The Motor Drivers News.
Page 17
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Take Care of Tool Bags.
" M.B." (London) writes us on the 28th ultimo :--•• A, I take in your journal regularly, and read the • Drix News ' with interest, I hope you will think the following little incident worthy of inclusion in that page. I ant road engineer to one of the leading London 'timorous companies, and in that capacity have to travel about a good deal. On Sunday, November 12th, I was doing a repair to one of the buses at a point in the New Kent Road, and, before starting work, I placed my tool bag on the pavement beside me. After an interval of about half a minute, I turned round and found that the bag had disappeared, so I ran round the corner near me and saw a man running away as hard as he could with it under his arm. Directly he saw me he dropped the bag, which I picked up. I gave further chase, and eventually, with the help of a constable, managed to catch him and give him into custody. The man was tried at the Newington Police Court and sentenced to six months' imprisonment with hard labour. My company has lost a number of these tool bags by their being stolen from the buses. The conductors also have lost a lot of tickets, which is hard on them, as they have to make up any deficiency out of their own pockets."
Trouble on Trouble.
" H.D." (Weston-super-Mare) writes us as follows :— " Having seen several letters lately from drivers of motor wagons on the subject of unlucky runs, I send you an experience of my own which was the most unfortunate trip I ever had with a motor vehicle. I am driving a five-ton wagon, and on one particular morning I started off for a journey of is miles over a very bad road to pick up a load of bricks. All went smoothly until I reached the brickyard and had backed up to the loading stage. I had just dropped the fire bars, preparatory to clearing out my tire, when I noticed that water was falling on it, and that there was evidently a bad leakage somewhere. I took out the lire, and the bars, and then made an examination for the cause of the trouble. On looking up inside, I found that the joint on the inner water space had broken, so I blew all the water out of the boiler and made a fresh joint. Next morning I got up steam, and was just starting from the brickyard with my load up, when I heard a hissing noise in the fire-box. After drawing the fire once more, I had a look for the damage, and found that one of the tubes in the bottom row had burst. I could do nothing, so I wired to my employer and told him what had happened, and asked that a man might be sent out to help me. Eventually a mechanic was sent from the makers to help me to repair the wagon, and he decided that the only thing to be done under the circumstances, was to take the entire boiler out and send it to the (vorks to be thoroughly overhauled and repaired. After some hours' work we got the boiler out of the frame, and placed it on a trolley ready for taking to the station the following morning. While it was being repaired, I employed a local fitter to put two new pins in the valve rods and do a few other small repairs which I thought it was better to have done while the wagon was standing idle. A few days later the boiler was returned, and we fitted it in the frame, and got up steam, ready to start for home. I put the slow speed in, and opened the regulator, but found that the vehicle would only run backwards, for some reason. I got down and looked over the engine, and, in doing so, found that the fitter had set the valves wrongly, the consequence being that steam was only admitted into one end of the cylinders. I started off after a few minutes' time, and made. for home, as the bricks were wanted without fail the next day. By this time it was getting very dark, and raining hard, so I lighted my lamps and hoped for no more hitches. We had nothing but trouble, however, as, owing to the valves being wrongly set, the boiler could not supply enough. steam for the engine, and we had to keep stopping for the 'pressure to rise again. Then our coke began to run short,. and I stopped at a public-house and. asked the landlady to let me have some,. but she had run out of it, so could not supply my wants. We went on, and,. after a mile or so, I found that the pump was not passing water to the boiler. I got down off the footplate to ascertain the reason, and, in walking round the back of the wagon, found' that some malicious person had opened: all the test cocks on the water tank.. This happened at 11.30 p.m., and it looked like spending the night on the roadside without water or coke, and with valves all out of order. I drew the wagon to the side of the road, and my mate and a fitter started to walk to our destination, a distance of about five miles, whilst I wrapped myself up and tried to go to sleep on the seat. About 6 a.m. the next morning they returned by a horse and trap, with some coke, and a big drum of water. We filled the bunkers with fuel, put some water in the boiler, and lighted a fire. After getting up steam, we started for home, and arrived there without further incident. I hope other readers will send in some accounts of runs they have had."