Type | plc |
---|---|
Industry | Manufacturing |
Predecessor | Ransomes partnerships |
Founded | Subsidiary: 1789 Independent: 1869 |
Defunct | 1987 |
Fate | Taken over by Newton, Chambers & Company Sold patents to Bucyrus International |
Successor | Newton, Chambers & Company |
Headquarters | Waterside Works, Ipswich, England |
Key people | R. C. Rapier (1836–1897) Sir Wilfred Stokes |
Parent | Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies |
Ransomes & Rapier was a major British manufacturer of railway equipment and later cranes, from 1869 to 1987. Originally an offshoot of the major engineering company Ransome's it was based at Waterside Works in Ipswich, Suffolk.
Ransomes & Rapier was formed in 1869 when four engineers, James Allen Ransome (1806–1875), his elder son, Robert James Ransome (c.1831–1891), Richard Christopher Rapier (1836–1897) and Arthur Alec Bennett (1842–1916), left the parent firm by agreement to establish a new firm on a site on the River Orwell to continue the business of manufacturing railway equipment and other heavy works.
The year before J. A. Ransome's younger son, Allen Ransome (1833–1913), founded the saw-milling machinery business, A. Ransome & Co, in Chelsea London with a foundry in Battersea. These businesses, transferred to Newark-on-Trent in 1900, led at the outset of World War I to Ransome & Marles now part of Nippon Seikō Kabushiki-kaisha.
R. C. Rapier had been head of Ransome's Orwell Works railway department since he joined the business in 1862. When the two businesses were split he became the engineering partner in the new firm known as Ransomes & Rapier at the Waterside Ironworks.
A limited liability company was incorporated to own the firm on 17 April 1896 using the same name with the addition of Limited (later plc): Ransomes & Rapier Limited. [1]
Rapier himself took the leading part in the 1875 negotiation and construction by Ransomes & Rapier of China's first railway, the Woosung Road (or Woosung Railway) from Shanghai to Wusong. [2] The railway opened in 1876 but was dismantled by the local government the following year because it had not received the necessary approvals. The firm also supplied railway turntables in the early to mid-1930s.
During the First World War they produced shells, guns and tank turrets. [3] The Stokes mortar was invented by managing director and chairman Sir Wilfred Stokes, knighted for the invention. His nephew Richard Rapier Stokes, MP was also managing director.
The company merged with Newton, Chambers & Company of Sheffield and formed the NCK excavator division to form NCK-Rapier who built walking draglines used in opencast mining.[ when? ][ citation needed ]
Ransomes & Rapier built the model W1400 walking dragline called Sundew for The United Steel Company iron ore quarry at Exton Park, Rutland, England. At the time it was built in 1951, it was the largest in the world, weighing in at 1880 tons. [4]
Ransomes & Rapier sold the right to their walking dragline technology and patents to Bucyrus International in 1988.[ citation needed ]
The turntable used to turn the revolving restaurant on the BT Tower was also built by Ransomes & Rapier.
The Bhikada Canal water diverting hydraulic system gates were also constructed in the year 1937 by Ransomes & Rapier Company of England to divert the Khokhara Hills Water to Gaurishankar Sarovar (Bortalav lake) of Bhavnagar city of Gujarat State India. This is a marvelous engineering example of 1940s era as these 24 gates are working successfully in the year 2022 too.
Ransomes & Rapier closed in 1987. [3]
The River Orwell flows through the county of Suffolk in England from Ipswich to Felixstowe. Above Ipswich, the river is known as the River Gipping, but its name changes to the Orwell at Stoke Bridge, where the river becomes tidal. It broadens into an estuary at Ipswich, where the Ipswich dock has operated since the 7th century, and then flows into the North Sea at Felixstowe, the UK's largest container port, after joining the River Stour at Shotley forming Harwich harbour.
A dragline excavator is a piece of heavy equipment used in civil engineering and surface mining.
Rutland Railway Museum, now trading as Rocks by Rail: The Living Ironstone Museum, is a heritage railway on part of a former Midland Railway mineral branch line. It is situated north east of Oakham, in Rutland, England.
In rail terminology, a railway turntable or wheelhouse is a device for turning railway rolling stock, usually locomotives, so that they can be moved back in the direction from which they came. it is especially used in areas where economic considerations or a lack of sufficient space have served to weigh against the construction of a turnaround wye. In the case of steam locomotives, railways needed a way to turn the locomotives around for return trips as their controls were often not configured for extended periods of running in reverse and in many locomotives the top speed was lower in reverse motion. In the case of diesel locomotives, though most can be operated in either direction, they are treated as having "front ends" and "rear ends". When a diesel locomotive is operated as a single unit, the railway company often prefers, or requires, that it be run "front end" first. When operated as part of a multiple unit locomotive consist, the locomotives can be arranged so that the consist can be operated "front end first" no matter which direction the consist is pointed. Turntables were also used to turn observation cars so that their windowed lounge ends faced toward the rear of the train.
Richard Rapier Stokes, was a British soldier and Labour politician who served briefly as Lord Privy Seal in 1951.
Ipswich railway station is on the Great Eastern Main Line in the East of England, serving the town of Ipswich, Suffolk. It is 68 miles 59 chains (110.6 km) down the line from London Liverpool Street and, on the main line, it is situated between Manningtree to the south and Needham Market to the north.
Ransomes, Sims and Jefferies Limited was a major British agricultural machinery maker also producing a wide range of general engineering products in Ipswich, Suffolk including traction engines, trolleybuses, ploughs, lawn mowers, combine harvesters and other tilling equipment. Ransomes also manufactured Direct Current electric motors in a wide range of sizes, and electric forklift trucks and tractors. They manufactured aeroplanes during the First World War. Their base, specially set up in 1845, was named Orwell Works.
The Suffolk and Ipswich Football League is a football competition based in Suffolk, England. The league has a total of eight divisions; the Senior Division and Divisions 1–3 for first teams, three divisions for reserve teams, and Division 4, which is for open to both first teams and reserves and is subordinate to both Division 3 and League C. The Senior Division is at step 7 of the National League System. The league was founded in 1896 as the Ipswich & District League changing its name in 1978.
Stoke Bridge in Ipswich carries Bridge Street (A137) over the point at which the River Gipping becomes the River Orwell. It carries traffic into Ipswich from the suburb of Over Stoke. The bridge consists of two separate structures and is just upstream from Ipswich dock on a tidal section of the river.
Bucyrus-Erie was an American surface and underground mining equipment company. It was founded as Bucyrus Foundry and Manufacturing Company in Bucyrus, Ohio, in 1880. Bucyrus moved its headquarters to South Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1893. In 1927, Bucyrus merged with the Erie Steam Shovel Company to form Bucyrus-Erie. In 1997, it was renamed Bucyrus International, Inc.. In 2010 the enterprise was purchased by Caterpillar in a US$7.6 billion transaction that closed on July 8, 2011. At the time of its acquisition, the Bucyrus product line included a range of material removal and material handling products used in both surface and underground mining.
Newton, Chambers & Co. was one of England's largest industrial companies. It was founded in 1789 by George Newton and Thomas Chambers.
Sundew was a large electrically powered dragline excavator used in mining operations in Rutland and Northamptonshire in the United Kingdom.
Sir Frederick Wilfrid Scott Stokes, was the inventor in 1915 of the Stokes Mortar, which saw extensive use in the latter half of the First World War and was one of the first truly portable mortars.
Ruston-Bucyrus Ltd was an engineering company established in 1930 and jointly owned by Ruston & Hornsby based in Lincoln, England, and Bucyrus-Erie based in South Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the latter of which had operational control and into which the excavator manufacturing operation of Ruston & Hornsby was transferred. The Bucyrus company proper, from which the Bucyrus component of the Ruston-Bucyrus name was created, was an American company founded in 1880, in Bucyrus, Ohio.
Ransomes is the common name for the Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies an engineering business of Orwell Works, Ipswich.
It may also refer to several other associated organisations or locations:
NCK, started as a subsidiary of Newton, Chambers & Company, a large engineering company based in Sheffield, England. They produced the range of agricultural equipment, skimmers, excavators, cranes and draglines that were renowned for high quality and long life, typically over 20 years. Many NCK machines continue to operate worldwide.
Stoke is the south west part of Ipswich, Suffolk, bounded by the River Orwell and Belstead Brook. To the west lie the Chantry estates. Stoke is associated with the coming of the railway and consequent industrialisation. Nowadays it is a suburb with many housing developments.
Francis Goold Morony Stoney was a Victorian era Irish engineer, noted for his work on sluice design.
Robert Ransome was an English maker of agricultural implements. He founded the company later known as Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies.
Ransome & Marles Bearing Company Limited was the owner of a business making ball and roller bearings founded during the First World War to make bearings for aircraft and other engines. Before the war most bearings had been imported and most of those were from Germany.