Co-operation a Palliative for Bus Owners' Difficulties.
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HERE are in London to. day 250 " independent " motorbuses (that is, buses which. do not come.
. within the control or under the operations of the' "combine "), of which .about SO are the sole vehicles of their proprietors. There are no fleets with more than 30 or 40 vehicles, the majority consisting of fewer than half a dozen vehicles. We have already foreshadowed the difficulty of the many owners which these figures. indicate, and it has seemed that it can enly be overcome by a definite scheme of cooperation. That scheme exists in the establishment of an association of bus proprietors, and. the question,arises as to how far such an association can go in. dealing with the main cause of trouble—the need for an annual overhaul of the chassis.
The chassis manufacturer is not in a position to undertake the task of overhaul, except in the case of vehicles of his own production, and even that is not necessarily an attractive proposition, because the bus owner is more than usually desirous of speed in the work and of getting his vehicle back into service . in order tOminimize the loss of revenue, and to save the loss of prestige cons:equent upon being off the road,' and the manufacturer with repair facilities cannot put aside the interests of his other customers.
It altiost seems as if there is an opening for a separate organization equipped .for the 'purpose of overhauling the four or five ,makes of chassis that have found, a market arming London bus owners. Some proper guarantee should be given that the work shall be placed the hands of such an organization, such as by the subscription of a part of the capital, whilst a concern of this kind would be ma a position to carry astock of components for the replacement of temporarily defective units, the stock component being loaned or exchanged on a fair and proper scale of charges.
When one remembers that the Minister. of Transport has stated that he is not prepared to deal with individuals, but only with representative institutions, it becomes obvious that there are more reasons than one why the-independent bus owners of London must put aside all thought of acting independently and without regard to their competitors. They must O . operate, and in doing so they will be in a better position to -negotiate with Government Departments and to secure economy in Vehicle maintenance,
A Van Chassis Designed for a Single User.
HISTORY has a knack of repeating itself, but on this particular occasion the repetition, we have reason to believe, will not be complete, although whether there is any form of an undertaking preventing complete repetition we do not know. In 1910 the London General Omnibus Co. proceeded to design and construct its own omnibuses, through the medium of an associated manufacturing concern. The two great aims were (1) to secure exactly the type of vehicle required for the service in view ; and (2) to permit of the establishment of a scheme of maintenance which should reduce the time spent in dock when adjustment, repair or overhaul became necessary. The scheme has proved quite successful, arid one of the side issues has been the manufacture of goods and passenger vehicles for other users besides the omnibus company.
To-day the L.G.O.C. has designed and .produced under its own roof (employing standard components) a van chassis, one which is entirely suited to the work which the staff has in view, and which can be maintained as buses are maintained—namely, by the removal of a defective unit and its replacement by another so that the vehicle can, with a fractional delay, be put back into service, the defective unit undergoing repair or overhaul and being put into stores. We are assured, however, that in the case of the van chassis there is no intention whatever to go ahead with its production for the purpose of marketing, although the design and the quality of the completed vehicle are such as would make it an attractive proposition to many users. Perhaps, however, the vehicle is just a little too good, for, whilst it could not be described as an expensive production, there is no evidence that a skimping policy has been pursued in its construction.
The development is interesting, even if only because it is one more instance of a definite breakaway from the use of the imported vehicle, upon which the average user has hitherto been altogether too willing to depend.
The Importance of Details.
IT IS a significant fact that whilst various grandiose schemes for the redesigning and improvement of the petrol engine, proposed from. time to time, have come to nothing, the detail alterations carried out during the past ten years have improved engine efficiency to a very marked extent. Inventors might remember that, if half the energy and labour devoted, say, to the development of an internal-combustion turbine were directed towards perfecting the existins,at' power unit, there would be a much greater chance ()f success for the inventor and of benefit to the industry.
As an instance of the alteration in the characteristics of an engine which can be effected by redesigning one component, we cannot do better than quote the case of the combustion chamber. We know of an engine built by a format:is firm which could not be induced to. run on a compression ratio exceeding 4 to 1. Experiments were made with the Ricardo shape of combustion chamber, with the result that the ratio for this engine is now 5 to 1, and no knock ing occurs, even when low-grade petrol is used as a fuel. This increased ratio means, of course, both with greater power and efficiency, a corresponding deesease in petrol consumption.
There are many other promising lines of research available at the present time. For example, there seems no doubt that the average induction system is anything. but perfect, with the -result that the mixture is not equally distributed to the cylinders as regards quantity, nor is the strength the same in each case. In consequence, the carburetter must be 318 set on the rich side to ensure even running, and an unduly high petrol consumption results. There isno doubt that a simple method for ensuring equabledistribution would meet with success and as previously stated, there are many other detail problems requiring solution.
Noise and the. Need for its Avoidance
HE PRODUCTION of undue noise by any piece of mechanism is a sure indication that wear is taking place, so that, broadly speaking, a noisy chassis is not so efficient as a silent one. For this, if for no other reason, the question of preventing noise is worthy of attention by manufacturers.
However, in this case there are a number of other reasons of considerable importance. The noisy motor coach .is a nuisance to the passengers who travel in it, the presence of noisy vehicles on the road is most annoying to others who use the roads or live near to them, whilst a lorry which proceeds on its way in an atmosphere of grindings, hummings and rattles induces fatigue in the driver.
To some extent, care in maintenance will minimize noisy running, but the most careful ownercannot wholly cope with faulty design. Here, the remedy seems to lie largely in the protection of all bearing surfaces, such as those of the brake gear connections, spring shackles, etc., and the provision of adequate facilities for their lubrication. More care might also be devoted to the reduction of gearbox noises and the silencing of engines. Suspension systems also deserve attention ; it is a. common experience to see an unladen lorry with the aides jumping at every ridge in the road and transmitting undue vibration to the chassis, owing to unsuitable spring design.
The Coming of the SupplementaryZearbox.
THERE are not wanting examples to show that there is an increasing tendency towards the utilization of some form of supplementary gearing by which the standard gear ratios of an ordinary vehicle may be supplemented in such aemanner as to give higher road speeds for the same engine speeds, and intermediate gear ratios which will permit the utmost economy being obtained from the power unit
It is a comparatively simple matter with many chassis to fit some form of booster gear, and a single train is usually sufficient to double the total number of speeds available. .
Many vehicles, and particularly those which were originally designed for running on solid tyres and have later been equipped with pneumatics, are undergeared, so that, in order to obtain satisfactory speeds on the road, the engines have to be raced in a manner which causes rapid deterioration and often an unpleasant vibration.
It is also frequently found with vehicles operating in hilly districts that the ideal gear ratio for surmounting the majority of hills lies somewhere between those actually provided by the ordinary gearbox. A long, steady climb may, either wholly or in part, be just too much to be effected on top gear, and yet there is so often such a big drop between the top and second gears that it seems wasteful to run vehicles on the lower gear. In such cases there is a tendency on the part of drivers to hang on to top gear for so long as to cause undue stressing of the engine bearings, and it is in instances like this that the auxiliary gearbox meets a decided need.
Apart from the unavoidable extra complication which must ensue, the use of such additional gearboxes on many vehicles appears to possess many potentialities, and particularly on those which may at one time be used for passenger work and at another time for the conveyance of goods.