Neilson and Company

Restored Neilson 0-6-0 engine, used in Finland from 1869 well into the 1920s, preserved at the Finnish Railway Museum

Neilson & Co worksplate, on same locomotive

The cab interior

Neilson and Company was a locomotive manufacturer in Glasgow, Scotland.

The company was started in 1836 at McAlpine Street by Walter Neilson and James Mitchell to manufacture marine and stationary engines. In 1837 the firm moved to Hyde Park Street and was known as Kerr, Mitchell and Neilson and, in 1840, Kerr, Neilson and Company, becoming Neilson and Mitchell in 1845.

Locomotive building began in 1843 for the local railways. In 1855 production of marine and stationary engines discontinued and the company changed its name again to Neilson and Company. Among those who later became notable in the field were Henry Dübs and Patrick Stirling.

By 1861, business had increased to such an extent, that a new works was built at Springburn, also named "Hyde Park Works." In 1864, Henry Dübs set up in business on his own at Queens Park Works, as Dübs and Company, taking a number of key staff with him. James Reid, who had previously worked for Neilson, however, returned and became a partner.

Locomotives

By 1855, the company was building four-coupled tank engines, along with 2-4-0 and 0-4-2 tender locos. Some of these were for Cowlairs and St. Rollox, but many more went to India.

Through the 1870s considerable numbers of 0-4-4 tank engines were built for the London, Chatham and Dover Railway, the Midland and the Great Eastern. Many other types were built for railways at home and abroad, including fifty 0-4-2s for India. The company's first eight-coupled locos were built in 1872, also for India.

In 1879 the first 2-6-0s to run on British rails were built for William Adams of the Great Eastern. One of these was named "Mogul" and this became the name applied to all locomotives of this wheel arrangement. (However, the name had already been employed in the USA about ten years earlier.)

More overseas orders followed, with engines for South Africa and South America.

Turn of the century

In 1884, Neilson left to form a new company, the Clyde Locomotive Company; although Reid became the sole owner of Neilson & Co., it was not until 1898 that the company changed its name to Neilson, Reid and Company.

However, by this time, intense competition from America meant that small companies were unable to survive. There was a need for amalgamation, and in 1903 Neilson Reid combined with Dübs and Company and Sharp Stewart and Company to form the North British Locomotive Company, the largest locomotive company in the world, outside of the United States^{[citation needed]}.

Preserved Neilson engines

Finland

• Finnish Railway Museum at Hyvinkaa 0-6-0 No 1427 of 1869 (oldest known surviving Neilson locomotive)

New Zealand

• Ferrymead Railway – "Peveril" No. 1692 of 1872 (F13)
• Helensville Railway Station – No. 2563 of 1880 (D170)
• Kaitaia Township – No. 2565 of 1880 (D221)
• Ocean Beach Railway – No. 2564 of 1880 (D6)
• Pleasant Point Railway – No. 2306 of 1878 (D16)
• Silverstream Railway – No. 1847 of 1874 (D143)
• Bush Tramway Club – No. 3751 of 1888 (F216)

It is interesting to note that Neilson and Company supplied the first (F13 of 1872) and last (F216 of 1888) members of the 88-strong New Zealand Railways F class. 6 builders supplied F class engines between the arrivals of F13 and F216.

United Kingdom

• North Woolwich Old Station Museum – 0-4-0ST No. 2119 of 1876
• Scottish Railway Preservation Society, Bo'ness – 0-4-0ST No. 2203 of 1876
• Chasewater Railway, Brownhills, Staffordshire – 0-4-0ST No. 2937 of 1882

In fiction

A character in The Railway Series by the Rev. W. Awdry is based on a Neilson prototype. Neil is a 'box tank' locomotive, who worked on the Sodor & Mainland Railway between 1853 and 1901.

References

• Lowe, J.W., (1989) British Steam Locomotive Builders, Guild Publishing

See also

• Finnish Railway Museum
• Category:Neilson locomotives

External links

• Finnish Railway Museum
• Steam Locomotives in Finland Including the Finnish Railway Museum