STEPNEY'S CHANGE-OVER TO MOTORS.
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An Important London Borough Council Entirely Displaces Horsed Vehicles for Several Branches of Municipal Service.
WHEN an important municipal authority commits itself to a substantial outlay for the purchase of a large fleet of motor vehicles and appliances, and tasks which were at one time solely performed by horsed vehicles are in future to be undertaken by those machine, it is safe to say that the change-over has not been lightly made and tvithout " mature consideration having been given to the many factorsinvolved. The Substitution of one type of vehicle for another may, in itself, be considered revolutionary, but such a Procedure brings in its train a host of new problems, whilst existing phases of work often have to be approached from
an entirely different angle. •
The Metropolitan Borough of Stepney hi not been unmindful of these vital points, and although its recent purchase of 50 motor vehicles for different duties has provided one of the most important municipal transport topics of recent months, the question of adopting mechanical traction in place of horsed vehicles has been before the council on and off for a number of years past. In fact, so long ago as 1921 Mr. Bernard J. Belsher, M.Inst.C.E., P.R.I.13.A., the borough engineer and surveyor, drew the attention of the council to the progress of the motor vehicle in municipal channels and to its suitability for performing certain of the work in the area over which it exercises control. For a variety of reasons the matter has been
shelved from time to time, although a Mann gully-emptier was actually put into service in 1922 and, in the intervening years, has given good service.
However, tho council was ultimately convinced that the time had come when motors should be exclusively used by it in specific channels, and, for certain work, wisely decided that a piecemeal policy should not be adopted. • For instance, it was decided that the whole work of collecting house and trade refuse in the borough should be undertaken by motors and, accordingly, after consideration of various tenders submitted, 30 Garner 50-cwt. dust vans were purchased and the entire fleet was put into service on Monday of last week, the whole system of working being completely motorized in the space of a few
hours. Until that day the work of collecting and disposing of the refuse was largely carried out by horsed vehicles hired, with their drivers, from contractors. An interesting sidelight on the change-over is that many of the horse drivers have been trained to drive the Garner lorries, the vehicle makers having given assistance in this direction.
In viewing the problem of refusecollection in Stepney one has to remember that there are more street markets in the borough than in any other London borough. Furthermore, the character of the house and shop property must be considered, as well as the congested nature of some of the thoroughfares, some of which are extremely narrow. There are eight separate division S in the borough, these being Whitechapel, Shadwell, Ratcliffe, Limehouse, Spitalfields, St. George in the East, Mile End Old Town and Mile End New Town, and the boundary line adjoins the City, Shoreditch, Bethnal Green, Poplar and Bermondsey, the last-named, of course, being on the other side of the river. The actual area of the borough is 1,902.766 acres, the length of its streets 90.92 miles and its river frontage 2.39 miles.
For the purpose of municipal administration the borough is divided into western, southern and eastern districts. Some idea of the work which faces the Garner lorries can be gathered from the fact that in the year ended March 31st last, 61,700 tons of domestic and trade refuse were collected. The 'average weekly tonnage is about 1,200, but the extreme maximum and extreme minimum loads per week vary in weight from about 1,370 tons to 870 tons, depending, of course, upon the time of the year, the tonnage naturally being higher in the winter months.., In some parts of the borough an official regulation requires that the refuse shall be collected before 9 a.m.
About one-half of the refuse collected is brought to the destructor works in Gunthorpe Street, and of the remainder a large quantity is taken down the river by contractors' sailing barges for use in brick-making. The council has a smaller destructor plant in Mile End, but only light refuse, such as paper, is destroyed there.
The Garner lorries are all equipped • with end-tipping bodies, Bromilow and Edwards hydraulic tipping gear with twin rams being employed. The capacity of the type of body used is 7i cubic yards, and the maximum angle to which it can be raised is 45 degrees. The bodies have shallow sides and centreridge pole connecting the front end with the deep, hinged tailboard. There are four dust covers to each body, and these can be quickly drawn across the load to prevent the refuse polluting the. atmosphere. These covers are held taut by stout ropes passing over hooks fixed at intervals along the body sides. Incidentally, it should be mentioned that the depth of the sides gives a loading line of 4 ft. 1 in., which enables the bins and refuse containers to be easily emptied into the body from shoulder height.
. The main use for the Garner dust lorries is in connection with refuse collection and disposal, but, aw.are of the unstable factor of tonnage to be dealt with and desirous of using the vehicles to the utmost advantage, the council has purchased nine 500-gallon—tanks which are interchangeable with the dust bodies,
c30 thus enabling certain of the machines to be used on street watering.
The problem of street watering and washing—and the two operations are, in a measure, quite distinct—in the Borough of Stepney is of some magnitude, not only in view of the mileage of surface which has to be dealt with, but by reason of the extensive market and dock areas which exist. As a matter of fact the authorities have purchased three Dennis appliances expressly for these duties, it being intended that the machines, which eaeh have a capacity of 1,000 gallons, should be used for street watering by day and street washing by night. In addition, the Garner chassis with the interchangeable tank bodies can he brought into service to perform similar tasks. Apart from many narrow .and awkward streets which have to be dealt with, it must not be forgotten that there are two important traffic arteries passing right through the borough, one being Commercial Road and the other Whitechapel Road and its continuation Mile End Road.
In addition to the petrol vehicles the council has also just pat into use two Fowler steam-driven appliances which, although primarily intended for gully emptying, are equipped with high-pressure street-washing apparatus. The machines will be used during the day for gully emptying and for street washing at night, and will give particular attention to the Spitaltields Market centre and the dock districts. It is interesting to learn that, as a result of the acquisition of motors for this particular branch of municipal service, it has been found possible to displace 46 horsed water vans, the work which they previously undertook now being accomplished by 12 motor vehicles.
Street sweeping is another channel in which horses have been displaced anl the eight Laffiy sweepers which were put into operation at the beginning of October have superseded 20 horsed brooms. It is as yet too early to comment on the likely economies to be effected by these machines, but they have already given proof of their efficiency in service.
The other motor vehicles which have recently been put into service are three 4-ton three-way Fowler tipping steam wagons, which are being used for paving work in conjunction with three additional Garner three-way tipping wagons:. This is a particularly important branch of work in Stepney and the council spends in the region of 200,O00 a year on street-surface and trench work. A similar Garner wagon, with a three-way tipping body, is also • being employed for work in connection with sewer construction and cleansing and building operations.
From the details we have given it Will thus be seen that the council has brought into use in the course of a few days a total fleet of 50 machines, the exPenditure which has been involved by the acquisition of the machines alone being in the neighbourhood of £33,000. The Ministry of Health has sanctionee a loan for the purchase of the machines and the bulk of the money will be repaid within the emirse of five years, although certain sums expended on garage conblinctiou and other work will be repaid oNer a longer period up to 20 years.
In view of the complete change-over to mechanical traction in all the most essential municipal services of the borough—the scavenging department being the only one in which a stud of horses of any size is now retained— the work of the vehicles and the development of the transport system will be watched with considerable interest.