Bromsgrove railway works

Bromsgrove railway works was established in 1841 at Aston Fields, near Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, England as a maintenance facility for the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway. However, it was one of the first to actually build locomotives rather than simply maintaining those provided by other manufacturers.

Locomotive production

Two 2-2-2 engines were built by the railway's engineer James McConnell in 1844, then he obtained the directors' permission to build a new locomotive for the Lickey Incline.

This followed a series of accidents on the incline. One involved a demonstration locomotive by William Church, called, unfortunately "Surprise". Its experimental boiler blew up, killing the enginemen, Thomas Scaife and Joseph Rutherford. Then a further boiler explosion on another loco killed William Creuze.

The company had been using American Norris 4-2-0s, which in fact lasted until 1856. The Americans made much of the fact that they were showing the British how to build engines, and they were probably expensive to import. Edward Bury had borrowed one of his engines from the London and Birmingham Railway but it failed halfway up the bank. Another locomotive that had been tried was "Ysabel" a 2-4-0 built by Isaac Dodds for the Isabel II Railway.

McConnell carried out a number of innovations, culminating in a locomotive specifically built for the incline, the "Great Britain" reputed to be the first saddle tank.

It was a six coupled loco, weighing 30 tonnes, with outside cylinders and an oval boiler. Initially number 38, it was later renumbered 276, then rebuilt as a well tank in 1853 and renumbered again as 300.

He continued to seek higher standards in railway engineering. In 1846 he met with George Stephenson and Archibald Slate at Bromsgrove. It was at this meeting that the idea of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers came about.

Later history

The works built very few locomotives since, after the merger with Midland Railway, such work was concentrated at Derby. However it became a well-respected wagon works, using components from Derby, apart from laminated springs which it fabricated itself. In the same year, 1846, McConnell transferred to the newly formed London and North Western Railway as superintendent of its southern headquarters at Wolverton.

It became part of the LMS and, during World War II the Works Manager initiated a scheme for recovering timber and metal fittings for re-use as spares. After nationalisation in 1949 it remained busy with one of the highest productivity rates, but following a reorganisation of railway workshops, it closed in 1964, with the work being transferred to Derby.

ource

* This is Worcestershire, "Reaching for new standards", Wednesday 18 February 2004
* Lowe, J.W., (1989) "British Steam Locomotive Builders," Guild Publishing