Leyland Class H Steam Wagons

Well engineered and reliable, the Class H became the most numerous of the various types of steam wagons built by Leyland and arguably the most successful, although none made it to preservation, says Alan Barnes.

- Alan Barnes

Having to contend with a 3.30 am wake-up call and a 4 am start to his working day, the correspondent for Commercial Motor could perhaps be forgiven if he thought he had drawn the short straw with this particular assignment.

Arrangements had been made for him to spend the working day with one of the Leyland steam wagons operated by H Viney & Co.The wagon would be delivering some 200 cases of Whitbread bottled stout to more than 20 different locations during the course of the day.The vehicle involved was Fleet No 6 – a Leyland H Class wagon and one of a fleet of similar steam wagons operated by the company.

The correspondent’s day out had been arranged in October 1909 and according to available details Fleet No 6 had only recently been added to the H Viney &Co fleet. However there are some additional references to this wagon in the report which are open to question. It is stated that the wagon was bought by the company in 1907, its condition at that time being described as ‘little better than scrap iron’. However the Class H is recorded as being built circa February 1907 and went new to Manchester Motor Transport and was probably only lightly used as this company failed in November 1908. It is likely that the wagon had been out of use for around 12 months by the time it was eventually bought by H Viney & Co in 1909. It does not seem possible that the wagon had ended its MMT days in the derelict condition mentioned by the correspondent.