Express Dairy Helecs Milk Float RLW 610

This milk truck may look extraordinary today but, in London and much of the south of England, the 'Rider Pram' once reigned supreme in its field. Express Dairy at one time ran well over 2000 battery-electric trucks in the London area. T H Lewis, owned by Express Dairy, constructed a huge number of them, assisted by other manufacturers.

The exceptionally small wheels help to give a low deck height and improve turning in confined streets and courtyards. The cab and body are made of aluminium. Express didn't consider busy roundsmen had time to sit down between stops so the trucks can be driven while standing or sitting, neither comfortably! RLW 610 belongs to a contract for 168 placed with Ross Auto & Engineering which all carried Helecs Vehicles chassis plates.

RLW 610 was sold in the mid-1960s to the Bournemouth & Parkstone Co-operative Society. It was resold in March 1978 to a Bournemouth private dairyman. Mr Eric Read had just the one truck for his delivery round under the name Muscliffe Farm Dairy. He sold the business to Unigate Dairies in July 1990.

Preservation

Mr Read sold RLW 610 for preservation to Richard Pryor in 1983 and it passed to this museum in May 1988. Restoration was completed in 1991. Removable boards featured on the roofs of Express Dairy milk trucks for many years. Looking rather like bus destinations, they simply identified where the truck was based. We are not certain where RLW 610 lived but Cockfosters is a candidate.