Bowesfield Works was a railway locomotive manufacturing plant in Stockton-on-Tees. The works was operated by a joint venture company called Metropolitan Vickers-Beyer Peacock from 1949 until 1960.
Metropolitan-Vickers and Beyer, Peacock & Co. formed a joint venture company in November 1949 to design and manufacture diesel, electric and gas turbine locomotives. Because Beyer, Peacock's Gorton works was still busy producing steam locomotives, an alternative site for the new locomotives to be built had to be found. A factory at Yarm Road, Stockton-on-Tees, on which Metrovicks had acquired a lease in 1947, was chosen as the location. The factory which had been built in 1946 for the American construction machinery company LeTourneau, was almost brand new, and covered an area of around 95,000 square feet (8,800m2), later extended to over 125,000 square feet (11,600m2) by Metrovicks. The works had its own railway siding running from Bowesfield Junction to the north east of the works. Initially the factory was used by Metrovicks for steel fabrication work before locomotive manufacture began in 1949.
Locomotives built
Brazil
The first locomotives built at the works were fourteen electric locomotives for the Rede Mineira de Viação railway company of Brazil. They were 1,072 horsepower (799kW), Bo-Bo, 1,000mm (3ft3+3⁄8in) metre gauge gauge locomotives. This was followed by another order for ten similar locomotives for Rede de Viação Paraná-Santa Catarina, Brazil.
The only locomotives built for British Railways at the works, were the twenty BR Class 28 diesel electrics during 1958–59, and the experimental 25 kV AC locomotive E1000 which was built by converting the gas turbine locomotive 18100. Work commenced in January 1958 when 18100 was brought to Bowesfield Works from storage at Dukinfield Works. The conversion of 18100 involved the removal of the gas turbine unit, generator and the middle traction motor from each bogie, which changed the locomotive from a Co-Co to an A1A-A1A wheel arrangement. The necessary electrical equipment such as the transformer, mercury arc rectifiers and pantograph etc. was installed, with the work completed by October 1958.
National Coal Board
In addition to building mainline locomotives, the works also constructed twelve Metropolitan-Vickers DBF type, 3ft (914mm) gauge, battery powered under ground mining locomotives for the National Coal Board during 1959.
Metrovick built SAR Class 5E1, Series 1, number E445
In December 1960, it was announced that the works was facing closure due to a lack of orders, and in February 1961, the Metropolitan-Vickers-Beyer Peacock joint company was placed into voluntary liquidation. The works was closed shortly afterwards and the workforce made redundant.
The site today
The factory building was taken over by the Visqueen company, a manufacturer of polythene films, which is now part of the British Polythene Industries group. The factory closed, and from 2011 the site was taken over by Bellway Homes who developed the site as their Queensgate development which features 2,3, and 4 bedroom homes.
A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, motor coach, railcar or power car; the use of these self-propelled vehicles is increasingly common for passenger trains, but rare for freight.
The English Electric Company Limited (EE) was a British industrial manufacturer formed after the armistice of World War I by amalgamating five businesses which, during the war, had been making munitions, armaments and aeroplanes.
British Thomson-Houston (BTH) was a British engineering and heavy industrial company, based at Rugby, Warwickshire, England. Originally founded to sell products from the Thomson-Houston Electric Company, it soon became a manufacturer using licences from the American company. They were known primarily for their electrical systems and steam turbines.
The AAR wheel arrangement system is a method of classifying locomotive wheel arrangements that was developed by the Association of American Railroads. Essentially a simplification of the European UIC classification, it is widely used in North America to describe diesel and electric locomotives. It is not used for steam locomotives, which use the Whyte notation instead.
British Rail 18000 was a prototype mainline gas turbine-electric locomotive built for British Railways in 1949 by Brown, Boveri & Cie. An earlier gas-turbine locomotive, 18100, had been ordered from Metropolitan-Vickers by the Great Western Railway but construction was delayed due to World War II; a second, 18000, was thus ordered from Switzerland in 1946. It spent its working life on the Western Region of British Railways, operating express passenger services from Paddington station, London.
Class 80 was the TOPS classification allocated by British Rail to the prototype 25 kV AC electric locomotive. This locomotive was built by Metropolitan-Vickers, initially as a prototype gas turbine-electric locomotive, numbered 18100. British Rail allocated the number E1000 to the locomotive following its conversion from gas turbine propulsion.
Beyer, Peacock and Company was an English railway locomotive manufacturer with a factory in Openshaw, Manchester. Founded by Charles Beyer, Richard Peacock and Henry Robertson, it traded from 1854 until 1966. The company exported locomotives, and machine tools to service them, throughout the world.
Metropolitan-Vickers, Metrovick, or Metrovicks, was a British heavy electrical engineering company of the early-to-mid 20th century formerly known as British Westinghouse. Highly diversified, it was particularly well known for its industrial electrical equipment such as generators, steam turbines, switchgear, transformers, electronics and railway traction equipment. Metrovick holds a place in history as the builders of the first commercial transistor computer, the Metrovick 950, and the first British axial-flow jet engine, the Metropolitan-Vickers F.2. Its factory in Trafford Park, Manchester, was for most of the 20th century one of the biggest and most important heavy engineering facilities in Britain and the world.
Darlington Works was established in 1863 by the Stockton and Darlington Railway in the town of Darlington in the north east of England. The main part of the works, the North Road Shops was located on the northeast side of the Stockton and Darlington Railway
British Rail 18100 was a prototype main line gas turbine-electric locomotive built for British Railways in 1951 by Metropolitan-Vickers, Manchester. It had, however, been ordered by the Great Western Railway in the 1940s, but construction was delayed due to World War II. It spent its working life on the Western Region of British Railways, operating express passenger services from Paddington station, London.
Co-Co is the wheel arrangement for diesel and electric locomotives with two six-wheeled bogies with all axles powered, with a separate traction motor per axle. The equivalent UIC classification (Europe) for this arrangement is Co′Co′, or C-C for AAR.
South Australian Railways (SAR) was the statutory corporation through which the Government of South Australia built and operated railways in South Australia from 1854 until March 1978, when its non-urban railways were incorporated into Australian National, and its Adelaide urban lines were transferred to the State Transport Authority.
The 46 class was a class of mainline electric locomotive built by Metropolitan-Vickers and its partner Beyer, Peacock and Company in England for the New South Wales railways department.
The WAGR X class is a now-withdrawn class of diesel locomotives built by Beyer, Peacock & Company and Metropolitan-Vickers, Bowesfield Works, Stockton-on-Tees for the Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) between 1954 and 1956. Several members of the class have been preserved.
The South African Railways Class 5E1, Series 1 of 1959 was an electric locomotive.
The South African Railways Class 5E1, Series 2 of 1963 was an electric locomotive.
The South African Railways Class 5E1, Series 3 of 1964 was an electric locomotive.
The South African Railways Class ES of 1936 was an electric locomotive.
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