that, so long as any horses remain in use, the municipal carts and workmen have to cover the same superficial area as they did in the days when all traffic was horsedrawn. The beneficial effects of motors, upon municipal expenditure, cannot be fully realized until less than 10 per cent. of the traffic is of the animal variety.
We might write at length in regard to other features in the report, but we will content oarselves by making
a Will for the compilation of the next one. 11,111 this Metropolitan Paving Committee consider the fact that motor traffic is already taxed to an extent which, in the great majority of cases, more than equals the whole cost of maintenance of any traffic highway in London ? In Piccadilly, for example, taking the proceeds of the carriage tax and petrol tax in regard to private vehicles, and the proceeds of the hackney-carriage tax and petrol tax in regard tu motorbuses and motorcabs, plus those of the petrol tax upon petrol vans and lorries, the total yield from taxation is something like 50 per cent, in excess of the total cost of maintaining Piccadilly for traffic of all kinds. The calculation is a simple one, for it involves rwactically the collection of no data other than representative censuses of motor traffic.