Interesting BoB photo

[brando]

When I was a kid in London there were still plenty of steam-rollers in evidence, and there were even a few used on the construction of the M1 in the early 60's. The most common type was built by a firm called Aveling & Porter.

Steam propulsion was perhaps more universal than you think. As well as rollers and traction engines there were many hundreds of steam lorries on the roads in the Thirties and Forties. Google "steam lorries" to see just how widespread the network was.

It was in fact the post-war availibility of secondhand army transport that ended the reign of steam on Britain's roads. While the "wrong kind of steam" might be a nit-picker's factor, the presence of Sentinel or Foden steam lorries on the London streets would be entirely correct. All the major railway companies had fleets of them at their London goods termini. They were certainly much more widespread and numerous than petrol or diesel-driven goods vehicles.