Alan Barnes turns his camera on John Forshaw’s six-ton Foden steam wagon,
No 13764 of 1930, which could have been the last
Foden steamer to have worked commercially.
Foden steam wagon No 13764 of 1930, near the cattle market in Great Knolly's Street, Reading in the spring of 1961 with Fred Thompson driving. Fred was then 'over 70-years-old'!
There’s no doubting the engineering skills of John Forshaw who has, over the years, built not only scale model traction engines but also narrow gauge steam engines, a railway line in his back garden and has found time to restore one or two full-size traction engines. However, the story of his Foden steam wagon, which I found him tinkering with one fine August morning at his Bedfordshire home, is not so much one of restoration as preservation.
Foden No 13764 was built in 1930 for the Manchester-based firm of Riding & Gillow Ltd as a replacement for another of their Fodens, which had been destroyed in a fire. It was used by the company, usually paired with a trailer, to carry bales of cotton to the many mills in the area, and remained with them until they closed in 1935. The Foden was then acquired by the Box Spraying & Grouting Co Ltd of Broadheath in Cheshire, which added a tank on the back and converted the wagon to a tar-sprayer. At this time the wheels were also changed to pneumatics.
The steam wagon remained with the company for several years and there is a note in John’s files from Alan Duke, who confirms that he saw the Foden in Box’s yard in September 1950.
Alan Barnes turns his camera on John Forshaw’s six-ton Foden steam wagon,
No 13764 of 1930, which could have been the last
Foden steamer to have worked commercially.
Some time afterwards, it was sold to the Mechanical Tar Spraying & Grouting Co Ltd, which transferred it to their depot in Reading, where it was to remain in service until the early 1960s. In fact, during its later years, it apparently worked during the week and then appeared at some of the early steam rallies during the weekends.
This wagon may well have been the last Foden steamer to work commercially in the UK and it was certainly out on the road and still in use as a tar-sprayer in 1961, when it was photographed in Newbury. By this time the Foden was more than 30 years old but was a comparative ‘spring chicken’ compared to the driver at that time.
Seen behind the wheel in early 1961, driver Fred Thompson was at that time over 70 and he was again pictured in 1963 using the Foden as a yard shunter to move ‘dead’ rollers around the yard in Reading. Another driver, Bert Kirk, took over from Fred around 1963 and, although in the following years the Foden wasn’t used continually, it remained with the company until they were taken over by Amey Roadstone. Still in good order, it was sold into preservation in 1970 to Philip Preistner.
