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Bird's Eye View

26th April 1963, Page 51
26th April 1963
Page 51
Page 51, 26th April 1963 — Bird's Eye View
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

NEARLY three years of service as chairman of the London and Home Counties division, Traders Road Transport Association, ended last week fOr that indefatigable transporter of fertilizers, Harold Chandler, of Fisons.

At the division's annual lunch he performed, with his usual humour, the last official task, that of lunch chairman. Now, perhaps, he will be able to find more time for his two hobbies, gardening and photography.

Tribute was paid to Mr. Chandler by Lyons' transport chief, Geoffrey Page (the new divisional chairman). Speaking of Harold Chandler's "enormous enthusiasm ", he said: "We are going to miss you an awful lot ". From the applause which followed, 1 judge that the members of the division echo that sentiment. I also judge (from my knowledge of him) that Geoffrey Page, in his own modest but energetic manner, will admirably fill the role.

Fast-talking Scots

IF•the Cause List, issued by the Transport Tribunal, is I anything to go on, it looks as if the Tribunal is not going to see very much of Edinburgh in its next Scottish session which is to be held on May 7 and 8. It proposes to hear no less than five appeals on the first day, and six on the second. Perhaps it is just as well that the Tribunal is going up there again the following month when, perhaps, the appeals it tackles will be fewer and there will be more time to enjoy the beauties of the Scottish capital.

Muddy

I ALWAYS feel very diffident about agreeing with Ernest Marples; somehow it seems to evoke Wartime memories of "fraternizing with the enemy" (I'm not really serious, Mr. Minister). But I must admit that when I read the report in last Friday's issue that he was having a look at lorry mudguards, I felt a wave of sympathy. Whether mudguard design is adequate, I do not propose to argue, but 1 do feel that more operators should consider fitting mudflaps than do so at present. Having recently completed a fast (or as fast as the roads round Leicester would allow) drive from London to Nottingham via M1 on a very wet day, 1 am now in a position to say categorically that mudflaps certainly eased my motorist-type problem of keeping the windscreen clear of mud and grease thrown up by the rear wheels of non-flapped lorries.

It was, I assure you, comparatively a pleasure to come up behind the few that did sport flaps and get close enough to be able to overtake them without the additional hazard of temporary blindness as I approached the rear,

Back to Leonardo ?

ITH air-cushion craft in the news again, I was particu

larly interested in a letter from Mr. G. G. Harding, general manager of Wallasey Corporation Motor Buses, who is well known as an enthusiastic supporter of this form of transport. He must have been one of the first private individuals to build a working model, which hovered very successfully at pretty well the first attempt and has since had a second propulsion engine added. The opening phrase of my note on air bearings in the issue of April 5 read as follows; " Long before air-cushion craft were thought of a lot of thought had been given to bearings lubricated by air or gas instead of oil...." Mr. Harding says that 1 may be right but only if air bearings were receiving consideration early in the 16th century! It seems that a series of articles by Mr, L. H. Hayward appearing in a publication called "Hovercraft and Hydrofoil " has shown that many air-cushion craft were designed and some produced, almost 100 years ago and that the very first one seems to go back as far as 1716. Mr. Harding adds that he has an awful feeling that our friend Leonardo probably had a finger in this pie and wonders whether he had another in that of air bearings. Which only goes to show. . .

Paddling Away

IF' like me, you've ever sat in one or both of the habitually large queues which feed the Woolwich Free Ferry (free or toll, but not of enormous cost in congestion and personal frustration) you'll be delighted to hear that the slow old side-loading paddleboats will be gone by August. They will be replaced by new diesel-powered vessels with end loading to • enable vehicles to drive straight on and off. The first, "John Burns "—named after the man who called the Thames "liquid history "—entered service on Monday. But we've got to wait until 1965 for the ferries to be rilveri as end-loaders with new terminal facilities!


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