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KES HAY AT GE :VA
By G. Mackenzie Junner, M.I.Mech.E., M.I.R.T ALTHOUGH by no means the largest Continental show, that which is now being held at Geneva is truly international, and is the 22nd of the Swiss
series. It is also fully representative as far as the exhibits are concerned. They cover even works trucks and contractors' equipment. Germany has sent a strong contingent and is not missing any opportunity of increasing its export trade.
It was not expected that there would be many completely new vehicles, but those there are full of interest. Of them, perhaps the most outstanding is the Saurer Alpine 26-seater, combining light weight, reasonable price, and a high degree of comfort. The chassis, of light sheet steel, is constructed at the centre as a deep, narrow, rectangular tube which forks to each end, the wheel-arches being incorporated. On to this is built a light steel body, which provides much of the strength. The four-cylindered oil engine, of 85 b.h.p., is mounted at the rear, together with the radiator and gearbox. Corner and side doors open on to small compartments at each side of the engine. These and the engine covers are thoroughly heat insulated, and the accessibility is remarkable.
An auxiliary box and pneumatic preselection give a total of eight ratios. The maximum speed is about 56 m.p.h. There is a single curved windscreen, large side and cant-rail windows, and a narrow fixed roof, the interior of which is arranged as a series of inclined
planes, which, with the front air inlet and a rear roof exit, give draughtless ventilation. Lighting is tubular. The seats, in pairs, can be slid into the gangway by a lever, operating which in the opposite direction controls the angle of the seat backs. To avoid risk of injury through sudden braking, no hard projections are on the backs. Maximum capacity for luggage is afforded by the narrow frame centre, permitting deep side lockers.
Another novel coach or bus is the Graf and Stift from Vienna. This has a six-cyfindered valveless two-stroke oil engine of 180 b.h.p„ in V-form with a Roots-type blower, at the rear, five-speed synchromesh gearbox and a maxim-um speed of 75 m.p.h. The vehicle is of welded-steel chassisless construction. The engine, gearbox, radiator and differential unit can be removed entirely in four man-hours.
Lighting is tubular and heating by a combustion-type unit. Four hit-and-miss ventilators have electric fans which can blow or suck. Automatic-switch lights are fitted on the seat backs. The lowest step shuts with each door. Bolted to each front wheel is a steel disc with a rounded periphery to prevent excessive drop if a tyre fails. A spare wheel is at one side of the engine and the battery at the other: The weight is about 81 tons.
The F.B.W. Alpine coach is the first made in Switzerland with a horizontal oil engine. Capable of 55 m.p.h., it has eight speeds and carries 33 persons. A handle between each pair of seats divides them and slides both into the gangway. The gearbox is a Wilson with hydraulic clutch. Engine accessibility is excellent.
Another F.B.W. is a bus with a six-cylindered oil engine mounted at the side between the axles. This has an automatically controlled four-speed gearbox and hydraulic clutch. The F.B.W. oil engines have direct injection, and have been made for some six years.
An Eggli Alpine body on art F.B.W. chassis has an off-side seat at the front which tips to facilitate entrance. Between it and the driver's seat is a large Olta heater with two fans. Here again the seats move into the gangway, and a novelty is a further • padded-fabric " seat " which joins the inner" two to take an extra person. There are fixed glass panels behind the penultimate seats which, with a centre panel normally carried on the rear window, form a partition against which the rear seats fold, leaving a parceis or luggage compartment. The folding roof is electrically operated. Rubber cords along the parcels racks preverttnats from falling.
Many Alpine-type coaches have transparent-panel roofs which cart be slid open, but are completely covered by a folding roof in bad weather. A new arrangement by Gangloff is to cover these panels internally with semi-transparent sun blinds mounted on spring rollers in the roof centre. . . .
Possibly the most novel coach-body construction was that of Lauber and Fils on a Saurer. This has an electrically operated folding roof, the usual moving seats and a normal, attractive appearance, which quite hides the fact that the whole body from the front doors can he lifted off complete with floor, side pillars and roof, for replacement by a lorry body. A cab-roof extension on this fits over the front coach pillars and doors.
The six floor-securing nuts are in neat aluminium containers with removable caps, whilst the roof is held to the pillars at the front by swing bolts with coned nuts. The joint at the door pillars is rubber covered. The change of bodies can be made in less than 30 minutes. This scheme enables the vehicle .to be used as a coach during the fine months and as a lorry at other times.
Alfa Romeo has an inter-urban bus with four cylindered direct-injection oil engine of 90 b.h.p. and seating for 47. The body is made by Sirio-Novara. It is a luxury vehicle with blue cant-rail windows, side curtains in pairs and scenic pictures in the seat backs. All doors have projections to fit the step recesses and pneumatic-tube draught excluders on them. The lower steps lift and slide back as the doors close. To British eyes, the seats were too packed, with little knee room, and to enter by the rear door the seat just inside had to be folded and hinged up. Similar folding seats cart be used in the gangway. Another, for the conductor, is mounted on the back of the engine casing.
The A.E.C. Regal IV chassis with horizontal oil engine attracts considerable attention.
Langenthal shows a seat-control arrangement which was invented a fortnight before the Show and is almost startling in its effect. The demonstrator sat in the driver's seat and when he operated a hydraulic pump all the pairs of. seats moved simultaneously into the gangway. A touch on the release and they sprang back. They can be operated with passengers seated. Under each seat arm is also a button to control the squab• angle.
An Opel coach with body by E. Frech-Hoch has its seat backs adjusted by rack-and-pinion gear, with large knobs at the side, 'except for the rear row in which the seats can be wound out to give the same effect. All the front of the body above the screen is in transparent plastic, but exceptionally large sun screens, hinged at the top, are provided. The rear of the roof is also transparent and hinged, whilst cant-rail windows add to the visibility.
A Mercedes-Benz with a Swiss coach body by Carrosserie-Werke Bern has the usual cant-rail windows and electrically operated hood, but spring arm rests. Of interest in the chassis is the neat rubber-covered " floor" at each side of the high radiator on which engine mechanics can stand. Another body by the same concern is on a rear-engined Saurer. Points on this are lights in the seat backs, cunning little brackets for a bottle and glass on the sides, rocking foot rests and adjustable seat. backs. The cant-rail windows have gauze curtains, and at the back of the body is a lavatory, whilst opposite, against the engine casing, are a refrigerator, electric water heater and a cupboard for glasses. This coach is for the Geneva-Nice service.
A Mowag body on a De Soto is a neat nine-seater with a transparent roof which lifts on links and has a hinged sloping windshield at the front, giving throughventilation without draught. Cant-rail windows and a completely clear back give maximum visibility.
Peugeot stages a utility limousine with two rows of seats and a platform back.
Auto Union-D.K.W. has a utility van with seats for five. Half each side is a window, the remainder being metal panelled, and there is a large rear door. Another of this ,make has the popular polished-wood rear and horizontally divided hinged back panels, the upper having a window. The rear seats fold into floor wells, making a large -loading space.
A town bus by Lauber and Fils on a Berna has its front lamps mounted on vertical standards on " platforms " at the sides of the radiator.
On a forward-control Chevrolet is. a Tuscher 16-seat coach body with the whole roof transparent. The rear of tfie roof opens upwards and a folding fabric roof is used in bad weather. Heating is by a South Wind oil burner behind the engine casing.
Gangloff shows a trolleybus on a Berna, the electrical work being by Des Ateliers de Secheron of Geneva. The poles are controlled by two small windlasses mounted on the back body panel.
A Bema town bus for 24 seated and 60 standing passengers has a conductor's seat and ticket desk near the rear side entrance. It hauls a trailer, also with its conductor's pay desk. Bodywork is by Gebr. Moser and Co.
The German Gutbrod has a single-tube chassis and "swinging axles" at the rear with large, single coil springs mounted on a raised crossed-member carried by two tubes from the frame. The gearbox and twocylindered air-cooled two-stroke engine are suspended from this cross-member. There are two laminated cross-springs at the front.
Steyr-Daimler Puch shows a 4-ton tipper with Wirz gear, the oil power unit being a four-cylinder of 90 b.h.p.
On a Hanomag is a polished light-metal low-sided body with corrugated floor, the 1-i-in. sides being hollow.
The only mobile shop, on view is the Tempo Matador II. This is steel panelled and wood lined.
Four-wheel-drive is employed on a Magirus-Deutz three-way tipper with Wirz light-metal body.
On the platform of a 25-cwt. Borgward is a particularly neat Lloyd cloth-covered van to carry 7 cwt.
Another four-wheel-drive chassis is the 41-ton Henschel. The drive is taken from the front engine to a central distribution box, thence by carden shafts to the front and rear axles. It is powered by a HenschelLanova 100 b.h.p. oil engine.
A Swiss Mowag for carrying large girders extending along the sides of the narrow cab, has a Bussing flat six-cylindered oil engine amidships, with a propeller shaft under 3 ft. long. .
An attraction is the new Fiat' 642N fast lorry with eight speeds and forward control: Amongst the tractors is a German Unimog, a shortwheelbase all-purpose type with four-wheel drive, coil-spring suspension, a small four-cylindered Mercedes-Benz oil engine, and a large pulley mounted . . on a bracket from the right side of the gearbox. A further power take-off goes to front and rear from the left of the gearbox. Also staged is the well-known French Latil tractor and a Linic oil-engined tractor for semi-trailer work.
• An F.B.W. military lorry has all-Wheel drive and epicyclic gear reduction in the wheels. From the winding drum at the rear, the steel rope can go right through to the front.
Berna is showing a new four-wheel-drive 6-7-ton tipper with the gearbox canted at 60 degrees to ease the change-speed control. This concern also assembles a 21-tortner from O.M. parts made under Saurer licence.
The Goliath is a light German vehicle shown in threewheeled and four-wheeled form.
In the works-truck class are the Harbilt, the Low-Loader, the Newton Hydratruck, the Wrigley fork-lift and various stillage trucks all shown by Autornohil-Verkaufs. Many SIG electric trucks, lifters and a small tipper are stagedby Schweizerische Industrie-Cresellsehaft.
Aspi-Tamini has several' fire, engines and a new small pump for jeeps, etc.
Citroen shows • its usual light‘ and medium-capacity, vans with corrugated-steel bodies.
• Der Auto-Import. und Maschinen A.G. shows a Virvoll French-built hydraulic stillage truck with'singlecylindered engine and driver's platform, also a neat
small electric tractor by Ma.schinenfabrik-Esslingen. . Amongst other British exhibits, there are fine selec
tions from Rootes, Austin and Morris-Commercial. The Big Bedforci is shown as a chassis and British Fords are represented by a 5-cwt. van and the E.T.F. 7 with Perkins oil engine and locally built tipping body.