In the early years of the last century, motoring may have been in its
absolute infancy in this country, but the burra sahibs from Bombay were
not averse to braving the back breaking trip to Mahabaleshwar. It was
an arduous journey at best: take the train to Pune, then switch over to
the light railway upto Whattar near Satara from where a tonga ride took
one to the ancient town of Wai, which is famous even today as the centre
of the Brahma faith. From Wai it was the tonga once again for the journey
to Mahabaleshwar, but in short stages given the fact that the last 18
miles of the journey featured a mean gradient of 1 in 10 and that the
horses employed were nowhere near being the highest class of cattle! Not
unsurprisingly, the dreary slowness of the journey was as much a talking
point as spending a weekend retreat at Mahabaleshwar itself.
But by mid-1906 it all changed, thanks to the Western Indian Motor Company
of Bombay who realised the potential of the tourist traffic and pressed
automobiles into service on this route from Pune to Mahabaleshwar and
back. The company took delivery of 13 long wheelbase Beaufort chassis.
Of these chassis, ten sported the shooting brake type of bodywork to take
in eight to ten passengers each while the remaining three chassis were
constructed as lorries. The rationale was very simple: travellers alighting
at Pune railway station would be immediately ferried the 74 mile distance
by the shooting brakes with just light hand luggage allowed on board,
the heavy stuff would all follow in the lorries behind! According to the
March 7, 1906 issue of the now defunct British motoring publication The
Car, it was said that once these vehicles were pressed into service, they
would lop off no less than seven to eight hours off the normal journey
time by train and tonga! And as I read in another issue of the same publication
dated February 20, 1907, this service was so successfulthat many others
were encouraged to also offer the same with even more powerful machinery!
The pic on right shows the Beauforts hired for a private picnic in the
grounds of Government House, Poona.
Getting
to the history of the Beaufort marque, it was characteristic of the times
then. The Beaufort Motor Company was established in Baden Germany but
it had its premises in Baker Street, London where it operated for its
short lived six-year life span from 1901 to 1906. The cars bore an uncanny
resemblance to the German Argus machines and in fact much was imported
from Germany and assembled into fully built units in England. The early
Beauforts came powered by 8HP single cylinder Bergmann engine and featured
belt drive to the rear wheels. However this latter feature gave way to
shaft drive a year later in 1902. In this very year the single was joined
by twin cylinder engined cars of 12HP and 18HP capacity but by 1904 there
were 14 and 24HP four cylinder cars available. The Beaufort wagons which
pioneered the Poona-Mahableshwar service were four-cylinder machines.
Beaufort closed down in 1906 but not before it had also made a few 30HP
six-cylinder cars. The German Argus on which the Beaufort was based, itself
didn't have much of an extended life span, it lasting till 1910. However,
its quality was impeccable and was counted among the best cars one could
buy then in Europe. It later switched over to manufacturing marine engines
and it was also responsible for making the straight-eight Horch motors
of the late 1920s. |
February 2001