October 2022

Lister Diesel Autotruck

For October’s Object of the Month we take a look at a road vehicle in the collection that we affectionately refer to as the ‘Yellow Peril’. The Lister Autotruck is a small three wheeled truck was used at Swindon Works to move equipment from one workshop to another. It would often be seen carrying items such as tins of paint from the Paint Stores to the large locomotive Erecting Shops.  The driver would also have kept tools in the small cupboard and used the vice on the back of the truck to carry out simple repair jobs around the site.

A. Lister and Company from Dursley in Gloucestershire made these trucks from the 1920’s and supplied them to factories and workshops around the country. They were built to be simple, lightweight vehicles and had had a single front wheel that was used for both drive and steering. The Autotrucks were ideally suited to whizzing around large sites like Swindon Works.  The driver had to be careful however, if they went too fast around a corner or across slopes they could topple over.

The Lister Autotruck is on display in the museum entrance area.