Leyland Trolleybuses for Canada Have Special Equipment
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-IE three trolleybuses built by Ley'. land Motors, Ltd., for Edmonton, Alberta, were ready a few days ago for shipment to Canada. Together with a further three trolleybuses acquired by the Edmonton Radial Railway, they will operate on a 51-mile route previously serviced by trams which are now to be discarded from a greater part of the route when the trolleybuses are put in service. These new vehicles form part of the modernization programme which is to be undertaken by Edmonton, thus, as mentioned in our issue for last week, giving the city the distinction of being the third in Canada to employ trolleybuses. The scheme is expected_ to cost 2i million dollars before being finally completed.
Severe climatic conditions—it is not uncommon for the city to have temperatures which are often very much below zero—and the hilly roads, which in some parts are 1 in 10, have nectssitated special equipment for the machines. They are six-wheeled lefthand steered chassis with a one-piece nickel-steel frame, arranged with drop extensions at the front, so as to permit a front entrance door to be placed alongside the driver, and with a further drop extension at the rear which forms a cradle for the electrical contactor gear.
Although in the winter the ice-bound surfaces of hilly roads in Edmonton are usually sanded, the buses are built to operate independently of this service. For this purpose the wheels of the buses have a slightly larger track to take skid chains and a sand ejector is fitted to the A34 chassis. Sheet-metal containers holding approximately 5 cwt. of sand run longitudinally between the near-side and off-side wheels of the rear bogie.
The containers are replenished through trap doors in the body floor. Feed pipes with pliable rubber nozzles, which are less prone to damage from obstacles in the road, convey the sand to the front and rear of all driving wheels. The sand-ejector device is operated by compressed air drawn from a separate reservoir used solely for this purpose.
A Big Air Compressor.
An exceptionally large air-compressor motor of Westinghouse manufacture supplies air at the rate of 13 cubic ft. per minute to the air reservoir for the sanding equipment and to the reservoir for the braking system and for the pneumatic door gear of the body. The compressor motor is governed to "cut in" should the air in either of these reservoirs fall below 75 lb. per sq. in.
G.E.C. electrical equipment is used, and comprises a 135 h.p. motor, mounted on Floatex mountings amidships in the chassis, limited regenerative control and trolley-boom retrievers, a popular practice in America. The motors are ventilated by clean filtered air drawn into the units by ducts. Low-voltage current for interior lighting is provided by a separate dynamo, this instrument being belt driven from the main motor.
Park Royal Coachwork, Ltd., is re, sponsible for the bodies, which are 8 ft. 3 ins, wide to provide adequate gang. way space for standing passengers, and have seating accommodation for 3E persons. Torribar heaters are fittu: under all seats and are controlled ther mostatically to maintain a temperattm of 55 degrees minimum. Rubber mud. guards are fitted all round.