When in 1986 the company was bought by Dempster and became known as Shelvoke Dempster, front loaders joined the company's range of vehicles. Also vehicles with three axles produced under the Routechief name were produced. These had all steel bodies as the need to reduce gross vehicle weight was no longer seen as a priority. Shelvoke Dempster Front Loader Above all it was for their standards of engineering excellence that S&D contributed to advances in the design and operation of refuse collection vehicles. The extraordinary success of the Freighter, which remained in production for 30 years, established a company that although not producing the cheapest vehicles, was regarded by many as "the best." Brian Carpenter, 1st October 2004 I would like to sincerely thank Brian Carpenter for contributing this informative and well illustrated article. I encourage all to visit his outstanding website, The Unofficial Shelvoke & Drewry Site, which contains far more information about SD than I could ever show here at CRT. I also recommend you see the BOOKS section for titles pertaining to SD and British refuse collection vehicles. Text & Photos by Brian Carpenter 10/1/04 © 2004 Eric Voytko All Rights Reserved Photos from factory brochures/advertisements except as noted Logos shown are the trademarks of respective manufacturers