• ('NE of the brightest patches in the trade of
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the country is that portion of the motor industry which is connected with the manufacture of buses and bus bodies. Despite the widespread unemployment and the fact that the present period of the year is often regarded as a slack season in motor factories, the number of new buses on order is really surprising. However difficult it may be to find money, public transport cannot be denied its right to develop. [LOOSE LONG -DISTANCE road-passenger transport scored a useful little success when a party of 110 passengers from Aberdeen to London, which had intended making the trip by sea, was delayed because the vessel, the "City of London" had been held up on Tees-side with engine trouble. The passengers were provided alternative accommodation in four motor coaches owned by Messrs. T. Allen and Sons, of Blyth, who work a limited -stop service between Aberdeen and Tyneside, and, although they left the granite city 24 hours after the departure time of' the ship, they reached London ahead of its scheduled time of arrival.
IN the course of a recent business visit to Bourne mouth we made a point of noticing with what success the newly installed express motorbus services are operating there. A fleet of Thornycroft singledeckers was purchased in the spring, and these provide fast-travel facilities over the existing tram routes. Fare-and-a-half is charged, and, Bournemouth being a town which covers a wide area, the new services are providing excellent facilities for those living in its outlying suburbs, a gr6at deal of time being saved. TRAFFIC signals to be given by hoots on a pre arranged code is a suggestion which has cropped up from time to time, andtas recently as last week. Such a system would, in our opinion, be quite unworkable and would merely add to the confusion. Many complaints are already being made regarding excessive warning noiSes made by vehicles, and one can well imagine theuproar which would occur if several drivers wished to signify their intentions at the same time.
ACCORDING to our American contemporary Motor, the boys employed in the spare-parts department of the Studebaker concern in Now York are provided with roller skates, which they use to enable them to get about quickly from one part to another of the huge building. The case-lined aisles are 175 ft long and the order desk in the main corridor is one-eighth mile from a far corner of the building. When it is realized that it is necessary to make this journey perhaps many times a day, the need for rapid transport is readily appreciated. Apparently the provision of roller skates is proving to be highly satisfactory, and while wearing them the boys manage to carry running boards and similar bulky components, to push trolleys and climb about on stock cases.
DURING a recent visit to the garage and repair shops utilized for the Glasgow Corporation buses we noted that small but deep-seated defects in outer covers are repaired by boring holes right' through the rubber and casing, backing these with a number of layers of cord material and vulcanizing a plug of new rubber into each bole, this rubber filling the space occupied by the original portion of the cord casing which has been removed, as well as building up the tread,