BODYWORK DEVELOPMENTS.
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Novel Designs Seen at the Recent Scottish Exhibition held at Glasgow.
IT WAS hardly to be expected that many startling innovations would be included in the commercialvehicle section of the Scottish Exhibition _rat Kelvin Hall, Glasgow, considering that it is not very long since the Commercial Motor Show was held at Olympia, but, as a matter of faet, several interesting vehicles embodying new features in their coachwork were to be found.• Amongst those perhaps the most interesting, and one which attracted a• considerable amount of attention, was the "country carrier's passenger bus " mounted on a 2-ton Vulcan chassis. This looks as if it may fill a long-felt want. The front portion of the vehicle is arranged as an ordinary char-h-banes, complete with one-man hood, cross seats, etc., and in the roar portion is formed a receptacle for the various goods with -whIch a country carrier is called upon to deal. At the back of this receptack, is the usual type of tailboard, but on the inside of this is a step which, when the tailboard, is down, can be used for mounting into the rear portion of the body. The goods are protected by a canvas cover mounted on hoop sticks in a somewhat similar manner to that of an ordinary hood. These hoop sticks can be demounted and the whole cover foldef.l. back behind the '.• hood covering the passengers and, if necessary, further seats can be placed in this pait_of the vehicle to accommodate a larger complement of passengers. If required, the tailboard, can be dispensed with, as the canvas covering for the goods section is provided with-an extension piece, which can be unfolded completely to cover in the rear part of the vehicle. Accommodation is provided for 11 persons in addition to the driver. The vehicle is mounted on twin pneumatics at the rear and single pneumatics at the front. The fashion set by the K-type London omnibus is gradually influencing the design of passenger vehicles in which it is required to carry a larger complement of passengers without increz.sing the overall length of the machine, and to allow a more even distribution of the weight. between the front and rear wheels. In the Cale.don saloon omnibus with a seating capacity of 40 passengers, Iv find the latest development in this direction. The vehicle is arranged so that the driver sits alongside the engine in a cab of adequate size, and the steering is moved right forward until the drop arm is in a line with the radiator. At the first glance, this method of obtaining greater accommodation strikes one as diverging from the artistic, but it has obvious advantages in other directions, which more than compensate for this,although we should imagine that, whilst the:driver may be comfortably warm in winter, he will probably be uncomfortably hot during the warm_weather. Another saloon omnibus which presents features of interest is the 18-seater built by Macrae and Dick, coachbuilders and engineer's, of Inverness, and mounted on a Vulcan chassis. For passengers, this vehicle has only one entrance,. which is situated at the near side and is stepped Into the body so that there is no overhang at this side.. The particular reason for this arrangement is to allow the driver to collect the Tares on the pay-as-you-enter system, and he is conveniently situated for this purpose.. Incidentally, there is a special -door on the off side to allow the driver to enter. A fine example of saloon bus design was to be seen on the stand occupied by Tilling-Stevens Motors, Ltd. This vehicle, which is designed for 32 passengers, has side entrances at the front and rear, and a separate compartment for the driver, who is thus totally isolated from the passengers. The side entrance at the front end of the bus is, ouite close to the dash, and the inner near side of the body and the outer near side of the driver's compartment form a passage to the seats. Many detail improvements are to be found in this vehicle. For instance, the windows can be turned up or down by means of a handle at each side situated convenient to the conductor's position at the rear of the body.
The main portion of the body is divided into, two. compartments, one with accommodation for 19 persons and the other, which is at the rear and is intended expressly for smokers pro. viding. seats for 13 persons. smokers,
ventilation is ensured by the provision of a high semi-elliptical roof.
The small van body finished in broad black and white stripes, which was shown on a Dodge chassis, formed a very striking exhibit, chiefly because of its colour scheme.
The Daimler all-weather -saloon coach, although not entirely new, as it was shown at Olympia, had not previously been seen in Scotland. The window frames of this vehicle are filled with celluloid, and each can be pushed right up on slides and held by catches to the roof. Incidentally, this vehicle is shod with Goodyear giant pneumatics and accommodates 22 passengers. It made the journey from London to Glasgow by road without trouble.
One of the A.E.C. chassis shown is fitted with char-aebanes de luxe body with seating capacity' for, 30 passengers, and with a card table surrounded by seats at the rear. . This vehicle has already been described in detail in a recent issue of this journal. It was rather surprising that a body suitable for market gardeners was only to be found on one chassis, and that a Garner 2-tonner. In this vehicle the slatted extension sides of the body are removable and also hinged, whilst the lower parts of the sides are hinged but solid.
The requirements of the commercial traveller are catered for by three concerns, a well-finished traveller's brougham being shown on an Austin Twenty chassis. The body of this is provided with two deep shelves and has two interior seats at the rear, which lift, disclosing a useful box under each. The driver's seat is totally enclosed, and the whole vehicle shouid be most suitable for the purpose for which it is designed. The second commercial traveller's vehicle was shown, on the Fiat stand and is designed to carry a, load'of 'one ton.. It is fitted up with Shelves inside, has one hinged seat anti., as with the Austin, the driver is completely enclosed. The third was on an Overland chassis.
The chars-à.banes exhibited at the Glasgow Show foreshadowed interesting developments in the construction and seating capacity of these machines. Since the inception of these vehicles, and until quite recently, the tendency was towards increasing the seating capacity to the maximum permitted by the restrictions on overall length and width. Now, however, the tendency appears to be to recites the seating capacity in order to make the motor coach less cumbersome and more readily controllable, a feature which is greatly to be desired, especially when these vehicles are operated in hilly country where the roads are narrow and have many sharp bends. Quite a number of the motor coaches exhibited had seating capacities varying from 15 to 23, and 'of these the maprity isfitted with either single peeumaties all round or ordinary twin pneumatics on the rear wheels and singles on the front.
Several of the motor coach bodies shown were designed on ordinary touring car lines, and their finish left nothing to he desired.
One of• the finest motor coaches was the 12-seater Unic, the body of which _oloeely resembled that of a touring car. The Halley 30-seater char4-bancs is a fine example of coachbuilding. It embodies a luggage ,compartment of adee quate dimensions beneath the rear portion of the body, and, incidentally, was fitted with a Charanhone.