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 1843.
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.
When the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway was opened in 1842, it used a pair of Neilson & Mitchell beam engines to work the rope incline from Glasgow to Cowlairs station. The engines were covered by an article illustrated with drawings in The Practical Mechanic and Engineer's Magazine in Jan 1844. [1] They were beam engines mounted on an entablature supported on fluted columns. The engines had 28 inch cylinders, and 6 foot stroke. They were supplied with steam at 50psi by 8 boilers, each 30 foot long and 5 foot diameter.
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. The Engineer journal in 1883 carried a photograph of a Neilson 4-6-0 with Joy valve gear produced for the Cape Government Railways. [2]
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 United States 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 the United States. [3]
• 3804 1888 FCNEA #5, FCNGU #66. 2-6-0+4 “San Martín” Preserved at Cerrito, province of Entre Ríos.
• 3854 1888 FCNEA #11, FCNGU #68. 2-6-0+4 “Yatay” Preserved on restoration at Ferroclub Argentino, province of Buenos Aires.
• 3864 1890 FCNEA #21, FCNGU #36. 0-6-0+4 “Itatí” Preserved at Liniers Club APDFA, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires.
• 3870 1890 FCNEA #27, FCNGU #41. 0-6-0+4 “Monte Caseros” Preserved on work at Ferroclub Argentino, province of Buenos Aires.
• 3872 1890 FCNEA #29, FCNGU #43. 0-6-0+4 “Juarez Celman” Preserved at Basavilbaso, province of Entre Ríos.
• 3873 1890 FCNEA #30, FCNGU #44. 0-6-0+4 “Sarmiento” Preserved at Oro Verde, province of Entre Ríos.
Neilson and Company supplied the first (F13 of 1872) and last (F216 of 1888) members of the 88-strong New Zealand Railways F class. Six builders supplied F class engines between the arrivals of F13 and F216.
Founded | 1876 | |
---|---|---|
Dissolved | 1877 | |
Ground | Vale Park [4] | |
Secretary | Thomas M'Ara | |
In 1876, the company founded an association football club, called the Hyde Park Locomotive Works, playing in red and white 2 inch hoops. [5] The club entered the 1876–77 Scottish Cup and lost in the first round, 2–1 at home to Crosshill, the club's goal scored by Watt. [6]
The club entered for the following year's competition, and was drawn to play Blackfriars of Parkhead, [7] but the club had already broken up, [8] its last noted fixture being against Petershill in January 1877. [9]
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.
4-4-0 is a locomotive type with a classification that uses the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement and represents the arrangement: four leading wheels on two axles, four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles, and a lack of trailing wheels. Due to the large number of the type that were produced and used in the United States, the 4-4-0 is most commonly known as the "American" or "Eight-Wheeler" type, but the type subsequently also became popular in the United Kingdom, where large numbers were produced.
The first Locomotives of the Great Western Railway (GWR) were specified by Isambard Kingdom Brunel but Daniel Gooch was soon appointed as the railway's Locomotive Superintendent. He designed several different 7 ft 1⁄4 in broad gauge types for the growing railway, such as the Firefly and later Iron Duke Class 2-2-2s. In 1864 Gooch was succeeded by Joseph Armstrong who brought his standard gauge experience to the workshops at Swindon. To replace some of the earlier locomotives, he put broad gauge wheels on his standard gauge locomotives and from this time on all locomotives were given numbers, including the broad gauge ones that had previously carried just names.
The North British Locomotive Company was created in 1903 through the merger of three Glasgow locomotive manufacturing companies; Sharp, Stewart and Company, Neilson, Reid and Company and Dübs and Company, creating the largest locomotive manufacturing company in Europe and the British Empire.
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, a 2-6-4 locomotive has two leading wheels, six coupled driving wheels and four trailing wheels.
William Stroudley was an English railway engineer, and was one of the most famous steam locomotive engineers of the nineteenth century, working principally for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR). He designed some of the most famous and longest-lived steam locomotives of his era, several of which have been preserved.
The NBR C Class is a class of 0-6-0 steam locomotives designed by Matthew Holmes for freight work on the North British Railway (NBR). They were introduced in 1888 with inside cylinders and Stephenson valve gear. A total of 168 locomotives was built, of which 123 came into British Railways ownership at nationalisation in 1948. This was the last class of steam engine in service in Scotland.
The NBR K Class is a class of 4-4-0 steam locomotive of the North British Railway. The first batch was designed by Matthew Holmes in 1902 and had 6-foot-6-inch (1.981 m) driving wheels for express passenger work. Three more batches were designed by William P. Reid with 6-foot-0-inch (1.829 m) driving wheels for mixed traffic work. This included perishable goods, such as fish from Mallaig and Aberdeen. They had inside cylinders and Stephenson valve gear. The D34 locomotives, commonly known as Glen Class, were built with superheaters. The LNER later fitted superheaters to all D26, D32, and D33 engines as well. All engines of the K class are sometimes known as Glen Class, although the designation is strictly reserved to the fourth (D34) batch.
The North British Railway (NBR) G Class is a class of 0-4-0ST steam locomotive designed for shunting. Some locomotives were equipped with small wooden tenders to carry extra coal. They were introduced in 1882 and thirty-eight entered service on the NBR between 1882 and 1899. Like most 0-4-0 tanks of the period it has outside cylinders and inside slide valves driven by Stephenson valve gear. The rival Caledonian Railway had the same number (38) of identical locomotives in service. The nickname "Pug" was used on the NBR.
Dugald Drummond was a Scottish steam locomotive engineer. He had a career with the North British Railway, LB&SCR, Caledonian Railway and London and South Western Railway. He was the older brother of the engineer Peter Drummond, who often followed Dugald's ideas in his own work.
Manning Wardle was a steam locomotive manufacturer based in Hunslet, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.
The New Zealand F class was the first important class of steam locomotive built to operate on New Zealand's railway network after the national gauge of 3 ft 6 in was adopted. The first locomotives built for the new gauge railways were two E class double Fairlies for the Dunedin and Port Chalmers Railway Company. The F class was the first class ordered by the central government, and between 1872 and 1888, a total of eighty-eight members of the class were constructed.
Sharp, Stewart and Company was a steam locomotive manufacturer, initially located in Manchester, England. The company was formed in 1843 upon the demise of Sharp, Roberts & Co.. It moved to Glasgow, Scotland, in 1888, eventually amalgamating with two other Glaswegian locomotive manufacturers to form the North British Locomotive Company.
The Avonside Engine Company was a locomotive manufacturer in Avon Street, St. Philip's, Bristol, England between 1864 and 1934. However the business originated with an earlier enterprise Henry Stothert and Company.
The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) D40 class is a type of 4-4-0 steam locomotive inherited from the Great North of Scotland Railway (GNSR). It consisted of GNSR class V and GNSR class F. The two classes were similar but the class F was superheated.
Henry Dübs, was a 19th century German-born engineer and shipbuilder in Scotland.
'Pug' locomotives are small steam locomotives which were produced for light shunting work, usually at dockyards, factory sites, steelworks, collieries, and other similar locations. The name is derived from a common term in Scotland for a small industrial shunting engine, typically an 0-4-0 tank.
The Cape Government Railways 1st Class 0-4-0ST of 1876 was a South African steam locomotive from the pre-Union era in the Cape of Good Hope.
The Capilla del Señor Historic Train was a heritage railway of Buenos Aires Province in Argentina. The service ran trains pulled by steam locomotives between the cities of Buenos Aires and Capilla del Señor, covering a distance of 86 km (53 mi). Trains ran on 1,435 mm tracks originally built by the Buenos Aires Central Railway and currently part of General Urquiza Railway since the railway nationalisation of 1948.
The NBR F Class was a class of 0-6-0 tank locomotives, designed by William P. Reid on the North British Railway. They were used for dockyard shunting duties.