BIRD'S EYE VIEW By The Hawk
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A Jumbo's Worth News of electronic ticket
cancelling machines for one-man buses suggests a highly sophisticated state of affairs in public transport; but all is not so organized. Quite apart from the labour shortages which result in Spanish staff being recruited for Dutch bus services, and Irishmen for conducting in climes as widely separated as Australia and Central Scotland, the ticket machine makers themselves have problems of a different sort. For instance, in underdeveloped countries of low literacy the use of figures is "Out ", and symbols take their place to indicate fare values; in one such scale, animal symbols predominate, and you can go all the way for an elephant! And there are places (unmentionable, of course) where the honesty is at a level with the. literacy and the only solution is turnstiles.
London Transport and other big urban operators have their problems, but at least they don't have to allow for "turnstile delay " at Marble Arch or Oxford Circus in the rush-hour,
The Transport Trust A new organization called
The Transport Trust has been set up to promote the permanent preservation of (a) transport relics of historical or technical interest, and (lb) books, drawings, recordings, films and photographs of all forms of transport by road, rail, water and air. Chairman of the Trust, Mr. R. E. Wilsdon, feels that worthwhile preservation societies should not fail through lack of funds or through their sponsors becoming frustrated. Thinking that an appeal should be made to a wider sector of the public, he circulated his views to more than 60 preservation societies. Later an appeal for support was made to a large number of people in the automobile industry—and an encouraging amount of support was obtained.
A steering committee has now been elected which is in the process of drafting a constitution. Those interested can obtain further details from the secretary, Mr. J. T. Webb, of SO Basingboarne Road, Fleet, Hants.
Poster Prizes If you take an interest in poster art I hope that, like me, you managed to get along to see the entries in the Shell Poster Competition, on view at the Ceylon Tea Centre, Lower Regent Street, London, from November 3-12. On show were 28 pictures from the winning entrants and 104 from the runners-up—a highly colourful collection. Winner of the 11,000 first prize was a 26-year-old commercial artist, David Striee, of Ware, Herts, who works for a firm of advertising agents in London. Second prize of £500 went to a Worcester man—and there were prizes of £50 for five of the students who entered.
Some 276 artists submitted a total of more than 1,000 paintings on the theme—" The Four Seasons ".
History on the Wall Have you seen the new
Perkins poster, "History of Road Transport "? If not, you should take a look. Not only is it a very fine poster in its own right—but it really does present a useful and absorbing illustrated history of transport from the time of the invention of the wheel (circa 4,000 B.C., in case you don't know).
Apart front the historical data it displays in colour the innards of the Perkins DDE engine, an automatic gearbox, modern goods and passenger vehicles and some other interesting main components.
Wonderful Records "A most likeable body of men—you couldn't help but respect and admire them. The 20 of them who received awards represent a total of 802 years' service with their companies—and 505 years of unblemished driving." This was what our representative said of the drivers from B.R.S. Parcels Ltd. who went along to the B.R.S. offices in City Road, London, on Monday evening to collect their safe driving awards.
"Not one of them had less than 36 years' service to his name—and three had started with their firms as long ago as 1918. But the best record of all belongs to driver H. Bridge of the Eltham branch—he has 38 years' service and a 35-year safe-driving award. There surely can't be a better record than that in the country."
The prize-giving ceremony this year, I understand, was very much shorter than usual in view of the reorganization of B.R.S. On this occasion awards were made only to drivers serving with B.R.S. Parcels Ltd.
Friendly Image Although the Rt. Hon.
Ernest Marples, M.P., was almost universally known to the country at large as Ernie during the term of his Ministry, all the official paper which flowed from St. Christopher House referred to him, correctly, as Ernest. Do I detect a subtle change under the new regime? Official information now stemming from the Ministry refers to our new Minister as Mr. Tom Fraser; since this must be with his collusion, if not at his own instigation, I imagine he is intent on creating a " Tom " (i.e. informal, one-of-thelads) image as Minister, rather than a " Thomas" impression.
With typical British perversity we shall quite likely refer to him among ourselves in such terms as: "Now, I wonder what our Thomas is up to?"