MOTORBUS DEVELOPMENTS IN SWEDEN.'
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Types of Vehicle which are Favoured and Brief Details of Two Models Built by a Prominent Swedish Company.
TIT_TRING the past few years rapid 1_, progress has been made with the establishment of motorbus services in Sweden, where, as in this country, tramway companies are finding that modern road vehicles are useful for developing outlying areas and also for acting as feeders to the tramway system.
One of the leading motor manufacturing companies in Sweden who have devoted considerable attention to the design and construction of passenger road vehicles is the Aktiebolaget ScaniaVabis, of Sedertalje, who have built a large number of vehicleS of this type. To meet the requirements of users in their country; the company have standardized on tWo sizes of chassis—one, with a 50 b.p. engine, being designed to carry bodies seating 25 to 30 pasSengers; and a smaller model, with a 36 h.p. engine, on which bodies seating from 18 to 20 passengers can be mounted.
Except that one vehicle is larger than the other and is soinewhat more robust in construction, the two chassis are very similar and, in fact, their layout is identical. The larger model has a fourcylinder engine with a bore and stroke of 100 mm. by 160 mm. respectively, whereas the smaller chassis has a fourcylinder unit of which the bore is DO mm. and the stroke 140 mm. Other
features of the engine include overhead-type valves, whilst each of them is fitted with a carburetter of special design, which enables petrol, alcohol or charcoal gas to be used as fuel.•
From the mashie the power is transmitted through a plate clutch to a four-speed gearbox, which" is connected to the rear axle through a cardan shaft and bevel and spur-gear drive.
The larger chassis has a wheelbase of 1.4 ft. 9 ins, and a track of 4 ft. 10 ins., and its weight with a standard type of body is 3 tons 3 cwt. The dimensions of the smaller model. are: Wheelbase, 12 ft. 11 ins.; track, 4 ft. 9 ins., the total weight being 2 tons 1icwt.
We reproduce photographs of typical examples -of the 30-seater bus, one of the .vehicles being in the service of the
Gothenburg Tramway Co., by whom it is used for linking up Lundby with Hultmans-Hohne. In this ease the vehicle is of the one-man-controlled type, but the other picture shows a vehicle in the service of the Stockholm Central Omnibus Co., which has doors both fore and aft, that at the rear being used by passengers boarding the bus and that at the front by those who are dismounting.
In some respects the bodies possess a marked resemblance to British designs.