A&G Price

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A&G Price Ltd.

logo
legal form Corporation
founding 1868
Seat Thames , New ZealandNew ZealandNew Zealand 
management Grant Burnett
Number of employees 40
Branch mechanical engineering
Website www.agprice.co.nz
Status: 2018

A & G Price Limited , with the abbreviation AGP in the company logo , is a machine and former locomotive factory in New Zealand based in Thames on the North Island . The company, founded in 1868, went into liquidation in 2017 .

history

The Price brothers came from the English county of Gloucestershire . Alfred Price, who lived from 1838 to 1907, traveled to New Zealand for the first time in 1863, where he worked for a few years in the Clyde ironworks in Onehunga near Auckland . He returned to England to marry his wife Kate in 1867 and emigrated to New Zealand that same year with his brother George. The Price brothers founded the A. & G. Price factory in 1868 on Princes Street in Onehunga, where Alfred had previously worked. The factory had its own foundry and was already producing over a hundred flax mills in the first year .

With the rapid development of the gold fields near Thames, a good 70 km southeast of Auckland, there was a great need for stamping works , so that Alfred Price built another factory with a foundry in Thames, which went into operation in 1870. But gold production collapsed as early as 1872, so that this branch of industry hardly delivered any more orders. Fortunately, CJ Stone, a wealthy Auckland entrepreneur, had a huge sawmill and shipyard built in Thames, where A. & G. Price could supply all machinery except steam engines and boilers . Nevertheless, the company began building steam engines as early as 1871. Between 1872 and 1874, A & G Price was able to manufacture the first railroad cars in Onehunga. After completion of the order and the opening of the Auckland – Onehunga railway line, the Onehunga plant was closed.

In the 1870s, A. & G. Price made improved versions of imported machines, such as a large pump for keeping water in a mine and logging machines for sawmills. In 1881 the construction of paddle steamers for river navigation began . From 1883, Price manufactured Pelton turbine wheels under license. In the same year the company's first steam locomotive was built. Business did well in the 1890s. The demand for twine led to further orders to build machines for flax processing, as well as the emerging gold mines of Waihi placed orders for heavy mining machines . The A. & G. Price was expanded in 1896 and 1903. The second expansion was necessary to complete the first contract to build locomotives for New Zealand Railways . The locomotives were so successful that further orders followed. The Thames – Waihi railway, completed in 1905, made it easy to transport the machines to the mines, but also required rolling stock that was manufactured by A. & G. Price.

A & G Price in Thames at the turn of the century

The two company founders died at the beginning of the 20th century: Alfred Price in 1907, his brother George in 1917 and Kate Price, Alfred's wife in 1934. The company A. & G. Price was converted into a stock corporation after Alfred's death and survived until 1949 when it merged with the large machine manufacturer William Cable and Company. In the 1930s, the company hired Abner Doble , an American mechanical engineer who had developed a steam-powered car. He was supposed to develop a steam engine for buses for A & G Price. The first was tested by the Auckland Transport Board in the early 1930s. A second bus was built in 1932 for White & Sons on the Auckland – Thames line. In 1954, A. & G Price was taken over by the Cable Price Downer Group , although the company kept its name. In 1974 the workforce numbered 520. The head office was in Auckland on Fanshawe Street, the plant on Beach Road in Thames was described as a branch. In 1988, corporate looter Brierley Investments took control of parent company Cable Price Downer . However, after the stock market crash on Black Monday in 1987, Brierley Investments was already in trouble and in 2000 sold A & G Price to the Tiri Group , based in Auckland. This investment company was led by Tom Sturgess - a former US Marine who emigrated to New Zealand in 1996 and took over several traditional companies in New Zealand.

Railroad business

A & G Price was New Zealand's largest private locomotive factory, both in terms of the number of locomotives built and the number of deliveries to the New Zealand Railways Department.

The first rolling stock order was for 22 passenger and freight cars for the Auckland – Onehunga railway line, which was one of the last orders made between 1872 and 1874 at the Onehunga plant. In 1883 Price delivered the first locomotive. It was intended for the Piako County Tramway , a horse-drawn industrial line from the gold mine in Waiorongomai with the rare 838 mm gauge. The locomotive was used to transport the gold-bearing ore from the mine to the stamping mill. Only when the two-axle saddle tank locomotives were delivered did it become apparent that they were too big for the curves of the railway, so that after two years of storage they were resold for less than half of the initial costs. After Thames was connected to the Auckland railroad with a branch line to Hamilton in 1898 , Price was able to deliver the first series of 10 tank locomotives of the W F series to New Zealand Railways (NZR), which were built in 1904 and 1905. With the completion of the North Island Main Trunk Railway (NIMT) in the early 20th century, more powerful locomotives were needed. A & G Price received the order to build 30 class A locomotives with a top speed of 102 km / h. The hundredth built by A & G Price steam engine was from the 705th She was part of an order executed from 1922 to 1926 over 20 Pacific locomotives of Series A B .

Price also built 22 geared locomotives for forest and industrial railways. These included the 16-wheeler locomotives that were used on the forest railways of Mamaku and Ongarue, where they had to negotiate tight curves.

The advantages of diesel engines were recognized as early as 1939 . Price built two diesel shunting locomotives for NZR and two more for Whakatane Board Mills and Wanganui Timber Company. In the 1950s and 1960s, more diesel locomotives were built for the New Zealand Air Force and Land Forces , the Ministry of Labor, coal mines , freezer warehouses, chemical plants , cement plants and the Kinletih paper mill. The NZR also took over 41 locomotives in different designs, which were assigned to the T R class . After the Second World War , open freight wagons of the Lc series were built for NZR 500 and steam locomotives were overhauled until the conversion to diesel operation was completed in 1964. A & G Price carried out a lot of work for the state railway until the privatization of NZR in the mid-1980s.

In 1990, A & G Price converted 24 of the 31 cars formerly used in the NZR Silver Star night train for the Eastern and Oriental Express . The NZR stopped the train in July 1979 and the wagons ended up on the siding for more than ten years because of the necessary asbestos removal. For the new customer, the wagons of the Cape gauge (1067 mm) used in New Zealand had to be re- gauged to the meter gauge (1000 mm) used in Southeast Asia . Six Silver Star cars remained with A & G Price as a reserve in the event that further converted cars were required, which was not necessary, so they were sold to private customers between 2012 and 2016.

Gear locomotives

Price 16-wheeler
Price E class

The geared locomotives built by A & G Price for use on industrial and forest railways used elements of the Climax and Heisler locomotives . The following locomotives were built, although only one of some classes was built:

  • 16-wheeler - this series had four bogies and, like the Climax A-Class, used a standing two-cylinder steam engine and a two-speed gearbox to drive the shaft train. This 36-ton locomotive was first built in 1912. Four were built.
  • C-Class - this series was a copy of the Climax A-Class with a T-tank and two-speed gearbox, but used inner frames for the bogies. Two locomotives of this series with a weight of 12 tons were delivered from 1921 to 1922.
  • D-Class - this series was a light version of the C-Class that weighed only 8 tons. Only one piece was built in 1912.
  • E-Class - this series was a combination of a Climax and a Heisler locomotive. The arrangement of the cylinders and the power transmission to the drive train was the same as that of a Climax B-class locomotive, but like a Heisler locomotive, only one axle of the bogie was driven and the power to the other axle in the bogie was driven via coupling rods transfer. From 1923 four locomotives of this type with a weight of 23 to 26 tons were delivered. Another locomotive of this type followed in 1937 with some improvements.
  • Ca class - this series was an improved version of the C class with a closed driver's cab. As with the E-Class, Heisler bogies were used. In 1923 a single locomotive of this type was delivered.
  • Cb-Class - this series like the Ca-Class is an improved version of the C-Class with a weight of 12 tons. The very small wheels meant that the open gears were only 30 mm above the rails and therefore often touched the ground. The dirt in the gearbox acted like a grinding paste, which quickly wore the gears down. From 1925 four locomotives of this series were delivered.
  • Cba-class - same as the Cb-class, but with the arrangement of the water tank behind the driver's cab instead of the side of the steam boiler., And Belpaire standing boiler . Only one locomotive was delivered in 1927.
Preserved geared locomotives from A&G Price
place train Serial number Construction year Discarded class Weight Status source
Tokomaru, Horowhenua Tokomaru Steam Museum 108 1922 1964 C. 12 ton static exhibit
Ngongotaha, Rotorua Lakes Rotorua Ngongotaha Rail Trust 110 1923 1956 E. 23 ton waits dismantled in parts for a restoration (status 2018)
Pukemiro, Waikato Glen Afton Line Heritage Railway 111 1923 1958 E. 23 ton Refurbishment to a static exhibit
Christchurch Ferrymead Heritage Park 113 1924 1956 Cb 12 ton operational since 1975
Pukemiro, Waikato Glen Afton Line Heritage Railwa 117 1927 1962 Cb 12 ton operational since 2008
Greymouth , West Coast

Hokitika

Shantytown Heritage Park

Westland Industrial Heritage

119 1929 1954 Cba only steam boiler

frame only

literature

  • William George Lloyd: Register of New Zealand Railways Steam Locomotives, 1863-1971 . New Zealand Railway and Locomotive Society (Otago Branch), 2002, ISBN 0-9582072-1-6 .
  • CW Vennell: Men of Metal: The Story of A. & G. Price Ltd., Auckland and Thames, 1868-1968 . Wilson & Horton, 1968.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Dozens of jobs lost after Thames engineering firm closes .
  2. ^ A & G Price Ltd. In: New Zealand Geared Locomotives. Retrieved March 16, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Indust. Steam Locomotives Class C. In: New Zealand Rolling Stock Register. Retrieved September 6, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Price 110E. Rotorua Ngongotaha Rail Trust, accessed March 16, 2018 .
  5. ↑ E111 Locomotive Works Number 111 built 1923. The Glen Afton Line Heritage Railway, accessed September 6, 2018 .
  6. ^ Canterbury IT Limited: Rolling Stock List. The Canterbury Railway Society, accessed March 16, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Cb 117 Locomotive Works Number 117 built 1927. The Glen Afton Line Heritage Railway, January 4, 2017, accessed March 16, 2018 .
  8. ↑ David Maciulaitis: NZ rolling stock register. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on March 24, 2017 ; accessed on March 16, 2018 (en-NZ). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.maciulaitis.com