TWO DAYS FOR A BUS OVERHAUL.
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How the L.G.O.C. is Able to Reduce the Idle Time of a Bus During Complete Overhaul to Two Days Per Annum:
WHEN the Chiswick Overhaul Factory of the London General Omnibus Co.., Ltd., was opened in May, 1921, it seemed to be so far ahead of the times and so completely to fill the needs and to be so well planned that some years might elapse before any vital additions or alterations in the system would be necessary. But, in the five years which have elapsed, we have been privileged to witness many developments, all of which have seemed to he reasonable advances dictated by experience. So far as the stripping, reconditioning, reassembling and finishing of the chassis are concerned one sees mere detail alterations and improvements of methods, but no change in the system laid down in 1921. In the matter of body reconditioning, how'ever, there has been an entire change, and one is interested to try to ascertain why the method now adopted could not have been laid down sooner. .Confidence has, of course, grown in the possibilities of progressive production and of its applicability to a branch of work which, so it had for years been claimed, called for individuality on the part of workpeople, and with this growth of confideece there has developed the conviction that engineering practices could with considerable advantage be applied to body building. The result has been a complete recasting of the work and whereas, hitherto, bus. bodies, as they were rentoved from chassis after twelve months' work, were taken into a large• repair shop, put down in a vacant space on the floor, were then stripped of defective parts, wore repaired, painted, varnished and finished, remaining on that spot from four to seven days, a bus body now spends about an hour in the stripping shed, eight hours on the repair line, two and a half 'days in the paint shop and three hours on the remounting and finishing line, or Mir working days in all.
There is not only a saving in the lost time that can now be employed in earning money, but two greater savings still are effected. The " float" of bodies which is rendered necessary by the lag in time as between the period occupied in reconditioning a chassis (two days) and the period necessary for reconditioning the body is reduced proportionately. As a day % output is 18 complete vehicles, the number of bodies now on the floor is only about 40, whereas only five years ago it was considerably greater. The saving in idle capital involves a further saving—that of floor space; the result being that nearly three-quarters of the space formerly given up to repairs is now devoted to new body construction, and the labour bill, because of the systematizetion of the work, has been cut down by three-quarters, the best of the displaced men being provided with jobs in other branches of the work. Where nearly 400 men were employed on body repair, the number to-day is 96, the reason being that the men's time is used to much better advantage.
It is interesting to note that, as the licences of 18 buses lapse per day, or 90 per week, and as a bus reconditioned and reliceneed is returned to its garage in two days, making, therefore, 35 or 36 off the streets every day, no more than 1 per cent, of the 4,000 buses in use is -ever out of service for complete general overhaul.
The distance travelled by a bus body in the course of its overhaul is now extremely short. When the bus due for its annual overhaul is received from the garage, the licence is surrendered to the Scotland Yard officials, and the bus is at once driven to the hydraulic lift gear, which consists of a multiple hydraulic jack which, after the nuts have been removed from the stirrup bolts, lifts the body clear of the chassis.
The chassis is then hauled away to the chassis overhaul department (with which it is not intended to deal in this article), and the body is lowered on to a four-wheeled steel frame bogie, upon which it remains for the next four days.
Pordeon tractors are used for hauling and pushing the vehicles about the premises, as they are found to be cheaper In first cost and also to run and to maintain than the electric trucks formerly used for the purpose of moving bodies from place to place.
The first halting spot for the body is in the stripping shed, where a foreman, in directing the work of a gang, examines every part of the body and condemns, where necessary, dented panels, damaged pillars, mouldings, lifeguards, wings, route boards, advertisement boards, ventilators, staircase details, etc. The slat mats on the floor and on the platform and the metal checkers on the staircase treads are all removed as a matter of course, and the mouldings for the lighting -wire conduits and the wiring are detached, because every vehicle is entirely rewired on overhaul. Any defects in the upper deck resulting in leakage can
always be detected from the inside of the bus, mid defective places are marked. Where the paintwork is at all tlefective or blistered it is burnt off.
One hour's work on the body leaves it stripped of all defective parts and ready to go on to the repair ropeway. There are four of theseropeways, accommodating about six or seven bodies, and the ropeway travels at the rate 3 ins, per mintue, taking eight hours to pass through the shop.
Each group of men specializes on certain parts of the work. The first group deals with the side panels, platform, advertisement stringer, top chairs, stairs and fender ; new checker plates are put on the treads of the stairs, and, where tie* panels are ,fitted, steel is being employed in Place of ply-wood. It has been found that ply-wood deteriorates, and about 50 per cent, of the panels made from it have to lie replaced every year ; steel panels, on the other hand, last a number of years and dents are easily rolled out of them. A certain amount of aluminium is being used in this work, and Tt is probable that the use of this 'material will grow:
The second group of men deals with the front and rear panels, the window • frames and gutters, and completes the work on the top chairs.
Cram number three deals with all roof joints and roof . slats, the advertisement boards at the front and rear and their fittings, glass work and inside chairs and panels. The ironwork and bell fittings, vents and traps are overhauled at the next stage, whilst on the last stage the slats of the inside .floor, switchbox, ,wire. mouldings, apron rails, the frame for carrying overhead advertisements, etc., are
all overhauled or replaced.
Where a vehicle has been involved in an accident it can, in most cases, be put through the same course of treatment on the ropeway, but, in an exceptional ease (for example, We saw a bus in the shops the whole side of which had been smashed by collision with a tramcar), this is placed in a special bay and enough men are put on to the job to repair it, if possible, in a single day. It is then moved off to the paint shop.
In order to equalize the work on the ropeway, the fore-. man will direct the supply of vehicles so that a heavy job, that is to say, a bus on which a large number of panels have to be fitted or chairs have to be renewed, will be followed by one on which only a small amount of work is necessary; this ensures the work proceeding without any unnecessary cheek.
Improvements are beingcarried out in the general specification by the replacement of ply-wood advertisement boards by metal panels; these, besides being more durable, are much more easily fitted.
In the paint shop, because more time is therein spent by the vehicles, six ropeways are used and they are longer, so that the capacity of the paint shop, where a vehicle spends two and a half days. is equal to that of the repair shop where it only spends eight hours.
The first coat of grey paint is flowed on to the side panels from a pipe having a broad spout and fed from an overhead tank. The spout is placed against the side of the panel and the .paint flows downward, the excess running off into a trough placed below the body. The whole side Panel of a bus is thus painted in a few moments. The drops formed at the bottom, after draining off, are wiped away, and the paint collected in the trough is run through a pipe line into the paint store, where it is strained and
thence returned to the supply tank.
The first coat takes 41 hours to dry, and then the top coat of red paint is flowed on in a like nianner, although, for the time being, instead of a pipe line a two-gallon can with a wide spout is being used. A rubbing with fine glass paper is used between the two coats of paint, and when the coat of red paint is dry the lettering, of which there is a considerable amount on a bus, is put on by means of transfers, and then the vehicle is given its coat of varnish, which takes from six to seven hours to dry off.
The wholeof the painting and varnishing of a bus, including all labour, and materials and a proper proportion of overhead charges, costs no more than 114, and yet the men are paid at a rate which is from 3d. to 5-id. more per hour than the standard rate of wages in the locality. No
emploYees are paid by piece rate, and it has been found that they assist in every way to attain the speeding up at which the management have always aimed.
Cellulose painting is being experimented with, and excellent results have so far been obtained on some of the coach and bus bodies, but at present it is rather expensive: This system of painting will eventually be employed because of the great saving of time in painting a body.
When the varnishing stage has been completed the vehicle stands for a sufficient time for the varnish to harden off, and it is then taken to a pneumatic hoist and lifted off the bogie ; an overhauled chassis is run underneath and the body dropped into position. The hoist, in this ease, is better than the hydraulic lift, because the body has to be floated ,about slightly over the chassis in order that the stirrups may register with the holes on the chassis frame. It is then hauled as a complete vehicle to the mounting shop, where it is again attached to a ropeway, this time travelling at 15 ins, per minute, and here the lifegnards and wings, route boards, advertisement boards, upholstery seats and backs, lamps, illuminated number panels, ventilator catches, fare-board catches, bells and bell pulls, knee aprons and their carrier rods are all fitted in place. The word " General " in gold paint is placed on the scuttle dash by means of a transfer and the scuttle is varnished, and the final touching-up done throughout the whole vehicle by the time it reaches the end of the ropeway.
It is extremely interesting to watch the man responsible for taking the vehicle off the ropeway, because there is not a moment to spare, and every 20 minutes he unhitches a vehicle from the travelling rope, starts the engine and gives a word of warning to the workmen still on the vehicle, and drives it off towards the test department, the men following and doing the last bits of coach paintwork on the lifeguards as it halts for a few moments at the doorway. It will be seen that the whole sequence of operations involves an extremely small amount of transport, and a steady output is maintained from one department to another.
At the end of the overhaul the vehicle is taken to the licensing department, which is responsible for the maintenance of the standard of fitness which is demanded by Scotland Yard. Sufficient test is made to ensure that the engine is pulling well, the brakes are efficient and the gearing silent, and that the bus itself complies with all official requirements. The vehicle is then taken by the licensing department to the particular district passing station of the police supervising the area in which the bus is to be garaged.
Whilst 00 buses are the usual number overhauled per week, the strike pat the department behind its programme to the extent of 178 vehicles. By a slight speeding up it has been found possible since the resumption Of work to overhaul 120 buses per week of five and a half days, besides making in that time 11 new covered-top buses and assembling the chassis for them. The number of employees in the shops is 2,100, whilst the administrative staff numbers 100, the .whole factory being under the management of Mr. 0. Rushton, M.I.A.E., engineer to the London General Omnibus Co., Ltd., to whom is due the credit for having carried out the ideas of Mr. G. J. Shave, the chief engineer and operating manager, who initiated the great enterprise at Chiswick.