DIFFICULTIES OF TROLLEY-BUS UNDERTAKINGS.
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Some Experiments with Railless Vehicles in Service in Yorkshire.
AT ONE TIME it might almost have been suggested that the West Riding of Yorkshire was the home of the trolley-bus, but, recently, develop
ments have taken place in s. number of cities in other parts of the country in connection with this system of tratsport which would appear to suggest that the railless trolley vehicle was making a wider appeal.
During the past year or two private undertakings have taken r up the ex
ploitation of the trolley-bus, and their activities have resulted in persuasive powers being brought to bear on muni cipalities which were inclined to favour
this-form of transport. It is only pos• sible for municipal bodies, or some body
working in close conjunction with a municipal body and an electrical distribution system, to take up the trolley Las system, and, consequently; inthe early days, it was left to the tramway departments of the various public authorities to evolve designs for railless cars for their own use. The trolley-bus was, consequently, a development of tramway practice adapted to road work, rather than a -road vehicle fitted with 'electric motors and a suitable transmission system.
The tramways departments interested in their own particular type• of trolley
bus tackled the problems which pre sented themselves each in its own particular way, and a good deal of expefi mental work has been carried nut in this
direction. Almost all the systems in the Westt. Riding have vehicles ranning
which differ from standard pattern.
Weight d'stribution is a difficult matter for trolley bus designers, and although the motor vehicle designer might envy the apparent ease with which it is possible to hitch an electric motor of suit able power to any convenient point of the chassis, without troubling about auxiliaries such as petrol tank, radiator: and cooling system and other engine fittings, another problem, that of weight distribution, arises here. If, to shorten the transmission as much as possible, • the Motors are brought its near as possible to the rear wheels, then by far the greater proportion of the weight of passengers, body and motors
is carried on the rear axle. Several alternatives have presented themselves for surmounting a Losable which; incidentally, brings with it troubles in connection with suspension, and on the Leeds and Keighley systems the transmission has been taken to the front wheels in the case of certain vehicles. In the case of the Leeds vehicles, the transmission is taken through reduction gears from fixed motors, but, in the case of the -experimental vehicle run at Keighley for some time, opportunity was taken td utilize the motor wheels which are a characteristic of the Cedes system originating in Austria and in which the motor is incorporated in the wheel. In the distribution of weight the front-wheel drive has advantages, but there is the.diSadvantage of steering the wheels having the tractive effort.
Spreading the Weight of a Trolley-bus Load. • The weight of double-deck trolley-buses was a trouble, and for a long time -designers were content with saloon buses. In dealing with the weight of a double. decker, the tramways manager of the Bradford Corporation has taken the original and noyel method of spreading the weight over three, axles inplace of two, and, although the drive is taken to the back wheels, one half the total load is carried on the four front wheel.s,
which are all steerable. The four front wheels are not mounted bogey fashion, but steer from a central column and are mounted on stub-axles.
Bradford has been very assiduous in dealing with trolley-bus problems, and has in service vehicles of varying capacities. The usual type is a single-deck bus with rear 'entrance, but the latest car turned out from the Thornbury works is a front-entrance, one-man bus. The driver takes the fares, and there is provision for the. driver closing the swing doors and lifting the step by levers from his seat. A small counter is provided for the issuing of tickets. This change was made to reduce running costs, as both driver and conductor are carried on the ordinary type of bus. The men objected to carrying out double duty, however, and the matter is under the consideration of the Corporation. At Bradford there is also in service a double-deck bus with four wheels which accommodates 51 passengers, as against 59 normally carried by the six-wheeled bus,which might also carry about five more in the open air in front of the upper-deck compartment. Two of the single-deck buses-are also equipped with anti-splash devices in the form of ribber flanges on the wheels.
The notable feature of the Cedes system, which is in operation at. Keighley, is the method of transmission. The drive is direct to the rim_ of the wheel. The current is carried I hroligil
the hub of the wheel to four brushes of some-What unusual design, because the surfaces of the brushes press inward against the face of the. commutator. The field magnets are part -of the axle, and thus the commutator revolves round the outside of the magnets and can be drawn off much as. a solid tyre •or loose rim is slipped off. This is the standard type Keighley, but, in one ease, some time ago, the -motors were taken off the back wheels and placed at the front. Twin tyre wheels were put at the back and the drila was taken through the steering wheels in order that there Should be less vibration on the motors due to. the lighter load being carried by the front wheels. Recently, however, a has has. been converted to be driven by under-, slung motors which • transmit power through a differential and back axle of lorry type, and this appears to be 'giving every satisfaction, allowing of greater speeds than the older type.'
The adantability of electricity lends itself to -varying types of transmission, but, whereas in the earlier trolley-buses it was usual to confine the controls to those operated by • hind; similar to A tramcar, foot controls are now being adopted and are proving satisfaetory.
The trolley-bus is 'generally adopted for routes upon which the traffic is not heavy enough to bear .the.eost of laying down nerrnanent *Eck, and at Bradford the services are used,for routes which . run across from the tram-routes radiating from the centre of the city.
An extensive development of interurban traffic is under consideration at the present time and plans are in hand for-linking up by means of trolleybuses a number of outlying towns, par tienlarly in the Span Valley and in Wharfedale. The scheme is not meeting with much support at the hands of the smaller local authorities outside the city, who claim that the traffic on many of the routes would not be sufficient, but apparently the tramway authorities of Bradford 'have great faith in the economy of the trolley-bus, and desire to start the services. Private enterprise is already at work in many quarters in which the corporation intend to Lay down plant, but apparently there is no fear on the part of the officials of the trolley-bus being unable to compete with the motor buses which are already on the roads.
A fair comparison between trolley
buses and motor buses would be interesting from the transport point of view, but, unfortunately, the conditions under which the two services are run make such comparisons almost impossible.
Tramway accounts and book-keeping are a mystery to the ordinary business man, and it is, -of course, impossible for trolley-buses to be run by private enterprise.