Company type | Public |
---|---|
Industry | Locomotive manufacturing Shipbuilding |
Founded | 1886 |
Defunct | 1993 |
Fate | Acquired |
Successor | Vodafone |
Headquarters | Hebburn, UK |
R. & W. Hawthorn, Leslie and Company, Limited, usually referred to as Hawthorn Leslie, was a shipbuilder and locomotive manufacturer. The company was founded on Tyneside in 1886 and ceased building ships in 1982.
The company was formed by the merger of the shipbuilder A. Leslie and Company in Hebburn with the locomotive works of R and W Hawthorn at St. Peter's in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1886. [1] The company displaced its locomotive manufacturing interests in 1937 to Robert Stephenson and Company, which became Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns Ltd. [2]
Perhaps the most famous ship built by the Company was HMS Kelly, launched in 1938 and commanded by Lord Louis Mountbatten. [3] In 1954, the shipbuilding and marine engine activities were put into separate subsidiaries, Hawthorn Leslie (Shipbuilders) Ltd. and Hawthorn Leslie (Engineers) Ltd. [4] In 1968 the Company's shipbuilding interests were merged with that of Swan Hunter and the Vickers Naval Yard to create Swan Hunter & Tyne Shipbuilders. [5]
The company's shipbuilding and marine engineering interests were both nationalised and subsumed with British Shipbuilders in 1977; [4] in 1979 its engine business was merged with George Clark & NEM, which had also been nationalised, to form Clark Hawthorn. [4]
The company's main shipbuilding yard at Hebburn closed in 1982, [6] was sold to Cammell Laird [7] and then acquired by A&P Group in 2001 [8] but now lies derelict. [9] The Company itself, deprived of its main activity, diversified into telephones. [10] In March 1993, Vodafone made a bid for the Company which by then had become a mobile phone air time reseller.
The Hawthorn Leslie building still standing in Hebburn has been the target of numerous arson attacks in recent years. [11] This, combined with the presence of asbestos in the brickwork and the ease of access to children, has led to repeated calls from Hebburn residents and councillors for the building to be demolished.
After the merger the locomotive side continued manufacturing for main line, light and industrial railways, including a large number built for export, usually to the designs of the Crown Agents.
The company manufactured locomotives to order for main line companies. Four 0-4-4T locomotives were supplied to the Metropolitan Railway between 1896 and 1901. In 1915, F. G. Smith of the Highland Railway ordered six 4-6-0 s to his own designs. However they were rejected by that railway as being too heavy, they were taken over by the Caledonian Railway. The London and North Eastern Railway ordered a batch of Great Central designed locomotives from the Company in 1925/6.
In addition it built locomotives to its own designs such as a 4-2-2-0 with four cylinders - two inside and two outside - connected separately to the two pairs of driving wheels. It was produced for the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 but could not produce sufficient steam to compete effectively with the American products.
The company later had a number of standard designs including 0-4-0 ST s and fireless locomotives.
Origin | Wheel arrangement | Class | Notes | Photograph |
---|---|---|---|---|
Hawthorn Leslie | 2-4-0 T | No. 1 Tenterden. Works number 2420/1899. Bought new for the opening of the line. Withdrawn for overhaul in 1938, scrapped in 1941. [12] | ![]() | |
Hawthorn Leslie | 2-4-0 T | No. 2 Northiam. Works number 2421/1899. Bought new for the opening of the line. Loaned in 1917 to the Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Railway, returned in 1918. Loaned in 1923 to the East Kent Light Railway, returned in 1930. In 1937, Northiam starred in Oh, Mr Porter! , filmed on the Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway. [12] Last ran on 22 August 1938 [13] and scrapped in 1941. [12] | ||
PD&SWJR no. | Name | LSWR number | Wheel arrangement | Driving wheels | Cylinders | Boiler pressure | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
3 | A. S. Harris | 756 | 0-6-0 T | 3 ft 10 in | 14" x 22" | 170 psi | |
4 | Earl of Mount Edgcumbe | 757 | 0-6-2 T | 4 ft 0 in | 16" x 24" | 170 psi | |
5 | Lord St Levan | 758 | 0-6-2 T | 4 ft 0 in | 16" x 24" | 170 psi | |
Year | Quantity | Manufacturer | Works Numbers | TVR Numbers | GWR Numbers | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1914 | 6 | Hawthorn Leslie | 3057–3062 | 3, 7, 10, 11, 12, 120 | 438, 335, 337, 343, 344, 441 | 441 renumbered 322 in 1947, 438 renumbered 309 sometime between 1948 and 1950 |
1920 | 16 | Hawthorn Leslie | 3394–3409 | 20, 134, 144, 149, 162, 164, 165, 400 to 408 | 345, 368, 375, 376, 383 to 391, 393, 394, 397 | |
1921 | 5 | Hawthorn Leslie | 3410–3414 | 409 to 413 | 398, 399, 401 to 403 | 401 and 403 renumbered 303 and 305 in 1947, 402 renumbered 304 sometime between 1948 and 1950 |
Hawthorn Leslie, in collaboration with the English Electric Company, built diesel shunting locomotives for the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in the 1930s. This design formed the basis for the later British Rail Class 08 diesel shunter.
Hawthorn Leslie, and its successor Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns, built four electric locomotives for Kearsley power station between 1928 and 1946 and three of these still exist. No. 2 has been converted to battery operation and is in use at Heysham nuclear power station. Nos. 1 and 3 are preserved, see below.
28 Hawthorn Leslie Tank Engines are in preservation today:
Two of the Kearsley power station locomotives (see above) are preserved. No. 1 at the Electric Railway Museum, Warwickshire and no. 3 at the Tanfield Railway.
Ships built by Hawthorn Leslie included:
Aircraft Carriers
Cruisers
Frigates
Destroyers
Royal Fleet Auxiliary
Merchant ships
0-6-0 is the Whyte notation designation for steam locomotives with a wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles, and no trailing wheels. Historically, this was the most common wheel arrangement used on both tender and tank locomotives in versions with both inside and outside cylinders.
The Tanfield Railway is a 4 ft 8+1⁄2 instandard gauge heritage railway in Gateshead and County Durham, England. Running on part of a former horse-drawn colliery wooden waggonway, later rope & horse, lastly rope & loco railway. It operates preserved industrial steam locomotives. The railway operates a passenger service every Sunday, plus other days, as well as occasional demonstration coal, goods and mixed trains. The line runs 3 miles (4.8 km) between a southern terminus at East Tanfield, Durham, to a northern terminus at Sunniside, Gateshead. Another station, Andrews House, is situated near the Marley Hill engine shed. A halt also serves the historic site of the Causey Arch. The railway claims it is "the world's oldest railway" because it runs on a section dating from 1725, other parts being in use since 1621.
Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Co Ltd was a major British manufacturing company of the early years of the 20th century. With headquarters in Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne, Armstrong Whitworth built armaments, ships, locomotives, automobiles and aircraft.
Swan Hunter, formerly known as Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson, is a shipbuilding design, engineering, and management company, based in Wallsend, Tyne and Wear, England.
The Hunslet Engine Company is a locomotive building company, founded in 1864 in Hunslet, England. It manufactured steam locomotives for over 100 years and currently manufactures diesel shunting locomotives. The company owns a substantial fleet of Industrial and depot shunting locomotives which are available for hire. The company is part of Ed Murray & Sons Ltd.
Barrow Hill Roundhouse, until 1948 known as Staveley Engine Shed, is a former Midland Railway roundhouse in Barrow Hill, near Staveley and Chesterfield, Derbyshire, now serving as a railway heritage centre.
Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns Ltd (RSH) was a locomotive builder with works in North East England.
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Robert Stephenson and Company was a locomotive manufacturing company founded in 1823 in Forth Street, Newcastle upon Tyne in England. It was the first company in the world created specifically to build railway engines.
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R and W Hawthorn Ltd was a locomotive manufacturer in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, from 1817 until 1885.
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Andrew Leslie & Co, Hebburn was a shipbuilding company that was started in 1853 on an 8-acre site at Hebburn Quay, Newcastle upon Tyne. The company later merged with the locomotive manufacturer R and W Hawthorn to create Hawthorn Leslie and Company in 1886, when the founder Andrew Leslie retired.
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