MOTOR TRANSPORT

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 150, 21 December 1929, Page 28

MOTOR TRANSPORT

THE LATEST AT HOME

LUXURY O2J ROAD WHEELS

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, 14th November. 3?or the man who is not bent on buying a motor vehicle, the Motor Transport Show at Olympia is even more interesting than the Motor Show itself. It is a revelation in tlie luxury of mod-

em road travel, and in. the development of road transport, that great rival of the railways.

As a matter of fact, during the past three or four months even the ordinary Londoner has been noticing the rapid increase in the number of lorries and omnibuses with six wheels. At the show practically all the heavier lorries are fitted with six wheels," all four wheels at the back being driving wheels. But it is on the great arterial roads from London to the provincial towns that these monsters of the road are chiefly to be -seen. Occasionally one gets a glimpse of them in the London streets, and the inscription announces London to Cardiff, London to Edinburgh, London to Manchester. They are swift, silent giants of the road, and thousands of people are using them for travelling, especially in the summer time, in. preference to the railways.

Some people will think, perhaps, that luxury has gone too far in one at least of these motor coaches. In this there is a piano that folds up when not wanted. The seats fold back, leaving a space of polished dance floor. There are glass-topped refreshment tables which may be let down when required. The outside moving world may be_ shut out by pretty coloured, curtains, the eshaust pipes warm the compartment, and lights glow softly under painted parchment shades. THE EXTREME OF POWER. This is the extreme of luxury, "but there is also the extreme of power. It is a monster with fourteen rubbertired wheels, weighs 28 tons, and can carry 100 tons. It has the power of seven traction engines, and it is controlled by two drivers, one at the front and one at the back, who are connected by telephone. It should be said that special permission from the police is necessary for this monster to take the road, where' it proceeds at the modest rate of four miles an hour. Remembering winter conditions in the back blocks of New Zealand, the strange four-wheel drive vehicle called for special examination. The front and rear part of the vehicle are joined only by the tube which contains the propelling shaft. Hence the two rear wheels can manoeuvre over mounds and obstructions independently of the two front wheels. The four wheels are all broad driving wheels which may be rubber shod on ordinary roads or be fitted with blades for' traversing the worst surfaces. The "War Office have been using these vehicles to carry a gun team and to tow a gun There are/British' six-and-cight-wheeled lorries that have the manoeuvring powers cf a tank. They can climb one-iu-two gradients and travel over marshy grounds. -Lorries driven at a cost of 5d a gallon by Diesel engines and burning crude oil are an advance so far as economy is concerned. Still more economical is the lorry with gas-burning engine and self-contained producer capable of making gas and coal, coke, charcoal, or wood as it travels. TRANSPORT OF ANIMALS. Some of the most remarkable exhibits are those which demonstrate how commercial vehicle bodywork can be .^adapted to special needs of special trades. There are lorries, for instance, to carry two racehorses. The sides let down and the animals walk into their boxes. The carriage of cattle, too, has evoked some ingenious schemes. There is a vehicle on view, part of the floor of which drop S towards the ground so as to facilitate the entrance of the cattle from the back. On the same vehicle a transverse box. underneath the heads of Mie cows serves to accommodate throe or four sheep or pigs. Herbert Morrison, Minister of Transport, opened the exhibition, fcpeakmg at the inaugural -luncheon he .uttered a. friendly warning to manufacturers of public service passenger vehicles. "I have noticed with some interest," he said, "announcements intimating the manufacture of public service passenger-carrying vehicles which can run 60 to 70 miles an hour. I hope that manufacturers are not spending too much money on securing speeds of this kind for motor coaches, because, if so, I am afraid that the money is being wasted. It is obviously unthinkable that, these speeds can be allowed on Ordinary rpadSfc and everybody must appreciate

that steps would bo taken to enforce reasonable speeds oa such vehicles consistent with tho public safety and tho rights of other road users."