Dick, Kerr & Co.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dick, Kerr and Company was a locomotive manufacturer in Kilmarnock, Scotland.
Having previously been known as W.B.Dick and Company the company had built all kinds of tramway equipment and rolling stock. From 1883 the company joined with John Kerr and under its new name, it built around fifty locomotives up to 1919. The company also had faciities in Preston, where, in 1893 they acquired the railway and tramway plant activities of Hartley, Arnoux and Fanning who had been bought out by Kerr Stuart and Company.
[edit] The First World War
During the First World War the company was converted to a munitions factory. The company also made aircraft, to designs from the Seaplane Experimental Station, Felixstowe. To improve morale, some of the women employees of this era fomed the nationally reknown ladies football team, The Dick, Kerr's Ladies.
[edit] Post War
In 1919 the Kilmarnock works were sold to the Kilmarnock Engineering Company, and the company was taken over by English Electric.
[edit] Reference
- Lowe, J.W., (1989) British Steam Locomotive Builders, Guild Publishing
