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The BRISTOL

19th June 1913, Page 13
19th June 1913
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Page 13, 19th June 1913 — The BRISTOL
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TRNWAYS & CAMAGE CLP

After minute investigation of the many active branches of the business of the Bristol Tramways and Carriage Co., Ltd., there is one outstanding impression which is certain to remain with anyone who has intimate knowledge of the commercial-motor industry generally. Here one finds a business corporation of vary considerable magnitude which has successfully managed to co-ordinate the tramway organization of a great city with those other and more advanced methods which are now available to those who are responsible for providing the best facilities for public-passenger transport on the roads.

Bristol to-day is a remarkable object-lesson to those municipal authorities who, for reasons which are not far to seek, have confined their energies in regard to nassenger-transport questions to the provision of an all-embracing network of rajlbound traffic.

There are not many instances of great cities, outside the Metropolis and its own peculiar licensing characteristics, where the citizens and their guests have facilities which are strictly in accordance with modern progress. Gargantuan struggles are being made by astute traffic managers and electric-tramway committees to keep the pace which is being set all over the country, in provincial as well as urban districts, by the modern motorbus. More often than not, shackled by the limitations of elec

trical technology, those who are responsible for the advising in such matters are afraid to do anything which would encourage so virile an antagonist as the motorbus has now Droved itself.

Perhaps the most remarkable

feature—we consider it a fortunate one—of the struggle for supremacy between motorbus and tramcar in London is the fact that now at last the London County Council is introducing so-called improvements of service which one would have expected to have seen carried into effect long ere the challenge was issued on behalf of the motorbus as a competitive means. If the latter vehicle has had no other effect, and we do not admit such a state of affairs, it has at least tuned the tramway authorities up to their maximum endeavour. The conservatism of the tramway authority in the average provincial city, in relation to the claims of the motorbus, is instinct with self-preservation. Had it not been that, in the majority of cases, those who own -ne tramlines also have the say as to the refusal to licence any better competitive means which might come along to endanger the goodwill, the motorbus would have chalisngecl the tramcar as effectively in almost all the great cities of this country, as it has indisputably in and around the Metropolis.

Bristol, in the light of the foregoing considerations, is an informative instance of what might. have happened in many other great cities had their municipal business been conducted on the lines which characterize the average successful industrial undertaking which has its living to get. Bristol has been content to leave the provision of adequate public travelling facilities in and around its area in the hands of an enterprising company, and that concern, as alive to public interest as to the necessity of earning dividends, has not hesitated for a moment to investigate alternative methods to the tramway, with

the result that the motorbus was given its chance so long ago as January, 1909, in that city.

A Place for the Motorbus.

Mr. Chalks Challenger, the courteous general manager of this great corporation, who, by the way, entered its service so long ago as 1875 and assumed his present responsibilities in 1882, has persistently investigated the possibilities of self

propelled traffic on behalf of his company. This policy has resulted in the definite proof, by an industrial concern responsible for a city's passenger transport, that there is a, place for the motorbus as remunerative and effective as that so long held by the tramcar.

Here in Bristol we find a great combined service as adequate as anything that has come to our notice from the point of view of public-service convenience, and one which, in addition, we imagine is highly remunerative to its owners.

A Fleet of 550.

We have Pleasure, thanks to the courtesy of Mr. Challenger and his able assistants, in placing before our readers a full account of this company's many activities. We are enabled to indicate for their benefit how it manages to employ satisfactorily approximately 530 commercial-motor vehicles of various kinds. Critics of such clmbined services would undoubtedly be prompt to suggest that there was something in Bristol's traffic or its geographical features which are exceptionally favourable to such dual methods, but that that is not so is evidenced by the company's own progressive policy in other big towns over 100 miles away from its headquarters. Bath, Cheltenham, and Gloucester are all being served by motorbuses, inotorcabs, and other industrial vehicles belonging to the Bristol Tramways and Carriage Co., Ltd., which company, in respect of the number of machines employed, unrionbtedlv ranks second to the great London General Omnibus Co.'s organization.

Bristol in the Limelight.

It is particularly appropriate that we are in a position to lay before our readers an account of this West Country undertaking, in view of the fact that the attention of the reading public, on the whole, is, during the present month, likely to be concentrated on Bristol and its resources. Of the city and its con'figuration, as well as of its particular and extensive trade interests, we have something to say elsewhere in THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR. The manner in which the tramcar and motor vehicle actually co-operate in Bristol public service is best, illustrated by a handy man which has been nroduced under Mr. Challenger's direction : it shows the existing tramlines in and around the city as well as the routes of the motorbuses.

Earlier in this article we have written that we assume that this company's activities have been attended with success, and perhaps we may, in that respect, draw the necessary deductions from the fact that a large modern new factory is already practically completed and on the point of being opened for the manufacture of the Bristol Tramways and Carriage Co.'s own designs of chassis. As the opening of this new works will be attended with some little ceremonial, at which we hope to be present, we must not anticipate matters by saying more of this latest development than by drawing attention to it as evidence of the success of the company's forward policy.

Bus and Tram Co-operate.

As some of our illustrations satisfactorily show, the motorbuses run, in many eases, right into the tramway centre. The transference of passengers from tram to bus, and from bus to tram, is a simple matter, and arrangements are made to facilitate such interchange. The motorbuses are used primarily on outlying routes, and on those which do not normally carry so heavy a traffic as that dealt with by the tramways ; one route extends to the sister city of Bath. The road covered by regular motorbus services in and around Bristol is 50 miles in length already.

Success of the Single-decker.

Passing to a consideration of the machines which are actually used in the motor-vehicle department of this company, and after examination of drawings and photographs pertaining to the models which are now standardized, we find that there has been no slavish oopying of existing methods ; the policy of trial and error has been adopted wholeheartedly. Mr. Challenger first of all experimented, out on the Clifton Bridge route, with the conventional double-deck motorbus, much On the lines of those with which we have become so familiar in London, the type of body evolved showing but little alteration from the old-time horsed bus ; but it did not take long for the investigatw.s to discover that this class of coachwork, and, indeed, the chassis upon which it was mounted, was not entirely suitable for these provincial extra-urban services. The top deck caused swaying and soon went by the board, and experiments of all kinds, with suitable single-deck bodies were commenced. The authorities nowadays allow a small number of extra passengers to stand on Sundays and in wet weather on both trams and buses.

A Big New Factory.

We have been impressed with the care which has been taken, during a number of years past, to evolve a suitable body for these Bristol services. Perhaps one of the most interesting designs to be achieved is a composite model, which may be seen in one of our photographs., and of which a considerable number of new examples is being constructed in the shoos. This consists of two cross benches at the front, with an enclosed body at the back, all having entrance from the side running boards. Mr. Challenger tells us that one of his principal objections to the use of double-deckers was the fact that, in summer, the tops were only used, whilst in the winter passengers crowded the interiors and left the outside seats vacant. Nowadays there is no alternative, and the standard single-decker pro vides an excellent compromise. It is an open, covered vehicle of char-a-banes type in the fine months of the year, whilst in the winter it is closed by the addition of large fixed windows. Its average seating capacity is 22. In the course of these experiments it was also foune that there was much objection to the use of hack entrances, whilst the front entrance also was not

always satisfactory. The best compromise was found to be a door in the side of the front of the body. The Bristol company's public-service vehicles present many other unique features of coachwork,, and we must congratulate the designers on their consistent experimenting and their refusal to accept any type as quite final. In regard to chassis, exhaustive trials have been made of several types, and the company has, in connection with its considerable hire-maintenance scheme for tradesmen, extensive experience of the running of sonic of the best-known makes of petrol wagons. It is, however, employing its own designs of chassis now to a large extent, and it is to he presumed that it will do so exclusively when its new works are in full swing. Its latest models, of which two good examples will be staged at the Royal Show are of the worm-driven type, and we are happy to be in a position to illustrate these two vehicles, one fitted as a brewer's lorry, and the other for carrying dairy produce. The earlier chassis of the company's own design, a large number of which are in regular service, are chaindriven.

The new machines have 28 h.p. engines with a 41 in. bore and a 5 in. stroke, of clean design, fitted with Bosch magneto and pump circulation. A unique feature of the control is the placing of the gear and brake levers on the eear side of the driver in the centre of the chassis. The drive is taken via a sturdy form of gearbox through the worm -driven axle, which has a vertical split case. through the front ends of the rear springs. Exceptionally powerful brakes are provided, of the internalexpanding type, on the rear wheels, and of the external pattern immediately behind the gearbox. The means for adjustment of both sets are commendably accessible. The 'engine has a fan flywheel and drives through a plate clutch ; a clutch brake of milt& dimensions, is provided.

Perhaps the most noticeable feature of the local passenger-vehicle services is the regular weekly programme of char-a-bancs tours, which are offered to residents anti to visitors to carry out their trips to the many beautiful parts of the surrounding counties. Probably this class of business has reached a most noticeable point in respect of a twodays tour of 100 miles each way to Torquay and back, which has been arranged for the 21st and 22nd inst. The sum of 20s. is charged for the journey, and halts are to be made at Taunton on the outward journey, and Exeter on the return journey.

Bristol is to be left at 2 p.m., and Torquay reached at 8.20 p.m. An interesting and novel feature of these long-journey trips is, that each passenger is allowed space for a small hand dressing-case. Amongst the many other classes of journeys which are regularly ad vertised, we may quote a few exam pies: a 10s. tour to Tetbury„ Cirencester, the top of Birdlip Hill and Stroud, with tea on Birdlip, 1100 ft. above the sea ; a, 2s. 6d. trip to Brockley Combe and Druid's Stones at Stanton Drew ; other trips to Burrington Combe for the Mendips to the celebrated Cheddar Gorge and Cheddar ; to Portishead and to Clevedon, and to all the race meetings held within reasonable distance of Bristol. Evidence of the popu larity of these trips is the fact indicated to us that the first char-a banes for the big Torquay trip was hooked right up shortly after publication of the details.

With regard to cabs, the Bristol Tramways and Carriage Co., Ltd., has big fleets in several towns. In Bristol, the first were installed in 1008; in Weston-super-Mare, in Bath. in Cheltenham, and Gloucester there are large taxicab fleets. All the cabs employed are either Clement-Bayards or Charrons. Interesting features of taxicab opera tion are that there are no "extras," and that the company has to carry up to five passengers for the initial is. "Ring up 335 for a blue taxicab" is a familiar advertising phrase in the city.

Vire have written somewhat ex

tensively of the company's motorbus organization, because it is with this class of vehicle that it has made such a notable record in respect of co-operative working with tramways, but there are a number of other directions in which the Bristol concern has successfully exploited motor-vehicle types. Few concerns, for instance, have so thoroughly developed the hiremaintenance scheme for motorvans and lorries for the service of local tradesmen and others.

Mr. Challenger tells us that tradesmen are increasingly appreciating the facilities which a big maintenance company can offer them by assuming the whole responsibility for efficient and regular service in respect of their delivery units. The company's operations in this branch of their business are not confined to the home city, and certain maintenance contracts are in existence for vehicles so far away as Glasgow, London and elsewhere.

We think we need say no more with regard to the company's reinarkable diversity of employment. Successfully to operate motorbuses of all kinds in various towns, taxicabs in large fleets, considerable numbers of private-hire cars of the touring-car type, as well as of the torpedo-char-a-bancs type, and lorries and motorvans under hiremaintenance conditions, is surely evidence as much of managerial foresight and efficiency as of determination to turn to account every means which the progress of mechanical science places at the disposal of the company. How much better advised, we may conclude, would have been many of those municipalities, entangled with their own tramway octopus, had they, instead of indulging in obstinate opposition to the self-propelled vehicle, taken advantage of the unique facilities which it offers to supplement rail-bound traffic. They could have built up, in many cases, great remunerative businesses covering diverse services, just as has this company.


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