PASSENGER TRAVEL NEWS.
Page 60
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The Latest Doings and Developments in the Bus and Coach World.
A BUS COMPANY'S BODY PRODUCTS.
A Brief Description of a Saloon Body Built in the Coachworks of a Company which Runs a Large Fleet of Buses.
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WE often have occasion to refer in our columns to phases of the busoperating activities of United Automobile Services, Ltd., which, as many of our readers will be aware, maintains a eomprehensive network of regular services in East Anglia and the populous coal -mining r.reas of 'Northumberland, Durham and Yorkshire. The administrative organization of the company MIS recently been transferred to Kilburn .House, Fulford Road, York, but the coach factory is still at Lowestoft, where various types+of passenger-vehicle body for private bus owners and municipal authorities are constructed.
A ■.ypical product of the company's works is the saloon bus body hown on a Tilling-Stevens B 10A .chassis and illustrated .on this page. A glance at the picture is all that is necessary to reveal that the body is fully representative of modern bus design, and an outstanding feature of the vehicle is its low load-line. The bus is arranged for forward control, the driver being housed in a completely enclosed cab alongside the. engine, which is entered by way of a door on the off side. In addition to the usual bell signal between, conductor and driver, communication can be established by way of a sliding light fitted immediately. behind the driver's seat. The roof lines are carried right round and ahead of the driving position and thus give full protection to the cab and the destination indicator fitted on the underside of the roof to the left of the driver, apart from giving a shapely con
tour to the roof structure. .
The body is designed to seat 31 people, the seating arrangement being orthodox, that is to say, transverse seats, each
for two persons, are disposed on each side of a central gangway, except over the rear wheel arches, where longi. tudinal seats are used to obviate discomfort to the passengers occupying this part of the body. More than a passing thought has been given to the question of passengers' comfort, for not only are good spring cases used for the seats, which are upholstered in leather, but
the distance between the backs of the seats measures from 2Si ins. to 31* ins.,. tbus ensuring that ample leg-room is available.
The only passenger entrance is at the rear end on the near side and, being of wide proportions and having .a low step, it makes for safe and speedy loading and unloading.
There are five large lights on the near side, which can be lowered, and six of the same kind on the off side, and these ensure that the interior gets plenty of fresh air in the summer, whilst when they are closed in the winter three roof ventilators attend to the interior ventilation.