Cab Warning of Brake Wear
Page 70
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I1■1 The Commercial Motor of December 14, 1956, I noticed a short article headed: " Hull driver fined for inefficient bus brakes." In this paragraph a sentence attracted my notice, it was that the driver stated he did not notice anything wrong with the brakes. To the average reader, I presume this would be thought of as a poor excuse, but as an engineer who has been dealing with bus drivers and bus brakes for 20 years, allow me to give you. some facts.
I had an occasion to ask a driver of many years' experience, how, when he took over a vehicle from the rank, he made sure his brakes were efficient before commencing his journeys He was unable to answer me in any sensible manner and I believe a large majority is like him.
I explained to this driver that if he starteg the engine, built the vacuum-gauge reading up to maximum and applied the hand and foot brakes together to obtain the utmost leverage on the brake-operating gear, then, if the brakes required adjusting, he would feel the pedal base contact the stud which limits its travel. If this were the case then the vehicle should be sent to the depot for attention.
Unhappily, most bus drivers do not realize when the brakes are not up to standard, until they meet with an emergency, then it may be too late.
Let us deal further with this state of affairs; the average good driver takes a pride in pulling up smoothly and taking off with as little transmission snatch as possible, thus enabling the conductor to do his job -in comfort. If, for any reason, he wishes to test his brakes while in motion and applies them hard, he stands a good Chance of injuring his conductor or passengers, by a sudden pull up with no warning. So we find that• the bus driver rarely has a chance to test his brakes thoroughly.
Then there is the other type of driver,' who is constantly running vehicles into the depot for brake adjustment, any amount of times I have heard this remark from fitters, `` Him again, he is not satisfied unless he can stand every bus on its nose," which is all very well, but this type of driver, considering the circumstances, can be viewed as a mixed blessing.
I do, however, believe that if a device were to be fitted— to show a red light in the cab when the brake pedal was nearing the last part of its travel, quite a lot of trouble would be saved_ Southend-on-Sea. E. GREENWOOD.