NEW LEYLAND I.F.S. FOR DUTCH BUSES
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DELIVERIES to the Netherlands Railways have just started of some of the most modern buses and coaches in Europe. Although these are being assembled in Holland, all the .mechanical components and many of the fittings are British. The running units are being supplied by Leyland Motors, Ltd., through their Dutch organization. Leyland-Holland N.V.
As reported in The Commercial Motor last week, the complete Netherlands Railways order is,for 300 vehicles. Contractshave been placed for 250 of them. One hundred and twenty buses are to be built by Werkspoor N.V., of Utrecht, whilst 30 coaches and 100 buses will be assembled by N.V. Carrosseriefabriek Verheul, of Waddinxveen. All the buses are of integral construction. Those built by Verheul will be similar to the Holland Coaches which have been manufactured for several years.
Although the buses are an important advance on the type of vehicle normally employed in Holland, perhaps the most interesting feature from the British operator's viewpoint is that Leyland Motors, Ltd., have supplied independent front suspension units for them. These arc similar in general layout to the arrangement adopted on the prototype Atlantean double-decker shown at the Commercial Motor Exhibition at Earls Court in 1956.
It is not unreasonable to suppose, therefore, that this torsion-bar front suspension layout may in time be offered by Leyland for use on production vehicles.
The vehicles will be operated by the Netherlands Railways authorities through the medium of their 15 associated companies, who at the moment run some H22 1,500 buses—more than a fifth of the total number of public service vehicles in the Netherlands. Most of the buses will be operated in the individual livery of these separate companies, but some will he run as Netherlands Railways vehicles on serviceS-between Amsterdam and The Hague.
The new vehicles are to replace sonic of the vehicles acquired shortly after the war and will be delivered at the rate of 12 a month as from now. The contract for the remaining vehicles has yet to be placed, but it will probably go to one of the two manufacturers already engaged on the first 250.
Basically, the buses being built will be closely akin in appearance and interior layout, but the method of body construction, underframing layout; and materials employed have largely been left to the choice of the manufacturers, who naturally have chosen designs similar to those with which they are already familiar.
Verheul are at present engaged on the construction of 30 coaches. These differ principally from the buses in that they have a single front entrance.
The coaches are known as " semitouring ". vehicles, because, although they are fitted with coach seats pitched at 2-ft. 6-in. intervals, they can be emeloyed as service buses working on inter-city routes. They have 48 seats, plus one for a courier, as opposed to the 46 seats fitted in the service buses, but the service buses have standing room for 25 passengers in addition.
The Verheul method of constructibn makes it possible to use many common framing components and body panels. Other than the additional entrance in the buses, one of the main specification differences is that the coaches have a sunken centre aisle, the scat platforms being raised some 3 in. above the top of the main underframe.
This has been done to reduce the height of the wheel-arches and increase passenger foot room adjacent to the wheels. Furthermore, all the seats-face forward, whereas in the buses back-to-back seats are arranged over the wheel-arches.
Underframes of the Verheul vehicles are welded fabrications employing channel-section members for the most part. many of these having large lightening holes. The front suspension assemblies. rear-spring hanger brackets and engine and gearbox mounting brackets are, however, bolted to the underframe to make for easy replacement.
Top-hat section body pillars and roof sticks are employed and the body framing also is of welded construction. Even the steel exterior panels are spot-welded to the frame and it is claimed that such panels arc no more difficult to remove in the event of damage than screwed or riveted panels.
The centre roof panels are of corrugated aluminium, the corrugation being to avoid drumming and to allow for expansion in hot weather, thereby preventing distortion of the roof assemblies. A limited amount of luggage accommodation is provided below the floor ahead of and behind the rear axle, and luggage racks are provided.
Welding is used extensively in the construction of the Werkspoor buses also, but the body panels are riveted to the frame members. A progressive feature of these buses is the good use that has been made of plastics mouldings. They are made in the Werkspoor factory and are of an extremely high standard, equal to, if not better than, anything made in this country by a body manufacturer.
The front and rear canopy lining panels are plastics mouldings, as are the wheelarches, window pans, rear-lighting cluster housings and the front motif panel.
Another unusual feature, which is a Werkspoor speciality, is the non-reflecting windscreen layout, with semi-elliptic windscreen panels which prevent the interior lights from reflecting into the driver's eyes. This is particularly important in the case of the Netherlands Railways order, as the interior illumination includes eight fluorescent lamps, giving exceptional brightness in a road vehicle.
Interior brightness has been closely studied from all angles. It is ensured by the depth of the side and rear windows, combined with the use of light grey plastics trimming panels. The deep windows also give good visibility in all directions.
On both the buses and coaches twopiece sliding doors are used. These move out parallel to the body when opened. lying flush against the sides when fully opened. Electro-pneumatic actuation is employed.
Three Koni heating units are installed in the body. They draw in fresh air from the left of the vehicle and use the hot water from the engine cooling system. Their efficiency was shown by the fact that when running in an ambient temperature of 35° F. the average body interior temperature was 62° F.
So far as mechanical components are concerned, all the vehicles have an identical specification. The power unit is the Leyland 0.600 six-cylindered horizontal oil engine, which is governed to a maximum speed of 2,000 r.p.m. Its maximum output is 130 b.h.p. The engine carries an 18-in.-diameter hydraulic coupling, whence the drive is taken through a short propeller shaft to a four-speed PneumoCyclic semi-automatic gearbox.
The engine is mounted at three points with two swinging links at the rear. The gearbox also has three mounting points. The rear axle is similar to that employed in the Tiger Cub and has spiral-bevel gears, giving a ratio of 4.111 to I.
Bendii-Westinghouse dual-circuit airpressure braking is employed. The front and rear brake units are similar to those employed in the Tiger Cub. They are 151 in. in diameter, with 4+-in.-wide facings at the ftont and 7-in.-wide facings at the rear, giving a total frictional area of 623.3 sq. in.
Marles cam-and-double-roller steering gear is employed: this is not power assisted, 'despite an average laden frontaxle weight of nearly 5-1 tons.
The independent front suspension employed consists basically of a transverse fabricated beam.' on each end of which there is a suspension bracket. These brackets carry unequal-length wishbones, the two upper links being mounted on rubber bushes.
The lower wishbones are splined to rubber-mounted tubes, which in turn. are carried on the splines of longitudinal torsion bars. The rear ends of these torsion bars are anchored in the body underframing in adjustable mountings. Telescopic dampers are fitted.
Rear suspension consists of semielliptic ..springs having a frequency of 80-85 cycles per second.
The vehicles have a wheelbase of 18 ft. 5 in. and the overall length is 35 ft. 6 in. The rear overhang is 10 ft. 8 in.
Arrangements had been made to road test one of the Werkspoor buses, but snow, ice and high winds (Monte Carlo rally weather) made it impossible to obtain proper ligures. Riding as a passenger in the bus, however, the high degree of comfort was impressive.
The suspension coped ably with varying types of road surface and a smooth travel was afforded whether the vehicle was fully laden or empty. The quietness'of the power -unit was commendable and when accelerating the transmission smoothness was notable.
Driving the vehicle proved to be light work, despite the absence of powerassisted steering, and even in a strong cross-wind (and these can be high in a flat country like Holland) the bus was in no way difficult to keep on a straight course. As has previously been found, fullthrottle gear changes can be made with ease without causing discomfort to the passengers, by virtue of the Pneumo-Cyclic gear-change system.
Additionally, of course, the absence of a clutch and gearchange pedal appreciably reduce the effort demanded of the driver. Visibility, either with or without the saloon lights on, was good, although the heaters caused the driver's side window to steam up and obscure the driving mirror.
From the fuel figures obtained it is reasonable to suppose that when running at 13 tons gross, the bus will return 11-12 m.p.g. on non-stop inter-city services. The acceleration time from 0 to 30 m.p.h. is abut 30 seconds, a further 'half minute being required to reach 40 m.p.h. The brakes felt very powerful, and were smooth and quick in response.