Fire Appliance With • Gas Turbine
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THE world's first gas turbine-powered fire truck has reeently been built by the American LaFrance Corporation, Elmira, New York, for the fire departments of Seattle and San Francisco.
Powered by a 325 h.p. gas turbine, made by the industrial products division of the Boeing Airplane Co., Seattle, Washington, the vehicle has a gross weight of just over 144tons. The appliance was formerly powered by a reciprocating engine weighing about 1+ tons, but the Boeing unit weighs less than 3 cwt.—about one per cent of the weight of the vehicle. It is claimed that the truck can accelerate from zero to 55 m.p.h. in 34 seconds.
Seattle and San Francisco are cities with many hills and the new appliance will be tested on some of the steepest gradients in each city. The turbine requires no warm-up before starting on a fire call and uses a conventional transmission. Low maintenance cost is another advantage for it is claimed that the engine can be taken down and reassembled in a single day.
INCREASE TO MEET EXTRA £65,000
THE recent wages and conditions awards to provincial bus employees, will cost Cumberland Motor Services, Ltd., about £65,000 a year. Most of this amount will have to be met by increased fares, states the company, who have applied to the Traffic Commissioners for an increase on most fares.
Their proposals cover all fares and 10and 12-journey tickets with the exception of local town service fares in Workington and Whitehaven which will be unaffected.
BUSES TAKE OVER rONNECT1NG services from Inverness
station to centres where passenger trains have been withdrawn will be provided by Highland Omnibuses, Ltd., when railway reorganization plans become operative on June 13.
Under this scheme railway passenger services will be withdrawn from 20 stations on the main line from Inverness to Wick. The Dornoch branch and the Fortrose freight branch will be closed.
MORE PAY FOR ENGINEERS?
ANEW claim for a 20-per-cent. pay increase for engineering workers was "virtually certain," said Mr, D. McGarvey, president of the United Society of Boilermakers, at Ayr last week. He said that productivity had risen but many employers had not passed on the benefits to customers in the form of lower prices.
ANOTHER NEW SCALE
A NEW scale of bus fares was recom" mended by Halifax Transport Committee, last week, following the reference back by the council, some weeks ago, of another proposed scale. Increases under the new scale are expected to bring in an additional £34,000 revenue--£5,000 less than the original proposals.