Which Gear for Starting?
Page 63
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I HAD no intention of re-entering the controversy con
cerning the use of first or second gear for starting, but, on reading the letter from the chief public relations officer of London Transport, in your iSsue, dated November 9, I felt unable to hold out any longer
As I drive 8-ft. RTW buses on Route 11,. which is one of London's busiest,: 1 have had good opportunities of -studying the matter. There is one thing that 1 think should be borne in mind in this argument. That is, a bus equipped with a hydraulic flywheel moves away from rest at the idling speed of the engine, plus a few revs, gained from slip, whereas the driver of .a normal vehicleincreases the speed of the engine at the same time as he lets in his clutch; the only way to secure this effect with the fluid drive is to employ first gear.
• Of course, an empty bus will often start away on
tick-over immediately the handbrake is released, but as the vehicle becomes more heavily laden it is less inclined to .do this. Common-sense
should then dictate at what time the driver should start to employ first gear. I find that with an RTW model 25 per cent: or more laden, it is better to use first gear, simply because it wodid take longer to move from rest to 5-7 m.p.h, in second gear.
Very little time is lost changing from first to second, as this can be effected more rapidly without a jerk than any other change if the revs, be not built up -too high on first gear. Employing
this method knocks seconds off the time required to reach, say,. 15 m.p.h. Such a saving may not seem important, but it does make a difference on a busy run.
Occasionally one sees a driver adopt the undesirable practice of employing the gear-operating pedal as a .clutch, in preference to using first gear. Such a man probably tells his friends that it is never necessary to use that gear.
If the RTW had a normal clutch and crash-type gearbox, I doubt if first gear would ever be required,_except for starting on hills, as the engine is so powerful, but it cannot be expected to do its stuff at tick-over speed.
. London, W 13. E. J. COOKE.
FRENCH REACTION TO HEAVY PETROL TAX THE sudden, savage increase, in petrol taxation, bring' ing the total cost up to the equivalent of 5s. ód. per gallon for the cheapest grade, has aroused a storm of protest throughout France, where a gallon of good table wine costs about 4s. 2d.
These protests are coming from every section of the public and, with particular force, from the workers. The average French working man is an intelligent individual and, where the internal affairs of his country are concerned, usually well informed. He has noted that each successive increase in the price of petrol has been followed instantly by a rise in living costs, and he is well aware of the relationship between transport and the amount his wife has to pay for the Sunday dinner Amongst the farming community, and France is still almost 80 per cent. agricultural, reaction against the new tax is violent. Reasons are not far to seek, for every other farmer owns a car for business and private purposes, as also does the average small tradesman in country districts. France, apart from the industrial and beet-growing north, is essentially a country of small farms, small-holdings and vegetable gardens. Plenty of large farms exist, some of them enormous, but they are as nothing compared with the aggregate of small ones.
Petrol, moreover, is still the main fuel used in
mechanized farming. Despite great efforts to popularize the oil-engined tractor, backed with subsidies by the Government, small, petrol-engined machines are still the
most frequently seen. Small cultivating appliances are found all over the vast wine-growing areas; these also employ petrol, as do thousands of general-purpose motors used for pumping, chaff cutting and a hundred other jobs on any farm.
Fortunately for thousands of industrious people who cannot afford motor vehicles, France has not committed
the folly of nationalizing road transport, and their needs are met .by countless small private haulage concerns,
often comprising one man and his vehicle. Collecting rounds are made every day of the week, Sundays included, in the late afternoon, and cottagers arrange their products, beautifully packed for market, along the side of the road.
Vehicles used for local transport are often amusing; splendid old private-car chassis to which carnionette bodies, constructed by the owners, have been fitted. Most of them date from 1925 to 1930 and they can hardly be economical to operate; hence the out cry against the new taxation.. A friend in this village owns an Old sports Alfa Romeo, to which he has fitted a detachable camionette body for fruit and vegetable collection. Apart from these small transport concerns, local bus services are of great assistance to cottagers living near a bus route. In the more remote areas, buses usually operate twice a day: in the very early morning and again in the evening, picking up produce for the markets.
Nearly all these small country buses are, however, petrolengined, with the result that -freight -charges and passenger fares have had to be raised•suddenly to meet the increased cost of fuel.
During more than 28 years' residence in France, I have seldom seen such deep resentment against a Government decree as that aroused by this new petroltax increase.
Vence, France. L. GRAHAM DAVIES.
THINK I am right in saying that the NS-type London I bus was the first with a single step. The type to which you refer in your issue dated November 9, in the article " Ins and Outs," is surety the type K—the first forward-control model and the successor to the type B.
Barnet. J. K. MAW, [To quote a London Transport official, "It depends whether you count the number of steps built into the bus, or the number of steps taken by the passenger to enter the saloon." In the latter case—which is the one considered by the author of the article—two steps were needed to enter the NS bus. one up to the platform and one into the lower-deck gangway, although the design of the body provided only one step. The B-, Kand S-type buses had two steps. thereby necessitating three steps into the interior. By these tokens, the Bristol Lodekka should be called a "no-step" bus, as no step is built into the platform or gangssay.—ED.]