ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. THE DRIVERS' COLUMN.
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W.F.R."—It is inadvisable to buy unless you have first arranged the freight. A couple of firms could fill you up, and you must avoid offering to work for everybody, or for casual orders. You might try one or two of the leading brewers, -or millers, with an offer to work by contract at 42 a day to cover everything. Don't begin without steady work assured for six months, and a stipulation that the hirers furnish loaders. It is possible to pay on three or four-mile trips where the gradients tell against horses, but you must sec a week, without reckoning on Saturdays to make it a certainty. You will require 4200 cash to get delivery of a lorry on the hire-purchase system, and the balance of 4300 can be spread over three years. Your experience should enable you to keep down repairs and to run a wagon. successfully.
" (Leixoes).—We shall be happy to forward copies oc casionallv for the purpose you name.
" W.C.P." Oxford).—Your qualifications for driving are possessed by many other men, and have no particular application to commercial motors, Unless you are able to secure local support for the scheme, it is impossible for us to help in any useful manner. We shall be pleased to give an opinion when you are ready.
W.J.M."—See replies to "W.F.R." above and " C.II.W." If you are in a position to put up the amount named, further particulars will be given. We think your having no engineering knowledge might tell against your chances of success, unless you would be prepared to spend at least a month at the works during the time the motor you ordered was under construction.
" II.B." illampstead).—The expense of printina an extra 9,000 copies of the Indian and Colonial supplement would have been too great. We believe working costs and results from users are more to the point than technical details. Motor omnibuses want all possible weight on driving wheels, though some designs might carry the roof more forward and utilise the space for outside passengers. We are not favourably impressed by what we know of the firm to which you refer. The idea is sound, but such an undertaking must be properly tackled by experienced people.
C.H.W."—Your queries are partly answered by our reply to "W.F.R." It is impossible to say that one place is better than another, for success depends upon your finding the necessary freight anywhere. Lancashire is probably the best field. It is very much harder to get together a new ::reneral carrier's business, which involves an immensity of detail, but you might be grafted to one already existing if the loads from depot to depot are heavy enough. The figures in the article entitled "Carrying by Contract" in No. 3 answer your other questions.
" R-J.G." {London).--The queries you send would take a complete issue of this journal to answer. ti) A large provincial town would perhaps afford better scope. (2) We cannot answer this without details of your views. 131 Select a few of those firms who seem to cater more particularly for your requirements, numbering each machine, and we will endeavour to pick out a suitable one. (4) It is important to give some idea of the amount you are prepared to spend for prime cost. Nature of country to be covered, condition of road surface, gradients of hills, and other local conditions. " A,K." (Linthwaite) writes :—" Last Whit Tuesday I left Greetland with a 2oft. by Sit. Lancashire boiler for Halifax. All went well till we got to the bottom of Salterhebble Hill, a very steep and dangerous gradient outside Halifax. I had 20-ton boiler on a y-ton trolley. I took it up the hill as far as I could with the engine coupled up to the draw-bar, till we came to the middle of the hill. This is paved with setts from top to bottom; the road men had been repairing and resetting the hill, and the setts were wholly covered with tar and pitch. When I got all the .s.'heels on to the tar the driving wheels began to. slip, as they had. no grip whatever on the tar. I told the men to uncouple the load and I would haul it up to the top with the wire rope. We always have two trailing scotches arranged behind the back wheels of the boiler wagon 18in. by t2in. by 6in., so as to lock the wheels if anything should happen. When we got uncoupled I happened to turn round and was horrified to see the boiler wagon gradually sliding backwards, the wheels not revolving but simply sliding on the tar. I jumped down from my engine nod went to the assistance of my two mates, who were trying to stop the runaway by jamming on the brakes, but all to no purpose. The boiler had got a good speed on down the hill, so I attempted to steer it as well as I could with the draw-bar. It was making for a row of houses at the bottom, and I knew if it got anywhere there it meant death and destruction to the inhabitants. I grabbed hold of a piece of wood which was handy and put it under the front wheel; this changed its course, altered the lock of the wagon, and took it straight across the street. It pulled all the kerbing and footpath up, cut clean through a wall and finally dropped on to a tip about five feet down, the boiler still remaining on the wagon and in the same position as when we left the boiler yard. Men, women, and children were screaming as it pursued its mad career down the hill. Happily no one was hurt, but the boiler wagon was badly damaged. We set to and had it up the hill again inside two hours."
" E.A." (Edmonton) writes :—" Some 12 months ago I was driving a Leyland six-ton lorry for Baumann Freres, flour millers, of Strasburg (Alsace). Whilst coining home from Hagnaeu, so kilometres away, I had got to the outskirts of Shiltighiem (the Burton of Germany), when in trying to avoid a brewers' dray I was forced on the tram lines; these stood up above road level about 4in. My back axle broke just inside the wheel hub. I procured from a brewery close by a small four-wheeled bogie, jacked wagon up and placed broken end of axle on it, and with a little help pushed wagon into an adjoining yard, only delaying the tram service 32 minutes. I then took down axle and went with it in a cart to the Locomotive Fabrique, Grafenstaden, where they made me a new axle. I put this up, the whole time occupied being 42 hours. Considering I could not speak one word of German, I think this was a piece of sharp work" " S.W." writes :—" While coming home late one night recently on my lorry two ;lin, studs broke, and as I had no new ones by me I was at a loss what to do. However, I looked in my tool-box and found a sin. bolt with nut, which I proceeded to use as follows :—I first of all cut the bolt into two pieces with the aid of abou: 3in, of hacksaw blade, l then filed the nut, making it into a solid die with the help of a short piece of rat-tailed file, and after procuring a pennyworth of prussiate of potash from a chemist whom I knocked up, I proceeded to case-harden the nut. I then cut a piece of tin from my oil can and lined one side of the die with this to make it rather smaller in diameter. The result enabled me to cut a very decent thread on my piece of bolt, which allowed me to get home after only two hours delay."
Prize of five shillings awarded to the sender of the above. Sidney White, 4, Alexander Terrace, East Hill, Dartford.
The address of S. J. Chapman, who was awarded the prize of five shillings last: week, is wanted, as the letter covering this remittance has been returned from the address he gave marked "Gone away."
We would remind drivers that there is no need to worn' about the style of language used, and that facts or smart repairs, or actual road experiences will always have the best chance. This column is not for opinions or jokes.