AT THE HEART OF THE ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY.

Call our Sales Team on 0208 912 2120

The Diesel Engine Advances.

25th September 1928
Page 1
Page 2
Page 1, 25th September 1928 — The Diesel Engine Advances.
Close
Noticed an error?
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.

Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

ONE may chuckle at the bluster with which the daily Press has dealt with the recent official trial of the Diesel-engined lorry hauling its 20-ton gross load, and unwittingly, in one's own mind, may belittle it for being largely the work of a. clever Press agent, but the fact remains that sornething of the kind—some flamboyant touch—is often wanted to awaken the British manufacturer and the British user to the merits of a good thing. We flatter ourselves that The Commercial Motor has said a great deal in favour of the Diesel engine for road work. We have kept in absolutely close touch with the 'research wcirk, experiments and trials of the leading makers in Germany and in the past year or two have been able to throw a good deal of light upon their accomplishments. Let us express the hope that this attention on our part has encouraged the makers to feel that there is a market in this country for the Diesel engine for road work and to send a vehicle to London for demonstration purposes. But it must be admitted that interest is keener now that a certain amount of window-dressing has been given to the subject.

One of the results of the trial undertaken by the Royal Automobile Club, and by The Commercial Motor in June last, is that certain doubts that had remained are now almost completely dispelled. It would seem, in the make of engine which took part in these tests, that the form of combustion chamber is such as to secure good combustion, whilst a quality of oil had been used which is free or moderately free from sulphur, for there has been little or no evidence of the presence in the exhaust gases of sulphur dioxide. Yet it was the emission of considerable quantities of sulphur dioxide which caused so Much trouble in Germany with one particular make of engine.

There is, again, the question of slow running, the ability to run slowly being a requisite of any engine that is likely to be used in traffic negotiation where idling is unavoidable. The engineering department of the London General Omnibus Co. has been experimenting with the Diesel-engined chassis after the completion of its trial under R.A.C. observation, and we are assured that, in. this and in every other respect, the engine was most satisfactory. The engine could be throttled to 400 revolutions per minute and, in general practice, this is little or no faster than the ordinary idling speed of a bus engine. We believe that the London General Omnibus Co. will now go ahead in equipping i3, certain number of buses with the Diesel engine and, if no unexpected troubles arise, some portion of the fleet may be converted. The effect on the fuel market of such a changeover would not be negligible, but there is such an excess of gas oil or fuel oil after the volatiles have been extracted that the price could never be unduly forced up, whilst coal oil and shale oil can be produced in this country to an extent that would prevent us from being dependent upon supplies from overseas.

An Injudicious Judicial Outburst.

TT is amazing that police-court magistrates -I-should allow themselves to show prejudice when cases are being tried by them. At the Greenwich Police Court, to quote a recent example of injudicious comment, Mr. Campion, K.C.. who was hearing a number of ,cases in which drivers were summoned for exceeding the speed limit, said : "These chars-à-bancs are very dangerous contrivances ; they are driven 'with very great recklessness and are a great inconvenience to other people." A driver who had been summoned wrote that he could not attend the court because Saturday was the busiest day of the week. Mr. Campion remarked : "I hope he gets caught this Saturday." We in turn hope that Mr. Campion will exercise a little more dignified restraint, because it is not proper for a magistrate to express the hope that someone shall commit an offence against• the law, and it is obviously misleading and prejudicial to the course of justice for a man in his position to say that motor coaches are very dangerous contrivances. It is possible to prove that nowadays, when the unsuitable vehicle is rarely used for coach purposes, the motor coach is one of the safest vehicles on the road, well driven, with its brakes in good order and under perfect control. The proof of this is to be found in the rarity of accidents to coaches. They may, It is true, each occupy more room upon the highway than a private car, but a 30-ft. coach will carry and give pleasure to 32 people,

wliereas two private cars, occupying the same road space, do not carry more than a quarter of this number. Thus the charge of inconvenience cannot be sustained..

The Growing Problem of the Tramways.

A T the recent conference of tramway author111.ties held at Manchester a great deal of useful information was disseminated, and the delegates gained materially in general knowledge of the subject. To some there came as a revelation the fact that no longer could it, be claimed for the tramcar that it alone can deal with the crowds of passengers at peak hours. Alderman Cheetham, J.P., chairman of the Oldham Corporation Tramways and Transport Committee, said that the general belief in the superiority of the tramcar in this respect has been modified by experience. In Oldham, for example, one of the tramcar routes was shut down. It ran from the Market Place to a distance of two miles to the borough boundary and through a small urban district. The terminus was taken a further 1,300 yards into the country and a bus service replaced the tramways system. The buses were double-deckers, having a capacity up to 70 seats, and, as Alderman Cheetham said, they "moved the crowd" and brought in average receipts that work out at over 1s. 6d, per bus-mile, the fares being based upon the existing tramcar stages of 1d. per mile.

Tramway operators are certainly faced with material difficulties, not the least of which is the fact that any extensions to-day must be financed with dear money. That the proprietors of municipal tramway undertakings should also be the licensing authorities is another fact which makes municipal ownership difficult, because a licence to a bus operator acquires a substantial monetary value, and there is always the prospect that thd licences may at some time or other have to be bought out at the public expense, or, as an alternative, there may have to be faced the opinion of the ratepayers that it is not the business of local authorities to provide for the transport needs of districts outside their own narrow municipal boundaries.


comments powered by Disqus