PASSENGER TRAVEL NEWS.
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The Latest Doings and Development's in the Bus and Coach World.
THE LATE-SEASON LONG-DISTANCE TOUR.
Blackpool Owners Offer Over 20 Tours for the Autumn.
. HIS is the time of the year when
motor coach ownersrentleavour to foster interest in the long-distance or extended tour. Their opportunity is provided by the absence of the teeming holiday crowds at the popular holiday resorts, and the consequent .lessened demand for day trips. resulting in the availability of 'coaches for use on journeys which will keep them away from their home base from 7 to 14 days.. At some of the biggerinland centres' removed from the atmosphere of holiday makineextended tours, of course, have been a tregular feature of the season's programmes, but these outings have not figured so prominently in the arrange.
• noents of seaside coach proprietors owing to the possibility of vehicles used for local trade ensuring a better return than 'when employed on long-distance work.
It is worthy of note that for distance touring the smaller coach has been more popular this year than ever before, and it is evident that many of the objections to the use of pneumatic tyres on this class of vehicle have been overcome. In some quarters there is a manifest desire for bodywork which admits a greater freedom of movement on the part of passengers, and one of the types which has been favourably spoken of has a central gangway with seats for two passengers on each side.
The continuity of extraordinarily bad weather this year has made the saloon coach with drop windows a popular conveyanee,.and if trade had been anything like norma. there is little doubt that many coach 'owners would have added units of this. description to their fleets. Most people admit that touring in the conventional type of char-a-bancs with hood and side curtains has its discomforts in bad weather, and the problem which many owners have had to solve has been bow -to get the beet all-round service from the vehicles they already have in connnission, instead of adding newer and more serviceable types, which possibly Might have put another and older vehicle out of service, due to the preferences of the public. Some of the coach owners in the seaside towns finish up their season with a holiday tour for local residents and shopkeepers, whose sojourns from the hustle and hustle of the workaday world only begin when the towns commence to be depleted of their visiting population. From Llandudno, for instance, every autumn there is an eight-day tour to the So6th of England. Southport also has a suitable autumn programme whilst Blackpool owners make a very bold bid not only for the patronage of the town, but also for that in the districts 40 miles or so around.
Mr, John Hodge, of Blackpool, com mences on September 29th and October 9th nine-day tours to honsion, Brighten
and Bournemouth, for, which the inclusive fare is 11 guineas. An eight-day i336 tour to Torquay and the South Coast, for which the fare is 10. guineas, commences on October 2nd, ore which date another tour of 11 days' duration to Cornwall and Devon begins, the fare for this being 12 guineas. Another Blackpool firm of motor coach proprietors, who own a fleet which is }mown as the " Grey Knight" coaches, are running; between now and October 8th, a five day tour through North Wales, an eight-day tour to Bournemouth, South Coast and London, and a 12-day" trip to Devon, Cornwall and the South Coast The'21Dseater Lancia coaches on pneumatic tyres, owned by Mac Motors, of Blackpool, are run on an autumnal tour similar to the last-named..
Messrs. Burtons, of Blackpool, have arranged for their 14seater coedi .to make two tours to, London between now and October 16th, each allowing for two days' travelling each way and three clear days in London. In the interval they will run a 13-day excursion to London and the South Coast.
The Victory Motors, Ltd., Blackpool, have also included London in their programme. On the eight days passengers will have four clear days in London, of which two days will be devoted to circular motor tours embracing the principal places in the Metropolis The fare, which includes late dinner. bed and breakfast and first-class hotel accommodation, is L8. • At the end a October there will be a seven-clay outing to the Yorkshire holiday resorts.
Messrs. W. Marshall and Son, who operate a fleet of Maudslay coaches, have compiled a rather comprehensive pro
ramme embracing a 10-day tour to Devonshire and South Coast .for 12 guineas inclusive; a seven-day tour in Scotland, including Loch Lomond, the Trossachs and Edinburgh for £9; an eight-day run to Bournemouth, London and the 'Peak District ; a three-day trip to Buxton, Matlock, etc.; and a sevenday tour to London, Thames Valley and the Peak District.
Another ambitions programme is that of Mr. J. H. Jackson, whose seven-day October tour to Scotland has bean ex-• tended to nine days, so as to include
Inveraray, Oban, Loch Awe, etc., the charge being £12. Other runs include an 11-day. tour in Devon and Cornwall for 13 gum-teas and a seven-day run to London and Brighton for £8. These fares are inclusive of late dinner and bed and breakfast.
Thus, Blackpool offers a range of over 20 long-distance tours. The fares are much lower than last year, and it is very evident that the faetOr of competition has been the Main cause of charges for motor-coach tours being reduced to such small compass.
A NEAT 14-SEATER SALOON BUS.
AMONGST THOSE who have followed the developments of passenger travel transport the general consensus of opinion is that the small saloon-type bus will be the type of vehicle which will eventually find favour for use in rural areas.
That this view is supported by manufacturers is indicated by the fact that many of them are now devoting their energies to the production of small types of passenger-carrying units. For example, the International Harvester Co., of Great Britain, Ltd., who sell the International chassis, have recently adopted a 14-seater saloon bus as a standard outfit.
We reproduce an illustration of an example of this vehicle which has recently been delivered. The body, which has accommodation for 14 persons, is mounted on a one-ton speed truck
chassis. The seating is of the. -conventional type, four persons being accommodated on three transverse seats, whilst two people are housed alongside the driver; there is a tip-up seat in each row which gives access to the rear seat. The length of the body is such that all seats are exceedingly roomy and adequate space is available for passengers' legs.' •
The body superstructure is built up of English ash, reinforced with hand forged Mild • steel plates. The side panels are of steel, and special wood composition paneis are used in the in
terior. The roof is panelled with V_ jointed, tongued and grooved boards, covered with moleskin, which is well leaded in order to render it weatherproof. There is a door to the driver's compartment. and an .ebergencv door. at the rear, which has a slam lock andcarriage key.
The three windows on each side of the body proper are of the frameless type, and are arranged to drop down between the inner and outer panels. The padded channels for these windows are of patent Construction. The upholstering of the seats is carried out in moquette. Each seat is built up on spring cushion cases and is provided with a spring back rest which is well senabbed, thus giving the maximum of comfort to passengers. The complete vehicle sells at -£650. at which price it represents an attractive investment.
AN IMPROVED HOOD FOR MOTOR COACHES.
THE FACT that many attempts continue to be made to produce a per.fect type of hood for motor coaches is in itself a definite indicatien that most of these types in use are considered to be -capable of improvement. We have during the past two motor coaching seasons drawn attention to many new ideas
in hood design evolved in an endeavour to overcome the troubles and disadvaqtages associated with existing types, and we can safely say that with one or two possible exceptions, they have failed to justify the expectations of their inventors.
The attention which is being directed on this subject can be clearly discerned from the Patent Office files, in which many new hoods are from time to time described in published specifications. One of the latest. designs to be invented is that patented under specification No. 176.718, by E. V. Thompson, of Torquay. The main objects of this inventor have been aimed at securing a design of hood which can be easily erected or lowered by one person, is lighter in weight than the usual type and is cheap to manufacture.
The three figures reproduced on this page, which show (1) a diagrammatic view of the hood in the extended position (2) a view of the hood lowered, and (3) a plan view of' the hood with the fabric .removed, will be clearly understood in conjunction with the following description:—
The inventor employs two similar rods (a) of suitable height„one being pivoted at each side of the body near the rear. Each roil is capable of substantial right angular movement about its pivot (al), i.e., from a vertical position to a horizontal position pointing backwards. Two parallel lazy-tongs (b) are arranged at each side of the vehicle for supporting the hood fabric (c)' one end of each of the tangs engaging the rods (a). At the end of each of the lazy-tongs there are, as usual, two projecting arms. At the rear end of the vehicle one of these arms (bt) is secured to the road (a), the other (b2) being solidly mounted thereon, whilst at the front end one,or both are secured to a tube or socket (e), which engages with a rod alongside the windscreen, this tube being secured by a setscrew (g).
Fig. 3 shows that transverse stays (h)
connect. the two lazy-tongs (b), and these stays are arranged at points where the various strips of the lazy-tongs cross one another. When the device is being loWered, the various strips -comprising the lazy-tongs are closed up from the front and lie flat against one another on the pivot rods at the back of the vehicle. These rods are then lowered to their horizontal position and the hood is housed in the usual manner in a receptacle at the back of the coach.
The Jitney in the North. LoNnoN is not the only place in the .1-‘ Kingdom where the jitney is once again appearing on the streets.
The Birkenhead Corporation runs motorbuses between the Wirral bungalow town of Moreton and Birkenhead, and the committee responsible is rather perturbed because a motor coach owner. has ventured upon its sacred preserves. It is mooted that the cotporation intends to prosecute.
What brought the motor coach into the fray was the tremendous rush for the buses late at night on certain days of the week. The coach owner had made a practice of loading up his charsb-banes not in the Birkenhead streets, but in his own yard, and running them out to Moreton and back. The corporation's ease against him appears to he that this practice, although it does not involve any actual touting for traffic, is tantamount to plying for hire, as the coaches in question are not licensed to ply for hire in Birkhenhead.
At the Moreton end, a firm of coach owners in the district, before putting their coach on the stand to take its place with the Birkenhead Corporation buses, had consulted the county police superintendent, as welt as the chairman of the Moreton . Parish Council, as to their legal position in the matter, and they were assured from both quarters, that inasmuch as the char4-bancs was licensed to ply for hire in Moreton they had as much' right to use the stand, which is part of the public highWay, as ' the corporation motorbuses had. When the motor coach made its first appearance on the stand a Birkenhead Corporation inspector approached the owner-ariver ana suggested that legal proceedings would follow. He replied that he was prepared to take the risk; so far the threat of legal proceedings has not materialized. The parish authorities appear sympathetic towards the coach owners on the ground that they contribute largely to the local rates, and the Birkenhead Corporation do not.
On a recent evening, when the crowds hound for home began to assemble, the Birkenhead Corporation motor fleet turned up at the stand in strength. At one time they had as inany as seven buses on the stand, with the nrivately.
owned motor coach in the midd:e. A pretty game of manoeuvring for position ensued. The motorbuses did their best to prevent the char-it-banes getting to the front, but finally it managed to slip through into the first place, took on a. full load of passengers, and went on its way rejoicing.