Emergency Conversion To Car America's War Workers
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Special Requirements of the Times Responsible for Bold Steps Being Taken in Order to Adapt Certain Types of Vehicle to the Urgent Task of Transporting Big Loads of Munitions Employees
By H. W. Perry
THE transportation of workers to war plants, offices and shops is a serious problem in the United States. This is, of course, due to the vast industrial expansion that has taken place during the past two years. added to which are the stringent restrictions on the use of private vehicles necessitated by the scarcity of rubber and petrol for other than military requirements.
Established urban and inter-urban passenger-carrying systems, are already operating at full capacity in most cities and smaller communities where war plants are located, and new conventional buses and coaches cannot be built to accommodate additional passengers, owing to shortage of material, man power and manufacturing equipment.
To anticipate a possible breakdown of mass transportation, with consequent delays in proquction of military equipment and munitions, food and other essentials, the Office of Defence Transportation has developed, or sponsored, the building of various types of converted motor vehicle for passenger carrying. Half a dozen such' conversions had passed the experimental stage last January tnd had shown, in service in several parts of the country, that they are practical and advantageous. Experiments with additional types also were planned. Most of the conversions which have been made are of trailers and semitrailers, but one type is a rebuilt sedan.
The seating capacity of a conventional sedan is increased to 15 persons by cutting it transversely through the middle and inserting a 6-ft. section. The inserted section, which has three crosswise seats and two doors on each side, has a frame of wood, with Masonite--mascerated and compressed wood—panels, only 300 lb. of " war" materials being used. Provision for supporting the extra load is made by • introducing the rear axle of a 1-ton vehicle for the car-type axle.
By mounting a coach body on the chassis of a modified farm trailer, a trailer coach, with a seating capacity for 24 persons, was developed for use
with this elongated sedan. The body, built mainly of wood, is 12 ft. long. 7 ft. wide and 5 ft. 7 ins, high, with the top of the roof 8 ft. 4 ins, above road level when the body is mounted on the trailer. Two " natural " steps enable easy entrance and exit through a hand-operated conventional bus door at the front end, and a door in the rear is provided for emergency use.
This vehicle, which hasabeen named the war wagon trailer, is equipped with eight pneumatic tyres, and the towing sedan has six tyres. It effects a big saving of rubber, fors, whereas a heavyduty bus tyre requires 60 per cent. of crude. rubber, the new Victory tyre contains only a few ounces, the rest being reclaimed rubber.'
Seats in the trailer coach, which have been designed for increasing the capacity of buses, trams and shorthaul railway coaches, are known as the " stand-sit " type. They are arranged in pairs on each side of a central aisle and spaced only 1 ft. 6 ins, apart between centres, instead of the usual 2 ft. 4 ins. to 2 ft. 6 ins. The seat proper is 2 ft. above the floor instead of the customary 1 ft. 3 ins. This height keeps the passenger's legs nearly . straight and vertical, thus saving knee room; riding is fairly comfortable for reasonably short journeys. Seats of this type, installed in an urban bus in Washington, D.C., increased the seating capacity from 40 to 50 persons, and the standing capacity by 10 additional passengers.
Small, two-wheeled trailers, of the type much used by small farmers and retail`merchants, have been fitted with seats for nine passengers, a load which can be hauled easily by a passenger vehicle, itself carrying five or six people.
Much pressure has been brought to hear on war-plant employees, so as to reduce the number of cars they operate. By towing one of the little trailers mentioned, the owner of one car, filling it to capacity with other workers living in his vicinity, or along the route he follows between home and factory, could transport 14 to 15 employees, instead of driving alone or with one companion, as has been the practice.
The house traifer, known in this country as a caravan, was not overlooked in this programme. In this type longitudinal seats, to accommodate about 20 passengers, have been
placed along the sides, and tests have been conducted to determine whether the hauling of such a load by an ..ordinary private car would be entirely practicable or whether a light commercial vehicle would be needed.
Two types of heavy commercial trailer have also been converted. One is a " haulaway " semi-trailer having four rear wheels, and coupled, at the front end, over the driven axle of a normal commercial vehicle. Large numbers of these, formerly used for delivering new cars from factories and assembling plants to dealers, are idle now that private-car production has been suspended. Virtually, all of them are being converted into express trailers for passenger transportation and many were in service in various States before February of this year.
A large pool of such conversions was also being created for U.S. Army transportation work. In making the change-over, the superstructure is cut off and a crude body, built of materials not of primary war importance, is mounted on the frame. The body has a service door near the front, a rear emergency door, longitudinal or crosswise seats, and side windows.
Somewhat similar to the semitrailer just mentioned is the fourwheeled' " haulaway " trailer, which is drawn behind a small lorry. These trailers were formerly used for delivering two private cars. About 600 of these are now retired from their normal jobs. Last autumn, the municipal-transport authorities in Cleveland, Ohio, built, on one such trailer, a 31-seater bus body of the same style as that used for the self-contained buses of the system. Drawn by one of the latter, the converted trailer proved so successful that, last winter, 60 more were being prepared to augment the service.
Then there is the ODT express trailer, which is converted from a conventional type semi-trailer and is designed with a van body for hauling bulky goods. A piain passenger-carrying body, for mounting on the frame, was constructed with plywood sides. Masonite roof and wooden seats. It can carry 141 passengers on permanent transverse seats set back to back and on supplemental retractable seats.
The photographs accompanying this article ,are reproduced by courtesy of the U.S. Office of War Information.