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The Karrier Colt.
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Three-wheeler vans and pickup trucks were not unusual sights in many towns and cities across the UK in the 1930s, produced by manufacturers such as James, Reliant, and Raleigh. What follows is an advertisement from a rival to these three, namely the Karrier Colt, a design from the drawing boards of Karrier Motors Limited, of Luton in Bedfordshire, and various benefits of its design are referred to. These include its 2.5 ton payload capacity, a tight turning radius of a mere 9ft, 12v lighting, and a "roomy two-seater coachbuilt cab". Perfect for narrow streets and cluttered inner-city locations, then and now. Technically, I suppose it may not be a three-wheeler as it appears that twin wheels are fitted to either side of the Colt's rear axle, but it follows the standard plan layout of a three-wheeled vehicle.
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1937 trade advertisement for the Colt.
The Karrier Colt featured in the ad is liveried up for a company called the Yorkshire Copper Works Limited of Leeds. The ad itself was published in a trade magazine early in 1937, which explains the call to sign up further sales agencies across the UK due to "several territories" being still available.
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The Colt's compact dimensions were ideally suited to a range of roles where compact dimensions, and a useful payload capacity, were required. In addition to being bodied as dropside trucks, as is the case above, others were bodied as delivery vans, refuse trucks, articulated flatbeds and no doubt many more variations to the theme. The railway companies were key customers for the Colt and the similar Cob. While they were relatively slow, and weatherproofing for the driver and mate - depending on the construction of the cab - wasn't always all that it could be, they proved to be dependable machines, and no doubt simpler to maintain than the horse and cart that may well have been shown the door, literally, once a company learnt of the Karrier and similar machines going on sale, in the 1920s and 1930s. The march of mechanization was well and truly under way by then.
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Do any survive? Or did tough working lives, added to by the punishment dished out by the Axis powers during WW2, followed by the hardships of life following the war, drive them all off the road and into the clutches of the grim-faced, torch-wielding, scrap metal men? I don't recall ever seeing one, but there must surely be at least one out there in preservation, somewhere?
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