Collections Online

Single cylinder piston valve steam road roller, builder’s Type T, unnamed, built by Vickers-Armstrong Ltd, Newcastle under contract to Aveling-Barford Ltd, Grantham, 1948, builder’s no. AH 412, vehicle registration number ECT 352. Used from 1948 to around 1970 by Rhondda Urban District Council. When the machine was restored by the Museum in 1980, the name and arms of Rhondda Borough Council were applied, though that local authority did not come into being until 1974, after the machine had ceased work.

Although the steam-roller has been replaced by the diesel roller for many years, such vehicles are still invariably referred to as 'steam-rollers'. This roller, ostensibly made by Aveling Barford of Grantham in 1948, was actually built under contract by Vickers-Armstrong at Newcastle. Believed to have been purchased new by the Rhondda Urban District Council, it spent the rest of its working life in the Rhondda Valleys. It was one of the last batch to be manufactured in this country, the majority were sent to India, some to Thailand, and others to Indonesia where timber fuel could still be cut at the roadside. This particular model is unusual in that it has hollow front and rear rolls which were filled with water, if necessary, to provide additional ballast. The roller was given a major overhaul in the Museum Workshop in 1980 and was restored to its original Rhondda livery. Appropriately it made its public debut at Porth. (Source: Welsh Industrial & Maritime Museum Guidebook, 1984).