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G . Nr,V-AD-WOTOR DEPARTMENT

3rd July 1913, Page 7
3rd July 1913
Page 7
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Page 7, 3rd July 1913 — G . Nr,V-AD-WOTOR DEPARTMENT
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Milord

reSyLated L • CREWE Pulling up sharp outside a picturesque, flowercovered cottage in a little village situated in the midst of the Cornish Riviera districi, a motorbus driver delayed his machine for a few precious minutes while he called out: " Mrs. Tregenna, your duck's down the road." That simple and fpiendly intimation seemed to us to typify the fundamental difference between the fine motorbus organization of the G.W.R. and that, for instance, of'the modern L.G.O.C. The former is so much of the country, whilst the other is the embodiment of all that is most up-to-date in Metropolitan advancement. The driver in question, a smart, self-reliant and capable man, was in no way careless of his company's time, but he was part and parcel of the Cornish dramatis person te of the district in a way that would never be possible for the driver of, say, B6C05 on Service 190.

Run Like a Train.

Inhabitants of Little Treviscoe set their clocks, if they boast such a modern accessory, by the passing of the Great Western motorbus. One is almost inclined to suggest that the cattle know when it is sundown by the faint whiffs from the passing char-h.banes running with marvellous regularity on a mixture of paraffin and petrol. Be that as it may, these services in remote country districts in the West of England now play a very intimate part in the. life of the countryside in Cornwall and Devonshire.

The 14.E.R. Last Year.

Last year, when preparing to issue special numbars dealing with the Royal Show of 1912, which tcok place at DoneAster, we had what proved to be the -happy idea of including in those issues fully-illustrated and descriptive articles on the Motor Department. of the North Eastern Railway Co. So gratifying was the reception accorded to this special feature last year, that we came to the conclusion that we could not do better than adopt a somewhat similar inetharl in the case of the Royal Show this year at Bristol. We therefore approached the authorities of the Great Western Railway Co., and they very readily affcrded us special facilities to deal in like manner

with their Motor Department—an even more extensive one, and quite as interesting in its way, as that of the North Eastern Railway Co. The experiments of the two great railway companies, however, have been on rather different lines, and they convey different lessons.

Right away to the extreme West of England, at St. Just and Land's End, and down to its southernmost point at the Lizard, did we find, recently, the bold posters advertising the Royal Show displayed at all inhabited spots. We are confident, therefore, that our present effort adequately to write of the Great Western Railway Co.'s motor services, particularly of those in the West of England, will meet with appreciation at the hands of those many of our reade,.s whose thoughts are Bristolw-ards.

A Line of Distinction.

This extensive department of the G.W.R.--a British railway which has always retained, even after the abolition of its distinguishing broad gauge, characteristics of organization and facility which are quite its own--may be particularly divided into the conventional passenger and goods-carrying classes. I% e shall primarily deal with the fleet of motorbuses and chars-it-banes and shall leave the goods .carrying vehicles to a later portion of this article.

Passenger Services of Ail Hinds.

After an extensive tour in the West Country, and after making further acquaintance with many of the Welsh motorbus services with which we have been familiar for sonic while past, we are left with the impression that there is one service in particular which has perhaps most that is informative in regard to rural road-passenger services : we refer to that between Helston and the Lizard, and we shall, therefore, write at some length of this.

There is ample variety in this passenger branch of the railway company's motor organization. All the services are supplementary in different ways to the great railway system of which they are now so inseparable and so important a part. There are those road-motor services in the West Country and in Wales which are what may be called purely industrial-passenger conveniences, whilst there are others which are primarily important in that they cater for the huge influx of visitors which the beauties of the Cornish Riviera consistently attract. There are services at long intervals into remote and sparsely. populated districts ; there are short " shuttle " services between noints..gn the railway system which lw rail are many miles apart ; there are services of single-deckers (1.ignvd for the regular carriage

of all inhabitants ; there are small fleets of observa tion cars intended solely for amusement and the instruction which comes from travel as well for the peaceful holiday-maker as for the mile-covering American tourist ; there are services of doubledeckers; there are others from which the top deck has had to be removed on account of local obstructions ; and again there are regular lines of motor vehicles which are important from the Royal Mail point of view, and others which take an appreciable share in local development in respect of their regular parcel-carrying facilities. The road motors are ttv-..) tendrils of the G. W.R. plant.

Seldom has it been our lot within one organization to observe so many differing characteristics of employment as those which we have found during our recent tour of investigation over the Great Western Railway Co.'s road-motor organization. It says a great deal for the perspicacity of the respon

sible officials that they have satisfactorily brought into line the modern commercial motor for such varied uses, and we learnt with considerable pleasure that the company has other developments of a far-reaching nature in view in this connection. New makes of chassis are already on order.

The First Established Motor Service.'

We say that we have become impressed with the many object-lessons afforded by one particular service—that running due South to the isolated village at the Lizard, which. name, by the way, it is interesting to recall is, on excellent authority, derived from a Cornish word given to any promontory of the coast, and not, as is frequently suggested, from the old word for a sick hospital. Local legend says that sick sailors were landed at this part after long sailing voyages from remote parts of the world.

It is not so very long ago that people who lived in that southern part of Cornwall, of which the Lizard is the extreme, had to drive at least 21 miles to get to the railway in any direction. The complet. ing of a line which is more or lees southerly in direction out to the market-place at Helston brought many of these inhabitants within more reasonable reach of, shall we say, civilization, and the institution of the first G.W.R. motor service, so long ago as August, 1903, between Helston and the Lizard, finally gave the whole wide district a regular and speedy means of communication with the rest of the county, and so of England.

Helston as a Centre.

In Helston to-day may be seen, drawn up in the market-place, dozens of the standardized type of two-horse conveyance, which has quite evidently, for many generations, served tediously to carry residents and their many parcels and bundles between the various districts of the peninsula. One of our photographs is an excellent illustration of this type of conveyance, which has its modern counterpart in the regular G.W.R. motorbus. On a recent trip, we ourselves noticed the Lizard horsed bus leave Helston market-place nearly an hour before the railway bus was due to start, and we overtook it at the entrance to the village at the Lizard. It must be obvious to all observant visitors that sooner or later these two-horse vehicles— strange relics of stage-coach days, with cramped seating, hard-worked and struggling horses and overloaded roofs—must give way to motor vehicles of one sort or another. The Lizard and the intervening villages have already found the benefit of the substitution. Other parts of the district are due for the same consideration.

Compared with a Railway.

One of the most interesting comparisons which is afforded by this self-same service, is the ability to establish adequate travelling facilities from village to village at a tithe of the cost which the construetion of a railway necessitates.

(To be continued.)

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Locations: Bristol

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