THE MOTOR

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 44, 20 August 1913, Page 4

THE MOTOR

(By "Autos.")

'BUSES AND TRAMS. At this time, when the motor 'bus is discussed by City Councillors and Borough Councillors and private citizens on every possible occasion, any information 1 on the subject is interesting. Particularly so is the report of a deputation from the City Council of Edinburgh, which recently toured parts of England, visiting various cities with a view of inspecting selfpropelled cars. They visited Morecambe, Birmingham, Coventry, and London, reports Engineering. At Morecambe the autocar service was opened eighteen months ago. The line, which is operated by a company, is , only 1 1-5 mileß long, being the residue left over, outside the borough boundary of Morecambe, when the local authority acquired the lines inside the town limits. Tt passes through a sparsely populated dis trict, and horse traction proved to be incapable of attracting sufficient revenue to cover working expenses. It w*s, therefore, necessary either to let tho line become derelict or to try whether success might not be achieved by adopting petrol traction. This was done, and the first year's working has snowed

a surplus of receipts over all expendi* tur,e, in spite of the fact that tho line is both isolated ' and short. The car described in the report of the deputation seats 37 passengers, its weight unloaded being 8 tons. It is propelled by a 40 horse-power four-cj-linder petrol engine, the 1 mileage per gallon of petrol being 7 to 8. The petrol-tanks fitted hold 20 gallons. The average daily run for each car is approximately 70 miles. Tho cost ot the chassis is said to be about £900, and the total cost* with various 6tyles of body, from £985 up t6 £1150 The Leyland Motor Company, who built tho cars, gave a five years' guarantee that the costs of working, exclusive of wages, upkeep of car body, and administiation expenses, should not exceed 3£d per car mile so long as the price of petrol did not exceed 9d per gallon. The Birmingham visit ' was made chiefly with the object of inspecting the (TillingStevens) petrol-electric omnibuses belonging to the Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company, Ltd., who operate 10 route miles. The toad surfaces worked over vary from wood pavements to ordinary macadam, and the rougher character of the latter is stated in the report to have no appreciable effect on the operating costs, the greater wear and tear directly due to the rougher road being offset by the fewer stops necessary as compared with paved, and therefore crowded, streets. Of these omnibuses 140 are said to be running in London and 35 in Birmingham, in addition to smaller numbers elsewhere. At Coventry the deputation saw a selfpropelled railway coach v built by the Daimler Company. This is fitted with two engines, each designed to develop 105 brake horse-power, ana is a double bogie car designed to carry 50 to 60 passengers. A speed of 65 miles a-n hour has been obtained on the open line. In London the deputation obtained data as to the petrol-electric (TiUingStevens) cars, for the Victoria Park West India Dock section ,of the L.C.C. tramways. These cars weigh 9 tons 2 cwt, fitted complete, with a petrol electric system of 40 horse-power. They have seating accommodation for 20 inside and 28 outside and easily attain speeds of 18 to 20 miles an hour over the quieter parts of the route. As the result Of their enquiries the deputation recommend the introduction experimentally of petrol-driven cai's in Edinburgh. "This advice," comments Engineering, "is very interesting and shows once again how impossible it is to lay down general laws as to the most economical conditions of operating systems of transportation. If one particular method obtains predominance for a certain period, the public — or, rather, its spokesmen in. i the popular press or in political gatherings—jump to the conclusion that the latest- word in engineering' methods is synonymous with the last word and that no radical alterations are to be expected in tha future. A cry of monopoly is accordingly raised and a demand made that the public shall be protected from exploitation. A monopoly which is held solely in virtue of efficiency of service is, however, no monopoly in the objectionable sense of the term. The proprietor of a popular pill, for instance, has a monopoly of this kind in his own particular commodity. At one time, teamsters had thus a monopoly of goods transport, and this monopoly, it may be noted, lasted for generations. According to some of our political theorists, the whole of this service should therefore have been vested in the community at large ; in which case it is easy to imagine the warmth of the welcome which would have met the subsequent i proposals to construct canals. The canal monopoly lasted but a very short time ; in fact, the menace of the railroads was realised by the constructor of the Bridgwater Navigations, who expressed serious I apprehensions as to the effect on his undertakings of these " train roads." The railways next succeeded in giving the public a niore efficient service than any competitive system, and . again a quasi-monopoly was established, but held, as before, sc-»ly by virtue of this efficiency. Later on, electrified tramways proved more effective agents for , the conduct of certain classes of traffic, and at the present time the railways Me also losing by the steady increase m the tonnage of goods despatched by motor-lorry direct from producer to consumer. In their own turn, the electric tramways have lost their original advantages, other systems being capable

of giving the public a better service, and in consequence the value of these spectr. lations has been materially diminished. "Ten or fifteen years ago it was almost considered axiomatic that concentration of power production was an essential factor in economy of operation, and that the use of locomotive power plants was merely a survival into the present of a system which had become unfit by tho process of mechanical evolution. The development of the high-speed petrol engine, which is a benefit society owes almost wholly to the so-called "idle rich," has, however, materially altered conditions. For slow, heavy, and continuous traffic in all cases, and perhaps also for rapid and frequent traffic, where a roadway can be completely dedicated to this Service, the central sfca tion and electrical transmission is still probably the cheapest solution of the problem. Where relatively high-speed traffic is required, either in sparselypopulated districts or in the congested streets of cities, the advantage, however, would now seem to lie with the self-propelled vehicle. la the former case its advantage lies in the main in the low capital expenditure and the ease with which the service can be adjusted to the actual requirements, whilst in city streets there is the additional gain of the lessened obstruction of the roauway. The actual running costs of the self-propelled vehicle also are steadily yielding to good engineering and business methods, and instead of being very indefinite, with a minimum of lOd or lid per mile, they are now quite determinate, except in relation to the cost of petrol. However, ac our columhs have shown, the owners of self-propelled vehicles are not likely to remain for ever it the mercy of the trusts that control the petroleum supply of tha world, and once it seems certain that no reduction in price is to be expected, other processes and substances will be forthcoming. To show how much the early expenses attending the running of motor* 'buses have been reduced, we print below the data obtained during a period of nine months from the fleet of Tilling' Stevens petrol-electric omnibuses tunning in London during last year, and from these it will be seen that great economies have been effected already, while it is quite possible that bottom has not yet j been touched. Average Running Costs of Tilling* Stevens Petrol -Electric Omnibuses in London for Nine Months from 4th January to 25th September, 1012. Pence per 'bus mile. Running— i.e., day to day — cle&nsing and adjustments whilst car ie in service ... 0.888 Maintenance and repairs— i.e. , chassis aivd all mechanical 1 parts •.., 0.240 Tyres 1.098 Drivers x 1.251 Conductors « , 0.847 Petrol ... .., 1.067 Lubricating oil 0.078 Grease , ... 0.018 Paraffin 0.021 Lighting 0.069 Depreciation, tent, rates, and taxes < 0.849 Trade vehicles ~ ... ... 0.151 Body upkeep 0.235 Traffic expenses ... ... 0.270 Clothing ... , 0.001 Total, being pence pet omnibus mile, of ... ... 7.063 "Whitet it may be a good commercial policy," concludes "Engineering,"' "to adopt autocar* on many existing tram lines where the conditions do not justify the heavy capital outlay involved in elec* trifying the lines, it would probably prove financially unsound to extend lines of this character. For no greater expenditure than is involved in laying down a couple of lines of tramway track, the whole of the roadway coukf be put in a condition to cawy satisfactorily heavy motor traffic, and this, according to the views of the Road Board, should ultimately result in an actual decrease in yeaTly maintenance charges. Waterbound macadam has never been a satisfactory road material, and, in fact, its uce would be repudiated by Macadam himself, who was evet insistent on the prime importance of excluding all water from the road-crust."

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