Dick, Kerr & Co.

Dick, Kerr and Company was a locomotive and tramcar manufacturer based in Kilmarnock, Scotland and Preston, England.^[1]

Early history

Having previously been known as W.B.Dick and Company the company had built all kinds of tramway equipment and rolling stock. From 1883 the company joined with John Kerr and under its new name, it built around fifty locomotives up to 1919. Until the late 1890s the company had largely produced steam tramway engines^[2], but soon afterwards it became one of the largest manufacturers of electric tramway cars.^[3]

The company facilities in Preston were acquired in 1893 along with the railway and tramway plant activities of Hartley, Arnoux and Fanning who had been bought out by Kerr Stuart and Company.

The First World War

During the First World War the company was converted to a munitions factory. The company also made aircraft, to designs from the Seaplane Experimental Station, Felixstowe, and petrol-electric locomotives for the War Department Light Railways.

To improve morale, some of the women employees of this era formed the nationally renowned ladies football team, Dick, Kerr's Ladies.

From 1904 to 1912, the company supplied tram cars to Hong Kong Tramways.

Dick Kerr also supplied the New South Wales Railways and Tramways (NSWR&T) with three 25 cycle alternators for use in White Bay Power House, in Sydney. These alternators were commissioned in 1917. White Bay Power House had an interesting mixture of 25 and 50 c/s (Hz) turbo-alternators from Dick Kerr, English Electric and British Thomson-Houston.

Post war

In 1919 the Kilmarnock works were sold to the Kilmarnock Engineering Company, and the company was taken over by English Electric. In 1968 English Electric merged with GEC.

Surviving locomotives

At least one Dick Kerr locomotive is known to survive:

• 600 mm (1 ft 11 ⁵⁄₈ in) gauge 4wDE from 1918 at the Phyllis Rampton Trust

See also

• The Dick Kerr Type Tram
• National Tramway Museum at Crich

References

1. ^ Lowe, J.W., (1989) British Steam Locomotive Builders, Guild Publishing.
2. ^ The Electrical engineer, Volume 5, 1890.
3. ^ The development of British industry and foreign competition, 1875-1914. Derek Howard Aldcroft

External links

• Dick Kerr Ladies FC 1917-1965