Midland Railway Motor Car Van, 1916

Despite the growth in road transport in the Edwardian era, the railway was still the best of transporting large objects - including motor cars themselves. It was much better, and safer, to deliver a motor car over long distances in a protected railway van rather than drive it over the roads of the Edwardian era, which were very poor by today's standards. This 1916 built example by the Midland Railway is a typical box van built for transporting motor cars, although it could of course be used for other goods apart from vehicles. One known use for these vans was transporting chassis from Rolls Royce to coachmakers to have the body's fitted

The main features that make this van suitable for motor cars is the doors at the end of the van, not usually seen on railway vans - the two large upper doors open to the side, whereas below them a 'flap' lowers down which gives a surface for the car to be driven or pushed/pulling over off or onto the van

Rover 6hp Car, 1904

This 1904 built Rover 6hp is a typical small car for those who aspired to owning a car but couldn't afford a large Tourer or similar as offered by other manufacturers (including Rover themselves). It cost £120 when new in 1904, very cheap compared to other cars, but still beyong the reach of many. Rover described this car as 'the most reliable and cheapest car in the world - A LADY CAN DRIVE IT!'. Fitted with an 800cc single cylinder engine, it's top speed was around 24mph

Leicester Tram 76, 1904

Leicester upgraded their Tramway system in 1904 from horse-drawn trams to electric trams in 1904, buying them from Dick Kerr in Preston, a very popular manufacturer of electric trams. When built, Tram 76, like all of the electric Leicester trams introduced in 1904, were double deck with an open top. Although this was great in good weather and very popular, in bad weather, and especially in winter, they were unpopular and resulted in lack of passengers, so from 1913 onwards top deck covers were introduced to the fleet, as seen on Leicester tram 76 as preserved here. This was a similar development to the tramway fleet in all cities which originally bought open top trams. In the 1930's, the Leicester trams were further modified by enclosing the open platforms at both ends, and enclosing the open verandahs on the top deck.

Decency flap open

Decency flap closed

One interesting feature of Leicester 76 is the reversed stairs, which had the disadvantage of blocking the view over the driver's left shoulder. To partially solve this, one step was perforated to give a better view - but this had the problem of showing ladies ankles when in use to gain access to and from the top deck, which would be at the conductor's end (although the trams work both ways, only one set of stairs would be used at a time, the set at the rear where the conductor would stand). To solve this problem, a simple 'decency flap' was incorporated - lowered when the driver was in that end of the tram, and closed shut when those stairs were used. If the decency flap was found to be down when it should have been shut, the conductor could be seriously fined to avoid them opening it. Tram 76 is seen preserved at the Crich Tramway Museum, Derbyshire

City of Truro - the first locomotive to go 100mph, 1903

Built as number 3440 in 1903 at the Great Western Railway's Swindon Works, 'City of Truro' was one of a batch of ten 'City' class express passenger locomotives. On May 9 1904, whilst hauling the 'Ocean Mails' special from Plymouth to London Paddington, 'City of Truro' was timed at 8.8 seconds between two quarter-mile posts along the railway. This corresponds to a time of 102.3mph, making 'City of Truro' the first steam locomotive to travel at 100mph. For the GWR'S safety record, the speed record was kept quiet at first, only the overall time of the run from Plymouth to London was given, however two Plymouth newspapers somehow found out and published the news, saying the train had reached a speed of between 99 and 100 mph, based on the stopwatch timings of a postal worker on the train using his own stopwatch.

Although the record was made public, and admitted by the timekeeper in 1905 (but he kept the railway company and locomotive secret, but did admit it was 'City of Truro' in 1908), it wasn't made official by the Great Western Railway until 1922, and from then onwards this famous feat was a well used piece of publicity by the GWR. When the record was set, neither car nor aeroplane (not surprising bearing in mind the official first controlled powered heavier than air flight was made seven months after City of Truro's run) had reached that speed, so City of Truro was the first man made object to travel at 100mph under it's own power.

Owing to it's place in history, 'City of Truro' was preserved, and although it spent the vast majority of it's life in preservation in the colours it wore during the 100mph run including gold lining and red frames, in 2010 'City of Truro' was repainted into the livery it wore from 1912 onwards, which in it's current condition 'City of Truro' most closely resembles, with black frames, and it is in it's 1912 condition that it is seen in these images

Napier 6 cyl. Motor Car (Lambert & Butler Motors, 1 of 25)

 

This is 1 of 25 in Lambert & Butler's Motors series of Cigarette Cards, issued in 1908. It shows a Napier used for famous motorist SF Edge's 24 hour record in 1907. From the back of the card;

"Our picture shows Mr Edge on his 6 cylinder Napier during the performance of the historic 24 hours' run - a feat which still remains unchallenged. Maintaining an average hourly speed of over 65 miles, he covered over 1500 miles in 24 hours. Two other 6 cylinder Napiers, with relays of drivers, kept him company"

Mors 10hp Motor Car, 1901

Mors was an early French car manufacturer, and was heavily involved in early motor racing. This 1901 built Mors 10hp, four cylinder example with wooden tonneau bodywork sports the registration '1 RAC', and as the registration suggests, is owned by the Royal Automobile Club. Photographed at the 2007 London to Brighton Veteran Car Run Concourse Event on Regent Street, London

Motor Narrowboat 'Peacock', 1915

The Canals were still a common method of transporting goods around the country, mainly in the midlands area where the terrain was best suited to the waterways. In the late Victorian and Edwardian era, steam and then motor propulsion started to be adopted for canal boats. Previously, horse haulage was used, but this was slow, and a powered narrowboat was not only faster, but could tow, or have slung alongside it (in which case the unpowered boat would be called a 'butty' boat), additional narrowboats. This is a typical motor narrowboat, 'Peacock', built in 1915 for Fellows Morton & Clayton, easily the most well known narrowboat company. The two photographs were both taken with my 1913 model Kodak No 2 Autographic camera

Watch 'The Dog Outwits the Kidnapper', 1908

Thanks to the British Film Institute, a sizeable number of early films are available to watch for free on youtube - this is one of them, 'The Dog Outwits the Kidnapper', released in 1908 and following on the heels of international blockbuster 'Rescued by Rover' of 1905, made by Cecil Hepworth and featuring the Hepworth family dog Blair rescuing a baby from an evil woman. It was so succesful two remakes had to be made as the original films wore out. This is a sequel to 'Rescued by Rover', with Blair again taking up the role of the hero

Early Motorcycles

This line up of very early Motorcycles (I can't say for definite but i'd be surprised if any of the motorcycles in this line up were built anytime after 1905) is at the National Motorcycle Museum, Birmingham, which has an enormous collection of motorcycles, and the Edwardian era is represented very well

Pratt's Perfection Spirit