Gentlemen, can anybody throw light on this one.
I drove (1970-1972) for LUT at Swinton, we had 6 Lolines, 6, 7, 36, 37, 38 & 39 principally to get beneath Patricroft station bridge on routes 14 & 22. Some time before 1970, no 6 was involved in an accident in fog with a private train on a crossing outside the ROF Patricroft works. No 6's engine was damaged and by being pushed backwards, ruptured the amidships gearbox. No 6 was repaired (where?) and returned to service with a non standard gearbox, with reverse being found by going through first, to the left and rearwards (rather like the opposite of a Bristol overdrive gearbox - through fourth, right & forward) I am unable to find any gearbox of this pattern in PSV use save a Foden type that is similar.
Any help or suggestions please?
Mike Norris
03/03/13 - 08:02
LUT used to run Fodens, so could well have found a spare Foden gearbox in store. However, on the Foden gearbox, it wasn't reverse that was found by going through first gear then left and back, but a super-low crawler. Reverse was found by pulling a trigger on the lever, moving it to the left and then forward. And because the super-low was effectively a separate gearbox, it also worked on reverse!
Peter Williamson
05/03/13 - 11:19
I hope the attached copies from my Loline Manual will help to solve Mike Norris's mystery, and they may be of general interest too in view of the recent Loline postings and discussion of the (mis)use of clutches and gearboxes.
The twin-plate clutch drawings come under Loline I and II in the manual; the single-plate ones under Loline III.
Here is the link to view Dennis Gearbox Drawings
Ian Thompson
05/03/13 - 12:30
Ian, I am extremely grateful to you for the effort you have taken in resolving this (to many others - perhaps) a minor detail.
However, I wanted to re-assure myself of its existence, as I have written a chapter in Mr A E Jones's upcoming Ian Allan book - Working Days - LUT and have mentioned Loline No 6 in describing an incident that took place in my LUT driving days !
It would appear that either a later version (or a different version) of the Dennis Loline gearbox was substituted, perhaps a 5/6 speed unit, with as shown - 5th & 6th gears blocked off - which gave the reverse gear arrangement illustrated.
Mike Norris
15/03/13 - 16:31
Ian, thank you for the link to the Dennis Gearbox Drawings. The layout of Loline gearboxes appears to be broadly similar to that of the Bristol Lodekka - hardly surprising in a way, given that the Loline was a Lodekka built under licence. However, given Dennis' relatively low volume production at the time, one could have assumed that the Company would have used a standard Dennis gearbox with transfer gears attached to give a lower transmission line, rather than designing and manufacturing a completely new gearbox. Credit to them for doing so however, as the "indirect drive gearbox" layout does seem a much neater design. As on the Lodekka, the output shaft was on a lower plane than the input shaft, allowing the propshaft to be mounted lower in the chassis. This gearbox layout had the effect of reversing the drive to the rear axle, but as this was of the dropped centre type, involving similar 'indirect' gearing up to the halfshafts, the drive was thus reversed again, ensuring that the bus set off in the expected direction! The Lodekka was an ingenious design with a good reputation, and the Dennis Loline appears to have built on that in all its forms. From what I have read recently, as the Loline developed, in several respects it improved on the Lodekka. Fair praise indeed.
Brendan Smith
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