This very British Atkinson is seen here coupled to a four-wheeled trailer which when fully loaded would give the whole outfit a gross weight of 32 tons. As such the law at the time required a trailer mate whose main function besides helping the driver with loading and unloading was to operate the trailer brake from his side of the cab via a huge mechanically operated hand-brake, the idea being to anticipate the driver braking by applying the trailer brake a spilt second before to prevent a jack-knife.

It all sounds a little hit and miss by today’s standards but it worked when road-speeds rarely exceeded 30 mph unless the driver used “Aberdeen overdrive” on downgrades!