Peckett and Sons

Peckett and Sons was a locomotive manufacturer at the Atlas Works in Bristol, England.

Fox, Walker and Company

The company began trading in 1864 at the Atlas Engine Works, St. George, Bristol, as Fox, Walker and Company, building four and six-coupled saddle tank engines for industrial use. They also built stationary engines and pioneered steam tramcars, the first being tested in Bristol in 1877.

Much of their output was exported, mostly 0-6-0, with some 0-4-0, 2-4-0 and 0-4-2. Around 1875 they produced six 1'6" gauge 2-4-2 trench engines for the Admiralty using Henry Handyside's steep gradient apparatus. They also produced nine 0-6-0 saddle tank engines for the Somerset and Dorset Railway.

Peckett and Sons

Between 1862 and 1900 they had built over 400 locomotives, when they were taken over by Thomas Peckett in 1880 becoming Peckett and Sons, Atlas Engine Works, Bristol. The company acquired limited liability some years later.

The company continued producing a variety of small industrial and shunting engines at their factory located between Fishponds and Kingswood. They became specialists in the field, with very precise specifications and standardisation of parts. The largest engine was an 0-8-0 built in 1931 for the Christmas Island Phosphate Company.

During the two World Wars, the works were especially busy, but by 1950 trade had largely dried up and, although in 1956 an attempt had been made to enter the diesel-mechanical market, the last steam engine was produced in 1958 and the company was taken over by Reed Crane & Hoist Co Ltd on 23rd October 1961., which itself went into liquidation.

Preservation

Despite hard work and poor maintenance, the engines were long-lasting. Many Peckett locomotives survive working on today's heritage railways. The oldest surviving Fox Walker locomotive is "Karlskoga", an 0-6-0ST on the Nora Bergslags Railway in Sweden; it was working in 2003. Unrestored examples are at the Bristol Industrial Museum, Scolton Manor, Pembrokeshire, and Mangapps Railway Museum. A metre-gauge Fox Walker 0-4-2 locomotive was on display in a railway museum in Tucuman, Argentina in 1999, but its present state is unknown. There is still a company called Peckett and Sons Ltd of Ongar, which supplies spares.

Locations of preserved Peckett locomotives in the United Kingdom include:

* The Giant's Causeway and Bushmills Railway - 0-4-0T No. 1026 "Tyrone"
* Battlefield Line - 0-6-0ST "Sir Gomer" and 0-4-0ST "No.7"
* Bristol Industrial Museum - 0-6-0ST "Henbury" and 0-6-0ST "Portbury"
* North Woolwich Old Station Museum
* Somerset and Dorset Railway Trust - 0-4-0ST "Kilmerston"
* Northampton & Lamport Railway - No. 1378 "Westminster" and No. 2104
* Southall Railway Centre - "William Murdoch"
* Buckinghamshire Railway Centre - 0-4-0ST "No. 1900 The Flying Bufferbeam" & "No. 2087 Gibraltar" & "No. 2105"
* Spa Valley Railway - "Fonmon"

Locations of preserved Peckett locomotives in New Zealand include:
* Bay of Islands Scenic Railway Kawakawa - "Gabriel"
* Heritage Park Railway Whangarei
* Goldfields Railway Waihi
* The Pukemiro Line Huntly

[http://www.waihirail.co.nz/media/peckett.jpg]

References

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

The industrial railway Record, A brief memoir of Peckett & Sons LTDhttp://www.irsociety.co.uk/Archives/53/Memoir.htm

Peckett's in Retrospecthttp://www.irsociety.co.uk/Archives/53/Retrospect.htm