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L. and N.W.R.. ROAD MOTOR SERVICES.

23rd March 1920, Page 10
23rd March 1920
Page 10
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Page 10, 23rd March 1920 — L. and N.W.R.. ROAD MOTOR SERVICES.
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

A Description of the System Employed to Effect Rapid and Efficient Collection and Delivery of Goods.

and parcels delivery by motor vehicles is that

run. by the L. and. N.W.Railway Co. Until the war this company also ran a considerable number of passenger-carrying vehicles of various types, but, unfortunately, during the war the '.urgent call for vehicles to cope with the immense increase in traffic necessitated removing the passenger-carrying bodies from those vehicles and the substitution of goodscarrying bodies, and at the present time only four omnibuses are in operation. T'hese'passengerevehicles are of Daimler manufacture and are stationed at Tring and Boxinoor.

The growth of the L. and N.W.R. fleet has been very remarkable. The company began with six vehicles in 1905, two of which were Fodens, which, we believe, are still running. The number had increased to 106 by 1914, and remained fairlysteady at this figure throughout the war. After the war; however, the number increased rapidly to the present total of over 350 vehicles, and it is stillecontinuing to grow at an amazing rate.

A large proportion of the additional vehicles consist of-practically new Government vehicles, which were taken over from. the Government to assist in terminal work, which they are doing in an exceedingly able manner. The vehicles obtained•from the Government are of Peerless and A.E.C. ma.ke. In addition to these vehicles, orders are being placed with private concerns for further, large quantities of goads and parcel vans, which can profitably be employed as fast as they can be delivered to the Road Motor Department.

That it has been possible to increase the fleet to such an extent in a short time, without upsetting the organization,. is-a remarkable testimony to the efficiency of the management, -and great credit must be given to the "father " of the department, Mr. F. W. Dingley, the Superintendent of Moti v e Power, who was responsible for the undertaking.

The Road Motor Department of the railway is an off-shoot of the Locomotive Department, and is responsible for buying suitable vehicles, maintaining them, providing all the equipment,garages petrol stares, etc., training ilia driversiand superintending them from the technical point of view. The drivers of the lorries and parcel vans remain on the staff of the goods managers and. district superintendents. The reason for their not being on the staff. of the Road Motor Department is that they are held -responsible for their loads and for collecting:money, which responsibility might be difficult to enforce if the men were 'simply drivers.. This arrangement works very well, as there is no interference between the departments. The Traffic or Goods Department states where it requires vehicles, aaad the Road Motor Department provides them, so that if there Is a sudden rush of work at any

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particular section -of the line sufficient vehicles ca-n be transferred to cope-.with this. . 'The company's system is divided into five principal road motor areas, -which have their headquarters at London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, and Leeds. In districts where the Motor Department has not got its own district representatives, and where there•are only one or two vehicles, use is 'made of the local representatives of the Locomotive Department, who ,supervise and maintain the machines.

The headquarters of the London road motor area are at Watford. There are eight sub-stations under the control of this depot. Birmingham has 25 Substations, Manchester 17, Liverpool 4, and Leeds 17., There are also nine outlying stations, where Locomo ti i ve Department representatives are n charge.

Each of the main depots is a repairing centre, provided with shops, machine tools, stores, eto., and of these Birmingham is the largest The conditions under which the majority of these vehicles are working in an eminently -satisfactory manner 'are usually considered as unfavourable for motor vehicles, as the Work consists of short hauls'in traffic-congested areas.

We have examined the figures of goods tonnage carried by each vehicle, and the costs at which these vehicles are run. They are very complete and comprehensive, and though, unfortunately, -we have not obtained permission to publish them, we -may Say that they are quite satisfactory and slaw an immense saving over the horse-drawn transport employed previously.

The company is much alive to the necessity for keeping the wheels of the vehicles turning, and this necessity is accentuated to a great extent by the short working day, as all deliveries and collections have to be completed within a. few hours ; the company has, therefore, produced an exceptionally quick loading and unloading device, which will be adaptable to all of their lorries and will greatly increase the daily tannage capacity of each. With it a vehicle can arrive at a goods depot with a. load of ".collections," off-load these and receive another complete load within six minutes.

The quick-loading device consists broadly of trays mounted on small ball-hesziing wheels, which are carried by what areknown as stand lorries. These stand lorries are of the horse-drawn lorry type.. They are adapted for this work by .the addition of broad, fiat rails with a flange on the outside. The trays are supported on these rails. Each lorry is also provided -with similar rails, and has, inaddition, twoabridge pieces, by which the rails on the stand lorries and those on the-motor lorries call be connected. It is intended to provide three stand lorries and trays for every motor lorry. The trays are loaded in the °refinery way from the.deck, and when a motor lorry is run into position against a stand lorry, the tray on the latter is pushed across the bridge pieces by hand.

All the parcel van • bodies are made at the company's own carriage works at-Wolverton , and the lorry bodies at their carriage works at Earlestown.

For the supply of fuel largerstorage tanks are situated as follows :—At Watford tanks with a: capacity of 32,000 gallons ; at Birmingham 12,000 gallons ; Crewe 20,000 gallons; Manchester 12,000; and Liaerpool 2,000. There are also several smaller fuel stores situated in different localities. A point of great interest about the fuel Supply is that a. certain amount of spirit is distilled by the company atCrewe from the liquid" by-products obtained in the manufacture of oil gas from a crude petroleum .or paraffin oil for lighting the coaches.. Those by-products are distilled and purified and yield a motor spirit which does very well when mixed with ordinary spirit. Of course, the quantity produced is not very much, but it materially assists the supply. For the supply of the large depots the company undertake their own petrol distribution, buying the spirit in bulk direct from the petrol coin

panics, but the smaller depots are supplied by the. petrol companies. Benzole is being experimented

with in fairly large quantities, and who district facilities have been arranged, the use of is spirit will be increased considerably.

The company has a, special school and training staff for drivera at Watford, and over 100 drivers were thoroughly trained at this school last autumn. An inspection staff is attached to the headquarters of the Road Motor Department. The duty of the inspectors is to travel round the country' visiting the various

depots and examining the lorries for mechanical condition and cleanliness. Where necessary they give

instruction to the drivers, and they report on the causes of failure. They also tune up • carburetters and check petrol consumption.

• Every driver is provided with a ticket, otawhich is entered the amount of petrol or motor spirit drawn from the stores, also the quantity of oil, paraffin, grease, etc., and, in toe-case of steam wagons, the amount of coal and coke_ On this ticket is also entered the statetof the weather and of the roads ; the time at itich the driver commences duty and finishes ; the time at which the vehicle leaves the depot, its load, and paints between which it runs.' Records are also made of any, wheel changes. From these tickets are 'compiledthe running records. and statistics, which are use at the head office. From these statistics the runmng consumption, tonnage, and cost of every vehicles -can be seen at a glance.

Incidentally, for convenience in compiling the statistics, different coloured tickets are employed for the different types of vehicles—white for vehicles carrying goods, pink for those carrying parcels, and green for passenger-service vehicles.

The L. and N.W.R. fleet embraces,a1 large number Of different. makes, including Thornyerafts Kaa-rier,

Leyla,nd, Comnaer Car, Daimler, A.E.C., Peerless, Albion, Welseley, and Ford amongst the petrol vehicles, 20 'Loden steamers, an Orwell electric, arid an: Edison electric.

At the Watford works is installed a 10. h.p. National oil engine, whiCh runs on shale oil ; this provides powerfor the machine-tool equipment. At these works complete overhauls are undertaken, and all magneto repairs, except armature wind i n g. Every vehicle is kept in for a fortnightly inspection, cleaning and greasing, any serious repairs which may be necessary being executed 'at one of the big centres. The -overhauling' is very thorough, eath vehicle being stripped down to the frame.

The fleet running in Lend-on conaprises 31 goods vehicles, all of Peerless make ; six. parcel vans, comprising five Albions and an Orwell, andaeight private cars, which are used in connection with the administration of the railway. The lorries are etriployed at Broad Street,. Camden, and flaydon Square goods depots. The underground petrol tanks at the Watford depotw4re installed by the. company. We. have already mentioned that they have a capacity of 32,000 gallons. The petrol is drawn direct from tanjs wagons on an adjacent railway siding by means -of a large semi-rotary pumpps operated by. manual labour, and situated in a small pump house. Above this pump is a 200-gallon measuring tank, and below this a smaller one, arranged for filling petrol cans with exactly two gallons of petrol.

• Stores for the various sub-depots are kept at the main depots and are drawn from the main depots as 'required. . It will be realized that with the large number of different makes in .operation the difficulty of keeping and supplying the spare parts required is considerable, and particularly was this so during the trying period of the war ; but, in spite of this difficulty, the vehicles have been kept on the road, and have remarkable mileages to their credit.

At the present time the company have more than enough work for all the goods-carrying motor vehicles which they can obtain, and they will therefore not go into the question of increasing their small fleet of passenger-carrying vehicles until their requirements in the former respect have been satisfied. In any case they do not intend to enter into competition

with other concerns running, pavenger motor vehicles, so it is probable that, if any further services are started they will be in places where the need for them, is especially evinced by the inhabitants.

It is. certain that the withdrawal of the fine fleets of omnibuses, which the company ran before the war, must have been felt severely inmany of the districts where they were operating, and it is to be hoped

that it will not be long before some .at least of these. services will be running where most required. The congestion, in the larger towns, is so great that many people would live in the environs if they could be certain of the necessary transport facilities.

. In conclusion, we wish tO express our thanks for the courtesy and assistance which we received whilst • undertaking this examination into the Methods by Which the L. and N.W.R. Road Motor Department operates and efficiently maintains the large • and growing fleet of vehicles.


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