Scammell Articulated Six-wheeler

The Scammell Articulated Six-wheeler was the lorry on which Scammell built its early reputation. Percy G. Hugh, the company's chief designer, is credited in the Wikipedia history with conceiving it, and fifty orders were taken for the new design at the 1920 Commercial Motor Show. Because the load was carried on a tractor unit coupled to a semi-trailer, its very low axle weight let it carry a 7.5 tonne payload legally at 12 miles per hour, where heavier rigid lorries were held to 5 miles per hour. Scammell began production of the 7.5 ton vehicle in 1920 and built a new factory at Tolpits Lane, Watford, for it. Its motive unit stayed largely unchanged through the 1920s, and an early and constant customer was Shell-Mex, whose fleet number 1 was one; that work led to Scammell's 1926 patent for the first frameless tanker. The type was later developed into the Lightweight range with the Gardner 6LW engine.