PHASES OF PASSENGER TRAVEL
Page 69
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TRANSPORT companies abroad, especially in tropical countries, sometimes complain that they find it difficult to persuade manufacturers of motor chassis to construct machines specially suited for particular service conditions. Mr. George K. Weeks, the managing director of .Weeks Transport and Engineering Co., Ltd., of Aba, Nigeria, has had the opposite of .this experience in his relationship with the Gifford 71,1otor Co., Ltd., of London. _ •
Mr. Weeks, after being a missionary in West Africa for 30 years and serving with the British Navy during the war, commenced' in 1919 a road-transport service across Nigeria from east to west, which has developed in a remarkable manner in the succeeding 10 years.
The main railway line from Lagos runs northward to Kano, a branch line connecting with Port Harcourt. From Oron, on Cross River in the east, to Aba, on the railway line, and westward to Onitsha, which is on the River Niger, is a distance of 190 miles, and it was on this route that Mr: Weeks concentrated his services between 1919 and
1923. Later, he extended westward across the Niger to Benin City and Oshogbo in the west, Oshogbo being on the main railway line between Lagos and Kano. The company now has 18 European drivers and maintains regular passenger and mail services right across Nigeria, affording feeder services to the railways and the rivers.
Mr. Weeks has been in England this autumn and is taking back a new Gilford coach which will be the first of its kind to appear on the Nigerian roads. It has as its basis the Gilford Cr6 chassis, the main frame members of which are longer and rather stronger than standard. Instead of the engine normally employed in this model a
larger six-cyfindered unit of 36 lt.p. R.A.C. • rating (31-in, bore and 5-in. stroke) has been employed. This engine develops 105 b.h.p. As dual rear tyres are not permitted in Nigeria, the machine has 36-in. by 6-in, front tyres and 40-in. by 8-in. rear tyres, two ,spare wheels being carried under the tail of the body. The wheelbase is 13 ft. 7 ins.
The forward portion of the bodywork comprises leather-upholstered seats for 16 passengers and the driver, a folding door being operated by the man at the wheel. There is a partition across the body just before the wheel-arch and the rear compartment is arranged to accommodate about one ton of mails and luggage. A pair of doors at the rear gives access to thia compartment.
Incidentally, the body was constructed by Wycombe Motor Bodies, Ltd. The framing is of ash, and sectional die-pressed steel panels are employed. Some of these panels are interchangeable and two extra panels, painted and ready for service, have been sent out to Aba in ease damage to the vehicle should call for their employment. The coach has a handsome appearance, being finished externally in carnationred cellulose with an ivory waist band.