In this episode we are bringing you the story of steam lorries and wagons on the roads of Ireland from 1899. They were the successors to horse-drawn and later traction engine towed trailers and were given a new name: lorry as “a large road vehicle that is used for transporting goods”.
Capable of travelling in almost complete silence, and at speeds of up to 50 mph, steam lorries were once a common sight on the roads of Ireland for transporting heavy and bulky goods and were operated by companies such as the Guinness Brewery, Dublin (1899), Spencer’s Coal Merchants, Waterford (1930s), The Belfast & County Down Railway, Co Down (1930s) and the Slieveardagh Coalfield, Tipperary (1940s).
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OVERTYPE & UNDERTYPE
The steam lorry came in two designs: overtype and undertype, differing in the engine’s position relative to the boiler. The overtype steam lorry borrowed from traction engine design, featuring an engine unit mounted atop a locomotive-type boiler. Power was transmitted to the rear axle via a chain, with the entire assembly affixed to a chassis carrying the load. The undertype utilised a more conventional chassis design, with a self-contained engine typically mounted separately beneath the chassis. The boiler was located within the lorry cab allowing easier management of the firebox and water tank.
Overtype steam lorries were praised for their simplicity and familiarity among former traction engine users, while undertypes were promoted for the driver’s forward control position providing a significantly improved and safer road view.
SILENT STEAMER
Pat Kennett in his book “The Foden Story” remarks on the majestic sight of a steam wagon at full speed: “The sight of a steam wagon travelling at speeds in the 40-50 mph bracket or higher was particularly impressive, perhaps because one tended to associate this kind of machine with a more sedate pace altogether. Nevertheless anyone who has seen a Sentinel or a Foden undertype with a full load, bowling along in complete silence at that kind of speed is never likely to forget it…”.
SENTINEL WAGGONS
In 1875, Stephen Alley from Blessington, County Kildare along with the Scotsman John A MacLellan founded Alley & MacLellan in Glasgow, Scotland. The company went on to become the Sentinel Waggon Co Ltd. and were renowned as an innovative industry leader in steam lorry design.
The company initially made valves and over time expanded into manufacturing air compressors, steam steering gear and prefabricated light draught steamers and barges. Relocating to Shrewsbury, England in 1903, by 1905 they launched the first Sentinel waggon, known as the Model 6 Ton Flat or Model 5 Ton Tipper. These lorries had a two-cylinder double-acting engine and a vertical boiler.
The company wanted to distinguish their steam lorries as being superior to their competitors who all produced “wagons”, whereas Sentinel built “waggons” – it is all in the name! Their revolutionary rugged engine had poppet valves and an effective superheated vertical cross water-tube boiler, this design was innovative and reliable and quickly commanded a large market share.
TRANSPORTING GUINNESS
In 1899 due to an expanding market in Dublin city and environs the effectiveness and efficiency of delivering Guinness products by horse-drawn dray was coming under increasing strain as a horse could only manage a route of twelve miles per day.
The Guinness Engineers Department purchased five Foden steam wagons as an alternative to horse drays for deliveries within Dublin city. Unfortunately, in a short period of time it was found that the steam wagons were easily outmatched in terms of speed, and effectiveness by the horse-drawn drays and so they were withdrawn in 1903.
TRANSPORTING COAL
We have been led to believe that the Slieveardagh Coalfield at Ballynonty, County Tipperary used a steam lorry from 1941 until at least the mid-1940s to make coal deliveries. We believe that the steam lorry stayed in operation long after petrol and diesel lorries had taken deliveries in other parts of Ireland due to the ‘free’ availability of coal to fuel the lorry.
TRANSPORTING TOBACCO
William Power & Co., seed merchants, O’Connell Street, Waterford, planted the first commercial tobacco plantation in Ireland during the early 1930s at their nurseries in Ballinakill, situated along the River in Waterford. The harvested crop was transported along the Dunmore Road by a Sentinel steam lorry and trailer, on solid rubber tyres belonging to Waterford coal merchant, Geoffrey Spencer.
THE MOVIES
A steam lorry even made it into the movies in the 1929 British-German film, The Wrecker (Der Würger) when a steam train crashed into a Foden steam lorry at a level crossing. The crash was recorded by 22 cameras and has been described as “the most spectacular rail crash in cinema history.”
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Every week we bring you two new Irish transport videos. Please support our content creation and our work in preserving the stories of Irish transport subscribe via www.irelandmade.ie
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THE BEGINNING OF THE END
By the early 1920s, steam lorries easily outperformed horses and traction engines for heavy hauling, but petrol lorries were gaining popularity due to their day-today ease of use, efficiency and affordability. It was reported that a 3-ton petrol lorry could save around £100 per month compared to its steam counterpart.
By the start of the 1930s, numerous manufacturers had gone out of business and those that remained had instead converted their factory production lines to manufacture internal combustion engines.
During this period, only Foden and Sentinel introduced new designs. Foden’s 1930 “O-Type,” also called “Speed-Six” and “Speed-Twelve” wagons, aimed to modernise steam wagons but encountered reliability issues, particularly with the boiler design. By late 1932, Foden had switched its factory production lines to diesel wagons.
In 1933 the only remaining manufacturer in the market was the Sentinel Waggon Co Ltd. The company was still investing heavily in research and design and in that same year launched their innovative “S” type wagons. While they were a well thought out and reliable design, it was a rear-guard action to stave off the inevitable and in 1938 having produced 3,746 steam waggons since 1905, their factory production line ceased.
However, this was not quite the end for Sentinel waggons and in the early 1950s one hundred S-type waggons were built for an Argentine government contract and two final wagons were manufactured for the British marketplace.
STEAM CARRIAGE AND WAGON COMPANY
Another Irishman connected with promoting steam transport on this island was Sir James Caleb Anderson who during the period 1839–‘41 established the Steam Carriage and Wagon Company to deliver Post Office mail and to convey passengers across Ireland to a proposed transatlantic terminal in Galway by steam-powered vehicles and. We will be covering this story in detail in an upcoming episode.
If you would like to contribute a story, please email Kevin Reid [email protected]
Information Sources and Photo Credits:
Archive Commercial Motor UK
Archives Hub UK
Arvum Group
Durrish History
Eibhlin Colgan, Archive Manager, Guinness Storehouse
Graces Guide
H. Poole Studio Photographer. Lorry Outside Glenville.: Commissioned by W. Power & Son, O’Connell Street, Waterford. 1923
Heritage Machines
Irish Steam Scene – video D. Ward
Irish Waterways History – Hampshire Cornicle (1829)
Kennett, Pat (1978). The Foden Story. Patrick Stephens, Cambridge. p. 83.
National Library of Ireland
Oxford Languages
Sage Journals
Seedtech
Sentinel Drivers Club
Sentinel Manufacturing UK
The Grampian Transport Museum
The World Encyclopaedia of Trucks – Peter J Davis
Tipperary Coalmines
Toolbox Productions
WIKI Commons
