Passing Comments
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WHEN a driver is first transferred from a petrol vehicle to an oiler it is best to give a few days' instruction at the works to learn the vital facts about his new charge. This is borne out by an instance of a haulier being faced with a breakdown account for £5 10s. consequent upon a factory service outfit having to be sent 120 miles to rectify what proved to be a simple air lock, caused by the driver turning off the fuel tap before stopping the engine instead of afterwards. VIBRATION is a subject fraught with unexpected problems, many of which are incapable of theoretical treatment and must be solved by trial and error. A vehicle-manufacturing concern that has closely studied the matter of drumming in drivers' cabs finds that in one design of cab this is experienced unpleasantly when the driver sits in the normal position, but if he leans forward, his ears, being in a different transverse or horizontal plane, are quite relieved of the drumming sound. QUITE a lot of work is being done in the conver sion of petrol engines to run on oil or creosote, but we recently came across the case of a well-known oil engine being converted to run on petrol and equipped with new cylinder heads, carburetter, etc., for this purpose. It is intended for a railcar, and its massive construction should give it a particularly long life.
A. FEW days ago queries were raised at Man chester as to whether it was intended to substitute trolley-buses for electric trams and to use them in competition with motorbuses. The matter arose as the result of the drafting of a Corporation Bill with money provisions, and Mr. Filcher has explained that the proviso concerning trolley-buses was merely embodied to allow for any contingency and that there is no immediate intention to oust buses or trams. WE have some-interesting advance information, of which more anon when the project has arrived at a stage when it may profitably be made public, of a scheme to be organized. under powerful auspices for developing the use of creosote as a fuel for heavy vehicles. It has as its particular object the interesting of gas companies in the production and marketing of this new fuel.
IT strikes one that it is so seldom that public service vehicles travel with every seat occupied that the slight extra weight involved when really comfortable seats are fitted can make but little difference to running costs. At any rate, one would expect more attention to be paid to the lightening of body frames and panelling, and even to chassis components, than is paid by bus operators, and surely they could be a little more lenient over seats.