Snow - proof Commercial Motors.
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Ali commercial motors are not proof against abnormal winter visitations. Many owners of steel-tired steam wagons prefer to keep their machines in the yard or shed when there is a snowfall, though a few do go to the trouble and expense of fitting snow-shoes or other temporary devices : several of these temporary attachments were described and illustrated in our issue of the 3rd January, i9n7. The perfect tread for travelling on snow has yet to be invented, and this confession is one which, we trust, may lead to much-needed in vestigation and experiment. The rubber-tired. vehicle, however, is far less subject to interference from the cause under notice, and the extremes of surface conditions, with which the old year inade its exit, brought fresh evidence that the motorbus and the motorvan can " get through " at times when electric tramcars, horses and railway trains fail. London and Berlin learnt that lesson two years ago, and our older supporters may recall the striking illustrations which were reproduced by us after those occasions.* It is true that London had only a small-scale demonstration of this nature, in comparison with Berlin, but it was sufficient, on a few days, to give Londoners a genuine object-lesson, and to such effect that the most abusive of the daily papers blessed that which they had previously anatheinatised—thc motorbus.
Last week brought matters to a positive climax, and there is no question that converts to commercial motoring were made by the hundred. At a time when all other means of surface transport were being conducted—if at all—in the most cruel, expensive, and irregular fashion, when numerous railway services were demoralised, and when the disorganiSa Hon engendered was threatening both life and property, rubbed-tired parcel vans; motor mails borne on the same class of running tread, and other types of utility vehicle which had the good fortune to be so fitted at its wheel-rims, went through to their destinations and carried out their allotted duties. We do not pretend that grave difficulties were not encountered in country districts where severe gradients introduced the risk of a four-wheel slide, and one instance of the kind is named on our correspondence pages this week. There were, no doubt, not a few more exciting experiences of the kind, and there is no question that some form of snow brake will be needed to meet emergencies under like circumstances.. The real point is that motors succeeded where everything else failed, and it must not be forgotten that the ubiquitous motorcab was—if possible—more prominent than ever before.