Museum of Science and Industry

A Bolton father and son are set for a drive down memory lane as the vintage power truck they helped save from the scrapheap makes her final journey into posterity.

Harry and Graham Davies, from Wardley, will deliver the spotless vintage lorry – once at the cutting edge of the region’s power industry – to Manchester's MOSI (Museum of Science & Industry) where United Utilities have donated her to go on display for future generations.

For almost 30 years the 1963 AEC generator lorry helped keep communities from Cumbria to Manchester topped up with electricity during power failures. But with a gallon-a-minute fuel habit, the truck became too expensive to run and in the early 1990s was retired from service.

Fortunately, sentimental staff at United Utilities' Bolton depot kept the grand old lady maintained and in tiptop shape until she can now finally move out of obscurity and back into the limelight as she travels from her current home at a storage depot in Carlisle into central Manchester.

Harry and Graham were both responsible for maintaining the region’s fleet of electricity vehicles at different times during their careers. It was Harry, now retired, who took delivery of the truck in 1965 and helped keep her on the road for three decades. Later son Graham, an apprentice mechanic at the time, was among those who kept her from rusting away in retirement. Eventually she was moved to Carlisle for safe keeping under cover.

Said Graham, now fleet manager for United Utilities’ electricity business, based at Walkden: “She looks immaculate in all her livery. We’ve kept her MOT up to date and she has been a bit of a star at local shows where she has won best in class in the veteran vehicles category a few times. I'll be the one who is driving. She can manage a top speed of 65mph but is a bit heavy to handle. In her heyday she was one of the fastest vehicles on the road but today’s standards the driving experience is pretty horrible,” he said.

Built specially for the then North Western Electricity Board, the truck was one of only a handful in the UK to be equipped with a powerful Centrax generator capable of delivering 400kVa of energy. It came to the rescue in emergencies at service substations or companies where the power supply had failed. Harry even spent New Year in the truck on one occasion when two feeder cables at the Shotton plant of British Steel were found to be faulty. Another time, the truck rescued the power supply to operate pumps at a drift mine in Yorkshire, where floods were causing chaos.

Weighing 12.5 tonnes, its aeroplane-style gas turbine guzzled more than a gallon of fuel every minute and had to be accompanied everywhere by its own oil tanker.

By the early 1990s the generator was too costly and the truck retired from service. However thanks to the care of sentimental staff it was never scrapped.

Harry said: “This piece of kit was the pride and joy of our network and we certainly got a few envious looks from other network operators at the time. There had been mobile generators before but nothing of this capacity. When it started it sounded like a jet engine.”

Pauline Webb, Collections Manager at MOSI said: “This mobile generator is truly an interesting piece of equipment for the North West and I’m delighted that visitors to the Museum will be able to learn about its story. It prevented countless blackouts and potential catastrophes across our region and was once one of the most cutting edge pieces of equipment of its type in Britain.”

Chris Wright, Chief Operating Officer for United Utilities’ electricity business: “We are very glad to be making this donation – the generator was a key part of the electricity network’s history and we’re very pleased it will now be used for educational purposes at the Museum.”

MOSI’s 15 permanent galleries tell the story of North West science and industry, including gas and electricity. The mobile generator will be kept in the Museum’s offsite store until a suitable display area has been prepared.

Ends/

For more information please call Helen Wilson at United Utilities on 01925 237088 or Diane Inglis at MOSI on 0161 606 0173 or Sarah Roe at MOSI on 0161 606 0176 m: 07847 372647.

www.mosi.org.uk

Note to editors

• United Utilities operates and maintains the North West electricity network on the behalf of Electricity North West Limited .

Back to news