This is a really cool video, especially for you fans of heavy hauling and big trucks. We’re going to watch a massive steam locomotive and its tender gate hauled from the rails straight into a museum through the streets of London in 1961. The trucks are Scammel Junior Constructor models, the company is Pickford’s and this whole thing rules as hard as you think it does.
In specifics this video tells the story of moving Great Western steam locomotive 4073 “Caerphilly Castle” from Park Royal, Swindon to Kensington Science Museum. The Swindon rail yards were the scene of some awesome stuff over the years. Arguably the finest steam engines in the world were built and serviced there for many decades. Thousands and thousands of British laborers and craftsmen called Swindon home for their work through the steam age.
Scammel trucks are some of our personal favorites out here. They made lots of neat stuff but the heavy duty Constructors and Junior Constructors stand out. The rigs used here are Scammel Junior Constructors and they’re powered by interesting Leyland 680 engines. These are lay down inline six engines. Think a slant six but completely on its side. They made 150hp but the torque was immense. Backed by a six speed transmission, they were more than capable of dragging this behemoth through the streets of London.
We love the trailer with “rear steer” which consists of a couple guys standing on the tail of the trailer with what looks to be a ship’s wheel and while we’re not sure how much angle they could get out of those rear axles, the ratio of busting ass vs turning seems pretty bad.
Pickfords is one of the oldest companies in England having been started in the 1700s and still existing today. Obviously there have been ownership and other changes but they are still in the business of moving stuff. Pretty awesome.
Watching them winch this thing into the museum is the payoff and it’s all fantastic. Well done Brits!
