Dear Pat
You may like to take a look at this web page:
http://ticketslondon-online.biz/vintage_buses.htm
There is a data sheet available in pdf and doc formats (bottom of the page).
The dimensions are given in both metric and imperial. The figures I have to
say, strongly suggest an imperial origin.
However, I don't know how the Ensign company fit into the picture as
reguards the original design and engineering of these vehicles. It does seem
from this and other web sites that the only data now available is in
imperial (whatever it may have been originally). It appears that Ensign just
did soft conversions to metric.
Regards
Phil Hall
----- Original Message -----
From: "Pat Naughtin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2006 6:17 AM
Subject: [USMA:35807] Re: London Buses
On 24/01/06 4:34 AM, "Anon Anon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
routemaster specification
Thanks Terry,
Using the word 'specification' in my Google searches was the word that I
missed.
It looks like the Routemaster bus was manufactured to metric specifications
and then dumbed down to Imperial words for the use of the British public. In
short, it looks like the Routemaster was a nominal '30 feet'.
Although it's difficult to wade through the conversion confusion and sundry
obfuscation that conversion usually brings, it looks to me like the story
goes like this:
The Routemaster used an AEC AV590 engine with a 9.6 litre capacity or a
Leyland 0600 diesel with a 9.8 litre capacity. These specifications were
then dumbed down for the public as Oengines rated at 115 bhp¹.
The overall length of most of the buses were designed and built with an
overall length of 9.1 metres. This was then converted to 358.2677 (post-1959
metric) inches, which were divided by 12 to give 29.8556 feet and this was
the number that was rounded to 29 feet 10 inches, and then given the nominal
name O30 feet¹.
Most descriptions of Routemaster buses are given as O30 feet¹ buses with a
Oengines rated at 115 bhp¹, and by using only 115 bhp and 30 feet as
specifications of the Routemaster for the public you foster the illusion
that (as I once heard in the USA), OEnglish units are for the best in this
all English units world¹.
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
PO Box 305, Belmont, Geelong, Australia
Phone 61 3 5241 2008
Pat Naughtin is the editor of the free online monthly newsletter,
'Metrication matters'.
You can subscribe by going to http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter
Pat is the editor of the 'Numbers and measurement' chapter of the Australian
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