Nasmyth, Gaskell and Company
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Nasmyth, Gaskell and Company, was a Locomotive manufacturer in Patricroft, near the town of Eccles, England. The works was located adjacent to both the Liverpool and Manchester Railway and the Bridgewater Canal; and could export locomotives after, May 1894, via the Manchester Ship Canal.
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[edit] Nasmyth
The Bridgewater Foundry was founded by James Nasmyth, famous for the "Nasmyth Hammer," in 1836 in partnership with Holbrook Gaskell [1]. He had previously been employed in Henry Maudslay's workshop in Lambeth and his interest was mainly, but not limited to, specialist machine tools.
He produced nine locomotives in 1839, thirteen in 1840, eight in 1841 and sixteen in 1842 [2]. They may well have been sub-contracted from other makers. Those for the Midland Counties Railway were 2-2-0 with 5'6" driving wheels and 12"x18" cylinders, probably similar to that railway's Bury machines, apart from one which was 2-2-2, and had smaller drivers, with 5'0" and 14"x18" cylinders. In 1841 the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway had found some American Norris 4-2-0 locomotives very successful, especially on the notorious Lickey Incline, and the company built six similar ones for the line.
[edit] Expansion
In 1850 the name of the firm changed to James Nasmyth and Company, then in 1857 to Patricroft Ironworks. The firm's main interest remained heavy machine tools and very few more locomotives were built. In 1867, Nasmyth presumably decided to take a back seat. Robert Wilson and Henry Garnett became the principal partners and the company's name changed again to Nasmyth Wilson and Company, acquiring Limited Liability in 1882 [1]. It became a Public limited company in 1919.
From about 1873, the demand for locomotives from overseas increased and up to 1938, over a 1,650 locomotives were produced [2]; over one thousand of which were exported. One buyer was the New Zealand Railways Department, and a misunderstanding with the firm regarding the weight limitations imposed on the NZR P class that delayed the delivery of the urgently needed locomotives precipitated a shift in New Zealand away from English manufacturers.
[edit] Decline and closure
During World War I the factory was mainly engaged in munitions work [3]; but it built twenty 2-8-0 locomotives for the Chemin de Fer de l'État in France [3] and thirty two for India along with a hundred small petrol driven locomotives.
Sales continued, but in the early 1930s orders began to dry up after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 [4]. The last locomotive order dispatched was two 2-6-4T metre gauge tank locomotives, Works No. 1649 and 1650, dispatched in 1938 to the South Indian Railways. Only two other locomotives, Works No. 1651 and 1652, were produced in 1938; both were 0-6-0 standard gauge locomotives for the Palestine Railway [2].
As part of a planned reorganisation of the industry, the company ceased manufacture of locomotives and handed over all its drawings and patterns to the British Locomotive Manufacturers Association [5]. The company however continued to make steam hammers and machine tools.
On 1 June 1940 the Ministry of Supply took over the factory; and it became a Royal Ordnance Factory, ROF Patricroft[5]. The company was wound up on 7 November 1940, having made a loss of £2,663 in 1939 [5].
The Royal Ordnance Factory, too, has now closed and the works is now part of a business and technology centre.
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
- Lowe, J.W., (1989) British Steam Locomotive Builders, Guild Publishing.
- Cantrell, John (2005). Nasmyth, Wilson & Co.: Patricroft Locomotive Builders. Stroud: Tempus Publishing Limited. ISBN 0-7524-3465-2.
