Crewe Works

Last updated

Crewe Works
Crewe-lnwr-works-c1890.jpg
The erecting shop at the London & North Western Railway Crewe Works, c.1890
Crewe Works
Operated1840-present
Location Crewe, Cheshire
Coordinates 53°06′N2°28′W / 53.10°N 2.46°W / 53.10; -2.46
Industry Railways
Rolling stock manufacture
Products Steam locomotives

Crewe Works is a British railway engineering facility located in the town of Crewe, Cheshire. The works, which was originally opened by the Grand Junction Railway in March 1843, employed around 7,000 to 8,000 workers at its peak. In the 1980s much of the engineering works were closed. Most of the site has been redeveloped, but the remaining parts are owned and operated by Alstom.

Contents

During the late 19th century, the London and North Western Railway used Crewe Works to produce many famous locomotives such as the Webb 2-4-0 Jumbo class and the compounds, the Whale Experiment and Precursor classes, and the Bowen-Cooke Claughtons. In particular, Whale's 1912 superheated G1 Class 0-8-0 developed from a locomotive introduced by Webb in 1892, lasted, in many cases until 1964, near the end of steam in 1968.

After grouping, the works were taken over by London, Midland and Scottish Railway which was the successor to the LNWR. It was during this period that the works reached its zenith in size and output. Creating notable steam engines such as Sir William Stanier's locomotives as well as the 'Jubilee' and Class 5 4-6-0s, the 'Princess Royal' and the 'Princess Coronation' 4-6-2s.

The works continued to produce engines under British Railways such as the Britannia 4-6-2s and the Franco-Crosti boilered Class 9 freight locomotives. In the 1980s, a large part of the works was sold for redevelopment. Due to the scale of the works, it had its own internal narrow gauge tramway, the Crewe Works Railway, which was used from 1862 until 1932.

History

Access to Crewe Works [1] (Present)
from Mainline and Basic Layout
BSicon CONTg.svg
West to Chester
BSicon SKRZ-Gu.svg
A532 (Merrill's Bridge, West Street)
BSicon STR.svg
BSicon dSTR.svg
BSicon MHUB.svg
BSicon vSTR.svg
BSicon MHUB.svg
BSicon vSTR.svg
BSicon STR.svg
BSicon vUSTr.svg
BSicon dSTR.svg
BSicon vSTR.svg
BSicon STR.svg
BSicon dSTR.svg
BSicon dLTRRl.svg
BSicon vTRRm.svg
BSicon dLTRRr.svg
Traverser
BSicon STRc2.svg
BSicon ABZg3.svg
BSicon vSHI4+l-.svg
BSicon vSTR.svg
BSicon vSHI4r-.svg
BSicon vSTR.svg
BSicon dSTR.svg
BSicon numN090.svg
BSicon v-STR+1.svg
BSicon vSTR+1-.svg
BSicon STR+c4.svg
BSicon dSTR.svg
BSicon MHUB.svg
BSicon vSTR.svg
BSicon dMHUB.svg
BSicon dSTR.svg
BSicon dSTR.svg
BSicon vDST.svg
BSicon STR.svg
BSicon dSTR.svg
BSicon MHUB.svg
BSicon vSTR.svg
BSicon dMHUB.svg
BSicon dSTR.svg
BSicon dSTR.svg
Crewe Electric Depot
(on opposite side)
BSicon vSTR.svg
BSicon STR.svg
BSicon dSTR.svg
BSicon MHUB.svg
BSicon vSTR.svg
BSicon dMHUB.svg
BSicon dSTR.svg
BSicon dSTR.svg
BSicon SPLel.svg
BSicon ABZg+r.svg
BSicon dSTR.svg
BSicon dMHUB.svg
BSicon dSTR.svg
BSicon lMKRZ2+4u.svg
BSicon STR.svg
BSicon dSTR.svg
BSicon dMHUB.svg
BSicon dSTR.svg
Old bridge from Electric Depot
now removed
BSicon STR+c2.svg
BSicon dSTR3.svg
BSicon ABZg+1.svg
BSicon dSTRc4.svg
BSicon CONTf.svg
East to Crewe Station

Grand Junction Railway

The directors of the Grand Junction Railway determined to construct a works on a 3 acres (12,000 m2) site at Crewe in 1840 with the first locomotive, No. 32Tamerlane completed in October 1843. [2] By 1846, the demand for space was such that wagon building was moved, first to Edge Hill and Manchester, then to a new works at Earlestown. By 1848, the works employed over 1,000 producing one locomotive a week.

London and North Western Railway

In 1845, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway was merged with the Grand Junction. These, in turn, merged in 1846, with the London and Birmingham Railway and the Manchester and Birmingham Railway to form the London and North Western Railway (LNWR). All four had their own workshops but, in time, locomotive building was concentrated at Crewe.

In 1857, John Ramsbottom became Locomotive Superintendent. He had previously invented the first reliable safety valve and the scoop for picking up water from troughs between the tracks. He went on to improve the precision and interchangeability of tools and components.

In 1862, locomotive work was transferred from Wolverton. Wolverton became the carriage works, while wagon building was concentrated at Earlestown.

In 1853, Crewe had begun to make its own wrought iron and roll its own rails, and in 1864 installed a Bessemer converter for manufacturing steel. In 1868 it became the first place to use open-hearth furnaces on an industrial scale. It also built its own brickworks. Later the works was fitted with two electric arc furnaces.

Production increased steadily and, with the sale to the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway of ten 2-4-0 and eighty six 0-6-0 locomotives, privately owned manufacturers took out an injunction in 1876 to restrain the railway from producing anything but its own needs. This remained in force until British Rail Engineering Limited was established in 1969.

By 1920 Crewe Works had grown into a poorly laid-out establishment with nine separate erecting shops, four of which could only handle smaller locomotives, and the LNWR sanctioned plans for a new large erecting shop which placed on hold until revised and implemented later by the LMS. [3]

London, Midland and Scottish Railway

Rebuilt Royal Scot Class No. 46123 Royal Irish Fusilers receiving attention at Crewe Works with other locomotives 46123 Royal Irish Fusiliers at Crewe.jpg
Rebuilt Royal Scot Class No. 46123 Royal Irish Fusilers receiving attention at Crewe Works with other locomotives

When the LNWR became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) in 1923, its passenger locomotives were eclipsed by those of the former Midland Railway, which offered light, fast and frequent services. As traffic density increased, there was a need for longer trains and more powerful locomotives to haul them. In 1932, William Stanier became Chief Mechanical Engineer and set out to rationalise production. Since Crewe had experience with heavier locomotives and had its own steel making facilities, he chose it as his main production location.[ citation needed ]

There followed the Princesses and Duchesses, along with the Jubilees and the "Black Fives". Crewe produced all the new boilers for the LMS, and all heavy drop stampings and forgings. It also produced most of the heavy steel components for the track and other structures. The 1935 documentary No. 6207; A Study in Steel about the construction of an LMS Princess Royal Class engine was filmed at the works. [4]

During World War II, Crewe produced over 150 Covenanter tanks for the army.

Stanier 8F 2-8-0 48133 on the Crewe Works internal railway in 1948 Crewe railway works geograph-2150701.jpg
Stanier 8F 2-8-0 48133 on the Crewe Works internal railway in 1948

British Railways

Bowen-Cooke Class G2a 0-8-0
No. 48932, built at Crewe in 1902 as a Webb Class B four-cylinder loco, was later rebuilt to two-cylinder status. Buxton shed August 1960. G2a 48932 LNWR 0-8-0.jpg
Bowen-Cooke Class G2a 0-8-0
No. 48932, built at Crewe in 1902 as a Webb Class B four-cylinder loco, was later rebuilt to two-cylinder status. Buxton shed August 1960.

After British Railways (BR) was formed in 1948, Robert Riddles introduced the BR standard classes, and Crewe built Britannia and Clan mixed traffic engines and some of the Class 9F freight locomotives. The last steam locomotive built at Crewe, Class 9F number 92250, was completed in December 1958. Crewe Works built 7,331 steam locomotives. [5]

Diesel production commenced, with D5030 the first main line example completed in 1959. [6] The final diesel locomotives built at Crewe Works were the Class 56 with the last completed in 1984, while the final class of electric locomotives were the Class 91 with the last completed in 1991. [7]

Modern ownership

Crewe Works became a part of British Rail Engineering Limited when the former BR Workshops were set up as a separate business in 1969 and was privatised in 1989. In the mid-1980s, much of the Crewe Works site was cleared and sold for major redevelopment. Around this time, British Rail Engineering Limited was sold to ASEA Brown-Boveri, which merged with Daimler Benz in 1996 to form Adtranz. Adtranz was itself taken over by Bombardier in 2001. [8] Via the sale of Bombardier Transportation to Alstom in January 2021 the plant became part of Alstom UK & Ireland.

At its height, Crewe Works employed between 7,000 and 8,000 people; in 2005 fewer than 1,000 remained on site, with a further 270 redundancies announced in November of that year and more cutbacks or even closure possible. Current work is largely focused on general maintenance and the inspection of seriously damaged stock. Much of the site once occupied by the works has been sold off and is now occupied by a supermarket, leisure park and a large new health centre. In 2019 another part of Crewe Works was demolished for a new housing estate.

In December 2021 the contract for delivery of HS2 rolling stock was awarded to a partnership between Hitachi Rail and Alstom. Alstom's share in manufacturing of the 54 trains will take place at Derby Litchurch Lane Works and Crewe Works. All the bogies, which house the wheelsets, will be both assembled and maintained at Alstom's Crewe facility. [9] [10] Manufacturing is expected to start in 2025.

Notes

Citations
  1. from Google Earth/Google Maps
  2. Larkin 2009, p. 39.
  3. Whitehouse & Thomas 1987, pp. 165−166.
  4. "No. 6207; A Study in Steel (1935)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 6 March 2019. Retrieved 26 July 2022.
  5. Last Steam Locomotive from Crewe Works Railway Gazette 26 December 1958 page 762
  6. Crewe Works Builds Its First Main-Line Diesel-Electric Locomotive Railway Gazette 26 June 1959
  7. The Making of Crewe and What Made Crewe The Railway Magazine issue 1254 October 2005 pages 14-23
  8. Bombardier cleared to buy Adtranz Archived 2 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine Railway Gazette International May 2001
  9. "Hitachi and Alstom win order to build and maintain High Speed Two trains in Britain". Mynewsdesk. 9 December 2021. Archived from the original on 9 December 2021. Retrieved 18 December 2021.
  10. Historic Crewe Works to receive upgrade amid new HS2 contract Nantwich News, December 16, 2021
Bibliography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">London and North Western Railway</span> Former British railway company

The London and North Western Railway was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the LNWR was the largest joint stock company in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">London, Midland and Scottish Railway</span> British railway company (1923–1947)

The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) was a British railway company. It was formed on 1 January 1923 under the Railways Act 1921, which required the grouping of over 120 separate railways into four. The companies merged into the LMS included the London and North Western Railway, the Midland Railway, the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, several Scottish railway companies, and numerous other, smaller ventures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LMS Princess Royal Class</span> Class of 12+1 British 4-6-2 locomotives

The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Princess Royal Class is a class of express passenger 4-6-2 steam locomotive designed by William Stanier. Twelve examples were built at Crewe Works, between 1933 and 1935, for use on the West Coast Main Line. Two are preserved.

The London, Midland and Scottish Railway had the largest stock of steam locomotives of any of the 'Big Four' Grouping, i.e. pre-Nationalisation railway companies in the UK. Despite early troubles arising from factions within the new company, the LMS went on to build some very successful designs; many lasted until the end of steam traction on British Railways in 1968. For an explanation of numbering and classification, see British Rail locomotive and multiple unit numbering and classification.

George Hughes was an English locomotive engineer, and chief mechanical engineer (CME) of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) and the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS).

Robert Arthur "Robin" Riddles, CBE, MIMechE, MinstLE was a British locomotive design engineer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steam locomotives of British Railways</span> Steam locomotives used under British Railways (1948 - 1968)

The steam locomotives of British Railways were used by British Railways over the period 1948–1968. The vast majority of these were inherited from its four constituent companies, the "Big Four".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vulcan Foundry</span> British locomotive manufacturer, 1833–1969

The Vulcan Foundry Limited was an English locomotive builder sited at Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Derby Works</span> British locomotive manufacturing facilities

The Derby Works comprised a number of British manufacturing facilities designing and building locomotives and rolling stock in Derby, England. The first of these was a group of three maintenance sheds opened around 1840 behind Derby station. This developed into a manufacturing facility called the Midland Railway Locomotive Works, known locally as "the loco" and in 1873 manufacturing was split into locomotive and rolling stock manufacture, with rolling stock work transferred to a new facility, Derby Carriage & Wagon Works.

Locomotives of the London and North Western Railway. The London and North Western Railway (LNWR) Locomotive Department was headquartered at Crewe from 1862. The Crewe Works had been built in 1840–43 by the Grand Junction Railway (GJR).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LNWR Improved Precedent Class</span>

The London and North Western Railway (LNWR) Improved Precedent Class or Renewed Precedent Class is a class of 2-4-0 steam locomotives originally designed for express passenger work. They later gained the nickname of Jumbos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Derby Litchurch Lane Works</span> Railway rolling stock factory in Derby, England

Derby Litchurch Lane Works, formerly Derby Carriage and Wagon Works, is a railway rolling stock factory in Derby, England. It is presently owned by the multinational transportation manufacturer Alstom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LNWR 1185 Class</span>

The LNWR 1185 Class was a class of 0-8-2T steam tank locomotives designed by Charles Bowen-Cooke and introduced in 1911. They passed into LMS ownership in 1923 and 8 survived to British Railways ownership in 1948. British Railways numbers were 47875-47896.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">L&YR Class 8</span>

The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) Class 8 was a four-cylinder 4-6-0 express passenger locomotive designed by George Hughes introduced in 1908.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LNWR George the Fifth Class</span> Class of 90 two-cylinder 4-4-0 passenger locomotives

The London and North Western Railway (LNWR) George the Fifth Class was a class of 4-4-0 passenger steam locomotive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LNWR Whale Precursor Class</span> Type of steam locomotive

The London and North Western Railway (LNWR) "Precursor" Class was a type of 4-4-0 ("American") steam locomotive designed by the company's Chief Mechanical Engineer, George Whale. Introduced in 1904, it should not be confused with the LNWR 2-4-0 "Precursor" Class of 1874 designed by Francis Webb, the last example of which was scrapped in 1895. In 1906, a 4-4-2T ("Atlantic") tank variant of Webb's engine, the "Precursor Tank" Class, also entered service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LNWR DX Goods class</span>

The London and North Western Railway (LNWR) DX Goods class was a class of 0-6-0 steam locomotive, designed by John Ramsbottom for freight duties. 943 were constructed, making them the largest single class of steam locomotives built in the United Kingdom. Despite this, none were preserved.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LNWR 18in Goods Class</span>

The LNWR 18-inch Goods was a class of 310 0-6-0 freight steam locomotives built by the London and North Western Railway at their Crewe Works between 1880 and 1902.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LNWR Newton Class</span>

The LNWR Newton Class was a class of ninety-six 2-4-0 steam locomotives built by the London and North Western Railway at their Crewe Works between 1866 and 1873.