 Vulcan Foundry worksplate | |
| Company type | Ltd |
|---|---|
| Industry | Engineering |
| Predecessor | Charles Tayleur and Company |
| Founded | 1832 |
| Defunct | 1962 |
| Fate | Taken over |
| Successor | English Electric |
| Headquarters | Newton-le-Willows,Merseyside |
| Products | Railway locomotives and engines |
The Vulcan Foundry Limited was an English locomotive builder sited atNewton-le-Willows,Lancashire (nowMerseyside).
The Vulcan Foundry opened in 1832, asCharles Tayleur and Company to producegirders for bridges, switches, crossings and other ironwork following the opening of theLiverpool and Manchester Railway. Due to the distance from the locomotive works inNewcastle-upon-Tyne, it seemed preferable to build and support them locally.[1] In 1832,Robert Stephenson became a partner for a few years. The company had becomeThe Vulcan Foundry Company in 1847 and acquired limited liability in 1864. From the beginning of 1898, the name changed again toThe Vulcan Foundry Limited, dropping the word 'company.'
The site had its own railway station, Vulcan Halt, on the formerWarrington and Newton Railway line fromEarlestown toWarrington Bank Quay.[2] The wooden-platformed halt[3] was opened on 1 November 1916[4] by theLondon and North Western Railway, and closed on 12 June 1965.[5]
Details of the earliest locomotives are not precisely known despite an "official" list apparently concocted in the 1890s which contains a lot of guesswork and invention, with many quite fictitious locomotives, for the period before 1845. This list claims that the first two locomotives were0-4-0Tayleur andStephenson built in 1833 for "Mr Hargreaves, Bolton", but this seems unlikely.[6][7] The earliest authenticated products were0-4-0Titan andOrion, similar to Stephenson's design, and delivered in September and October 1834 to theLiverpool & Manchester Railway. Other early orders came from theLeicester and Swannington Railway and there were also some4-2-0s for America which were among the first British 'bogie' locomotives.
From 1835 the company was selling to Belgium, France, and in 1836 to Austria and Russia, the beginnings of an export trade which was maintained throughout the life of the company. The company's locomotives had a strong Stephenson influence, many during the following decade being of the"long boiler" design. In 1852 the first locomotives ever to run in India were supplied to theGreat Indian Peninsula Railway.
A number ofFairlie locomotives were built, includingTaliesin for theFfestiniog Railway,Mountaineer for theDenver & Rio Grande Railway, andJosephine one of theNZR E class (1872). During 1870 the company suppliedthe first locomotive to run inJapan, and a flangeless0-4-0T for a steelworks inTredegar which was still using angle rails. A number ofMatthew Kirtley's double-framed goods engines were also produced for theMidland Railway. In c.1911, following a report by the Locomotive Committee on Standard Locomotives for Indian Railways which was published in 1910, North-Western Railway, a regional railway at that time operated by the Indian State Railway, ordered eleven broad gauge locomotives, measuring 5 feet 6 inches between the rails, favoured because it allowed the engineers designing the locomotives to build larger fireboxes and boilers, enabling the engines to pull longer and heavier loads.[8]
The healthy export trade continued, particularly to India andSouth America, and continued afterWorld War I.
Following the formation of theLondon, Midland and Scottish Railway in 1923 some very large orders were received, including over a hundredLMS Fowler Class 3F 0-6-0T engines and seventy-fiveLMS Compound 4-4-0 locomotives.
The most notable design manufactured for an overseas railway during this period was the large4-8-4 built for the Chinese National Railways in 1934–35. These fine locomotives were equipped with a mechanical stoker and six of them were fitted with booster engines on the tender, providing an extra 7,670 lb (3,480 kg) tractive effort. Of the 24 exported, one returned to the UK and is preserved at theNational Railway Museum inYork.[9]
Through the 1930s the company survived the trade recessions with the aid of more orders from India, some fromTanganyika andArgentina, and a large order in 1934 from the LMS for4-6-0"Black Fives" and2-8-0 Stanier-designed locomotives.
During 1953-54 the company built sixtyJ class 2-8-0 locomotives for theVictorian Railways in Australia.
From 1939 the works was mostly concerned with the war effort, becoming involved in the development and production of theMatilda II tank. From 1943 large orders were received from theMinistry of Supply for locomotives, 390Austerity 2-8-0s and fiftyAusterity 0-6-0 saddle tanks.
In 1944 the Vulcan Foundry acquiredRobert Stephenson and Hawthorns and in 1945 received an order for 120"Liberation" 2-8-0 locomotives for theUnited Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration in Europe.
The war had left India's railways in a parlous state and in 1947, with foreign aid, embarked on a massive rebuilding plan. The Vulcan Foundry benefited from orders forXE,XD, andYD 2-8-2s; and tenWG 2-8-2s sub-contracted from theNorth British Locomotive Company, but the writing was on the wall for all British manufacturers. Not only was the competition fierce from other countries, but India had developed the ability to build its own locomotives.
The company had experience of bothdiesel andelectric locomotives, having built thirty-one so-called"Crocodile" 2600 hp 1,500 V DC electric freight locomotives in 1929 forIndia.[10] These were classified as EF/1 which afterIndian independence became theWCG-1 class.[11][12] India'sNational Rail Museum, New Delhi exhibits an WCG-1 locomotive from the Vulcan foundry. They also helped in supply of theWCM-1 andWCM-2 class.[13]
In 1931, the company supplied the firstexperimental diesel shunter to theLondon, Midland and Scottish Railway. In 1936,Vulcan, a diesel-mechanical0-6-0 shunter with aVulcan-Frichs 6-cylinder 275 hp (205 kW) diesel engine was loaned to the LMS, and was then used by theWar Department, which numbered it 75 (later 70075). Following the end ofWorld War II, it found industrial use inYugoslavia.
In 1938, tendiesel railcars were ordered byNew Zealand Railways, theNZR RM class (Vulcan). They were supplied in 1940, although one was lost at sea to enemy action. In 1948, it supplied 10 Class 15 Diesel Electric shunters toMalayan Railways, as well as twenty Class 20 Diesel Electric locomotives for the same company nine years later.
The works has produced many locomotives for both domestic and foreign railways. It was a major supplier of diesel-electrics toBritish Railways notably theClass 55Deltic. The works also developed a prototypegas turbine locomotive, theBritish Rail GT3. Other classes of diesel locomotives to be built for British Railways at the Vulcan Foundry included:Class 20,Class 37,Class 40 andClass 50. Electric locomotives were also built for British Rail by Vulcan Foundry, which included manyClass 86s in 1965 and 1966.
In the mid-1950s, negotiations began to sell the company.[14][15][16] In 1957, the purchase was finalised and the business became part of theEnglish Electric group.
Although the works still produced diesel engines under nameRuston Paxman Diesels Limited, which had been moved fromLincoln, locomotive manufacturing finished in 1970.[17] Output was mainly for marine and stationary applications, but the company was the supplier of choice forBritish Rail Engineering Limited for locomotives built atDoncaster andCrewe.
The factory passed through various hands asEnglish Electric was bought byGEC, which in turn became GEC Alsthom (later renamedAlstom) and finally as part ofMAN Diesel in 2000. At the end of 2002, the works closed. It was then an industrial estate, appropriately called "Vulcan Industrial Estate". The site is just north of Winwick Junction, where the line to Newton-le-Willows branches off to the west from theWest Coast Main Line. All the former factory buildings on the site were demolished in October 2007 however, the workers cottages, known as "Vulcan Village", still survive at the southern corner of the site. By early 2010, work had started on the construction of 630 homes on the levelled site by the developerSt Modwen.[18]
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53°26′32″N2°37′32″W / 53.442203°N 2.625452°W /53.442203; -2.625452
