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Putting a pusher-bus into practice
Page 29
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A FIRST prototype of a revolutionary modular bus concept with running units mounted in a steered "trailer" is expected to be on the road this year. The "pusher bus" project is the brainchild of the Duple Group's engineering director, Mr John McHugh, and is revealed exclusively in this week's CM, see page 49.
Main principle behind the design is to separate passengers and power-pack in different modules. Having no powered components to accommodate, the pas.senger module can be of an ultra low-floor design and be of a simple, cheap construction. The power-pack module would have a conventional axle and wheels with the power unit, together with ancillary mechanical equipment like air-conditioning motors and so on, mounted above it. The separate propulsion unit is steered by a unique reverseAckermann principle which ensures that its wheels exactly follow the track of the passenger module.
Duple has already spent a large sum on the project, which was originated in response to the American Transbus programme. Though complicated US laws seem to have ruled out the design from that project for the time being, the Duple Group is now studying its potential application worldwide. However, it is only one of a number of projects being worked on at Bifort Engineering, a Duple sub sidiary, by a team led by Mr Steve Oxley, former chief engineer at Atkinson. His move to Bifort was exclusively reported in CM in March.
Other projects include: a high-floor single-deck coach very similar to American and European long-distance designs in appearance but using many Dominant components; a 11/2-deck coach; several precinct bus and double-deck designs; and, for announcement shortly, a small, selfcontained, two-wheeled trailer unit for carrying airconditioning equipment which could be simply plugged into existing coach ventilation systems.
See also Editorial, page 19.