10: De steam wagons.

The steamwaggons ot steam lorries we will highlight now were developed in the first quarter of the last century.
Steamwaggons were designed to transport freight without hanging a separate cart behind as traction engine.
Two main types can be identified, the overtype and undertype steamwaggon.
The overtype waggon has a horizontal boiler with the steamengine and driving gear on top of it like a traction engine
The undertype of waggon has several variants. Characteristic is that the boiler is separate from the steamengine and gear. In most designs the steamengine is under the waggon. In the oldest designs the rearwheels are driven by a chain from the steamengine and gear. Later designs have cardanshaft to the rearwheels.
As you see these steamwaggons or steamlorries as they were also named, look very much alike the diesel driven lorries; there developments have strong parallel lines.
The first trials were already made in 1901. Many firms who built steamengines have made experimental models of steam waggons; only a few were useful and a commercial success.
Examples of successful undertype waggons were eg Foden, Fowler, Garrett and Thorneycroft.
The wellknown firm Sentinel in Shrewsbury has always built undertype waggons and was the largest company manufacturing them.
The first waggons were built by them in 1906; it was in the forties that they stopped with the production. They have always followed the same basic design: a vertical boiler and the steamengine under the chassis.
The operation of the waggon, firing and steering was done in a front cabin, which has good view on the road, like a normal freightlorry.
Some special designs of Sentinel are a 2 cylinder doubleworking engine and a 4 cylinder steamengine with a propellor shaft to the rearwheels.
Nowadays you can see on steamrallies many steamwaggons; they were manufactured in large quantities and many have survived the scrapyard. In most cases the overtype design, but with a little bit of luck you can also find undertype designs.