The Future of Inner Zone Transport
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By A. C. Morrison
170,000 Vehicles, from Pedestrian-controlled Outfits lb 6-tonners, Will be Needed for Operation Within an 8-mile Radius,Sags Our Contrbutor. Battery-elect rics and Oil-electrics and Some with
Interchangeable Power Units are Advocated
AFTER this war is won, we Shall be faced with the fact that most of our transport will need renewal. Not only the new vehicles. but also the delivery systems require planning now, so that we may build equipment suitable in every way for the jobs that will have to be done.
I propose to deal with central and inner-zone requirements within a radius of two to eight miles from the delivery centre. Not city-to-city long-distance transport.
What has to be moved in these areas?
Milk and bread must be delivered daily; sanitary conveyances collect weekly; coal supplies and general groceries are delivered weekly. Meat is delivered twice a we.ek and 'Various miscellaneous deliveries are made. Generally there is an average of three vehicles to deliver to each household daily.
Approximately 10,000,000 families reside in this country, so there are about 30,000,000 daily retail deliveries. Even with highly organized distribution the roundsman cannot average more than 300 calls per day. This means that 100,000 vehicles are required for retail deliveries. To feed this transport we shall w`aitz a fleet of heavy vehicles approximating to 10,000 machines.
From railhead to factory, from works to works, for wholesale shop supplies an postal transport, 60,000 medium and heavy vehicles will be required. Therefore, 170,000 inner-zone vehicles must be made so soon as possible after the cessation of hostilities, and whereyer
feasible they should not use imported fuel.
The types of vehicle for retail work will be in categories of central zone and intermediate zone, respectively. To. define these areas, the former are densely populated and involve an operating radius of about half a mile. For this area we have hitherto seen the hand cart,, but man will not take kindly to being a beast of burden in the future. A normal mechanically propelled vehicle, however, will increase the time required to. deliver the goods in this closely packed delivery area.
For this zone the vehicle required is ira pedestrian-controlled type,the roundsme.n, relieved of the pfiysical effort of moving his supplies, will walk with his load.
The vehicle will comprise a box to house the goods, a pair of carrying wheels and a power-driven wheel to propel the machine. It will be automatically limited to 2i m.p.h. and will steer, start and stop simply by the operative's effort on one lever. The machine will have a capacity of . 1,000 lb. (0 cwt.). Roughly 10,000 of them will be required for our post-war country. The only possible power unit is a battery-4iven motorized front wheel. The rtaundsman will walk in front end so soon as the main lever is released the machine will switch off and apply its brakes.
Around this closely packed central area will be the intermediate zone with a five-mile operating radius served by 1,000-1b. to 3,000-lb. load-capacity battery-driven vehicles. The total daily mileage will be about 30, averaging 10 to 15 stops per mile, after arriving at the first delivery poiaat.
Obviously the present type orpetrol vehicle does not meet the demands of this arduous service, because, either the engine has to be left running all day, involving uneconomic operation, or too much time is wasted starting up 200 to 300 times per day. A battery-electric type is indicated.
These vehicles will be forward-drive four-wheelers with low single-step entry. The rear axles will have builtin motors. Rapid acceleration, a level " balancing " speed of 18 m.p.h. and high-pressure tyres to reduce roiling resistance complete the broad outline. Easily swung-out batteries for rapid service are necessary. The present type will require drastic redesigning to meet this market for ;30,000 units.
The sanitary collection service will use the better of two methods of propulsion in its own sphere. This work involves one stop per house all along a road and only an electric vehicle can perform this duty economically. When loaded, however, the refuse must be transported two to 10 miles, and such straight out-and-home running is most certainly not an electric-vehicle service.
An ideal system for this peculiar duty employs a container for the refuse, hauled during collection by an electric tractor-or mechanical horse, the loaded container being towed away by a similar petrol-driven Motive unit, which will bring an empty container back.
Simpler and cheaper containers than the present types will be used because the necessity of close packing of the load to limit journeys to the depot will not arise.
For railway and wholesale transport there should be a system of standardized semi-trailers, using a petrol-driven tractive unit for service where the trailer is left at the con signee's premises for an unloading period, or for longer runs with only few bulk deliveries. For the multiplestop service the electric horse or tractor will be used.
Always provided that 'design and manufacture are carried out by a con cern which really makes the vehicles and not simply assembles components which are not specifically designed for the job, this electric horse can operate at least as cheaply as nature's horse, for which animal I cannot see a future in transport. The tractor must pull 2-3 tons of goods.
For postal work ,a peculiar problem exists. More than in any other transport service a Christmas peak occurs where mileages are excessive for electric vehicles. I foresee this service handled by (a) and 1-ton petrol vans, powered by simple smallpower, governed petrol engines, and geared for a. maximum speed of 25 m.p.h..(I consider 8 and 12 h.p. engines should be • used, governed at 2,500 r.p.m.); (b) 1-ton battery-electrics with easily exchanged batteries.
For stop-and start work beyond the capacity of the battery-electric, I consider that a transmission, system will be evolved, dispensing with clutch and gearbox. In all probability this will be an electric transmission giving automatically controlled infinitely variable ratio.
For heavy city delivery service we shall see 3to 6-tonners, powered by small oil engines, limited to 20 m.p.h. and with automatic electric transmission, the engine being-governed at 2,500 r.p.m.
The vista that is opened up by this new conception of designed' urban transport means that some concern with technical knowledge, plant, buildings and courage will not be involved in any slump.
If there be such a concern which can build the engines, too, I can visualize a standard electric vehicle, into which is fitted either a battery or a petrolelectric or oil-electric power unit at will. The business available will represent a turnover of £2,50p,00e a year in replacement vehicles alone, besides the initial machines.
The nearest approaches to designed urban-delivery vehicles have been so far the mechanical horse, the semi-forwatdcontrol light van and the electric.
The first is an excellent example of original thin king and it does Jts job. The second, with a small engine, is half-way to the vehicle visualized. The third has not develope& Planned: in modern form, as late as 1933, and with only a tiny capital invested, ite could
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not jamp into its rightful place and had to be made of adapted mass-production petrol-vehicle parts.
These served their -.original object, namely, to show what electricity could do if applied to a vehicle really designed and built for the purpose.
Any small garage can build electric vehicles as now made, and turn them out as alike to the others as makes no matter, using the same axles, motors, etc., every component carrying multiple ovezheads and excessive handling and transport charges. What is really needed is for a concern with resources and ability to take up the progress from where it stopped in 1937.
Instead of being an assembly incorporating the motor of ,one maker, the controller of a second, the front axle of a third, the rear axle of a fourth, the frame of a fifth, etc., as is the case now and comprising a conglomeration of compromises, the vehicle will have to be a homogeneous whole.
The capital cost of an electric vehicle, even immediately before the war, mitigated against its ever filling the market for which it is pre-eminently suitable.
Before the electric can fulfil its destiny it will have to be made by a concern which builds the bulk of it under one roof, and designs and manufactures the axle and motor as a unit. Built as a semi-chassisless type, 'both weight and cost can be materially reduced.
Machinery, works, tools, etc., to build this vehicle will involve a capital value of £100,000, and we shall not see it on the road until one of the large manufacturers realises it potentialities.
The battery will be standardized in two tell sizes for all machines from the hand, cart to the 4-tomer, varying the , voltage for the different pay-load capacities. This would keep cost low.
Some battery makers will realize the potential market and get down to a standardized product at a proper price. The German system of a light, cheap, one-year-life battery may be the solution. Not only will this keep down prime cost, but it will also avoid increasing running cost, because such a battery can be made for less than a third of the cost of the normal traction type, whilst it is not so susceptible to damage through unskilled handling, and the dead weight is reduced by 40 per cent. Moulded battery containers in sixcell units will reduce the container cost, but obviously cells can be made in only two amp.-hr. capacities at the most. Engines for the petrol and oil units will be of moderately high speed, but governed to 2,500 r.p.m. With electric transmission, cyclic variation is mostly damped out, so a twin-cylinder type will be used to avoid having very small parts. In all probability, air cooling, using forced draught, will be standardized.
Although an air-cooled unit is not quite so efficient as a water-cooled engine, because of the power absorbed by the fan, the slightly higher thermal efficiency partly counterbalances this loss. The absence of a radiator avoids the use of delicate parts and most certainly abolishes freezing troubles. With a standard electric chassis, the engine will be carried in the battery hangers. This' will, of course, reduce manufacturing costs enormously, because the 'one main type will be satisfactory for both battery and oil drive.
Turning now to the remaining large urbantransport requirement, we find it to be the passenger service; this will mainly be by trolleybus. At present (although opinions vary) this type is a little cheaper to operate than a petrol bus and possibly about the same as an oil bus. Whilst financial charges are high, running costs, with current at a low economic price, are cheaper.
Two sizes of standardized chassisless trolleybus, built by a concern manufacturing it as a unit, will enable this initial cost to be brought low enough to cut the financial charges to a reasonable sum. The overhead gear, if tackled by the appropriate makers as a large-scale production job, can be very considerably cheapened.
There are plenty of routes where it will not be convenient or a financially good policy to use trolleybuses. Accordingly, the standard trolleybus can be fitted with an oil-electric power unit for these services.
I visualize a 56-seater and a 72-seater using one and two driving axles respectively as being the most suitable types. Control will be by delay-action pedal, operating a master controller, the main current being handled by Contactors. When running on oil, control will be simply -by foot accelerator, the electric transmission automatically adjusting the power to requirements.
• Equipment willinclude a small battery to enable the bus to manceuvre " off the wires."
I may be criticized for " going electric," but the electric age is with us now and we must utilize its great possibilities.