Fit-and-Forget Front Suspension for P.M.T. Buses
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FOLLOWING the official opening of the new Cheadle bus station of The Potteries Motor Traction Co. Ltd., by Mr. J. Else, the chairman of the West Midland Traffic Commissioners, on Thursday of last week, an A.E.C. Reliance 44-seat single-decker was driven over the heated pit to facilitate inspection of the Metalastik toggle-link suspension fitted experimentally to the front beam axle. Describing the merits of the suspension, Mr. J. D. Mundella, chief engineer of the company, referred to it as a "fitand-forget answer to the high maintenance costs of leaf springs" and paid tribute to the improved ride it affords. In due course the rear axle of the vehicle will be equipped with a similar type of suspension. The toggle-link units were installed without major modification to the chassis frame members.
Essentially similar to the type employed by the Midland Red company for rear axles, the system is based on four bondedrubber bushes on each side which are stressed torsionally in .shear when they are carrying the tare weight of the vehicle, torsional stress being augmented by compressive stress with an increase in payload. This provides a substantially constant-periodicity characteristic, spring deflection being 25 in. for a 5,000 lb. load compared with a deflection of 3-25 in. for the same load in the case of leaf springs.
The new building at Cheadle was designed by the company's architectural staff, has a width and length of 86 ft. and 136 ft. respectively and will house 22 30-ft. single-deckers or 17 36-ft. vehicles, the inside height of 18 ft. giving sufficient head room for all types of double-decker. Space is available for the undercover loading of six vehicles in the head-on position at peak periods and for side loading of four vehicles in off-peak hours. Features include a booking office, inspector's office, cash office, conductor's room, a foreman's office and a stores (for fastmoving parts), staff and public toilets and an oil store, underfloor heating being employed throughout the office block. An employees' club room will be added later.
The pit is also underfloor heated, space and pit lighting being afforded by fluorescent tubes. Bolton and Gate full-width shutter doors at each end provide access to the station from the rear as well as the front, and a Februat brush-washing machine enables daily washing of buses to be completed in 2-3 min. In the same bay, two fuel guns are fed from overhead tanks through Brodie-Kent meters.
A Leyland Plaxton-bodied Panorama coach that was employed to transport visitors from Stafford to Cheadle for the function is fitted with Varivane automatic radiator shutters, which raise the coolant temperature sufficiently to give ample interior heating in the coldest weather and also improve engine operation.