HMD buses enjoy. . .
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AR NIGHTS BENEATH THE STARS
FIGURES speak for themselves, particularly to transport managers who want to effect economies, so before attempting to explain in detail why and how the Stalybridge, Hyde. Mossley and Dukinfield Transport Board went over to 50 per cent open-air parking a little more than five years ago it is worth while quoting some basic costs.
Capital construction for the open-air parking ground, plus heaters and installation for all vehicles, represent a figure of £22,500 as compared with £60,000 for the conventional type of garage. For the cost of heating a figure of £1,100 per annum is quoted as compared with £2,000 per annum for the ordinary garage, while the rateable value is £600 against £2,750, the current industrial rate at Stalybridge being 13s 2d in the £. For the open-air parking ground interest charges (equalized over 30 years) are given as £696 annually compared with £1,857, while capital redemption stands in at £750 against £2,000 for a garage.
The initial object of the scheme was to obviate heavy capital expenditure and while this was achieved it will be seen that a useful Cut has also been made in running expenses. At the same time Mr. J. H. Wood, the general manager. and Mr. W. Start, the chief engineer, are able to show that the new conditions are. if anything, more beneficial than those of earlier days.
Before November 5 1962 half of the fleet had been housed in the main depot and half in a former tram shed, but as time went by the need for extensive repairs to the latter became only too obvious; in fact, complete reconstruction appeared to be the only answer. To permit reasonable flexibility accommodation had to be provided for some 60 buses out of the fleet of 91, preliminary estimates showing a charge of £1,000 per vehicle, or a total capital cost of £60,000, would be needed.
In the initial stages the situation was the subject of lengthy consideration by Mr. Frank Brimelow, (then general manager and now at Birkenhead), Mr. Wood (then his chief assistant) and Mr. Start. As things turned out responsibility for the implementation of the project fell to Mr. Wood and Mr. Start.
Like many other undertakings the Stalybridge, Hyde, Mossley and Dukinfield Transport Board, a statutory body set up under its own Acts and drawing six members from each of the named authorities, suffered from having its location on a restricted site, hemmed in by other activities. However, at an early stage in the proceedings the Board managed to acquire a stretch of ground, only a few yards from the main depot in Tame Street, which had been used by British Road Services and was being vacated when that organization moved to a more spacious site. The land was obtained with the object of housing a section of the fleet in one way or another and the choice eventually fell, as already described, on open park ing.
After some thoughts on steam heating of power units, a full investigation of the possibilities of engine and saloon heating by mains electricity was commenced. In cooperation with Geo. Bray and Co. Ltd., of Leeds, extensive research was carried out and a test bus was fitted with the necessary equipment. Lengthy trials proved the system to be a satisfactory proposition.
The former BRS site was rough, and on two levels, so excavation and concreting of the surface were first priority. As already indicated the costs of site preparation and provision of necessary equipment and cables, plus their installation, worked out at £22,500. The full system went into action in the autumn of 1962, coinciding with a spell of exceptionally severe weather that must certainly have revealed any deficiencies. The vehicles are rostered so that half the fleet is accommodated on the parking ground and half in the depot, the vehicles being alternated night by night.
Advantages?
What have been the advantages? The primary benefit has been one of economy but passengers on the early turns have undoubtedly appreciated being freed from the bleakness inevitably associated with a vehicle coming straight out of a garage in the chill of a winter morning. There has also been absolute freedom from starting troubles so that the whole idea has naturally been acceptable to the staff. Points that might also be taken into consideration are that the engines are never cold so that deterioration is kept at a minimum, while there are savings in respect of lighting and heating that would have been necessary if covered accommodation had been provided.
Interior fan heaters are used for the saloon and immersion heaters are employed in the cooling systems. The heaters consist of 350W Chromalox elements. A dozen such elements are employed to make up the 4.2k W unit that is used for the open platform double-deckers. Nine provide a 3.1kW heater for vehicles with platform doors and six are used to give the 2.1kW for the single-deckers. Upper saloons are usually dank places first thing on winter mornings but natural convection results in temperatures upstairs generally being 4 deg. warmer • than the lower deck when SHMD buses set out.
The fan heater unit is contained in a glass-reinforced plastics case which on the double-deckers is located at the rear between the ceiling of the lower saloon and the floor of the upper, being ducted so that the warm air is fed to both. In the single-deckers the unit is placed in the centre at floor level with ducts feeding forward and rearward.
The 750-1,000W Tubalox element is fitted to the base of the radiator. Because of the distance involved, the underfloor power units have an additional heater fitted into the block. Safety switches are incorporated in all cases which automatically cut out the supply should air starvation or fan failure occur. Similarly the power supply is cut at the plug point in the case of an earth leakage. The power is, of course, metered on the Electricity Board's off-peak tariff.
Five buses are parked in each of 12 outside bays, a plug point being located in a pillar adjacent to each bus stance. Action of each heater is controlled by a thermostat, the heater coming into operation when the temperature falls below 37 deg. In addition there is an over-riding time control that in any case actuates the system at 4 a.m. A coiled flexible cable with plug is housed in the pillar already mentioned and connection is readily made to the mating equipment which is concealed behind a small panel to the rear of the driver's door. In the course of five years' use the only renewals needed have been a number of plugs and sockets. Engine and fan heaters are linked together by a wiring harness which in the open platform double-deckers passes through the cavity between the upper and lower saloon.
The interior fan heater, the radiator heater, casing, and wiring harness, are marketed by the Redileads Manufacturing Co., Town Hall Buildings, Llangefni, Anglesey. The SHMD Transport Board has taken out patent rights on the heating system for the parking ground.
The fact that some of the undertaking's terminal points are situated on the edge of the moors, where temperatures are low even in daytime during mid-winter, was one of the factors that influenced the Board to take an interest in the use of electrically heated screens. Another aspect having a bearing on this development was that the single-deckers had never been completely cured of misting trouble and as SHMD was planning to start one-man operation the aim was to give drivers the best possible conditions.
After initial experiments it was decided to try out Triplex heated screens on the three single-deckers that it was intended should go over to one-man operation. The offside and nearside screen panels for these first three were fitted by SHMD itself but when six new Bristols were ordered this item was included in the specification. Mr. Wood reports that the results have been most satisfactory, the drivers considering the equipment a great improvement over the conventional screen. Ten new Daimler Fleetlines, eventually to be used for oneman operation, are being equipped in a like manner. The latest Triplex screens incorporate a timing device giving full heat for a pre-determined period and then cutting down the supply to just sufficient for maintaining adequate de-frosting and de-misting. In the case of exceptional conditions the driver can switch back to full power.