Bird's Eye
Page 51
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ViewBY THE HAWK
Retiring? Perhaps!
AT the end of this month Archie Prentice, that well-known campaigner from St. Cuthbert's Co-operative Association
Ltd., of Edinburgh, will retire officially that is. For the last six months he has been with the company in an advisory capacity and he tells me that there are plans for him to maintain his longstanding association.
Not that he would find himself inactive. He will continue as chairman of the Edinburgh Accident Prevention Council and editor of their monthly road safety bulletin. He is also a member of the Transport Users Consultative Committee, the National Co-operative Traffic Managers Association and other transport bodies.
Mr. Prentice told me proudly that St. Cuthbert's received a letter from the Royal Mews in London last week, congratulating them on the condition of the Royal coach used by King Faisal. St. Cuthbert's overhaul and repaint the Queen's carriages by Royal Appointment and the Queen and Prince Philip went up to see the craftsmen at work last June.
Farewell, TBS 21
MECHANICS at Glasgow Corporation's Larkfield Garage have been sprucing up TBS 21—Britain's longest trolleybus. For TBS 21 has been bought by the National Trolleybus Association. They plan to run it behind the last service trolleybus from Queen's Cross to Clarkston tomorrow when Glasgow's trolleybus service ends. Then, it is hoped, TBS 21 will go to a national museum.
Action Stations
IMMEDIATELY after the formation of the anti-nationalization I action committee in the West Midlands (see page 34), J. W. Womar, general manager of Midland Red, went to the BBC radio studios last Friday to broadcast the operators' views over the regional network.
Ken Flight, of Flight's Tours Ltd., tells me that he also wasted no time: he appeared on an ATV transmission the same day on behalf of the 22 operators who had met that morning. That's what I call action!
They're All Bangers!
INTERNAL explosion engine—that was how no less a person than the chief scientific adviser to the Ministry of Transport, E. C. Williams, described the form of propulsion of the pride and joy of the 20th Century—the motor vehicle.
The occasion was the annual luncheon of the Electric Vehicle Association of Great Britain in London.
Scientifically the engine must be fundamentally wrong, Mr. Williams insisted, and only a fantastic diversion of money and brains had made it a practical proposition. The electric vehicle offered quietness and cleanliness. Increasingly too, in the future, the low maintenance costs of such vehicles would be an asset operators could not ignore. Already there were ever 55,000 battery electric vehicles on UK roads with a production increase of 3,400 last year.
An electric vehicle future or a mirage? Maybe dyed-in-thewool i.c.e., enthusiasts are too mentally conditioned to make a balanced forecast.
Secret Out
AFORMER Aberdeenshire farm boy who has built a transport empire since he branched out in 1926 with a half-share in one lorry . . . that's Charles Alexander. And he was told last week by William Ross, Secretary of State for Scotland, that he had "written his name firmly across his native county".
Mr. Ross was opening the new Charles Alexander Wing of the Reid Library at the Rowett Research Institute, Bucksburn—and revealing the well-kept secret that a gift from Mr. Alexander had covered the entire cost and made possible a great expansion in the work of the Institute and the Commonwealth Bureau of Animal Nutrition, which is now housed in the extension.
Once again, said Mr. Ross, a man had come forward with vision, generosity and fine local patriotism to back the Rovvett. Calling the new wing a "magnificent gift", Lord Boyd-Orr said it would stand as a memorial to the donor for 100 years.
Commanding Presence
TISTENING in last week to one of the more controversial cases heard in Newcastle in recent months, was the newly appointed deputy Licensing Authority for the Northern traffic area, J. A. Baldwin. Although he is well known in the courts on the North Eastern circuit, it was the first time that Mr. Baldwin had seen things "from the other side of the Bench" and this new Freightliner application must have proved an interesting initiation.
No doubt when he takes his first hearing his experience as a colonel in the Duke of Wellington's Regiment will keep him in command of the situation.
No Comment
ITES the Council of Industrial Design to CM: "In our letter of 9 May 1967 there was an error in the date of the press preview of the Quality and Reliability exhibition. This will be held on Monday 5 June at The Design Centre."