New London Omnibus

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 7201, 26 April 1930, Page 14

New London Omnibus

A series of acvero tests was successfully carried out by a now type of fourwheel omnibus at a demonstration on the London General Omnibus Company’s test tract at Gunnorsbury recently. A covered straight stairway, flood-lighting, non-splinter glass and roomy vcstibulo for tho collection of fares aro features of this now vehicle, in which 50 passengers can be accommodated on sprung scats. The covored upper deck is provided with an emergency exit, taking the form of a rear window which opens with a handle oporated from within, in accordance with a recently imposed regulation. Tests to which the 95 h.p. six-eylindcr engine wore subjected included sharp turning, climbing a gradient of 1 in 15, and passing through a pool of thick greaso as a skidding test. This omnibus, of tho “S.T.” type, recently climbed tho Brooklands test hill —gradient 1 in 4 —and made a circuit of tho track at 50 rn.p.h. Three hundred of these now vehicles aro shortly to bo put on the road, and a considerable speeding up in operation is expected. The presence of a mirror in the vestibule may havo a special attraction during tho shopping-rush hours.