Correspondence.
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A Motor Drivers Society.
The Editor, "THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR."
Sir :—In reply to the criticism that this society is one of tramway men, permit me to say that, whilst it has been composed of tramway men, who certainly have conducted their own affairs satisfactorily, our rules provide that each branch has full autonomy, and that branch, or those branches composed of motorbus workers, would, therefore, manage their own affairs, and consider their own interests.
I am sorry to hear that there is another society in the course of formation, recognising, as I do, that there can be no unity where there is competition.—Yours faithfully, For THE AMALGAMATED ASSOCIATON OF TRAMWAY AND VEHICLE WORKERS, C. Watson, OrganisingSecretary. 26, Ambler Road, Finsbury Park, N.
Motor Vehicles for Colonial Use
The Ediior, "THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR."
Sir was very interested in reading an article in your
valuable paper on " Motor Vehicles for Colonial Use." This has opened my eyes somewhat to the capabilities of these machines. In South Africa now there are many motors, which have evidently been designed for running on English roads. There, when it is wet, the mud is 8 or 9 inches thick, and, when dry, the dust clogs everything. The fitting of large wheels with great width of .tread and boxed-up gearing is essential for working under these hard conditions. The very ingenious device which you mention in your article as being fitted to up-to-date Colonial motor wagons (the winding drum) woukl be of vast assistance in crossing sandy spots or in crossing the spruits, which are very plentiful in some parts, and which have now to be "jumped," with, as you can guess, great strain on the frame. Many of the roads out there are still merely bullock tracks. I am glad you have given prominence to the requirements of Colonial countries, as I ant sure it is utterly useless to send out an ordinary hometype motor wagon for use where the above conditions pre vail.—Yours faithfully, H. J. RICKARD. 54, Malefant Street, Cathays, Cardiff, December 1st, 1906.
The Provision of Drivers.
The Editor, "THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR."
Sir :—I should like to endorse Mr. Frost Smith's letter, which appeared in your correspondence pages of the 22nd ultimo, and I would like to give you at least three instances where apparently promising men were engaged, or, rather, given an opportunity of practising on a bus with the promise of a job if they secured a public-service license; and may I reiterate Mr. Smith's statement that, on receipt of this license, they invariably develop new traits in their character. Often, where a man has not previously held a public license, he seems to See a significance in each letter of the word" public," something in the following manner :—
Permitting Unusual Behaviour. Licensed License.
Independence Carelessness. ,
I will take the case of one man, who appeared to have all the virtues which you, Sir, described in your issue of November 8th (page 186). He was given the usual opportunity to practise, etc., and, eventually, given a service. After his second day's driving, he appeared in a most conspicuous pair of boots, of the type usually used by sewermen. With the boots came trouble, for, on that day, one of the road mechanics found his bus jacked up, and "Boots" had nearly got to the root of the trouble-anyway, he had got all the valves out, the coil off the dashboard, and the accumulator lay on the road underneath the car. Naturally, the road mechanic was annoyed—and told him so ! This " Boots " resented, and would not allow the road mechanic to touch the bus. Next day, " Boots " was looking for a job !
Take another case, in which two men applied for a job. Both had previously been driving a char-A-banes for one of the railway companies. They were given an opportuni41. to practise, and, when the time came to go to Scotland Yard, one asked if he could not go down on a different bus to the one he had practised on. When told he could not, he refused to go. The other went down, passed, and has been driving for the same company ever since—the company had to lose both the time and expense of giving the other man practice. The third case was of a man who turned out an excellent driver, but absolutely ignored the rules Of the traffic department, only heard the conductor's bell when it suited him, and frequently passed his own. company's buses on the road. Ultimately, he had to be dispensed with, as warnings were of no use. • Here, I think, is the secret of the success of the horsebus driver : he understands bus law, and as Mr. Smith remarks, it is not that he is more adaptable to mechanical work than an outsider (it is usually the reverse), but he is not annoyed by the innumerable inconveniences that a bus driver has to put up with. It takes as long for a motor driver to become a busman, as it does for a busman to become a motor driver, only, in the case of the motor driver learning bus work, the engineer is constantly in trouble with the traffic department; consequently, he prefers the. trouble of teaching busmen motor driving, which, certaioly, causes less trouble with the traffic department. I should have liked to enumerate • some of the worries a busman is subject to, for the benefit of-outsiders, but tlerd I must already apologise for the length of this letter.— Yours faithfully, T. EMMERSON.• 37, Broadway, Cricklevvood, NW., December 1st, two.
The Editor, "THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR." 4.
Sir :— I have read the letter on this subject, from Mr. P. Frost Smith, in your issue of November 22nd, and I have also read his remarks in the discussion upon Mr. Douglas Mackenzie's paper. My experience of so-called teaching is, that, from one de.pOt, at any rate, the men are all taken out on any spare bus that may be available in the afternoon,And have about ten minutes each at the wheel, but this happens, sometimes, only once a week. The" training" in the yard consists of helping to Jill up the radiators and lubricators, and to scrape up the grease from the ground, etc., but they send you up to Scotland Yard, as a " qualified driver," after some three or four turns at the steering wheel. The men, naturally, fail. They, then, either do another month or so, or "clear out" when they have become sick of hanging about the yard. Do you wonder, Sir, that I was disheartened?
I quite agree that the training of drivers should be Ot, as Mr. Frost Smith says, to" those who know." I am now in the employ of the London. Motor Omnibus Company, Limited, and the men in charge of the King's Cross cleOt do know : they can teach as much in a day as those at some other depots will teach in a month. I passed Scotland Yard, after having less than a month with the" Vanguard " Company, and, on the day I did pass, a large number of drivers from another depot failed ignominiously. Most of them made an awful mess of reversing round a corner. One man stopped his engine; another started with his hand brake on ;. a third left the second speed in when he went to get down. One of these told me, when I asked him how much practice he had had, that he had had two goes at the wheel, totalling 20 minutes altogether, and that he had never backed a bus round a corner in his life. He added, that he only came up on the "oil chance" of passing.—I am, yours faithfully, " NOT DISHEARTENED Now."
The Value of Fire Extinguishers.
The Editor, " THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR."
Sir :— -We read with interest a letter in the issue of " THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR " of yesterday, and beg • to inform you that if " W.E.E." (Kent) had had one of our Tonneau type extinguishers fitted to his car, he would have had absolutely no damage done to it. We have several testimonials to this effect from customers who have their cars equipped with this type.—Yours faithfully, For THE VALOR COMPANY, LIMITED.
(Fire Appliance Department). CECIL ROUTLEDGE, London Manager. 9, Bush Lane, Cannon Street, E.C.,
November 3oth, 1906.
First Aid to Locomotive-Typo Boilers.
The Editor, "THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR."
Sir : Upon reading Mr. T. C. Aveling's article in your last issue, with reference to my article on " Repairs to Steam Wagon Boilers," I am tempted to write a few words in reply.
My article, to a boilermaker, would have conveyed no information beyond what he previously possessed; but, on the other hand, there are a lot of men at present driving steam wagons to whom such jobs would not come amiss. It is to these men, as in the previous articles I have written, that I appealed in that article. I fully realise the importance of sending for a man to do any serious repairs beyond the driver's capacity, but, at the same time, men are often sent for to come and do repairs which the driver could do himself.
This oontinual sending for competent men, with the consequent expense and lost time, is, probably, one of the reasons why we do not see motor wagons in more general
use.—Yours faithfully, " ENGINEER-IN-CHARGE." December 3rd, 1906.
Leeds Corporation Motorbuses.
The Editor, "THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR."
Sir :—In reply to Mr. W. H. Clay, I may say that the amount of cheque 468, viz., 19s. 8d., is charged by the officials as for motorbus maintenance. That is what I have to deal with, and not what Mr. Clay says, or thinks.
The .377 was never stated by me to have been paid for motorbus spares, etc., but for motorcars, motorbuses, etc. Then, again, I have examined cheques, vouchers, and cashbooks, and find the following additions to the amounts already given, viz :
Paid, June 22nd, 1906 (cheque 489), Walsh, Nichols and Company, Wolverhampton, one bus radiator repaired,
ros. 6d_ • Midland Railway Company, carriage of same, paid by the Corporation, 125. 6d. paid, July 20th, 1906 (cheque 617), John Marston, Limited, Wolverhampton, motorbus spares, i",4 25. 6c1.-8 s. 6d.—Yours faithfully, J. DRANSFTELD, Elective Auditor. [This correspondence is now closed.—En.]
Scotland Yard as a Consulting Adviser:
. The Editor, "THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR."
Sir I noticed in the " Daily Report," of November loth, 1906, the following paragraph regarding Scotland Yard methods of passing motorbuses for service :—"A well-known bus was down at the yard this week, a bus of the chaindriven variety, and was passed as being silent in the engine, silent in the gears, ` but,' said the officials, you must change the chains and use Westinghouse chains.'
This makes interesting reading, if it can be relied upon, as it would seem as if Scotland Yard officials are taking upon themselves the responsibility of consulting engineers. It appears, however, hardly credible that they actually said You must use Westinghouse chains." Probably in actual fact they merely said that they could not pass roller chains, which are, undoubtedly, very noisy, especially when rather worn, and pointed out that there is a chain on the market which is quite silent, and which they pass. I think it would be of interest to the readers of "THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR" if someone conversant with the ways of Scotland Yard could say whether these paragraphs are correct, as otherwise they are likely to be misleading. Hoping you will be able to find a place for this in your most interesting paper.—Yours faithfully, 42, Elsworthy Road, Hampsteaa, N.W., H. WALKER.
November 26th. 1906.