A Bus that Made History
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A PASSENGER vehicle built by the ri Northern General Transport Co., Ltd., which is claimed to have made transport history in Britain, is to be preserved for posterity in the British Transport Commission. Museum. Its claim to fame is two-fold: itwas the first single-deck bus to seat 44 passengers and the first two-axled bus to have an overall length of 30 ft. • The story behind this vehiclegoes back to 1934, when Northern General were faced with heavy summer traffic between Newcastle and South Shields, a route from which double-deckers-were precluded because of a low bridge.
The company designed and,built 35 single-deckers with three axles-, the-third axle being provided to enable them to fit a 30-ft.-long body. The maximum overall length permitted on two axles at that time was 27 ft. 6 in. Space to seat 44 passengers in comfort was provided by placing the engine at the side of the vehicle. It was originally a Hercules petrol unit.
For sOme years these single-deckers performed satisfactorily the job for which they were designed—that of moving heavy traffic in the summer period--but when the war began; a new problem arose. With the war came peak loading throughout the year andit was found that when the three-axled buses were in use on roads covered with
snow and ice, insufficient grip was obtained with the one pair of driving
Permission was granted by the late Sir John Maxwell, then North Eastern Licensing Authority, for the trailing / axle to be removed to 'double adhesion between the driving wheels and the road. One of the vehicles was converted and ran experim,entally for a year.
An approach was then made to .Sir John for the remaining three-axled vehicles to be similarly converted, but he, realizing that he had already trans gressed•a regulation by permitting the experimental vehicle to opera.te, referr&J the matter _to the Ministry -of.Transport.
The Ministry refused to saaction the conversion of the remaining vehicles. and, indeed, for a time it appeared likely that Northern General would have toreplacethe third axle on the prototype. This, however, " did not happen, but to permit the company to continue to run this vehicle, the Ministry issued a special regulation.
When, after the war, Mr. James Callaghan, then Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport, visited Northern General, he saw the futility of the regulation which allowed an overall length of 30 ft. on three axles and 'only 27 ft. 6 in. on two axles. Within a few months the regulation was altered.