Passenger-Vehicle Topics.
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We are informed that some of the Gateshead tramcars are being converted to the "pay as you enter" system, experimentally.
Greenock Town Council has purchased an Albion ambulance. The chassis has a 15 h.p., four-cylinder engine, and is of the company's new cab type.
The traffic receipts on the L.C.C. tramways for the week ended 3rd April were £43,089. During the week ended 6th April the L.G.O.C. buses took £48,079.
The Unic cabs, which are the property of the "Banque Automobile" of Paris, and are being run on the " hire purchase " system in Battersea, were recently offered for sale.
The W. and G." company is still allowing its drivers the half a gallon of petrol per diem to take the cab into good business areas from Acton. The annual beanfeast of this company will take place in July, and Margate is the selected resort.
On Friday last a taxicab (1.-N116 was stolen from the road outside "The Ring" in Blackfriars Road. It was found abandoned the next morning in Southampton Row, but the Stepney wheel and magneto were missing. This is the fourth London cab which has been stolen during 1912.
Tilling's Report.
The annual report of the directors of Thomas Tilling, Ltd., for the year ended the 31st December last, shows a profit on trading of 229,661. With £15,280 brought forward from the previous account, the balance available amounts to .R44,941. Provision for the interest on debentures and the preference dividend reduces the balance to
£25,441. Of this, £2514 is transferred to a reserve fund, a dividend of five per cent. free of income tax is declared on the ordinary shares, and £15,927 is carried forward. The report makes no reference to the company's interest in the manufacture of Stevens petrol-electric vehicles, the value of which interest we should have expected to have found separately given on the asset side of the balance sheet.
It may be a matter of surprise to some of our readers, when they learn that the extensive jobbing branch of the company accounts for the retention of horses valued at no less a figure than 2204,048, whilst the "Goodwill and omnibus times" are valued at £117,001.
The company appears to be in a highly-satisfactory condition, taking everything into account, and we observe that its bank balance approximates £29,000, whilst its first class investments exceed £20,000. All the ordinary shares are held by the vendors of the old family business which is conducted by the present company.
Nearly 25_m,p.g.
A four-cylinder Renault, which is painted French grey, went from London to Heine Bay and back on Easter Monday ; 136 miles were covered, and the total petrol consumption was 51 gallons. This was one of Mr. Robert Bell's cabs, sold under hire-purchase terms.
Trap for Buses and Cabs.
A police trap has now been in operation in Grosvenor Place for the past three years. On inquiry we find that the trap is still worked nightly by means of electric-torch signals. The method of signalling is to make two flashes for a taxicab and three for a motor-omnibus. The colour of the flash is altered at times by means of coloured paper. During 1912, 200 eases resulting from this trap have been heard at Westminster Police Court. The usual fine for a public vehicle
is 10s. and 2s. costs. A previous endorsement means an increase of these sums to 40s. and 2s. costs.
The drivers of the B-type motorbuses are informed by their conductors that the trap is " working" by a certain number of taps with the foot on the back platform. The watches used are of London make and are made by John Reader.
L.G.O.C. Fourth Annual Dinner.
There was a crowded attendance on the occasion of the fourth annual gathering of the London General Omnibus Co. at the Holborn Restaurant on Saturday last. The actual number of diners is not available, but it must have been considerably in excess of 550, additional covers being laid in both the galleries of the King's Hall.
Lt.-Col. C. Colville again occupied the chair, and he was supported, amongst others, by : Mr. D. Duff and Capt. Durnble, the joint managers ; Messrs. M. J. Davey, traffic manager: F. Griffiths, director ; J. W. Greig, director ; A. H. Stanley, chief administrative officer of the "combine," and W. E. Mandelick, secretary of the tube interests ; A. S. Cardew, W. T. Moore, F. H. Bovey, and H. Macdonald, of the solicitors to the eoniesny ; M. Etienne Olivier, the French representative of the 'comnany : Sir Thomas Pile, (me director who joined the L.G.O.C. from the Great Eastern Co. ; Messrs. A. M. H. Walrond, director ; and E. ShranneIl Smith. Amongst other old servants of the company were Messrs. A. Crane, chief of the
coachworks ; E. Peaty ; A. Fyson ; H. Talbot; G. Schmidt ; and A. W. Windsor.
It was noticed that unfortunately several of the chief officials of the company were unable to be present. Amongst these were Mr. J. Lulham Pound, Mr. W. J. Iden, and Mr. H. Lansdown.
After the dinner, which by many was voted of too lengthy a nature for the occasion, the customary toasts were interspersed with performances by a number of concert a rt istes.
THE CHAIRMAN proposed "The King," and SIR THOMAS PILE, Bart., offered "The Navy, Army and Auxiliary Forces " in his characteristic anecdotal style. He cheerfully adopted as the keynut,' of his speech "Here we are again."
CAPT. DUMBLE, in his reply, drew ingenious parallels between the operations of the company and those of the various warlike forces. He told the tale of the battle of the buses, and made a strong appeal for the satisfactory employment of soldiers after the expiry of their terms of service. .
LT.-COL. COLVILLE was again called upon to speak, and this time to the toast of "The Company." He drew attention to the remarkable rise in the ordinary L.G.O. stock, which, on Saturday last, had reached the record figure of 300. He stated that this rise in value had been his own undoing. He was constantly being upbraided by his own best friends for not having told Chem that the .C100 shares would have risen in value from £17 to their present figure. He had consequently lost most of his best friends. He considered that the company had a tremendous field before it, providing, he added, that " the staff be true to itself."
One of the most interesting personalities at this banquet was MR. A. H. STANLEY, who attended in his newly-associated position as controller of the tube interests with which the L.G.O.C. is now identified. He said that five years ago when he came to London he had been told that the motorbus was what he had to watch, and he had watched it faithfully ever since. His colleagues had decided that the L.G.O.C. must be courted. The courting proved the L.G.O.C. to be both expensive and coy. A post-nuptial examination had satisfied the tube interests that the L.G.O.C. was all that, or even more than it had represented to be. He said that the servants of the Underground companies, whilst deploring in past years the remarkable success of the L.G.O.C. staff, had always paid a tribute to their openhandedness and their capacity for "playing the game." He definitely announced the impending inauguration of an L.G.O.C. pension scheme. MR. MITCHELL replied for the staff. He regretted there were so few representatives of the old L.G.O.u. present. He elaborated Mr. Stanley's announcement with regard to the pension scheme, which, he said, had been under consideration for the past four years.
MR. A. M. H. WALROND, director, proposed the toast of " The Visitors," to which Mr. Shrapnel! Smith replied. The latter gentleman congratulated the company upon being of such a selfcontained nature, not only in view of its production of its own models, but, as in the recent strike period, of the collection of its supplies from all over the country by means of its own fleet. He felt confident that at the present rate of output the total of 5000 effective motorbuses for service in London, which. he had suggested on previous occasions, would before long be on the road. After a passing reference to the economic effect of the amalgamation of the tube interests, and to recent cartoons of the Snakerloo, he concisely summarized the reasons for the cessation of further tramway construction.
The proposal of the toast of "The Chairman " by Mr. Church brought the proceedings to a close.
A word of praise is due to the committee for the successful organization of such a huge gathering. Mr. D. H. Duff is the secretary of this committee, and Mr. Schmidt the hon. treasurer.
A Registration.
Coventry Taxicab Co., £1000 in R.I. shares, by Jordan and Sons, Ltd., 116-117, Chancery Lane, W.C.
Bus v. Trolleybus in the North.
Situated on the Pennine Range, Todmorden is just the place to try buses to the utmost. There is now in the town a fleet of seven 3-1-40 h.p. " Leylands." Interested parties are scouring the town in the effort to influence public opinion on behalf of the trolleybus. The Town Corporation has received deputations with reference to this system, but, says our local correspondent, there is likely to be quite a long pause for thought before any such experiment is embarked upon.
Separate Entrances and Exits for Trams. An Interesting Innovation.
We were interested to notice that the general manager of the Liverpool Corporation Tramways, in his annual report for 1911, which has just been published, describes two new types of tramcars which it is the intention of the Tramways Committee to run experimentally on the Liverpool lines. One is a bogey truck car, with seating accommodation for. 84 passengers, but with a centre entrance accommodating a double staircase inside the body of the ear and having a separate eni ranee and exit to the upper deck. A similar divided gangway is provided by this arrangement to each end of the lower deck of the car. The other type of machine has accommodation for 74 passengers, and is of the single-truck type. It has a doubly staircase at each end, thus again affording separate entrance arid exit to both decks. The B.M.C. Co. Award.
An award has been issued by the Board appointed to deal with the dispute between the British Motor Cab Co., Ltd., and its drivers. The award states that the interests of both parties would be served by the substitution of the terms of the award of 0th March for the present conditions of service. The British Motor Cab Co., Ltd., is to have a separate Conciliation Board, with four representatives of employers and drivers. The award takes effect from ist May.
Newcastle Adopts Buses.
A motorbus service has recently been inaugurated between North Walbottle and Newcastle. The vehicles used will be of the petrolelectric type, and each bus will accommodate 34 people. They are double-decked, with the upper deck uncovered. Bolton Horse-owners Given Room for Thought.
The motor char-a-banes in Bolton during the Easter holiday proved a perfect godsend to the inhabitants
of the Lancashire town. A 30-mile circular tour, taking in some of the finest moorland scenery in central Lancashire, attracted numerous patrons at 2s. 6d. a head. The restricted train service drove many people to try this method of holiday travel for the first time, and following the innovation many of the proprietors of horsed pleasure-vehicles are making earnest inquiries in Manchester and district for motor chars-a-banes and cabs. Bolton, whose reputation is not of the kindest, has had its eyes opened during the past few weeks.
Where is Montgomery? Worth the Attention of Hirers.
At a Montgomery Town Council meeting a councillor stated that people coming to the station at the present time wanted to know " where Montgomery was." This remark was called forth by a discussion on the proposed inauguration of a motorbus service for goods and passengers. The Town Clerk stated that a sum of 218 per year was paid at present for taking the mails to two trains, and a further £200 per annum was paid for taking the mails to and from Cluirchsteke and Chirbury. The firstcouncillor thought that a motor service would he both cheaper and quicker.
It was resolved eventually that a deputation from the Council should wait upon the Cambrian Railway directors with a view to suggesting that that railway company should inaugurate a motor goods and passenger scheme. In the event of the refusal of the company to do this, a oublic meeting is to be called to see if a private company could not he started to open up a service.