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Buses Amongst Britain's Most Valuable Assets

22nd October 1943
Page 32
Page 32, 22nd October 1943 — Buses Amongst Britain's Most Valuable Assets
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

WHILST nobody will question the value of the fine war achievements of British buses,. surely Mr. Chalmers Kearney, in his letter published on September 17, has overlooked the part played by railways in backing up the .epic advance of the Eighth Army in North Africa. A striking map of this advance is on show at the Army Exhibition in Oxford Street.

The article mentioned in the " Facts about .British Railways in Wartime" booklet describes the dovetailing of a single troop train through the regular railway. services. Some 180,000 similar special trains for troops and equipment have been operated during the past four years.

The bus is certainly one of Britain's most valuable assets in wartime, but the comprehensive equipment of railways with depots, stations, bridges, tracks, signals, trains and workshops, together form transport systems which modern war has proved to be invaluable for sustained military operations. J. R. HIND. Harrow.

AS a railway exponent, 'it is strange to find myself appearing to question the usefulness of the rail ways contribution to the war effort because I have suggested that mad transport is equally indispensable, and in doing so pointed out that the Eighth Army needed no railways in its epic advance from El Alamein to Tunis.

Sir William Wood, President L.M.S. Executive, has replied with a photograph of an L.M.S. engine entering El .Alamein station. Well, if it be agreed that a small railway line did co-operate at the El Alamein end before

FAILURES WITH DISC. WHEELS T WAS. interested in the article headed. " The Ills of I Wheels" in your issue dated September 10, particularly as it happens to be a matter which I have recently been investigating, and I am enclosing a copy of a report made out a few weeks ago, which, however, please treat as confidential—not for publication.

In my opinion, there are more wheel discs failing which have been manufactured during the past 12 months (that is proportionately more) than at any other period...

Regarding weight, I have had weighed six wheels of four different manufacturers, and they vary between 63 lb. 8 oz. and 85 lb. 12 or:, these wheels being oil buses. In the case of the wheel weighing 85 lb., this was manufactured in 1928 and • has been in constant use since. It was only recently. removed from a bus, but there is no sign of fracture. .

ARTHUR J. WATTS, Managing Director,

Lydney. For Watts (Factors), Ltd.

a3ti General Montgomery moved forward 'to Tunis, broadly speaking it cannot be disputed that the advance was made by road transport, as the thousands who have seen "Desert Victory " can testify. '

The fact is that in these • days road, rail and air have -all played their' splendid parts. The trouble is that we railway people are so enthusiastic about ourselves that if we be not careful we may soon be assuming that the Battle of Britain was won by locomotives!

"Facts About British Railways in Wartime," for example, does the buses less than justice when it states 'that the, men and women who fashion the munitions of war " have all to be carried on the railways." Last year over one thousand million journeys were made . on the Tilling bus group alone, and more than half of these must have been men and 'women war workers. In giving the railways. the credit which is their due,

let not forget that the buses have done what therailways could not ,do—evacuated hundreds of thousands of women and children practically from door to door; as well as moved troops, munitions and the war workers themselves.

That must have meant a vast organization behind the scenes, and there, too, the women are helping in their thousands. Bus running is no casual job; it is a complete industry with its workshops • for building, 'overhauling, and maintenance; its great staffs of organizers; its army of drivers (and how gallant they were in the blitz days) and its indomitably, cheerful "Clippies" CHALIVfERS KEARNEY, M.I.Struct.Ea Burgh Heath,

ARE THE RAILWAYS BECOMING 'OVERBURDENED?

THE following excerpt from .a recent issue of .theLeicester " Evening Mail," will be of interest to you and to your readers. It was headed " Leicester Rail Traffic Appeal ":—

" Railway traffic in Leicester has reached such proportions that it cannot be dealt with adequately by the existing staff, and the authorities have had to put a temporary embargo on incoming goods until the accumulation has been dealt with. To cope with the situation the L.M.S. are asking Leicester people to volunteer for Part-time work at Queen Street goods station."

At the moment road transport is divorced from this rail complex. One asks, why not let us—road transport —get on with the war effort? The Prime Minister states that there is plenty of oil and I gather that the peak of the rubber crisis has passed.

Why not scrap the pernicious stranglehold of control on the industry and allow it to work to prevent sirch chaos as has already sprung up in some places, with possibly worse to come under the black-out conditions?

BIaby, J. ARNOLD KIRBY.


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