An Advertising Tour in Scotland.
Page 21
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The Long-distance Run of a Great Western Railway, Milnes-Daimler Motorbus.
The illustration which accompanies these lines shows a 3oh.p., Milnes-Daimler, 1907, double-decked motorbus belonging to the Great Western Railway Company, which, after running over 5,000 miles in public service, was detailed to make a special journey round Scotland, in order to advertise in that country the attractions of the Cornish Riviera and Devonshire as holiday resorts and the facilities afforded by the Great Western Railway for reaching these . parts of the country with the minimum amount of trouble. In the depth of winter, this undertaking, as all road-traction engineers will recognise, was one which called for a considerable amount of hard work from both the men and the machine, and, doubtless a short account of the long run will be of interest to readers of " THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR."
The motorbus left its headquarters at Slough on the 4th of November, 1907, with two tons of stores, advertising literature, etc. The route taken was via Henley, Oxford, and .Banbury, and a dense fog was encountered. This meant that the driver's assistant had to be by the front mudguard, holding a lamp near the road, in order to advise
the driver in which direction to steer. In spite of this difficulty, Warwick was reached safely. On the following day, in the Birmingham district, fog was again present until Wolverhampton was reached, but from thence a good run was possible through Wellington and 'Shrewsbury to Wrexham. Pleasant travelling was experienced next day, when the run was through Chester, Warrington, Wigan, Preston and Lancaster to Kendal, a total mileage of 1O3for the day. Next day the route was over the famous Shap Fell, which, with the other stiff hills in this part of the country, was climbed in fine style, At Carlisle, and in all the towns situated beyond that point, the bus paraded the streets, and Great Western Railway literature was distributed. The chief towns visited were : Annan, Lockerbie, Dumfries, Sanquhar, Mauchline, Ayr, Irvine, Kilwinning, Johnstone, Paisley, and Glasgow. In the busy city of Glasgow, great interest was taken in the motorbus, special notice being made of its ease of control in the traffic of The centre of the town.
Twelve days were spent in visiting every: part of the thickly-populated, prosperous district round Glasgow before a start was made for the point farthest North that the car was scheduled to reach, viz., Inverness. A dense fog was again met with when leaving Glasgow, and, although every possible care was taken, an electric tramcar ran into the bus and caused it to swerve into the soft ground at the side of the road. The front wheels sank three feet and one of the back wheels also went down .a considerable depth, and this accident naturally put a severe strain on the whole
vehicle. Seven hours of hard work were required in order to get it out of its awkward position, and it then was able to proceed to Dumbarton, from whence, after repairs, it ran on the following day to Crieff, passing round Loch Lomond, and calling at Dunblane. From Cried over Sma Glen to Pitlochry the bus ran through from two to four feet of snow and, in these circumstances, the protected gear ring on the back wheels was found to be a great improvement on the old type. From Pitlochry, the Inverness road runs over the Grampian Hills, and here the loose roads together with the snow and ice, made the work of the-car extremely hard, whilst the men in charge of it suffered considerably from the cold. Much trouble was experienced in ascending these hills, owing to the fact that the roads were covered with ice : when the bus got to the steepest parts, with the wheels revolving in the forward direction, the vehicle would slide backwards down the hills, but, by laying rugs and sacks on the ground, and by making a rush at it, it was generally possible to get the bus up after two or three attempts. The Highland Railway was passed under and over a go dd many times, and difficulty was experienced on several occasions in getting the vehicle under the low bridges, but the bus reached Inverness safely without any mechanical trouble. During this part of the itinerary, the water and oil were carefully run off every time the bus was left standing for a longer period than an hour, and thy lubricating oil had to be heated before it was put into the force-feed base; it was also necessary to warm the carburetter in order to start up the engine.
Leaving Inverness, the run South was commenced, the route taken being via Nairn, Elgin, Cullen (where the bus sank in the mud up to its axles and had to be dug out) and Banff. At the last-named place, no accommodation could be found for so large a vehicle, but the local police came to the rescue by giving permission for it to be left in the Market Square—to find suitable garage for the bus at different places was one of the greatest difficulties experienced during the entire tour. From Banff, the way lay through Aberdeen, Arbroath, Dundee, Perth, Kirkcaldy, Alloa, Stirling, and Falkirk, to Edinburgh, where another stop of several days was made and good advertising work was done. Proceeding farther South, the car ran through Peebles, Galashiels, Melrose, and Hawick to Carlisle, and, during this portion of the journey, the weather was very cold, so that great care had to be taken with the engine; lamps were burned round it all night, and it was well covered tip. lit* last stage of the long trip included Shap Fell again (where trouble was experienced with icy roads, as on the Grampians), and passing through Kendal, Derby, Northampton, and St. Albans, the motorbus arrived at Slough on the 8th of January, after having covered 2,479 miles of strange and very trying roads, in 46 running days.
With the exception of a somewhat weather-beaten look, the bus appeared to be none the worse for its rough experiences, and it is clear that no type of road vehicle other than an automobile could have performed such a task in a satisfactory manner. Both the builders of the machine and the company whose staff operated it are to be congratulated unon its admirable work.