BIRD'S EYE
Page 65
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VIEW By The Hawk End of the Line One hears a lot today about
new production methods in all branches of industry, and accepts Mt assembly of commercial vehicles on a moving track completely as a matter of course. It was news to me therefore, to learn that the country's first ever moving track used for the assembly of commercial vehicles has come to a halt for the last time—after a life of 47 years!
It was in 1917 that A.E.C. introduced this track in their original factory at Walthamstow. When the company opened a new factory in 1925 at their present site at Southall, the original track was reassembled there, and remained in use until last week.
The Stark Truth Always happy to see people practising what they preach, I pass on the following example in the bus industry. At the P.T.A. conference this year the Scottish Omnibuses general manager, Mr. R. Mackenzie. suggested that when a large group took over a small operator there was a lot to be said for retaining a measure of the " local " flavour and fostering the esprit de
corps of the smaller concern.
When Scottish Omnibuses acquired Stark's Motor Services of Dunbar in January it was said that the fleet name would be kept: this has been done, and I hear that even some of S.O.L.'s own buses on the EdinburghDunbar run have now acquired a Starks fleet name.
Now confusion amongst passengers in the Airdrie and Coatbridge area, where S.O.L. recently acquired the local Baxter's bus services, and promptly started repainting Baxter vehicles in S.O.L. green, is to be relieved, I hear, by calling a halt to this repainting scheme. In future, Baxter vehicles still in that Company's distinctive blue livery will retain this livery when repainted. No doubt this will be followed by the adoption of blue for all vehicles on former Baxter routes.
Blue Not Green Tilting at Bedford ? The other day I received
from Lesney Products and Co. Ltd., a rather fine "
Matchbox" model of what is described as a B.P. tanker. Priced at a modest is. lid., the model certainly is a B.P. tanker in that it is in B.P. livery and has tank bodywork, but the interesting thing is that the six-wheeled chassis is a Bedford with a tilt cab—tilt seats too, if it comes to that! Now then: what made Lesney put a tilt cab on this model? Were they just anticipating forthcoming developments in general and, wishing to offer a tilt-cab model, picked on the basic Bedford cab as being the most readily adaptable? Or were they by some chance sent some prototype drawings from Bedford showing a proposed scheme to tilt the TK
cab? An intriguing thought, but whatever the. answer, Lesney have certainly beaten Vauxhall to it when it comes to the " first " tilt-cab Bedford.
Junior in Trouble Seeing a paragraph which
appeared on this page a few weeks ago, one of our younger readers sent off his one shilling postal order to Scammell Lorries Ltd., Watford, for their Lorry Spotters Guide. Delighted as he is to be enrolled (complete with a lapel badge) as a member of the Scammell Spotters Club, he is more than a little disappointed to discover the guide deals only with Scammell-built vehicles.
And since it is, presumably, intended for youngsters he asks why no explanation of the abbreviations appears when the photographs are accompanied with such captions as: "The Scammell Highwayman 4 x 2 normal control . . . 24 to 42 tons g.v.w."
What, asks our young reader, is figure 4 x 2 and g.v.w.? And 8 x 2 forward control? And g.t.w.? And what are manual speeds and what are semi-automatic speeds? And what about 4 x 2, 6 x 4, 6 x 6? And g.c.w.? And 8 x 6? And fifth wheel coupling? And. why, he pleads, is an 8-wheeler so called when it often has 12 wheels on the road?
A Smart Fleet Colleague James Millen told
me on Monday that he thought it was a great pity that there wasn't a Concours d'Elegance at the Leicester round of the L.D.O.Y. competition held the previous day. He was very much taken, it seems, with the appearance of the three big green and red Foden rigids entered by a local firm. Murphy Bros. Ltd. This firm of road transporters and civil engineers operate a fleet of more than 200 vehicles. On congratulating the company's transport manager on his smart vehicles. Millen was told that special gangs are brought in to wash down the fleet every week-end.
41,000 Reward If Murphy Bros. didn't get a prize which they deserved, it's sure that they had a spot of bad luck that they didn't deserve on Monday. One of their Foden six-wheelers was stolen. It was taken from outside the Granada on the M1 early in the day and was recovered by the police at• Chingford on Monday night. Needless to say its load of copper—was gone. It was apparent that the job had been done by professionals, since the speedo and fuel gauge had been smashed to prevent any possible check on mileage. And there wasn't a fingerprint in sight. Furthermore, said Mr. Willis, the Vehicle had been completely repainted, so that he himself wouldn't have recognized it if it had passed him on the
road! Incidentally, £1,000 reward is being offered by Murphy Bros. for the recovery of lost load-13 tons
of copper rod, valued at £4,000.