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Driving a Sheffield Gearless Bus on the Outer Circle in 1948.


boginspro

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From the Leyland Torque Magazine ----- 

 

Driving a Titan Torque Converter "Gearless Bus" in 1948

              The bus in question is to operate Sheffield route 3, OUTER CIRCLE, a short working from Malin Bridge to Bellhouse Road. After entering the cab and taking his seat the, driver on glancing around would notice that although the hand controls, a change speed lever to his left, and the hand brake to his right, were normal, the foot controls were not!  On the right of the steering column was the accelerator pedal and the brake pedal was in the center. On the left, where one would expect a clutch pedal or preselective gear engaging pedal, but there was simply a foot rest. A knowledgeable driver would now be aware that he was in control of a “GEARLESS BUS”.

              We shall assume that the vehicle is GWE 730, Titan TD5c with a Cravens body, new in 1940, and number 431 in the “A” fleet. The time is 4.10pm towards the end of June. It is a warm day and we have a fair loading of passengers. The driver checks for intermediate position (neutral) by means of the left-hand lever, presses the starter button on the dash in front of him and the engines comes into life. There are two bells from the conductor, the control lever is pushed forward and a slight clunk comes from the toggle-clutch as the torque converter is engaged.

              The handbrake (push on type) is released and pulled back, a “tickety –tick” sound from the free-wheel is noticeable. On accelerating, this ceases and the bus moves forward very smoothly and turns right into Holme Lane. The engine is revving at its maximum governed speed, the road speed increasing until at about 20 mph the change speed lever is pulled back into direct drive. Approaching the stop before Middlewood Road, the brakes are applied and a few yards before we come to a halt, the lever is pushed forward to engage the converter. The free-wheel sound is again heard and the bus coasts to a halt, with a final application of the foot brake. Starting off once more, a left turn is made into Middlewood Road where the slight gradient necessitates the constant use of the converter. The engine is again running at the governed speed, and there is a constant, steady drone from the induction system. The gradient levels out alongside Hillsborough Park and the lever is pulled back into direct drive. With a slight clunk, the drone is replaced by the mellow roar of the 8.6 oil engine, similar to a standard TD5.

              Turning right we traverse Leppings Lane, passing the Sheffield Wednesday Football Ground in the process. On leaving the Leppings Lane /Herries Road stop, the usual procedure is followed and on reaching the Five Arches Railway viaduct, an angler from the adjacent pond is picked up. Given the starting bell, the driver fully depresses the accelerator, the engine reaches its governed speed, and simultaneously the hand brake is released. Slowly, the bus moves forward up the hill, though the engine is racing, progress at best is “steady”. We pass Scraith Wood to stop at a point near Penrith Road and at this stage there is a wisp of steam from the radiator cap. It is a warm day and we have a”boil” on. Laboriously starting off again, we reach the summit at Moonshine Lane and on stopping to set down, steam blows furiously from the radiator cap. Allowing a couple of minutes to cool down, the water is replenished from an obliging shopkeeper nearby. We were lucky that the fluid in the converter did not “gasify”, or there would have been a loss of drive. Continuing down Herries Drive, with direct engagement, the steep pull up Longley Lane necessitates a forward movement of the lever to engage the torque converter to climb to the stop opposite the Firth Park Grammar School. The change is achieved by leaving the right foot flat down on the accelerator and pushing the control lever forwards, the engine again attaining its governed speed, stopping near the school. There is one more slow climb to Sheffield Lane Top and here we turn right into Hatfield House Lane, travelling on this level throroughfare to the terminus at Bellhouse Road, breathless, after an almost four mile journey, ready to return to Malin Bridge on route 2.

              Passengers all off, the bus turns right into Bellhouse Road, prior to reversing into Shiregreen Lane opposite the Concord Park gates. Neutral is selected, and then an attempt to engage reverse is frustrated by a grinding noise from the selector dogs. Stubbornly, reverse gear cannot be engaged, but our driver has experienced this problem before. The trick here is to stop the engine and re-engage reverse ratio – usually this was successful. If not the process was repeated until reverse was selected! Drawing up to the stopping place, the engine was stopped, to wait departure time to return to Malin Bridge.

              This adventure was a fairly typical journey on a “GEARLESS BUS”, a mix of flat and hilly terrain, having one long ascent and one moderate descent down Longley Lane. The latter feature would remind the driver that there was very little engine braking effect on this type of bus and with much reliance on the brakes.

 

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Charlie Deamer and the Gearless Bus

And here is a bit from the same place about a man, some of the older ex Sheffield Transport workers will remember, who solved some of the problems with the "Gearless Bus".

Charles Deamer Graduates to Bus Engineer

By 1937 with a persistent characteristic, Charlie Deamer graduated to the post of a qualified motor engineer, though he did not get on with Mr G Pulfrey. Attending a local college, he completed a motor engineering course, qualifying with distinction and, as Pulfrey left his Sheffield post to take up the Managerial position at Kingston upon Hull, Deamer’s career was assured. Thomas Anthonies succeeded Pulfrey and he favoured Charles Deamer with a technical post at the Central Works at Queens Road.

There were still problems with “slipping” torque converters, particularly in the hot summer months on the very hilly services to Shirecliffe and Southey Green, and Deamer was appointed by Anthonies to look into the problem and to find a cure. Overheating of the paraffin/lubricating oil mixture was the root cause and Charlie consulted the specification recommended by Leyland. Immediately he saw that the “high boiling point grade” of Paraffin had not been adhered to, Sheffield had been using a cheaper, lower grade – after this was rectified, an improvement was immediately effected. Not withstanding this, there continued to be loss of drive in certain circumstances of operation. Being an amateur gardener, Charlie was familiar with maximum and minimum temperature gauges and ingeniously he used small examples placed in the converter fluid header tank. On taking out a “Gearless Bus” on test, he could confirm the exact point of the loss of drive experienced, by checking the two readings.

EDIT - I believe that Charlie was awarded a British Empire Medal in the mid 60's.

 

 

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On 11/12/2019 at 20:31, boginspro said:

From the Leyland Torque Magazine ----- 

 

Driving a Titan Torque Converter "Gearless Bus" in 1948

             That post rang many bells for me as I lived on that 2/3 route from 1937 until 1958 and saw many different types  especially on match days at Hillsborough when a steady stream of fully loaded buses would commence a couple of hours before kick-off from districts in the north and east of the city. They waited on Herries Road and Inspectors would direct returning passengers to appropriate vehicles (e.g. First stop Shiregreen Cemetery or Wincobank to deter short distance users).

Holiday weekends in the later 40's saw regular 'Duplicates' on both the 2 (anti-clockwise) and 3 (clockwise)  Outer Circular routes, they set off from Malin Bridge on the hour. It took 2 hours to complete the circuit and attracted many sightseers, the fare I remember being 1/6 for adults and 9d for children (5 to 14). The short working No3 Malin Bridge to Bellhouse Road  described meant a 15 minute frequency on that part of the circular route.

 

 

 

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