Hunslet Engine Company

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Hunslet Engine Company
legal form Company
founding 1864
Seat Leeds , UK
Branch Shunting locomotives
Website hunsletengine.com

The Hunslet Engine Company is a British locomotive manufacturer that was founded in 1864 in Hunslet , a district of Leeds . The company produced steam-powered shunting locomotives for more than 100 years and now builds shunting locomotives powered by diesel engines . For a short time, automobiles were also built under the brand name Attila .

The company has been part of the LH Group since 2012 ; a subsidiary, The Hunslet Steam Company, maintains and builds steam locomotives .

The Irish Mail is a typical small steam locomotive, many of which were built at Hunsley for use in quarries.

history

The early years: 1864–1901

The Hunslet Engine Company was founded in 1864 on Jack Lane in the Hunslet district of Leeds in West Yorkshire , England , by contractor John Towlerton Leather. The plant manager was the engineer James Campbell from Leeds, the son of Alexander Campbell.

The first locomotive was built in 1865. It was the Linden , a standard gauge -0-6-0- tank locomotive for Brassey and Ballard , a railway contractor, as there were many of the company's first customers. Coal mines were also on the customer list. This simple shunting and short-haul industrial locomotive was Hunslet's main model for many years.

In 1871 James Campbell bought the company for £ 25,000 (payable in five installments over two years) and it remained in the family's possession for many years. From 1865 to 1870 fewer than ten locomotives were built per year, in 1871 there were already 17 and their number rose over the next 30 years to up to 34 units per year.

The Dolbadarn , built in 1922 for the Dinorwic quarry and now runs on the Llanberis Lake Railway .

In 1870, Hunslet built their first narrow-gauge locomotive, Dinorwic , a tiny 578 mm gauge 0-4-0 tank locomotive for the Dinorwic quarry in Llanberis . This locomotive was later renamed Charlie and was the first of twenty identical locomotives built for this quarry. She contributed a lot to the establishment of Hunslet as a large manufacturer of locomotives for quarries. This quarry was connected to Port Dinorwic by a 1219 mm gauge line , for which Hunslet supplied three 0-6-0-T locomotives: Dinorwic , Padarn and Velinheli . Much larger locomotives than the usual quarry types, the 578mm gauge Charles , Blanche and Linda locomotives , were built in 1882 and 1883 for use on the main line of the Penrhyn Quarry Railway between Bethesda and Port Penrhyn in North Wales .

A large number of 0-6-0 short wheelbase tank locomotives were delivered to the Manchester Ship Canal Company.

The first Hunslet locomotive for export was the No. 10, a 0-4-0 ST locomotive that was delivered to Java via Hull and Rotterdam . By 1902, Hunslet had already delivered locomotives to over 30 countries around the world, often opening up new markets. In Ireland, Hunslet supplied many newly opened narrow-gauge lines and also built the three unorthodox locomotives for the Lartigue monorail in 1887 , which was operated by the Listowel & Ballybunion Railway.

From 1873 onwards, a large number of Hunslet locomotives were exported to Australia and used there on both main and branch lines.

1901-1939

In 1901, James Campbell was still the owner of the Hunslet Engine Company and his four sons were all employed by the company, including his eldest son, Alexander III, who had taken his uncle George's position as plant manager in 1890 after the death of his uncle George. In 1902 the company form was changed. It was now called '' Hunslet Engine Company Ltd. '', but all company shares remained in the family. After the death of James Campbell in 1905, his son Alexander III took over. chaired the company and his brother Robert became plant manager, while her brother Will remained secretary and sales manager with a seat on the management board.

Around this time, Hunslet built a series of 2-6-2 tank locomotives for the Sierra Leone State Railways , including elements in the design of the famous Russell , a 597mm narrow gauge locomotive for the Portmadoc, Beddgelert and South Snowdon Railway , flowed in.

In 1903 the production of automobiles began . The brand name was Attila . Production ended in 1906.

After family disputes, both Will and his younger brother Gordon left the company and Robert, disabled as a result of a serious injury, was unable to continue his work as plant manager. So the post of plant manager had to be advertised and Edgar Alcock, then deputy plant manager of the Gorton foundry at Beyer-Peacock , was hired in 1912. Alcock came to Hunslet at a time when customers were demanding larger and more powerful locomotives. Examples are the two 86-ton 2-8-4 tank locomotives for Ferrocarril de Antofagasta a Bolivia .

By 1914, the UK was at war and foreign demand had subsided. Hunslet, like many other factories, employed women in their workshops and made ammunition. In addition, locomotives were also built in limited numbers, e.g. B. Lightweight, narrow gauge 4-6-0-T locomotives for the War Department Light Railways .

After the First World War , Hunslet was again able to acquire orders from abroad and also received follow-up orders from the London, Midland and Scottish Railway for 90 LMS Fowler Class 3F ' Jinty' 0-6-0-T shunting locomotives. In the 1930s, Hunslet built its largest locomotives, two 0-8-0 tank locomotives for a special rail ferry service in China . At the time, these two machines were the largest and most powerful tank locomotives ever built. About a year later, their design served as a model for a 0-8-0 tank locomotive for India . In these interwar years, the company received many other orders for large locomotives.

Other independent British engine manufacturer survived the Great Depression not Hunslet and took over their jobs, rights and constructions such. B. those from Kerr, Stuart and Company or the Avonside Engine Company .

1930-2000

John Alcock, who succeeded his father as director of Hunslet in 1958, recalled his father telling him around 1920, when he was a school boy, that his primary social concern must be the use of internal combustion engines in locomotives. Throughout the 1930s, Hunslet worked on improving diesel locomotives .

Austerity 68081

During the Second World War , Hunslet again served his country as a manufacturer of ammunition, but also built locomotives - steam and diesel-powered - for use in the war. Noteworthy is the company's role in producing the Austerity -0-6-0-ST shunter. This was an economy version of the 50550 shunting locomotive, which in turn was a derivative of the 48150 shunting locomotive, 16 of which had been built before the war. Hunslet built 149 economy locomotives during the war and subcontracts for 200 more. From 1943 to 1964, a total of 485 economy locomotives were built by Hunslet (and other locomotive manufacturers), 70 of which are still preserved today.

After the war, the construction of normal locomotives was resumed. The fireproof diesel drive of the Hunslet locomotives for the coal mines and the construction of additional economy locomotives for the British mine administration and the army were important for post-war production. In addition, some older economy locomotives were rebuilt, which dragged on until the early 1960s. The last three economy locomotives were sold in 1970, one for museum use, one for scrapping and one to the British Mines Administration.

The last industrial steam locomotive in the UK was built by Hunslet in 1971 for export to Java.

The factory on Jack Lane in Hunslet, Leeds closed in 1995. The last order was a series of narrow-gauge locomotives for tunneling on the Jubilee Line Extension of the London Underground .

2000 – today

The former Hunslet factory in 2009.

The Hunslet Engine Company is now part of the LH Group of Companies . The company owns the naming and planning rights of a number of former British locomotive manufacturers such as B. Andrew Barclay , Avonside Engine Company , North British Locomotive Company , Greenwood and Batley , Hudswell Clarke , John Fowler & Co. , Kerr Stuart , Kitson & Co. and Manning Wardle . It repairs locomotives of these brands and ensures the supply of spare parts.

In 2004 the company was taken over by the LH Group . Manufacturing was relocated to Barton under Needwood ; other parts of the business remained in Leeds.

In 2006, the company provided remote-controlled diesel - electric shunting locomotives for John M. Henderson & Co. Ltd. which were delivered to POSCO's coke plant in South Korea . In the same year, several diesel locomotives for mines were completed.

In 2007 Hunslet began developing a new family of locomotives, ranging from shunting locomotives to vehicles weighing up to 100 tons. The first locomotive of the new class, the DH60C , a three-axle shunting locomotive with diesel-hydraulic drive, was presented in July 2010.

The company also operates a locomotive rental business, primarily for industrial shunting locomotives, including a British Rail Class 08 which was procured in 2006.

The Hunslet Steam Co.

The Hunslet Steam Co. is part of the LH Group. It operates the new construction of steam locomotives (e.g. the Hunslet 0-4-0 tank locomotive for quarries), the construction of steam boilers and the maintenance of locomotives.

Affiliates

Hunslet-Barclay Ltd

Hunslet-Barclay was bought by the Hunslet Group in 1972. The company was mainly engaged in the maintenance of multi-unit diesel multiple units at the Andrew Barclay Caledonia Works in Kilmarnock . In 2003 the LH Group bought the company's locomotive production. In October 2007, Hunslet-Barclay filed a settlement, was taken over by FKI (the owner of Brush Traction ) in November and renamed Brush-Barclay .

Locomotives still preserved

Mostly rebuilt Hunslet Blanche on the Ffestiniog Railway

United Kingdom

Hunslet Engine Company locomotives can be seen on museum railways across the UK, e.g. B .:

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka Railways Class Y, No 681 in Galle , Sri Lanka
  • The Sri Lanka Railways have Hunslet diesel shunting locomotives in use at almost all marshalling yards.

New Zealand

literature

  • Clarke, BR and Veitch, CC: The Eighteen Inch Gauge Royal Arsenal Railway at Woolwich . Privately published by BR Clarke, 1986, ISBN 0-948951-00-1 .
  • Neale, A .: Hunslet Narrow Gauge Locomotives . Plateway Press, 1995, ISBN 1-871980-28-3 .
  • Railway Magazine (2007). Second new Hunslet just £ 152,750! , IPC Media, February, No. 1270, Volume 153, p. 57
  • Rolt, LTC: A Hunslet Hundred: One hundred years of locomotive building by the Hunslet Engine Company . David and Charles, 1964.
  • Townsley, DH: The Hunslet Engine Works . Plateway Press, 1998, ISBN 1-871980-38-0 .

Web links

Commons : Hunslet Engine Company  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Two of them are still in use on the Ffestiniog Railway and Charlie is on display in the Penrhyn Castle Railway Museum .
  2. ^ Bob McKillop: Hunslet Locomotives in Australia . In: Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin . December 1982, pp. 266-279.
  3. ^ Burgess Wise: The New Illustrated Encyclopedia of Automobiles.
  4. ↑ Rolt, p. 69
  5. ^ [1946] Spare Parts List, Austerity Locomotive . Camden Miniature Steam Services, 2006, ISBN 978-0-9547131-4-0 , p. 31.
  6. ↑ Austerity Spares List , p. 32
  7. ↑ This locomotive bought the Statfold Barn Railway in 2004 and brought it back to Great Britain, where it was called "Trangkil".
  8. ↑ TRANGKIL No.4 . In: www.statfoldbarnwailway.co.uk . Archived from the original on March 18, 2015. 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. Retrieved February 25, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.statfoldbarnrailway.co.uk
  9. ^ LH Group . In: www.lh-group.com . LH Group. Retrieved September 24, 2011.
  10. ^ Hunslet Engine Company . In: www.hunsletengine.com . Retrieved January 14, 2012.
  11. ↑ Turning the clock back . In: www.rail-news.com . July 28, 2010. Retrieved August 14, 2011.
  12. ↑ Locomotives - Mechanical Engineers - John M Henderson & Co Ltd . In: www.johnhenderson.co.uk . Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. 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. Retrieved June 27, 2014. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.johnmhenderson.co.uk
  13. ↑ Hunslet Builds New 50 ton locomotive for Korea . In: www.hunsletengine.com . April 18, 2007. Retrieved January 12, 2012.
  14. ^ Hunslet Developing New Shunter . In: www.hunsletengine.com . April 27, 2007. Retrieved January 14, 2012.
  15. ↑ Hunslet launch new locomotive on open days 6th & 7th and 8th July . In: www.hunslettengine.com . Retrieved January 14, 2012.
  16. ^ Paul Abell: A New Shunter from Hunslet . In: Today's Railways . No. 105, September 2010, pp. 54-56.
  17. ↑ Hunslet Adds 08 to Fleet . In: www.hunsletengine.com . Hunsletengine.com. January 25, 2006. Retrieved September 24, 2011.
  18. ↑ Hunslet Steam Co . In: www.hunsletengine.com . Retrieved January 14, 2012.