Loco / Rolling Stock Builders Of Distinction!

[RichmondCommu]

G'day everyone,

I thought this might make for an interesting thread. All entries are welcome providing they produced loco's or rolling stock, past and present. All gauges are welcome but of course in reality the majority of products would have been for standard gauge.

My entry is Derby Loco Works which closed in the early 1990's although the bogie division lasted a bit longer. The works could be dated back to the 1830's with the final steam loco being built in 1957 and the last new diesel to leave there in 1967. I've chosen Derby Loco Works for two reasons; my Grandad was transferred there from Horwich in 1940 and my Dad served his apprenticeship there and I lived in Derby for the first 18 years of my life.

From around 1976 until the summer of 1984 on average once a month my friends and I would tag on to the back of official tours round the works. From memory during that time class 25's, Peaks, class 08's, 20's and towards the end HST power cars could be seen under repair. Long after I'd ceased to be a railway enthusiast I attended the very last works open day sometime in the early 1990's. By this time all classified repairs of locos had ceased and in order to find work for the remaining employees shower cubicles were being assembled and Land Rover engines refurbished which felt like such a sad demise. According to the 1982 Shunter Duties book even then the works still required the services of two class 08's.

Very little now remains of the works other than the original roundhouse (the oldest one in the world no less), the clock tower and offices and one or two other buildings.

Any other suggestions? There should be plenty to go at here, some more famous than others! All contributions would be very welcome!

Kind regards,

Richmond Commuter!

 

[Senex]

G'day everyone,

I thought this might make for an interesting thread. All entries are welcome providing they produced loco's or rolling stock, past and present. All gauges are welcome but of course in reality the majority of products would have been for standard gauge.

My entry is Derby Loco Works which closed in the early 1990's although the bogie division lasted a bit longer. The works could be dated back to the 1830's with the final steam loco being built in 1957 and the last new diesel to leave there in 1967. I've chosen Derby Loco Works for two reasons; my Grandad was transferred there from Horwich in 1940 and my Dad served his apprenticeship there and I lived in Derby for the first 18 years of my life.

From around 1976 until the summer of 1984 on average once a month my friends and I would tag on to the back of official tours round the works. From memory during that time class 25's, Peaks, class 08's, 20's and towards the end HST power cars could be seen under repair. Long after I'd ceased to be a railway enthusiast I attended the very last works open day sometime in the early 1990's. By this time all classified repairs of locos had ceased and in order to find work for the remaining employees shower cubicles were being assembled and Land Rover engines refurbished which felt like such a sad demise. According to the 1982 Shunter Duties book even then the works still required the services of two class 08's.

Very little now remains of the works other than the original roundhouse (the oldest one in the world no less), the clock tower and offices and one or two other buildings.

Any other suggestions? There should be plenty to go at here, some more famous than others! All contributions would be very welcome!

Kind regards,

Richmond Commuter!

Certainly a fascinating topic, but does the thread have the right title? I should have understood "Railway Builders of Distinction" as being concerned with the civil engineers and contractors who built the infrastructure, not those who designed and built the rolling stock to run on it.

 

[Joseph_Locke]

Trains are so over-rated.

The real pioneers (after Trevithick) were the Stephensons, Brunel, the Rennies, Greathead and young Paxton.

And myself, of course.

Anyway, this an Infrastructure sub-forum; kindly take your chatter about toy trains elsewhere ...

 

[Philip Phlopp]

It's always a little sad that Thomas Telford never did much with the railways, not his thing I understand, he liked water rather better.

William Henry Barlow interests me a great deal, most famous for the trainshed at St Pancras, but I always feel it's his work on the replacement Tay Bridge which should have made him into a superstar Victorian engineer.

 

[Western Lord]

It's always a little sad that Thomas Telford never did much with the railways, not his thing I understand, he liked water rather better.

William Henry Barlow interests me a great deal, most famous for the trainshed at St Pancras, but I always feel it's his work on the replacement Tay Bridge which should have made him into a superstar Victorian engineer.

As Telford died at the age of 77 in 1834 it is not surprising that he never did much with railways.

 

[krus_aragon]

It's always a little sad that Thomas Telford never did much with the railways, not his thing I understand, he liked water rather better.

Telford also worked on major road projects, such as the London-Holyhead and Chester-Holyhead roads, and of course the Menai Suspension Bridge.

 

[TheEdge]

Swindon.

/thread.

 

[Welshman]

As Telford died at the age of 77 in 1834 it is not surprising that he never did much with railways.

Indeed.

Although you could argue he was indirectly involved.
I gather some of the "navvies" who dug his canals then progressed to building the railways.

 

[RichmondCommu]

Swindon.

/thread.

Going with the GWR theme were loco's / rolling stock built at Wolverhampton?

 

[coppercapped]

Going with the GWR theme were loco's / rolling stock built at Wolverhampton?

Yes. Armstrong was the engineer.

 

[Taunton]

Large numbers of GWR locos were built at Wolverhampton works in the 19th century, it was the principal design centre for standard gauge locos when Swindon was mainly broad gauge, and it had its own chief engineer. Gradually the designs from the two works converged, and the last loco built there was 2-6-2T 45xx No 4519 in 1908. Thereafter it just did heavy repairs.

The works was long hamstrung by a tight location, even the 45xx had to come out of the erecting shop without the trailing wheels which had to be fitted in the yard. There were still a large number of Wolverhampton-built locos around at nationalisation, especially the 0-6-0 tanks, many latterly panniers but Wolverhampton had originally built them as saddle tanks.