THE London Motorbus, originally a real institution, has degenerated into a military unit. It is none the less fun, however, to construct a model motorbus out of a cigar box, using cracker-box wood for part of the work and for the wheels.

Figure I shows the side view of one of these busses with the space for the driver up front and curved steps leading up to the roof at the rear.

In the first place a baseboard E is cut of cracker-box wood about half again as long as a cigar box and the same width as the box set on edge. The box itself is cleaned of paper and the windows on either side marked in and cut out. The box is then nailed onto the baseboard E.

Next, a roof board C is cut a trifle wider than the cigar box and several inches longer, so that when it is nailed on top, as shown, the front end will project out as a roof over the driver. This is also nailed in place, and a block D is nailed into the corner between the base E and the box to form the driver's seat. The hood H up front is made of a curved piece of tin and has under it two curved pieces of wood shown at G in the small sketch in the top of Figure 2. These end pieces g are nailed to the baseboard E and the tin is curved around them as at H to form the hood. On the side of the one next the driver's seat is nailed a rectangular dash piece, from which a steering pillar arises with a small wooden or cardboard wheel e at its top. At the rear are curved steps made from an enlargement of the pattern shown in Figure 2, and when you fold this up it will form the steps in just the curve you want, the parts A lying flat and the alternate parts B standing vertical to form the rise of the stair. A small piece of tin f is bent as shown in Figure 2 to form the lower step. Wires R are arranged in the position shown in Figure 5 to form a railing for these stairs, while now you may run a railing of tin all around the upper story as shown. If you like, you can add some tin seats to the roof, although this is not necessary.

Completed Cigar-box Motorbus.

The axles for the car are made of wire - heavy hairpin wire might do - running through bearings made of staples X driven into the under side of the board E as shown in Figure 2. The wheels are made of wood, or may be old carpet-sweeper wheels, but if you use these you will want larger axles than hairpin wire. They could be made of tin, or even heavy cardboard, if you did not expect the car to carry much of a load. Pieces of cork on the outside of the wheels make a very realistic hub.

With this much start, you should be able to develop as a toy quite a motorbus, and if you do not want to confine yourself to cigar boxes, you can make a larger model, using the wheels off your express wagon.