BIRD'S EYE VIEW By The Hawk
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New I.T.A. Branch There is a move afoot to reconstitute an Edinburgh Division of the Industrial Transport Association. Prior to the war the Scottish division was very active. I gather, but because of travel restrictions, etc., it was wound up. However, certain interested parties residing in Eastern Scotland feel they would like to form a branch. I hear there is to be a get together on August 31 at the premises of the Scottish Gas Board at Edinburgh (by kind permission of Mr. J. E. Brandon, general manager of the Edinburgh Division of the Scottish Gas Board).
The " caretaker " secretary is Mr. John Sherriff, transport manager of Dunfermline Corporation. As he may not be able" to contact all interested parties, anybody who is interested in forming a branch of the Industrial .Transport Association in Scotland should contact Mr. Sherriff (telephone Dunfermline 3271).
Museum Poster I'm pleased to see that London Transport has produced a new poster publicizing the fine collection of London public transport vehicles on show at the Museum of British Transport, Clapham. The poster depicts a Tilling horse-drawn bus, a General B-type bus, a double-decker tram and one of the original Metropolitan Railway locomotives—all set in full colour on a light pink background. The new poster is now on display at many London Transport sites. It was designed and drawn by E. W. Fenton.
l'm sure that colleague F. K. Moses, whose feature "Museum in Danger" was published in our July 17 issue, will welcome this publicity for the Clapham collection. But with reader G. Krasker (" The Commercial Motor ", August 7) I ask, "Why not open on Sunday?"
Museum Poster
Matter of L.S.D. However good the majority
of commercial drivers may be, it must be allowed that when a man with a heavy vehicle behind him develops a bad habit he is not likely to lose it easily. Few people on the road are wining to champion their own right against somebody else's might. For this reason quite a lot of transport managers are coming round to the idea of independent tests for their staffs.
Also. I find, the League of Safe Drivers is finding increasing favour because each candidate for membership must pass a searching test at the outset—and also pass a renewal test each year. Mr. W. G. Tracey, transport manager of Elders and Fyffes Ltd., is quoted by the League (L.S.D. for short) as saying that all the road transport inspectors and supervisors employed by his company are n20 keen members and look forward to the annual refresher. This, he believes, is of material help in the work of training their salesman-drivers to exercise constant courtesy and care.
Have a Look! If you want to find out what
your competitors or customers are doing, just do whal Alistair Carter, managing director of Carter Engineering Co. (Tamworth) Ltd. does—fly over their premises and look. Mr. Carter, who last year regained his private pilot's licence (he was an R.A.F. pilot in the war), took colleagut Norman Tilsley for a flip over the Midlands recently after he had to call a flight to Scotland off because of bad weather. They flew, I'm told, over the premises of several car transporter operators where they were easily able tc spot the types of vehicle in use (you can't really camouflag( a car transporter, can you?).
Quick Flip Seriously though, Mr. Cartel now finds it more economical to fly around the countr5 visiting clients than to go by car. Last week he " flipped ' up to Perth where transport operator Alec McLennan wa: waiting to talk business. It took him three hours to cove the 375-mile journey in a Cessna Skyhawk—when he con tacted Scone Airport at Perth he was told to hurry up a his lunch was getting cold! Alex McLennan is also al experienced pilot. He's just gone off to Canada for si weeks and hopes to do a lot of private flying.
As for the ever-energetic Mr. Carter—well, he flew of to Folkestone last Friday. I believe he plotted his cows deliberately to take him over the premises of Silcock an Colling at Dagenham (they transport all Ford product produced there). To observe activities, no doubt!
Surface Scratch? "The older I get the mor positive I become that we have only scratched the surface o engineering potential. So many young men shake thei heads at us older fellows and say that we've done most o the major exploration and there isn't much left to be don( They couldn't be further from the truth."
Contentious statements indeed—with which, I don' doubt, many readers will not entirely agree. But the certainly provide food for thought. Who made them? Ai engineer with more than 60 patents to his name! He i Hans 0. Schjolin, who has just retired from Geners Motors' Truck and Coach Division after more than 3 years' service. You may not agree with Mr. Schjolire views, but time, I think, will prove him right.