Hunslet Reach Trucks

Over forty years ago, in October 1962, BBC’s Tomorrow’s World demonstrated a reach truck made by Irion of Germany.
The concept of an electric side-loading vehicle was developed in the early 1950s when the country was rebuilding after World War II.
Impressed by what he had seen in Germany, a high-ranking Army official returned home with the first of these trucks to be brought into Britain.
A Leeds engineering company, Hunslet Holdings Ltd, who had been manufacturing steam locomotives since the early 1800s, imported the first trucks and reached agreement to manufacture them under licence to Irion.
Hunslet used their expertise to develop, modify and improve the truck, resulting in its lifting capacity increasing to 2 tons, and then later 3 tons, the two models that are still in use today.