CHAR-A-BANCS NEWS AND COMM E NTS.
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Matters of Topical Interest to Proprietors of Motor Coaches.
Char-a-nancs. -in Chester:
THE grand old city of Chester, with its Roman walls, quaint buildings, and picturesque river, is a favourite rendezvous for char-a-banes parties from many miles around. During the visit of a representative of TU. Commercial Motor, many fine vehicles, chiefly from the manufacturing districts of Lancashire, were observed passing through the main thoroughfares en route to the several beautiful resorts a Iittld further afield. One was not much surpaised at the number of "coaches, for Chester is the gateway to North Wales.
About 30 chars-a-bancs ply from Chester itaelf, several of which are owned by a company of ex-Service men, the Silver Char4-bancs,-Ltd., formerly the Shotton Char-I-banes Co., Ltd., of Cathedral Ofranthers, 5, iSt,". Werhurgh Street, Chestgr. • Formed in September last, this company has a beautiful fleet of 30. seater Thornycrofts, and another is (lite fordelivery from, the ocachmakers within the.-next low days. A feature of the vehicles is their unique appearance, being lAinl.ed throughout in aluminium colour. .T-13:4',3irhole of the personnel of the cent' KanY has seen service in the late war, and,in Conversation with one of the directOrs,'we were informed that the one aim iS:loqeep abreast of the times, and to pro■iid& excursionists with all those favburahle conditions to ensure the maximum enjoyment, being derived from a tour through the trippers' paradise. .
l''And, in. this district, what is the principal ,difficulty you have to face?"
"Without a doubt, it is rate cutting ". —a complaint which seems to be particularly rampant in southwest Lancashire and Cheshire, but we have _heard instaricei where parties of trade unFenist workman have not accepied the lowest tenders 'Jar .• chars-ii-banes, and -have placed °Mara withconcerns , which have explained that they, like the workman, must have a fair rate to cover running expenmi and maintenance costs, and a fair margin of 'profit.
It is some satisfaction to us to
know that Ti annmero;a1 Naar publication, "How to Run Comniercial Motors for a Living,' has been a useful guide as to run.
mina -costs, etc., to a number of •propriaors in the North Wales district.
We dealt in our issues for June let and. June 8th with the activities of several of these Welsh coneerns. The Motor coach is exceedingly popular in North Wales, where Llandudno is regarded as the char-a-bancs capital.
That Word "Charabanc.."
I write it like that, because that is how it is generally written. It ought not to he written like that, nevertheless. It ought tti be written char-a.-bancs.
It is from the French. A charA.-bancs is, literally, a chariot in banks or tiers. The singular form, therefore, ends in an a, simply because a chariot with one bank.or tier would be an absurdity.
It is in dealingwith the plural form that trouble mostly arises, however. You see "charabancs," or even "charsa-banc," but the only real plural is ehars-&-bancs—chariots in tiers.
A char-a-bancs is. essentially a sightseeing car—the idea of the tier arrangement being that the back passengers shall be able to see over the heads of those in front..
But char-a-banes is such an awkwardlooking word. that I think it high time that we either dropped it ot anglicized it. In the latter alternative, why not —singular, charrybang; plural, charrybangs.
"Looks horrible? " a large number of journals have a!ready attempted to anglicize it to some extent by dropping the accent over the middle
a. If we mustn't tamper with the word, lot its have the proper form, chara-baris, with the plural,--chars-A-bancs. And thab looks more horrible! But the Editor insists on those forms in the columns of The Commercial Motor, so'
there you are! R.T.N.
A 12-seater Char-a-hancs.
DROVINCIAL enterprise is marked
. by the policy of W. Matthews and Co., of 65. klagley Road, Birmingham, who have introduced a new type of motor char-a-bancs for pleasure trips. Already owning • a fleet of the usual 30 to 40 seater type of vehicle, with which big business is being done, they have realized that there must be a variety of occasions on which a smaller type of conveyance could be utilized, and have accordingly secured zilch vehicles for the conveyance of private parties.
In looking round for suitable chassis, the opportunity presented itself of securing a number of reconstructed 25-30 hp. R.F.Ci Crusley's, that famous type, with its pneumatic-tyred twin rear wheels, which gave such invaluable service during the war period. Bodies to their own requirements were then built and fitted to these chassis, with the result as depicted by the illustration on this page. The boay accommodates 11 persons in addition to the driver.
We recently came across one of these cars with' -a full complement of pas.iangers as far afield as Dunstable, and, in conversation with one of the passengers who had ridden in chars-a-barics 'of many types, we were assured that the &Free of comfort provided was slieprmingly pronounced.
This particular passenger, in fact, went so far as to say that, althoughha was in the habit Of spending his Satesdays and week-ends in • seeing the country in this manner, he never wanted to go hack to the solid-tyred type of char-a-bancs.
One of the illustrations which we publish will show the comparative sizes of,the 12-seater char-i-bancs and a " Wolieley 10 ". light car. Bearing in mindlhe carrying capacity of each vehicle, the difference in size is extremely slight. Another of the illustrations (No. 2) shows the method of carrying a spare wheel, which is accommodated beneath the chassis in a vary convenient position.
There would appear to be quite a -future for the smaller class -of char-a-banes, and with this point we intend to deal later,