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Bill Aldridge traces the progress of the British telephone service through a survey of vehicles it has used, from a 1926 Albion 30cwt lorry transporting engineers’ handcarts to Outreach’s DAF 45 10-ton cable laying unit.

As well as the innovative Mechanical Horses, this survey of the London, Midland and Scotland Railway’s road vehicles from 1923 to 1947 includes buses and coaches, tractors and trailers, livestock transporters, and wartime conversions. Slightly off-mint.

In the 1930s, the London, Midland and Scottish Railway needed to mechanize their delivery service: the solution, the Karrier Motors’ Mechanical Horse, was an important advance in road haulage – the forerunner of the articulated lorry, albeit with three wheels.