Passing Comments
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Does It Pay to Use 'THERE -appears to be some Smaller-capacity 1 dissatisfaction, in the case
Buses ? of certain bus undertakings.
with the light single-deckers to carry 32 passengers, the production of which has been, arranged for by the Ministry of Supply. According to the Select Committee on National Expenditure, it is said that they are not robust enough to withstand the heavy stress put upon them. There is also the difficulty of labour, because, for the same staff, singledeckers can carry little more than half the number' of people who can be accommodated by doubledeckers. There is certainly the fact that their manufacture occupies less man-power, but if it be impossible to get the workers to the factories owing to the shortage of. buses, production of munitions will suffer equally as much as if some of the capacity had been switched to the larger Vehicles.
A Step in the DirecTHE promise made by Mr.
tion of Restoration of P. Noel-Baker, Joint Par Route Signs . ; . liamentary Secretary to the
M. of .W.T., that signposts will be reinstated in certain towns is, at least, a step in the right direction, and we trust that this policy will be widely extended. As to replacing directional signs in the country, the permission for this to be done rests with the military authorities, and is subject to considerations of national safety. We believe, however, that suitable arrangements could be made to remove such signs rapidly in the event of any real emergency. They could easily be hidden or their wording and figures obliterated by paint, and the local police or Home Guard could be made responsible for this action. Much worry and confusion and quite a considerable quantity of fuel would no doubt be saved if signs low enough to be read by the aid of masked head lamps could be provided at the most difficult points.
Ford-built Tea Cars THRILLING reports. of the in the Thick of the I "'work of the Ford-built Fighting . . . . Y.M.C.A. tea cars during Rommel's last .advance into Libya were redently received. They indicate that the vehicles were always in the thick of' the fighting —at Gazala, in the Tank "boxes," and on the Tobruk Perimeter. Various extracts from the logs show that one car was so heavily machine-gunned that it was rendered useless and had to be destroyed. Another was not only under heavy artillery fire, but experienced 12 raids by Stukas, and the.driver, being instructed to pull into ,ar Tank "box," was able to serve hundreds of men. The Y.M.C.A. has now nearly 1,000 of these cars in service here and overseas, the majority being of Ford make. Recent additions are. of similar design .to the well-known Ford emergency food vans which are performing such excellent work in Britain. R.T.C. Makes PersonA DIRECT appeal to drivers al Appeal to Drivers 1—k and conductors in the and Conductors . Northern Region has been made by Sir John Maxwell, the Transport Commissioner. It takes the form of a personal message in which Sir John refers to the difficulties experienced by these men and women in the winter months, and the necessity of whole-hearted co-operation to meet day-to-day needs. He emphasizes that the few who are not pulling their full weight must come into line. He cannot allow a few slackers to make the task of the general body of workers more difficult and fo tarnish the fine record of the transport industry. The most serious faults referred to are :— Failing to stop to pick up waiting passengers; not carrying a full complement of standing passengers; " sleeping in S' and absence from duty. Demonstration of A T the.works of Simms Motor h.t. Governor Proves 1-1 Units, Ltd., we witnessed its Efficiency . . , recently a demonstration of the
h.t. engine governor made by this concern. One great attraction of the device is that it is so small that it can be incorporated in the
distributor rotor. To demonstrate the device, the leads from the distributor were all connected to a common spark gap in atmosphere, and the shaft was rotated by an electric motor. Up to a certain speed; sparking was continuous. A slight increase resulted in occasional sparks at the governor and a small drop in the intensity of the sparks.at the air gap. Further increase brought more frequent governor sparking and weaker sparking at the gap. At a few more r.p.m. the gap was fully short-circuited. This governor is certainly efficient and highly sensitive.