Public Service Garages.
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The London General Omnibus Company's Preparations.
The London General Omnibus Company, Limited, which is the oldest-established omnibus company in London, has been fully alive to the importance of the motor omnibus, and it attempted to use a motor omnibus in London some two years ago. This omnibus—No. i in the company's stock— was on the Fischer principle, in which a petrol engine was employed to drive a dynamo, the current was stored in accumulators, and the wheels were then driven by motors from the battery. After some difficulty, owing to the width of the vehicle, this omnibus was licensed by the police, but the consumption of petrol was so great, and the threatened tyre wear so huge, that the omnibus has not been used on other than experimental work. Following this, the company obtained, in November of last year, a single-deck Clarkson omnibus and a 16h.p. Orion petrol chassis ; the second of these was fitted with an old horsed type body to seat 26 people. These two omnibuses, which ran between Hammersmith and Piccadilly Circus, proved that petroleum and its lighter constituents were more economical than horse fodder. Consequently orders were placed with six different firms for the supply of two or three chassis apiece for 36-seated omnibuses. The two omnibuses mentioned were temporarily garaged at the coach factory of the company in North Road, Caledonian Road, but when the orders for the 36-seaters were placed the company commenced to construct a garage at the Dollis Hill Yard, Cricklev.rood. This yard comprises an extensive range of buildings, including foreman's residence, harness stores, stables, and an omnibus shed for some fifty horsed buses. Sonic portions of these were pulled down, and a garage i Raft, long by soft. broad, to accommodate 24 motor omnibuses, with workshop and store on one side, has been completed..
A plan of this garage is shown in Fig. r, and a photograph taken from lust outside the door is reproduced in Fig. 2. The motor omnibuses are driven through the main bus shed and backed into the garage, the floor of which is paved with blue brick, and there are eight long lines of smooth stone for the wheel tracks. These stones are whitewashed every day so that, in backing up, it is very easy for the drivers to keep in exactly the right track. Four inspection pits are provided in each row, and there are benches round two sides of the main shed. It will be noticed that the roof is carried on three steel girders. Between each of these girders is a pointed roof, half of which is glazed and half slated. As there arc windows on three sides as well, the light is at all times an excellent one for working. In the left-hand corner of the garage, as one enters, is the office, and beyond it is the entrance to the workshop and store. The walls of the store are covered with pigeon holes, so that small spare parts, etc., are kept distinct and easily accessible. A photograph, looking through the workshop towards this store, is shown in Fig. 3. The store is equipped with three safety oil cabinets for paraffin, lubricatingand cylinder oils, respectively, and great precautions are taken to prevent any chance of oil's reaching the stock of spare tyres. The tools in the workshop are driven by a 6h.p. Parker electric motor, the current for this and for all the lighting being taken from the Willesden Electric Supply Company's mains. Fig. 4 is from a photograph of the motor. In the opposite corner is an electric motor-generator and switchboard for charging accumulators. The workshop is equipped with a powerful screw-cutting lathe (Fig. 5), and also with a milling and shaping machine and a vertical drilling machine shown in Fig. 6, whilst there is room to place two or three other machines in the workshop when necessary. It is the intention of the company to make practically the whole of its own spare parts, in addition to its executing the running repairs and undertaking the periodic overhauling of the omnibuses.
The motor department is under the charge of Mr. W. Spiller, an engineer of great experience in this particular class of work. Mr. Spiller was educated at a private school and King's College, and was then apprenticed for six years at a well-known locomotive works, since which time he has always been associated, with general and light marine engineering. For some time he was engaged with I. I. Thornycroft and Company, Limited, on motor boat and omnibus work, and he took out the first motor bus for the company to Malta and initiated a service there. He also initiated several other bus services before going to the London General Omnibus Company. He has a foreman under him at the garage, and, on day duty, one turner, three fitters, a storekeeper and a clerk. All other labour is supplied by drivers who are in training. On night duty there is a "charge hand" driver and, when necessary, a utter. This staff will be increased as occasion requires. The fore. man sees all omnibuses in at night and examines them so as to give orders for anything necessary in the way of light repairs, and either the foreman or his leading hand is responsible for the " turn out " each morning. The machinery of each omnibus is thoroughly cleaned every night inside the garage, and each is then taken out in the morning, in turn, and the bodies and wheels washed in the yard. The omnibuses begin to leave at about seven in the morning, and are worked with two shifts of drivers, but they are so timed that most of them come in for one hour in the middle of the day for dinner and one hour in the evening for tea. This gives an opportunity for the water to be changed,
and for the whole of the mechanism to be looked over, with the result that not a few small mishaps have been prevented by timely attention. The three omnibuses running between Charing Cross and East Finch ley (one London General and two Associated), which are garaged at Cricklewood, do a journey from Cricklewood to the Law Courts in the morning, and run from Charing Cross to Cricklewood about three o'clock in the afternoon. After an hour for dinner, they do another journey to the Law Courts and then run to East Finchley until they make a return journey to Cricklewood the last thing at night. The policy of the London General Omnibus Company has been to test various makes before placing any large orders, and consequently the stock at present consists of one t6h.p. and two 2oh.p. Orion, one Straker, three Milnes-Daimler, three Wolseley and two Leyland omnibuses. In addition, Mr. Spiller has at present under his charge at Cricklewood three Milnes-Daimlers belonging to the Associated Omnibus Company, though it is expected that that company's garage at Camden Town will be ready to take them in a few days. At the time our representative visited Dollis Hill the single-deck Clarkson omnibus, which has been withdrawn from service owing to its small seating capacity, was at the extreme end of the garage. It can be easily seen in the illustration (Fig. 2). The omnibus on the extreme right of the picture is the t6h.p. Orion, which is being rebuilt, and right in front of it on the same road stands a Wolseley chassis just delivered from the makers. After the chassis has been thoroughly tested it will be taken to the coach factory at North Road, where the body will be fitted : an the bodies are built by the company's own workmen at this factory. The omnibus on the left of the illustration is a Leyland, which has come in for dinner, and on the road next to it will be seen a 3oewt. Milnes-Daimler lorry which is used for teaching drivers and hauling goods for the motor de
partment. A special petrol store has been built at the extreme end of the yard, where there are three separate chambers, each capable of holding soo gallons in two-gallon cans. The store is built of brick, with very strong steel doors, and the floor is sunk below the level of the yard and covered with sand, so that in the event of any leakage the petrol will not flow out into the yard. The cans stand on steel racks, and the store is well ventilated, A steel handtruck, with steel wheels, so that it is entirely incombustible, is employed to bring the cans of petrol round to the garage as required. The company use " Shell " spirit entirely, and Mr. Spitler is of the opinion that it is much safer and more convenient to take delivery in two-gallon cans than in bulk. A loose box at the end of the horse hospital has been cleared out and converted to a smiths' shop for the motor department. This is as far removed as possible from the petrol store and garage, in order to eliminate the risk ot lire. The whole of the motor premises are lighted by electricity; smoking or naked lights are not allowed, notices to this effect being posted on the walls at many points in both the garage and the workshop. Each omnibus is provided with two paraffin head lamps and two paraffin inside lamps, which are cleaned and placed ready in the garage each forenoon. " New Era" chemical fire extinguishers are placed at intervals round the wall, and one is carried on each omni.. bus. There are also four sets of fire buckets, the centre one being filled with sand and the other two of each set with : one of these is very conspicuous in Fig. 4.
Since the opening of the garage, the company has converted a complete set of stables in the West of London for use as another garage. This would have been in full use at the present time if delivery of sufficient motor omnibuses had been obtainable. The old bus yard at this place has been roofed in, equipped as a garage of almost the same size as that at Cricklewood, and fitted with inspection pits in similar positions. At this garage a store and workshop have already been fitted up in exactly the same way as those at Cricklewood, but, in addition, another set of stables has been cleared out to take any particular bus chassis that may require extensive overhauling, the object being to keep the overhaul distinct from the running department in the main garage. In this garage the petrol store, which consists of two separate chambers, each of 500 gallons capacity, has been constructed close to the entrance, and the smiths' shop is the old farriers' shop—quite distinct from any other part of the premises. As soon as there is a prospect of an improvement in the rate of the delivery of the rso motor omnibuses that this company now has on order, further garages will be constructed in different parts of London.