Once upon a time in London

Some of Midland Railway’s electric lorries could have been supplied by the Edison Electric Accumulator Company Limited, which marketed the American made GMC and Detroit brands in Britain but neither looked exactly like these. Edison vehicles supplied in the UK were usually stated to be made by the company but evidently some Edison accumulator powered buses were built in the UK, for example by Brush, photos of which have this same full-width, rounded front bodywork, with two flush lights. Middlesex Council’s 1914 Edison refuse-carts were British made with American batteries, there being several manufacturers of electric vehicles that could be specified to use Edison batteries rather than lead-acid. Heavy 12-spoke wooden wheels could indicate American origins; British commercial chassis mostly had cast wheels by WWI.

The first Edison commercial van was displayed by his Storage Battery Company of Great Portland-street, London in 1912. Lord Montague of Beaulieu opened new showrooms in Duke-street, London in November 1913 when he enthused about the low running cost of its commercial vehicles, citing a quarter penny per ton-mile costs using electricity at half a penny per unit. Their batteries were Nickel-Iron (“NIFE”) cells; still low power density but lighter, very rugged, long-lasting and acid-free.

At St Pancras, Midland Railway was already using American Buckwalter Electric platform trucks with Edison accumulators in April 1914, so had charging plant in place by then. Edison heavily promoted the advantages of electric town vehicles during WWI when petrol was restricted by DORA, a time when some councils were forced to purchase electric vans to replace horses commandeered by the War Office. Midland Railway was one of the larger electric vehicle users (84 in 1917, 76 in 1919) with Harrods (47 in 1915, 76 in 1917), Lyons, Liberty, Co-op, Fuller Dye and many others in London operating hundreds of electrics from half to six tonners. Not all used Edison batteries.

One very large commercial vehicle commissioned in London to use Edison accumulators was a van built by Messrs. C. Adey and Son, van builders of Vine-court, Whitechapel, for the Johnny Walker whisky company, in September 1915. It was over 18-feet long/6-feet wide/7-feet high with the Johnny Walker figure emblazoned on the sides and it had 60 cells in a box under the driver’s seat, said to give it a surely exaggerated 70 miles range. Its chassis was described as “fitted with Edison’s latest electrical machinery”, so it could all have been imported.

Edison lorries usually fitted with a 60-cell battery advertised a 12 mph/30-40 mile range. In 1915, a £695, 30 cwt “Edison-built” lorry of Edinburgh council travelled 40 miles on a full charge with a maximum speed of 11mph on the flat but made barely 5mph on hills. By 1918, a standard 3.5-ton Edison lorry fitted with 60 A10 type cells, which alone weighed 2250lbs, was capable of going no more than 35 miles. By fitting 110 cells, range went up to 60 miles at the cost of reinforced battery pack weighing 4950 lbs.

Very simple, if you grew up in England!! T.C.Q is Tons ,Hundredweights, Quarters, a ton is obvious 2240 pounds (lbs), a hundredweight ( cwt) was 112 lbs and a quarter was 26 pounds.

The weights are, I would guess, Front Axle Weight, Rear Axle Weight and Unladen Weight, the display of the name of the Company Secretary was a legal requirement at the time, up to the 60s I would guess.

If you think this is complicated, our school exercise books had the entire rear cover as a chart of "avoirdupois", weight, volume, length and area including such gems as Rods, Poles or Perches, Chains ( still used on railways today, if you look on a structure you will find a C.I. plaque giving the number and distance from the terminus), Gills, Pints,Quarts, and Gallons ( British "long" Gallons of course ) Furlongs, etc. I would struggle to work it all out, but I always worked in engineering-oriented jobs so we went metric in 1972, so much simpler than trying to work out a seventh of 7ft11 13/16 inches in your head! Brexiteers are welcome to it!!

T.C.Q. = Tons – CWT (Hundredweight) - Quarters
F.A.W. Front Axle Weight
B.A.W. Back Axle Weight
U.W. Unladen Weight

The ‘U W’ stands for unladen weight, that is the weight of the vehicle without cargo. The ‘T, C, Q’ are abbreviations for ‘Ton’, ‘Hundredweight’ and ‘Quarter’ - standard measurements at the time. The other letters relate to the ‘Allowed’ weight of the cargo carried, and the total weight of vehicle and cargo.