SECURING 999 PER CENT. FLEET EFFICIENCY.
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A Description of the Methods by which the L.G.O.C. Safeguard the Public and Keep Their Omnibuses on the Road.
ALTHOUGH not very many years have passed. since the introduction of the motor omnibus to the streets of London, it is now the safest and most reliable means of road transport. Nowadays, it is a most uncommon sight to see an omnibus in the streets of London stopped through a defect, and yet, not many years ago, such happenings were
of frequent occurrence. , The motor omnibus is a comparatively new method of passenger transport, and it has had to fight very hard indeed in eider to attain the wonderful efficiency which is now maintained. Londoners are , rather apt to treat the position as a. matter. of course, and to forget what a. vast amount of money, work, and thought has been, and is still being, expended to make the London omnibus safe, reliable, and sanitary.
The number of buses operated by the London General Omnibus Co., Ltd., is over 2,500, thus making it the largest fleet of vehicles in the world run by a singje company Not only is this the case, but the work which is undertaken by the vehicles is of a most arduous nature. The continuous stopping and starting throw great stresses upon the whole of the mechanism and, if it were not for the wonderful system of Supervision and inspection which has been inaugurated by the company—and which is continually being improved—accidents and breakdowns might well be the rule rather than the exception.
The running of a commercial vehicle does not demand anything like the same average mileage or the same continuous working as does a bus, with its 16 hours of actual running time per day, and its average of approximately 30,000 miles per year. On some of the routes buses are running as much as 162 miles per day. It would be as well for us to state at this point that the drivers and conductors work in eighthour shifts, as no man could be expected to drive a vehicle for 16 hours per day.
To those who have had much to do with the London General Omnibus Co., the spirit of friendly rivalry which exists between the 30 or so garages from which the vehicles run is a wonderful thing, and every effort is made to encourage it. Two shields have been given for competition amongst the garages, one being for freedom from accidents, and the other for freedom from breakdowns. The winning garage holds the shield or shields for a year.
-Extremely -efficient mileage figures have been brought to light by these competitions : for instance, on one occasion the Hammersmith garage ran its old
c24 Leyland vehicles for 204 consecutive days without losing a single mile; that is to say, for nearly twothirds of a year the mileage efficiency of that particular garage was 100 per cent. Proud, indeed, would be the manager of a fleet of commercial vehicles who could produce such a,stounding results.
Within the garages, friendly rivalry is promoted amongst the workers by displaying, in a prominent part of the garage, the number of miles lost per day for that particular garage, the number of days without losses, and the previous best record ; -also'the six worst and the six best figures for daily petrol consumption. To be the driver of one of the six buses with the worst petrol consumption is not an enviable position, as he is subjected to merciless criticism from his, confreres.
As the London bus is now one of the principal public transport vehicles and as, for some years, it has been subjected to a tremendous amount of wear and overloading, the precautions which are being taken to ensure, so far as possible, the safety of the general public are even more stringent than formerly, and few of the travelling public have any conception of the care with which they are safeguarded. With a view to obtaining first-hand information on the subject, by the courtesy of the Manager for Maintenance, we recently obtained permission to spend some considerable time at the Cricklewood garage, where 110 vehicles are in service and where a large amount of overhauling and " docking " is being done.
We arrived at the garage in a No. 16 bus, which was making its last run for the day. At the gate we produced our passes, which were carefully examined by one of the garage wardens who, incidentally, are responsible to the head office and report direct to it. They also receive telephone calls in cases of breakdown and make a note of all vehicles going in and out. In the case of test vehicles, lorries, vans, etc. the names of the drivers are also taken ; the wardens, of course, report also to the superintendent of the garage. Our passes having been found to be in order, we were directed to the office of the superintendent, which we were to make our headquarters during our investigations.
The superintendent of a garage has under his control an assistant superintendent, a night foreran and charge hands over the various squads of men in the repair, dock, and machine shops. He is held responsible for the maintenance and carrying out of repairs to all the buses running out of his particular garage, and he is fully alive to the urgent necessity for keeping his staff up to scratch." From what we have seen of the calls upon his time and patience, we are not particularly enamoured of his job. After introducing ourselves, we walked out to watch the nightly procedure. Buses were arriving every few moments. As each came through the gate it was checked in and driven to the filling tanks to be petroled up. The petrol tanks are underground and the petrol is pumped to a gravity tank by means of a power-driven Farringdon semi-rotary pump. From the gravity tank, it is led to a measuring tank
attached to a convenient wall. Flexible tubing, with an automatic shut-off, hand-controlled valve at its end, conveys the petrol from the measuring tank into the petrol tank situated under the driver's seat of each bus. Before any petrol is run in, the amount of fuel left in the tank is measured by means of a dipper, and sufficient petrol is then added more than to cover the nest day's running. Whilst this is being done, S,he driver fills up a, form. at the report desk. On this form, which Is called the "driver's mechanical report sheet," he notes any defects which have come under his observation during the day, or which have been reported to him by the first shift driver from whom he took the bus over.
At the doors of the ba,ys in which the buses are garaged, each is taken over by a man known as a shunter ; as this name implies, the shunter's duty is to place the bus in such a position that it can be readily moved out the following morning. This is a matter of no small difficulty and must be done very carefully, otherwise a bus which may be due to leave at an early hour may be blocked by others due to leave later' also room must be left between one vehicle and the next, in order to allow room for the nightly inspections and the washing. To assist in this, it has been found advisable to park the buses at a slight angle to the wall. Directly the bus is positioned for the night, the inside and top are thoroughly brushed and the rest of the vehicle washed. Previous to the night staff commencing duty, the night foreman, or one of his staff, goes through the driver's report sheets and. allocates-the work to a man looking after a squad of cars. This man is in charge of a gang of men, the size of which depends upon the conditions of the
roads upon which the par ticular buses in his squad run. If the defects reported are of too extensive a character to be carried out during the night, the bus is kept in and. replaced by another.
In addition to tbe men kept on miming repairs, there are special men who make a thorough inspection of each steering gear. To simplify this inspection, the steering arms are kept bright; while miming they are covered with grease, but, during the inspection, this grease is wiped off and, if there is the slightest suspicion of a flaw in the steerft arms or joints, the pivot pin is withdrawn and the whole stub axle with its connections is taken out and tested.
To assist in the inspection each man is provided with an electric lamp and a hand mirror. He holds t he mirror behind each_steering arm so that the whole arm can be thoroughly exarnined, A record is kept in the office of each garage of all steering arms; this record includes the date of fitting, date of removal, the cause of removal, and whether the arm is sent kr annealing or is scrapped ; thus the life of each arm can be definitely ascertained and the best material for the purpose can be noted. Special precautions are also taken with all the other important details of the vehicle, such as the brakes. Where nuts have worked loose they are tightened up, and any faults which may have developed in the body are corrected by experts.
i At each garage s, at least, one man who deals solely with the petrol consumption. This Man is provided with a list of the six worst vehicles in this respect, according to the previous day's running, and these cars are given special attention with a view to reducing this consumption. The weekly average of petrol consumption for each garage is communicated to the district engineer, who is in charge of from five to six garages. Attached to his staff is a highly-skilled carburetter and engine expert, who is sent to the depots which show the worst records so far as petrol consumption is concerned. A nightly examination is also made of the lighting sets. The batteries are tested and, if necessary; charged up, and the generators are cleaned and. adjusted. With regard to magnetos, from three to six are removed nightly in rotation, and these are cleaned and adjusted by an expert. It has been found that this rotational system of inspection reduces considerably the number of involuntary stops due to engine trouble. Careful attention is also paid to the fire extinguishers fitted to every vehicle, and, in this connecton, buses are also liable to examination on the road by the fire force maintained by the company.
By the time we had finished watching these variousinspections, the last buses had returned, and comparative quiet reigned, but not for long, for at about 5" .a.m. a perfect pandemonium of noise commenced. This announced the starting up of the, " early turn" vehicles. We walked round to seehow this was done. The stubborn starters are hitched to the back of a general duty lorry and, by
this means, are usually started within their own length. Others are started by the combined efforts of three men, one of whom holds the starting handle, whilst the others stand at either side of him and hold looped straps which are placed round the starting handle ; as the centre, man turns the handle the other men pull alternately.
One would have thought that, by this time, inspections would have finished, but this proved otherwise, for, before each vehicle was allowed to proceed an all-round inspection was made by two expert men stationed at the gate.. In addition, the inside of each bus was sprayed with a solution, of perchloride of mercury, a germicide for which influenza and other noxious germs have no liking.
A loose leaf ledger dealing with each bus is kept ilk the garage office. In this ledger are kept all useful. particulara, including a. summary of the driver's mechanical report sheets, also a car-ruiming record, which includes items such as time lost, mileage performed, petrol and lubricating -Oil consumed. Ten per cent, of the vehicles in each garage are kept in daily for what is called ." dock overhauling." This consists of. an extremely thorough inspection, and the adjustments which are carried out are more thorough than could be done in a single night. Careful attention is paid to the summary of the driver's mechanical report sheets, whichwe have already mentioned, and any faults, which are shown by them as having developed since the last dock overhaul, are examined and attended to whore required. The bottom half of• the engine crankcase is removed, and any slack in the big-ends. taken up. If necessary, the valves are ground in and the joints between the various water connections remade. The differential. is lifted and examined, the gearbox cover is takenoff, so that the condition of the gears and chains can be ascertained, and all the wheels are renloved; cleaned, examined for cracks, and adjusted for end
play, etc. If the clutch is fierce; it is redeessed, and the steering levers are repolished so that the nightly inspection can be more easily and efficiently carried. out. At regular intervals, the steering arras are entirely removed from the axle, in order to examine the tapers and the threads.
Once a year, each omnibus has to be completely overhauled, its licence surrendered to the police, and the chassis stripped to the frame, whilst the body is removed and sent to one of the coach factories for renovation. The chassis is reassembled with units which have been overhauled previously. The time taken for this work on each vehicle is approximately four to five days, and after being carefully inspected at the garage, the vehicle is sent for a final and independent inspection at Farm Lane Garage. The inspectors in this instance, report direct to the office of the Manager for Maintenance, and, if their report is not satisfactory, the vehicle is returned for further attention. The object of this independent inspection is to ensure a uniform standard of workmanship and finish for, otherwise, what one garage might pass as good, another might consider not good enough.
During the overhaul of the units, before fitting to an overhauled chassis, 018 parts are _cleaned in a hot soda-ash bath. The white metal bearings in the engine are now being bored out and fitted direct to the engine without a preliminary bedding in ; they are run in by means of shafting and eased where necessary in the engine-erecting shop. This shop is arranged on the __progressive system. The first man eases the main bearings, the next attends to the.„, connecting rod and gudgeon pins, the next fits the pistons and cylinders, and so on, right round the shop ; this system tends to make every man an expert at his particular job. '
After being erected, the engines are given a fourhour test driving a fan bi'ake. They are driven by town gas, and every engine must give 30 b.h.p. at 900 r.p.rn. ; the power developed would, of course, be more with petrol.
All tapers are ground in before fitting., thus ensuring an absolutely rigid fit. .,9„special jig is employed for the brake 'shoes; this jig is actually one end of a rear axle casing with its tube, brake anchorages and brake cams. All the shoes are made to bear equally, on a test drum before being fitted to...--an actual vehicle.
During the annual overhaul, the steering arms are carefully annealed. '
The -whole, of the overhauls for three garages— Twickenham, Holloway, and_Crieklewood—are done at Cricklewood, thus concentrating the work and facilitating the supply of stores, etc. This concentration is also being carried out with the other garages.
In case of breakdowns on the road, if the break down 'be small, the driver telephones to his garage, which, if the vehicle be not far away, sends a fitter to attend to it; if, however, the bus is closer to another garage, the latter garage is requested to send help. For serious breakdowns, as in the case of accidents, lorries, specially fitted for dealing with such occurrences, are stationed at the four points of the compass. Tkese breakdown lorries are provided with jib cranes, ramps, packings, jacks, etc.
Still further to ensure the safety of the travelling public, those omnibuses which operate in hilly districts are provided with a special sprag gear which cannot be over-run. One of our illustrations shows this gear. It consists of a pawl and a notched ring, the latter being bolted to the inner side of the rim of one of the rear wheels.
Periodical fire drills are held at each garage, both during the day and night. Every man has his allotted fire station, and frequent surprise calls render the staff efficient in their fire duties. Practically all the garages are fitted with Mather and Platt-water sprinklers. In conclusion, we would like to express our appreciation of the courtesy which we received from every Member of the L.G.O.C. staff with whom we came into contact, and for the willing help, which they affordpo 1,,