The Motor Omnibus World.
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Wolverhampton ratepayers want to see the Corporation of that town follow the example of Edinburgh, and adopt halfpenny stages for their motorbuses.
The motorbus did net fare so well during the foggy weather ef last atek as was the case in December, 1905, and several collisions were reported.
Various omnibuses owned by the London General Omnibus Company appeared with the legend " Reduced Fares " upon their side panels last week, and the adoption of halfpenny stages will probably be extended.
We arc surprised to learn that the cost of the Todmorden Corporation's Motorbus Bill was no less than .4;1,245. This is a very disproportionate sum to be distributed between four motorbuses, the Corporation's present plant, although it may be allocated over a wider capital basis hereafter.
A gentleman with wide experience in company affairs, both as managing director and general manager, and with special knowledge of the requirements of motor-omnibus operations, is known to us to be willing to accept a new engagement, and any enquiries on this matter may be addressed to the Editor.
The whole of the magneto business, together with all the allied patent rights, for Simms-Bosch ignition, both high-tension and low-tension, has been acquired from the Simms Manufacturing Company, Limited, by the Compaqnie des Magnetos Simms Bosch,
Limited, of 23, Store Street, V.C.' Extensive premises have been equipped with up-to-date machinery, and the company is in a position to deal with repairs at short notice. Every preparation has been made for the prompt repair and cleaning of magneto machines at low charges. The Birmingham Watch Committee, at its last meeting, in dealing with a memorial from residents in the Edghasten district who had complained about the local motorbuses, expressed the view that any general condemnation on the score of noise, vibration and smell, or any expression a opinion that the motorbuses were entirely unsuitable as public service vehicles, was too general in character. The operating company was doing all it (amid, and spending a lot of money, in trying to improve its motorbuses, and the Committee would not be justified in refusing the licenses, although it would continue to urge the company to go on improving the vehicles and reducing the vibration and smell.
In the House of Lords, on Thursday last, a series of interesting questions were put on the subject of the possible appointment of a Traffic Board for London, in accordance with the recommendations of the Royal Commission on London traffic. In the course of the speeches, Lord Montagu of Beaulieu pointed out that great confusion existed in London owing to the number of bodies having control in one way or another. No less than five different authorities shared the control of the traffic in the streets, and very few of the passenger-carrying enterprises were doing well. The End of Crewe, replying on behalf of the Government, stated that the importance of the subject was not underrated, any more than
as the value of the services of the Royal Commission. He stated that he regarded the opening of additional tube railways, and the linking-up of tramway systems, as putting the outlook on a more favourable basis than it nod been in the past, but he did not touch upon the question of motorbus developments or control.
The second motor-omnibus engineer to leave the operating for the business side, Mr. W. Flexrnan French, reports that he has many useful enquiries in hand for Rykniehl chassis. We reproduce a photograph of Mr, French on this page, and a reference to our issue of March 15th last will remind our readers that Mr. H. P. G. Braken-ridge, who is now the manager of the maintenance contracts department of the new Arrol-Johnston Car Company, Limited, is the other gentleman who has effected a change of this character in his occupation. Apropos the establishment of a London agency by the Ryknield Company, it is interesting to note the issue of a pamphlet dealing with an extensive series of trials in the Manchester district. This contains valuable 'letters and testimonials. The adjourned discussion on Mr. Worby Beaumont's paper, before the Society of Motor Omnibus Engineers, was continued on Monday evening last, at the Hotel Cecil, when Mr. Worby Beaumont made an interesting reply an the large number of points which had been raised in the discussion. Our report of the meeting is held over until the next issue.
Principal Griffiths, of the South Wales University, in speaking at the annual dinner of the South Wales and Monmouthshire Automobile Club, ex. pressed the view that " the motorbus would be the future vehicle of the public, and for that reason, if he were a member of the Corporation, he would be unwilling to spend a penny more than he could help on electric tramways."
The Great Western Railway Company is .allowing two of its latest motorbuses to be exhibited at Olympia, and these will be found on the MilnesDaimler stand. One has a single-deck body, with the seats disposed transversely instead of longitudinally, and the other has an "observation" body for summer work. The company has, in addition, loaned a rubber tire of the Sirdar make, for exhibition on the Sirdat Company's stand, and this tire has an accumulated record of more than +o,000 miles in regular service, over rough country roads, on a front wheel of one of the G.W.R. motorbuses, and is still in good condition.
The accompanying illustration depicts a line of Straker-Squire motorbuses for the London Road Car Company. Limited, as they appeared on Wimbledon Common on the 26th ultimo. Although only nine vehicles appear in the picture, ten of these Straker-Squire buses were presented, and out of these ten the police accepted six, four being turned back. It is an old dictum with judging committees to refuse to give reasons for their decisions, and, as the whole of the ten vehicles were assembled with the most scrupulous care, and subjected to most severe tests by the makers afterwards, it is difficult to follow why any of /hem, let alone so many as four, were rejected. It looks very much as though the matter of passing. or failing to pass, must remain is yond the ken of qualified engineers, and intelligible only to those who gave the verdict.
Mr. Hugh H. Gregory, who was, until a few months ago, in charge of the motorbuses in Birmingham, is due back from South Africa on Monday next. His impressions will be given in "THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR."
The Vanguard Company has, for Sundays only, transferred its " Service No. 7 " from Liverpool Street -Wormwood Scrubs to Liverpool StreetStonebridge Park, via Holborn, Oxford Street, Royal Oak, Harrow Road.
Our issue of next week will deal with the petrol-propelled motorbuses at Olympia. It will be noted that the first section of our report deals only with the Darracq-Serpollet system, so far as public-service vehicles are concerned.
Mr. J. Morris, the managing director of the Edinburgh and District Motorbus Company, Limited, of 1, North Saint Andrew Street, Edinburgh, has reportod very favourably upon the performance of the Granton 45h.p. chassis.
The London General Omnibus Company will shortly inaugurate a service of motorbuses between Chalk Farm and Waterloo Station, via Kingsway. This service will chiefly be worked by Wolseley-Siddeley vehicles. The company has three vehicles of this make on the Barnes-Oxford Circus route.
A company has been registered as the Punjab Motor Transport Company, with offices at Rawalpindi, for the ex tension of certain passenger and goods services by means of motor vehicles. It is proposed to embrace various routes in Northern India, and local reports indicate that the prospects of the undertaking are bright.
The Acetylene Illuminating Corn pany, Limited, of 268, South Lambeth Road, London, reports an increasing business in the use of its autogenous welding system by means of the oxyacetylene blow-pipe. Broken silencers, cracked cylinders and other fractured parts can be turned to good account hy means of the company's equipment, consisting of a suitable blow-pipe, a standard oxygen cylinder, and a cylinder of dissolved acetylene, with the necessa;-y regulators and gauges. Full particulars may he obtained from the address given above. Owing to the dry weather, the capabilities of the live devices which are competing in the Automobile Club's ',coo-mile endurance trial, in connection with part III of that body's sideslip and skid prevention competition, have not, so far, been demonstrated in a satisfactory manner. We hope the vehicles will be put upon the Holborn route, as soon as a spell of really bad weather is experienced.
The sixth annual meeting of the Associated Omnibus Company, Limited, took place on Thursday last, at the Cannon Street Hotel, under the chairmanship of Mr. H. Clinch. The Chairman, in moving the adoption of the report, the leading particulars of which were given in our issue of the 21st ultimo, expressed regret that the new motorbus companies had started with overlapping fares, when they might have obtained as many passengers as they could carry at the same fares as the horse omnibuses, or even at higher fares. The directors intended to keep the company's horse omnibuses running as long as they proved remunerative, but they would be replaced by motors when they were not remunerative. Ample provision had been made for depreciation, but the board did not feel justified in recommending a dividend. One of the shareholders criticised the high value attached to the " times " of the company, and expressed the view that there should he an independent valuation of the company's assets, but, after a short discussion, the report and accounts were unanimously adopted. Appreciation of the good condition in which the company's engineer, Mr. T. F. Carter, had succee.ded in keeping the mechanical rolling-stock was expressed, a view, in which we are able to concur.
Wandsworth Borough Council, having considered a letter from its legal advisers, has consented to accept the offer of motor omnibus companies to pay, in each case, one-half of the cost for teinstating street lamps damaged by buses.
The dispersal of mud from the wheels of motorbuses has been the subject of much controversy, and the view ;s taken by many people that splashings of this character are much worse than is the case with horse buses. We have always taken the view that this trouble is distinctly more under control in the case of the motorbus, owing to the definite path of the mud, whereas the horse vehicle throws the mud about at all angles and in every direction. An interesting fitting, which is being tested on some of the motorbuses in Paris, is illustrated on this page, and it tends to show how much easier it is to prevent any dispersal of mud in the case of a vehicle which has not got four-legged animals in front of it.
The directors of London's principal horse-omnibus companies will derive no more satisfaction than the shareholders from their results for the six months ending 31st December last. Those ot the London Road Car Company, Limited, were presented to the shareholders yesterday (Wednesday) at the Cannon Street Hotel, and those of the London General Omnibus Company, Limited, are to be presented to-day (Thursday) at Salisbury House, E.C. The Road Car accounts show a balance carried to
net revenue account of ,4:9,701, compared with £17,524, £18,366, and 4-'5,447 for the corresponding periods of 1906, 1905, and 1904 respectively. Comparing the corresponding half-year of 19o5, and putting the figures for 1905 first, the following differences are interesting: road expenses, an increase from £66,359 to £68,344; yard expenses, a decrease from £23,941 to ,‘20,271; maintenance expenses, a decrease from 4.69,827 to £64,226; general repairs, an increase from £24,328 to £43,615; and administration, a decrease from .4:8,706 to £8,702. The total expenditure, therefore, exclusive of depreciation or interest charges, has increased from 4.193,161 to k2o5,158. It should be noted, side by side with these figures, that the number of horses in stock diminished, in the period of twelve months, from 4,91[3 to 3,634, and the number of horse omnibuses from 5o6 to 352, whilst the number of motor omnibuses increased from 53 to 143. The capital expenditure on " motorcars and equipments " stands at 4.105,949, compared with £68,563 on June 3oth, 1906, and £37479 at the end of 1905, and only £5,000 is placed to the credit of " reserve for the depreciation and renewal of motor chassis " for the halfyear. Having regard to the delivery dates of chassis during the past six months, this provision is at the rate of less than 12 per cent, per annum, which is, we must conclude, due to force of circumstances : we should have liked to have seen it at least lo per cent. more. Compensation for accidents and law charges in connection with the company's operations absorbed £3,284, compared with .4:2,994 in the first half of 1906, and.,1,636 in the half-year ending 31st December, 1905, and these payments, taken in conjunction with the small disbursement of '6122 for insurance, indicates that the company is carrying the major portion of its own motor risks. The heavy expenditure on repairs and maintenance may be regarded as some justification for the low rate of depredation.
One of the most disquieting features in the report is the alarming increase in the " Substitution suspense account," which represents losses on the transition from horse vehicles to motor vehicles : this is taken credit for in the balancesheet at no less a total than ‘56,847, compared with 728,850 six months ago, and only £17,123 a year ago. We feel, none the less, that the directors and management of this company are making a game struggle with the.. circumstances in which they find themselves placed, and which difficulties have been accentuated by two changes in their engineering management within a comparatively short period. Cash and first-class securities, other than investments on account of "Leases and building renewals," together exceed Z65,Ooo.
We regret that lack of space prevents further references to the reports now.