Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/903

 Popular Science Moitt/il//

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��Automobile or Railway Car- Which Is It?

A CALIFOR- NIA in- ventor has de- vised a method which will en- able an ordinary automobile omnibus to run on railroad rails as well as on city pavements and country roads. It's an old idea, of course, but with modern "im- provements." The Californian bolts a flanged rail- road carwheel and a conventional solid- tired truck wheel together, with the rail wheel on the inside. The circumference of the solid tire wheel is larger than that of the flanged wheel. When run- ning on a pavement of macadam the flanged wheel does not touch the ground at all. It

comes into action only when the car is running on rails, as shown in the pic- ture. Small wedges, placed alongside the track, permit the omnibus to run on or off the rails with- out difficulty. The system has been tried out on a sub- urban bus-line in California and has given good satis- faction. It enabled a California motor- bus company to open up new terri- tory between Holt- ville and El Centro, between which

���there was no suitable road but a slightly used railway line. The bus picks up its passengers on the city streets and

then runs to the railroad line over which it makes its trips. It will probably add a new word to the diction- ary when some philologist shall succeed in con- structing a term that fits this du al-service car. " Autorail Car," for in- stance, or some other suitable combining form indic- ative of the car's ability to change its nature at the will of its chauffeur or engineer, whichever title may be the proper one.

��The wheels of this omnibus will run smoothly on ordinary railroad rails, city pavements or country roads

���Sidecar arrangement which is decidedly use- ful for the delivery of crated motorcycles

��Extending the Use of the Sidecar

MOTORCYCLE dealer in River- side, California, finds the sidecar arrange- ment improvised by him to change ordi- nary motorcycles into delivery trucks very useful in his own business to carry crated motorcycles from the nearest distributing point, Los Angeles, to Riverside, * a dis- tance of fifty miles. The trip to Los Angeles and return is made in four hours and requires about fifty cents' worth of fuel, while the railroad freight on the crated ma- chine would cost $2.50, and delivery could not be ex- pected in less than three or four days.

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