COACHING AT WESTON-SUPER-MARE.
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The Activities of Coachowners in a North Somerset Seaside Resort which is Especially Favoured as Regards its Surrounding Attractions.
WESTON•SUPER-MARB, owing to its geographical situation, is very popular holiday resort for the inhabitants of Bristol, Bath, and even Cardiff.
The coaching trade is practically a summer season one, very little being done in the winter beyond the carrying of concert and football parties. Some 35 coaches are allowed to stand round the green in front of the new pier, except along that side facing the sea, although_ coaches can drop their passengers at this point if required. The authorities have arranged for the vehicles to take priority on the stand in alphabetical order, working in cycles. For instance, if A is at. the front one morning, B takes that position on the next day, until the whole of the letters are worked through, then the process is repeated, but, whether an owner has one car or half a dozen, only one can be utilized in this way, the rest must be situated at the centre or rear of the Hne. Passengers are, of course, allowed to take their seats in any of the coaches in the line, so that it is not necessarily the
coach at the front which gets away first. The great benefit of this system Is that there are no dangerous rushes for favourite positions, as happen in many towns. Similar cycles are arranged for the afternoon and evening trips in order to avoid all cause for complaint. The owners of the largest fleet in the town are Burnell Bros., who run the "Lorna D001113" coaches, consisting of four 28-seater Karriers, two /8-seater Na.piers and one 28-seater A.E.C. Their experience has proved that they do quite as much business with the small coaches as with the large. They have not as yet employed pneumatic tyres, but are inclined to favour the super-cushion type. A set of these tyres is being fitted on one of their vehicles as an experiment.
Practically all the trips are for the half-day or day only, to Bournemouth, Cheddar, and occasionally to Torquay, Seaton and Weymouth. On some of their coaches rass rails are fitted along the *idea to carry the weight of the hood, but they have found that when these are employed the doors drop slightly after a time and the rails then .become out of
alignment. They have found that by removing two of the hoop-sticks the hood is made much lighter and is easier to handle, but to avoid sagging they employ a special sailcloth instead of the usual twill. All the vehicles are doing very well, but they are especially pleased with the Karriers.
The company have one serious complaint, and that is that the licensing authorities refuse to grant them licences
fbr plying for hire for two of their coaches on the ground that there are too many coaches in the town., and yet licences have been granted to other owners since thatarefusal..
Messrs. Burnell Bros. have been run• fling motor coaches since 1905, the first machine being an M.M.C., with tube ignition, to seat 12 persons. This used to run from Cheddar Station to the Gorge at a fare of
The fuel they employ is a mixture of petrol and benzole in the proportion of one part of benzole to two parts petrol. They find that this stops pinking and
gives a. much better mileage. . Mr. P. R. Carter ia another wellknown owner. He owns two 28-seaters; one a Karrier and the other an A.E.C. These are known as the " Rambler" coaches. Mr. Carter is of the opinion that a central booking office is a much better idea than the cycle system at, present employed in the town. He also suggested that this would be a remedy for price-cutting.
Speaking of the pneumatic tyre' Mr. Carter said that •he would not think of putting pneumatics on his large vehicles as he did not consider them safe but...:he might have to follow suit if tiro, other owners fitted them.
He pays special attention to the matter of springing his vehicles. Lighter front springs have been fitted, and on the A.E.C. vehicle thinner plates are used in the rear springs, whilst the volute springs have been removed.
We must certainly not forget the Bris
tol Trams and Carriage td., who have a depot: in this town Co.,?from which
they run nine coaches of their own make. We shall refer more fully to these vehicles at a later date.
Two coaches, known as the " Grey Bird,' are run by Mr. C. W. Webber. One is a 24-seater Austin and the other a 14-seater Ford. The Austin is the type in which there is a separate bevel drive to each rear wheel. ' It was pointed out thal, this was one of the best-sgrung vehicles in the town. Mr. Webber also has a 24-seater TillingStevens petrol-electric coach, which is hooked up for long tours starting from London.