History Crewe Works

1 history

1.1 grand junction railway
1.2 london , north western railway
1.3 london midland , scottish railway
1.4 british railways
1.5 privatisation
1.6 today

history
grand junction railway

the first locomotive built @ crewe went service in 1843. 1846 demand space such wagon building moved, first edge hill , manchester, new works @ earlestown. 1848 works employed on 1,000 producing 1 locomotive week.

london , north western railway

in 1845 liverpool , manchester railway merged grand junction. these, in turn, merged in 1846, london , birmingham railway , manchester , birmingham railway form london , north western railway (lnwr). 4 had own workshops but, in time, locomotive building concentrated @ crewe.

in 1857 john ramsbottom became locomotive superintendent. had invented first reliable safety valve , scoop picking water troughs between tracks. went on improve precision , interchangeability of tools , components.

in 1862 locomotive work transferred wolverton. wolverton became carriage works, while wagon building concentrated @ earlestown.

in 1853 crewe had begun make own wrought iron , roll own rails, , in 1864 installed bessemer converter manufacturing steel. in 1868 became first place use open-hearth furnaces on industrial scale. built own brickworks. later works fitted 2 electric arc furnaces.

production increased steadily and, sale lancashire , yorkshire railway of ten 2-4-0 , eighty 6 0-6-0 locomotives, privately owned manufacturers took out injunction in 1876 restrain railway producing own needs. (this remained in force until brel created in 1969.)

london midland , scottish railway

rebuilt royal scot class no. 46123 royal irish fusilers receiving attention @ crewe works other locomotives

when lnwr became part of london, midland , scottish railway (lms) in 1923 passenger trains eclipsed of former midland railway, offered light, fast , frequent services. traffic density increased there need longer trains , more powerful locomotives haul them. in 1932, william stanier became chief mechanical engineer , set out rationalise production. since crewe had experience heavier locomotives , had own steel making facilities, chose main production location.

there followed princesses , duchesses, along jubilees , black fives . crewe produced new boilers lms, , heavy drop stampings , forgings. produced of heavy steel components track , other structures.

during world war ii, crewe produced on 150 covenanter tanks army.

stanier 8f 2-8-0 on crewe works internal railway in 1948


british railways

bowen-cooke class g2a 0-8-0

no. 48932, built @ crewe in 1902 webb class b four-cylinder loco, later rebuilt two-cylinder status. buxton shed august 1960.

after british railways (br) formed in 1948, robert riddles introduced br standard classes, , crewe built britannia , clan passenger engines , of class 9 2-10-0 freight locomotives. @ end of steam, had built on 7000 locomotives in long career. 1957 built succession of diesel locomotives including class 43 high speed train power cars , on 200 class 47 locomotives.

privatisation

much of site @ crewe cleared in major redevelopment in mid 1980s.

crewe works became part of british rail engineering ltd. when former br workshops set separate business in 1969 , privatised in 1989. company sold asea brown-boveri, merged daimler benz in 1996 form adtranz. adtranz taken on canadian engineering company bombardier in 2001.

today

at height, crewe works employed on 20,000 people; in 2005 fewer 1,000 remained on site, further 270 redundancies announced in november of year, , more cutbacks or closure possible. current work largely focused on general maintenance, , inspection of damaged stock. of site once occupied works has been sold off , occupied supermarket, leisure park, , large new health centre.