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COMMERCIAL MOTOR
Recognized in Business Circles as the Leading Journal.
The Authority on all forms of Mechanical Road Transport.
Largest Circulation, Conducted by EDMUND DANGERFIELD.
THE biggest user of motor freight vehicles in Belfast Is the local co-operative society, and some details of the transport organization of this concern are outlined in an article in this issue. Page en.
. LIVERPOOL constitutes one of the most important clearing centres for Christmas fruits, both fresh and tinned, and we deal in an interesting article with the part played by motor vehicles in the distribution of these contributions to the festive board. Page 678.
THE coming of the motorbus in agricultural districts has made a marvellous difference to farm life, and it is upon this fact that one of our Yorkshire correspondents comments in his observations during the course of the rambles afoot of which he is fond.
TIrE House of Lords last week considered in Committee the Road Transport Lighting Bill and discussed the amendments proposed by the Government. We give these proposals in the notes from our Parliamentary Correspondent in the Press Gallery.
THERE are signs that the interest in the parcelcarrier as a means for transport is increasing after a period of comparative neglect. We discuss the pros and cons of this type of vehicle and its possibilities from the points of view of the user and maker.
MOTOR vehicles, and especially steam wagons, play a big part in transporting shipments of palm oil from the docks at Liverpool to local refineries, and although the journeys are short, power-driven vehicles have proved to be efficient and economical, as is shown in a short article in this issue. Page 683.
THE attack which was recently made on the sixwheeled bus by the chief engineer of one of the leading manufacturing concerns entails upon us the onus of refuting his arguments. In this we have been assisted by the managing directors of three of the leading con cerns making this type of vehicle. Page 674.
AS this is the last issue of this journal for 1927 it is appropriate to draw attention to the many interesting features and novelties of design which are embodied in the vehicles for 1928, and we have devoted our centre pages to a comprehensive article dealing with those which we regard as outstanding. Page 684.
THE scheme described by us, under which the miners of two large collieries in Yorkshire set up their own transport for their allowances of home coal, is most interesting. Two years' working showed a profit of 12,602. Nearly 73,000 loads of coal have been delivered in three years and the miners have reaped a direct benefit in reduced haulage charges. Page 679.
The New Freight Transport Scheme of the Railways.
SOME of the comments—probably inspired-uponthe announcement that the London Midland and Scottish Railway Co. intends to introduce the container system of transport in order to reduce terminal delays, risk of damage, loss by theft and injury by handling have been distinctly amusing. The container is no new feature of transport operations; it has been insisted upon by furniture removers, by the Post Office for some of the mails and by His Majesty's Customs for registered baggage from the Continent. Without it, in such cases, the risk of tampering en route would be too great. The only wonder about the employment of the system by the railway companies themselves is that its adoption has not been forced upon them long ago, for it is so obviously to the advantage of the customer and the railways.
All the advantages which it offers, and one or two In addition,. have been afforded by the road freight vehicle, and it is this very fact that has given the latter its great command of the finer classes of traffic. The road vehicle will still score in respect of door-to-door delivery, without intermediate unloading and reloading, for with the railway there must necessarily be the transfer to the railway wagon, and at the end of the rail journey a second transfer to road lorry, each of which operations entails a certain amount of risk front careless handling.
The employment of the container system is, of course, a definite attempt of the railways (for others will follow the lead of the L.M.S. Railway) to "get back," and it will succeed to a limited extent. This need not work to the disadvantage of road transport—rather the reverse—for it will encourage the transfer from one place to another of manufactured articles of a fragile nature and perishable goods, all of which are vulnerable to the careless yard hand and to the fingers of the pilferer. As the container can only be dealt with at distribution centres, further transport to stores, retailers and ultimate consumers will follow. Road transport must always be a gainer by the growth of traffic.
We have said that the railways will recover some of their lost traffic by the extension of .the use of the container, but only to a limited extent. It must be limited because of the high capital cost and of the difficulties attending the marriage of container to lorry awl to railway wagon. It is not conceivable that there shall be a ready availability of containers and vehicles whenever and wherever they arewanted. If a rail wagon and a container be sent to a certain station on the request of a customer, there must be available at that station a lorry to take it to the warehouse or factory for loading, and again at the end of its rail journey. If every station is to have its road equipment and a vast number of containers and rail Wagons of a type suitable for their conveyance is to be provided, the capital outlay on rolling stock must be enormous. The amount of empty running, too, • will be yely great. Here, of course, one gets an inkling into the reason for the delay of the railways to adopt the scheme.
We understand that the containers weigh 22 cwt. and are fitted with a eratch and double half-doors at the rear end, and with sling irons terminating in eyes for the lifting chains. Each will carry 4 tons, so that a 5-ton platform lorry is employed to convey it, and the rail wagon (which has low fixed sides to retain the container), instead of carrying 10 tons, will only have a 4-ton-pay load. This fact confirms the impression that road transport will not be a sufferer from the new competition.
Better Bearing Surfaces Necessary.
FM many years it was considered that the best possible method of finishing the bore of a cylinder was by grinding, but, comparatively recently, this method of obtaining a good surface has become almost obsolete, having been replaced by honing, and it is probable that something like 90 per cent, of the cylinders on modern engines are treated in this manner.
It has been proved, time after time, that a ground surface is not by any means ideal when employed • as part of a bearing. If examined under the microscope, such a surface presents the appear ance of a field which has been operated upon by a cultivator ; in other words, it is full of pits and hummocks, the reason being that a. grinding wheel operates by forcibly tearing away particles o'f the metal.
With a bearing in which two surfaces of this nature may be employed, the initial fitting can never be carried to the extent which is really desirable, and the bearings must be run in until the surfaces are smoothed down. At the finish of this period the fit can no longer be so good; consequently, engineers have for long been searching for methods by which it would be commercially possible to produce bearing surfaces presenting, in the first instance, a finish equivalent to that which, normally, has to he obtained by running in, and there are several very promising developments in this direction.
Honing having proved so successful in the case of cylinder bores, engineers began to wonder why it could not be employed for external surfaces, and, in fact, this is now being done with great success. Special equipment is, of course, required, as the problem is a little more difficult than in internal finishing, but the results already achieved show that it merits rnatui+e consideration by those who have not yet given attention to the matter.
Another direction in which experiments are being carried out is in the burnishing of ground surfaces, which is usually carried out under considerable pressure so that the hummocks are forced down to approximately the level of the pits. An advantage of this method is that it can be employed quite successfully in the finishing of ground wear teeth, for which purpose the teeth are finished slightly oversize and the pinions rotated in mesh with extremely hard formers, the softer material of the pinions being practically rolled down to the correct size. This not only gives an excellent finish, but provides a tough and long-wearing surface.