A Twenty-year Old Steamer.
Page 15
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Still Working After 175,000 Miles' Running for a Pioneer Haulage Contractor.
AMANCHESTER firm of haulage contractors, J. T. Lawton, Ltd., have in service a Foden steam vehicle which will soon have been 20 years on
the road. It is still hale and hearty,
and performs its allotted daily task with the same marked ability as do some of the younger of the family. Messrs. Lawton operate a fleet of steam vehicles totalling a score of units—Sentinels and Fodens
Nearly all Messrs. Lawton's transport' activities are in connection with the textile industry, conveying cloth to and
from the manufacturing towns and Manchester, where, owing to the congested nature of the central area, the loads (which are on " flats") are lifted by crane from the motor vehicle at depots and transferred to horse vehicles, which convey the cloth to ' warehouses and despatch sheds. The steam lorries, which have trailers, serve a district of about 30 miles round Manchester, excepting some of the Sentinels, which frequently take the longer
journeys—for instance, the Manchester. London run, on which a covered van is employed. At one time—during the war this service was a daily one. Indus. trial conditions being changed, the frequency of the journeys has been adjusted to meet the times.
Mr. Lawton is a. pioneer of motor haulage, as the reproduction of an illustratam of his first vehicle—a 1903 Fodenwhich has covered well over 175.000 miles, will prove.