Darracq-Serpollet Omnibus Company, Limited.
Page 17
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Exhibit:—Two Chassis, One Van, Two Lorries, and One Double-deck Bus.
The newest model on the stand of the Darracq-Serpollet Omnibus Company, Limited, of Amelia Street, Walworth Road, S.E., is that company's 12-15h.p. chassis, which is very suitable for light delivery vans, or conimercial travellers' broughams. The other exhibits include : a 3o-4o11.p. bus or lorry chassis; a similar chassis fitted with a fine van body (by Liversidge) for a three-ton load; a 3o-4oh.p. lorry with cast-steel wheels; a 3o-4oh.p. double-deck omnibus for the Metropolitan Steam Omnibus Company, Limited ; and a 20-25h.p. two-ton lorry, the body of which has been built by Bayleys, Limited,
The Metropolitan bus is one of the type which is now so familiar on the route between Hammersmith and Piccadilly Circus, via Kensington High Street. The seating arrangement on this bus is quite a departure from the average London mott-srbus, but is exactly the same as on all the other buses run by this company. We illustrated the interior of one of these vehicles in our issue of 17th of October last, and the arrangement of the seats on the upper deck was illustrated in the following week's issue.
The bodies on the bus and the 3o4oh.p. lorry were made by Christopher Dodson, Limited, and the latter vehicle, which is intended to convey a four-ton load, is fitted with cast-steel wheels, shod with Shrewsbury and Challiner solid tires. All the vehicles are neatly finished in green and white.
The generators on all the vehicles which this company is exhibiting are of the flash type and are fired with paraffin. Both fuel and water are fed, under pressure, by a double-plunger donkey pump, which can also be used as a hand pump for initial starting purposes only. It is generally urged against steam vehicles that they require enormous quantities of water, which must be replenished at frequent intervals, but the performance of this make of vehicle throughout the recent R.A.C. Trials proved that such objection was not as real as many of its critics would have us believe.
One of the principal points of difference in the transmission gear of a steamer, as compared with a petrolpropelled vehicle, is the complete absence from the former type of the stepped gearing which, so far, has been found to be inseparable from vehicles of the latter type, excepting, of course, those machines that are fitted with electric, hydraulic, or frictional means of transmission ; in the Darracq-Serpollet vehicle, the crankcase contains the only gearing, other than the final-drive chains which are included in the transmission system. These gears are automatically lubricated by the splash from the crankshaft. The differential shafts project from the engine case and a claw coupling is keyed on the outer end of each of these shafts. Each of the short chain-sprocket shafts is positively driven through one of these couplings, and the final drive is then taken through Morse silent side chains to the rear wheels.
When starting, either on the level or on a hill, -there are none of the sudden snaps and strains which often are so evident on a petrol-engined bus. This absence of undue strain must certainly show to the steamer's advantage when the cost of renewals for transmission details is taken into account.