North British Locomotive Company

North British Locomotive Company Limited

Former type	Private
Industry	Rail transport
Fate	Assets Liquidated Goodwill acquired by Andrew Barclay Sons & Co.
Founded	1903
Defunct	1962
Headquarters	Springburn, Glasgow, UK
Key people	William Lorimer (Chairman) Hugh Reid (Managing Director)
Products	Locomotives
Employees	8000 (1907) 2658 (1960)

Mainline Steam New Zealand locomotive, North British J 1211. Photo by Joseph Christianson

The North British Locomotive Company (NBL or North British) was created in 1903 through the merger of three Glasgow locomotive manufacturing companies; Sharp Stewart and Company (Atlas Works), Neilson, Reid and Company (Hyde Park Works) and Dübs and Company (Queens Park Works), creating the largest locomotive manufacturing company in Europe.

Its main factories were located at the neighbouring Atlas and Hyde Park Works in central Springburn, as well as the Queens Park Works in Polmadie. A new central Administration and Drawing Office for the combined company was completed across the road from the Hyde Park Works on Flemington Street by James Miller in 1909, later becoming the main campus of North Glasgow College.

The two other Railway works in Springburn were St. Rollox railway works, owned by the Caledonian Railway and Cowlairs railway works, owned by the North British Railway.

In 1918 NBL produced the first prototype of the Anglo-American Mark VIII battlefield tank for the Allied armies, but with the Armistice it did not go into production.

Steam locomotives

NBL built steam locomotives for countries as far afield as Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Palestine and South Africa.

The Colony of New South Wales purchased numerous North British locomotives, as did the State of Victoria as late as 1951 (Oberg, Locomotives of Australia). Western Australia also purchased many North British Locomotives, such as the WAGR P Class.

Former headquarters of NBL in Springburn, Glasgow. During the First World War the building was temporarily converted into a hospital by the British Red Cross. It was latterly the campus of North Glasgow College.

Between 1903 and 1959 NB supplied many locomotives of various classes to Egyptian State Railways. They included 40 of the 545 class 2-6-0 in 1928.

Between 1921 and 1925, NBL supplied New Zealand Government Railways with 85 A^B class locomotives. The whole fleet of Ab class engines numbered 143, as built, of which 141 entered service. Two were lost at sea (see below).

In 1935 NB supplied six Palestine Railways P class 4-6-0 locomotives to haul main line trains between Haifa and the Suez Canal.

In 1939 NB supplied 40 J class to the New Zealand Railways Department (NZR); some of which were later converted to South African Railways bought more than 100 2-8-4 locomotives from NBL and these became the Class 24; some operated tourist trains on the George-Knysna line until 2000. Additionally South Africa also purchased some of its Class 25, 4-8-4 engines from the company between 1953-55. These successful engines with various in-service modifications survived until the end of steam in South Africa in 1992. NB also introduced the Modified Fairlie locomotive in 1924. In total South Africa purchased over 2,000 locomotives from the North British Locomotive Company.

Umgeni Steam Railway 1486 "Maureen"

As of January 2010, Umgeni Steam Railway operates NBL Class 3BR engine 1486, built in Glasgow in 1912 and now named "Maureen", on the line between Kloof and Inchanga, a distance of about 40 kilometres (25 mi). She hauls vintage sightseeing trains some coaches of which date back to 1908.

Locomotives made for Britain included the LMS Stanier Class 8F, the LMS Jubilee Class, and the LSWR N15 class, the Scotch Arthurs.

Locomotives 22878, 22879 and 22880

In 1922 the New Zealand Railways Department ordered a batch of its very successful A^B class pacifics from NBL, to be built and shipped as soon as possible. The trio 22878, 22879 and 22880 were built amidst this batch. 22878 and 22879 were loaded aboard SS Wiltshire and she sailed for Auckland, New Zealand, but she got into difficulty at Rosalie Bay, on the east coast of Great Barrier Island and sank.

22880 was dispatched on a subsequent sailing and was put into service in New Zealand as A^B class number 745. This locomotive was in service for more than 30 years but then hit a washout near Hawera. It was then left in the mud for nearly 50 years but has now been exhumed with the intention of restoration. It is currently located in the nearby town of Stratford, New Zealand.

^{[1] [2]}

Diesel locomotives

North British Class 22, D6343, with Hymek D7072 at Old Oak Common, 1965.

Whilst highly successful as designers and builders of steam locomotives for both its domestic market and abroad, North British failed to make the jump to diesel locomotive production. It did build a Paxman engined diesel locomotive, British Rail 10800, originally ordered for the London, Midland and Scottish Railway before the 1948 nationalisation of British Railways, but not delivered until 1950. Another Paxman engined locomotive was PVH1, built in 1953 as 'Paxman Voith Hydraulic 1' (hence the identity) for the Emu Bay Railway, Tasmania, and survives today preserved at the Derwent Valley Railway (Tasmania)Derwent Valley Railway (Tasmania). Its wheel formation is -D- being a hydraulic transmission locomotive, so in appearance it looks like an 0-8-0. It also built 8 Paxman engined shunters British Rail Class D2/1. Later in the 1950s it signed a deal with the German company MAN to construct further diesel engines under licence. These power units appeared in the late 1950s' British Railways (BR) designs pre-TOPS British Rail Class D3/1 (later D3/4), and later designated Class 21, Class 22, Class 41, Class 43 (Warship) and Class 251 (Blue Pullman) None of these were particularly successful: constructional shortcomings with the MAN engines made them far less reliable than German-built examples. A typical example of this was the grade of steel used for exhaust manifolds in the Class 43s - frequent manifold failures led to loss of turbocharger drive gas pressure and hence loss of power. More importantly, the driving cabs of the locomotives would fill with poisonous exhaust fumes. BR returned many North British diesel locomotives to their builder for repair under warranty and they also insisted on a three-month guarantee on all repairs (a requirement not levied on its own workshops).

Electric locomotives

Preserved North British AL4 / Class 84 84001, ex-E3036, on display at Crewe Works in 2005.

North British was involved in the construction of early 25 kV AC electric locomotives for the West Coast Main Line (WCML) electrification project of the early 1960s. The General Electric Company won a contract for ten locomotives and sub-contracted the mechanical design and construction to North British: Class AL4 E3036-E3045 (later Class 84 84001-84010) entered traffic in 1960-61. As with its diesel locomotives, the class suffered poor reliability and spent long periods out of service. A partial reprieve came when money was made available to extend the electrification of the WCML north to Glasgow but no immediate funds were available for more electric locomotives. The Class 84s were refurbished in 1972 and pressed back into service, being finally withdrawn between 1978 to 1980 following delivery of Class 87 locomotives.

Decline

Perhaps unwisely, North British supplied many of its diesel and electric locomotives to BR at a loss, hoping to make up for this on massive future orders that never came.^{[citation needed]} This and the continuing stream of warranty claims to cure design and workmanship faults proved fatal - North British declared bankruptcy on 19 April 1962. Because of the unreliability of its UK diesel and electric locomotives, all were withdrawn after comparatively short lifespans. The Atlas works site is now an industrial estate and the Hyde Park works site is now the campus of North Glasgow College.

Preservation

•  Australia
  • Several industrial shunters have been preserved, including PVH1 by the Derwent Valley Railway (Tasmania), and number 27654 by the Llanelli & Mynydd Mawr Railway. A number of steam locomotives still exist in Australia, including, some operational Victorian Railways R class 4-6-4 engines, several Dübs engines and Pmr Class 4-6-2 locomotives of Western Australia, a Rx Class engine in South Australia.

• Israel
  • The tender of one of six North British 4-6-0 steam locomotives built for Palestine Railways in 1935 is preserved at the Israel Railway Museum in Haifa.

• Malaysia
  • Three North British steam locomotives are preserved: one in the Malaysian Army Museum in Port Dickson and one in Butterworth ("564.25 Kuala Lumpur") behind Butterwoth railway station. The locomotive that is in Port Dickson had its name and number changed between "564.21 Selama" and "564.12 Alor Gajah" until it is preserved using the second number and name.
  • The only surviving North British steam locomotive in Malaysia is "564.36 Termeloh" which has completed restoration works in Batu Gajah, however it is still inactive and currently preserved in the old Johor Bahru railway station as most of KTMB's driving crew have no training or experience on operating it.

•  New Zealand
  • Several older Sharp Stewart, Dubs and Neilson locomotives have also been preserved in New Zealand, the most famous being Neilson-built F13 and Dubs-built F163, both F class.
  • Three steam locomotives of NZR 4-8-2 classes J, J^A, and Mainline Steam.
  • Steam Incorporated in Paekakariki, New Zealand have a J
  • Glenbrook Vintage Railway outside Auckland has an A^B class Pacific built by North British.
  • Ab745 (Engine 22880 of 1922) is located at Stratford, pending restoration.

•  South Africa
  • A 2-8-4 SAR Class 24, No. 3664 (North British build no. 26386/49), affectionately called Jo-Anna, still does regular tourist trips in and around Pretoria^[3] and one NBL built GEC Class 4E electric is being preserved at Bellville Depot in Cape Town.
  • The Outeniqua Choo Tjoe uses the Class 24
  • Atlantic Rail [1] does regular trips with SAR Class 24 No. 3655 in Cape Town

•  United Kingdom
  • About 21 North British diesel shunters are preserved, mostly by public museums or by preservation societies on heritage railways in the UK, e.g. the Scottish Railway Preservation Society [2] (SRPS) Diesel Group [3] owns D2767 and returned this to working order on 25 June 2008. A list of these with information and photos can be found on the World of Preserved Shunters web site [4].
  • The only surviving North British main-line diesel or electric locomotive is Class 84 84001.
  • A 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) gauge North British 4-6-2 steam locomotive is preserved at the Phyllis Rampton Trust in Surrey, England.

See also

• Category:NBL locomotives

References

1. ^ Lloyd, W.G (1974). Register of New Zealand Railways Steam Locomotives 1863-1971. Otago Branch: New Zealand Railway and Locomotive Society. pp. 113&173. ISBN 0-9582072-1-6. 
2. ^ "Error: no |title= specified when using {{Cite web}}". Divewrecks NZ. http://www.divewreck.co.nz/NZCoastalShipwrecks.php. 
3. ^ "Class 24, No 3664". Friends of the Rail. http://www.friendsoftherail.com/index.php?option=com_content&sectionid=8&task=view&hidemainmenu=1&id=86. Retrieved 2008-08-08. ^{[dead link]}

• Reed, Brian (1974):Diesel Hydraulic Locomotives of the Western Region. David and Charles (London) ISBN 0-7153-6769-2
• Oberg, Leon. Locomotives of Australia, Reed, Sydney, 1975.
• ARHS, A Century Plus of Locomotives: New South Wales Railways 1855-1965, Sydney, 1965.
• Lloyd, W.G (1974):"Register of New Zealand Railways Steam Locomotives 1863-1971" New Zealand Railway and Locomotive Society (Otago) ISBN 0-9582072-1-6

External links

• "The AC Locomotive Group (caring for Class 84 84001)"
• "Mainline Steam" of New Zealand (caring for NZR J 1211 & JB 1236