LEAVES FROM THE INSPECTOR'S NOTEBOOK.
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Plenty of Room for Coachwork
THESE ARE NOT the days for startling developments in coachwork construction, at any rate, for that type of bodywork which plays so important a part in connection with the ordinary commercial motor. With all the numerous proprietary designs of touring-car chassis, the radical type differences of complete cars are few compared with the variety of commercial-motor vehicle application. It must be remembered that it is very largely the coachwork which embodies the modifications required by the varied forms of use for industrial purposes. Before the war, almost every day witnessed some new civilian application of the industrial chassis, but in the middle of .1914 practically all such new experiments came to an end, and it was left. to the military authorities to continue the work of development on lines exclusively required for the purpose of waging war. So that, although the current industrial employment of chassis has called for very little improvement in the _matter of coachwork design and type, yet a considerable amount of progress has been made in a comparable direction, so far as Government employment is concerned.
When the tale comes to be told of the part that the petrol lorry and steam wagon have played in the great military drama in Europe, it will be astonishing to read the list of specific purposes which have been served in this way, and I have little doubt that the many duties to which it has been found possible to adapt industrial chassis will have their effect on ceachwork for business purposes in a widespread manner when peace again reigns. I wonder if we shall reach the stage when something a little less ordinary than the commonplace high-sided lorry body with hinged tailboard, or the ordinary wooden-sided tilt van, or again the light box van, will be substituted by types showing a little more originality and more effective adaptation to' the varying needs of haulage.
The other week I wrote an article suggesting that we appeared to have reached something like finality in the, matter of chassis design. I wonder whether, with all the skill and ingenuity that is being expended on special war-time load-carrying equipments for lorries and other types of chassis, and with the corresponding ingenuity and inventiveness that are being displayed everywhere in respect of the wood-working portion of the new aircraft industry, we shall find that industrial coachwork for peace-time conditions will be very considerably improved in respect of detail and originality over that with which we were making do in 1914 1 _ . * * * There is surely room enough for new thought in the endeavour to find better methods of carrying parcels or boxed loads, or suchtonnage as gravel, or house refuse, than just the plain wooden box, with or without a top, clamped to the frame of a chassis. Wilkin's unloading device is an instance showing that we have by no means reached finality, and the commercial motor industry may well be advanced in usefulness as much by a concentrated effort to improve the load-carrying portion of a commercial motor vehicle, whether it be for passengers or for goods, as of the chassis itself, which may well remain unaltered B343 in detail, whether it is to carry beer or bacon, sheepskins or pianos. The Army authorities are busy carrying all sorts of extraordinary loads, and so is the R.A.F. for that matter. There will certainly be a lot of lessons for adaptation by coachbuilders later on, so far as the commercial application of the motor vehicle is concerned. We have not reached bodywork finality.
When We Have To Walk To Town.
As I have often written, we are in a mood to accept restrictions numberless without demur. One sometimes wonders, in these days, how far the public is prepared to go in this direction, whether the wartime worm will turn, or whether he has surrendered that prehistoric privilege of grumbling and protest as his share of the general uncomfortableness. Few of us properly recognize the parlous state to which the passenger-carrying portion of our public traffic is being steadily and surely reduced.
We are most of us far too irritated with the growing inconvenience of our own individual journeys to and from business, or on other necessity bent, to consider the position from a wider point of view. Are we not rapidly reaching the stage, howeiver, when further restrictions without more adequate control and allocation will cramp our national activities. "
Railway facilities are being cut down, with ruthless hands—quite rightly so, of course, in the case of those who travel without any adequate reason ; motorbus services have long ago been " combed " to an extremely fine extent ; and the tramway services are more hopelessly congeseed and delayed than ever. Were it not for the maintained efficiency of London's Underground tubes, the Metropolis, where passenger, traffic is of such very vital importance, would, indeed, be in verydesperate straits. It must not be forgotten, by those who are charged with the duty of economuang our resources, that you cannot take away . . people's touring cars, or even the horse and carriage of the well-to-do, without throwing additional work upon less expensive and more public means of travel.
The centres of population congestion have, by the establishment of war-time industries, shifted from one district to another, and not always advantageously in respect of travelling facilities. Conditions are rapidly becoming so serious for the travelling public, particularly in London and other big cities, that there appears to be every necessity for the authorities to pause before making further inroads into the facilities still existing. Above and beyond all, it appears desirable that no further restrictions should be imposed upon those who are responsible for managing the public motorbus services, that most flexible and convenient form of public travelling. If the question of fuel is one that needs still further consideration, petrol or its adequate substitutes must be saved in other directions before the bus services are further reduced. If steps are not taken in this direction, the consequences from an industrial and administrative point of view may Well be serious. We must all of us press for economy in other directions, and if necessary for the enlargement of motorbus facilities for war-time purposes.