A CLEVER AMERICAN TOP-DECK BUS COVER.
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An Interesting Design, which Ensures that Top-deck Passengers are Adequately Protected.
IN our issue for February 19th, under the heading "Passenger Travel News," we described an American experiment in the shape of a cover for the upper deck of a motorbus, the idea being to protect the passengers by a canopte which was extended over each bank of seats, leaving the passageway.. uncovered so that access to the seats could be facilitated.
The vehicle, as described and illustrated by US, was fitted up in the manner shown purely for experimental purposes, and it proved so successful that the orig:nators of the idea, the Philadelphia Rural Transit Co., of 24th Street and Fairmount Avenue, Philadelphia, have since set to work to produce a really practical vehicle with a permanent top. As our illustration shows, an extremely shapely superstructure has been erected, the whole of the upper deck being covered except for the passageway. Except on the rear corners, the portion above the waist rail, on each side and at both front and rear, is glass-panelled, and there is, of course, no need for the windows to be made so that they can be lowered, because the roof opening over the passageway allows for an abundance of ventilation.
Another great improvement which has been effected in the design of the vehicle is the entire enclosing of the platform and the carrying of the superstructure over the staircase entrance, the staircase thus being inside the vehicle.
This strikes us as being the finest example yet produced of a vehicle which gives adequate protection to passengers on the upper deck, and at the same time is sufficiently law in centre of gravity and presents a sufficiently small surface as to be absolutely safe in any weather.
The roof itself it supported not only upon the window posts, but also by stanchions which spring from the inner end of each seat-back. We think it will be agreed that the roof presents a light and graceful appearance, instead of the heavy aspect at which so many bus designers profess to be afraid when they are asked to consider the question of providing a permanent top to the upper deck. Buses with this type of cover are now being introduced by the Philadelphia Rural Transit Co. into service in the city from which the company takes its name, whilst the same type of vehicle is also proving popular in Detroit, Michigan, Chicago and Illinois. We are informed that the Yellow Coach Manufacturing 'Co., of Chicago, the largest bus manufacturers in the States, have secured an exclusive licence to use the feature in the United States and Canada,