Manning Wardle
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Manning Wardle was a steam locomotive manufacturer based in Leeds, England.
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[edit] Precursor companies
The city of Leeds in England was one of the earliest centres of locomotive building; Matthew Murray built the first commercially successful steam loocomotive, The Salamanca in Leeds in 1812. By 1856, a number of manufacturers had sprung up in the town, perhaps the most notable being the firm of E.B.Wilson and Company in Pearson Street.
[edit] Manning Wardle
E.B.Wilson and Company foundered in 1858. The company’s designs were purchased by Manning Wardle & Company, who located their Boyne Engine Works (established in 1840) in Jack Lane in the Hunslet district of the city. Within the next few years, two other companies, the Hunslet Engine Company and Hudswell, Clarke & Company also opened premises in Jack Lane. There was a good deal of staff movement between the three firms, leading to similar designs leaving all three works. Whilst Hudswell Clarke and Hunslet built a wide variety of locomotive types, Manning, Wardle concentrated on specialised locomotives for contractor’s use, building up a range of locomotives suitable for all types of contracting work.
Many Manning Wardle locomotives - of standard gauge and various narrow gauges - were exported to Europe, Africa, the Indian sub-continent, Australasia and South America.
[edit] Decline and closure
The company employed traditional construction throughout its existence, and failed to take advantage of the more efficient mass production techniques becoming available. As a result, Manning Wardle became more uncompetitive. The company ceased trading in 1927, after producing more than 2,000 steam locomotives.
The last complete locomotive was No. 2047 (standard gauge 0-6-0ST) delivered to Rugby Cement Works in August 1926. This locomotive still survives at Kidderminster Railway Museum on static display.
[edit] Acquisition
Following closure in 1926, the company's drawings, designs, equipment and customers were acquired by Kitsons who made twenty three locos of Manning Wardle designs until they also closed in 1938. The patterns were passed to Robert Stephenson and Hawthorne who built a further five locos of Manning Wardle design. Today the Manning Wardle designs are owned by the Hunslet-Barclay, who are still a provider of services to the rail industry, based in Kilmarnock, Scotland. The intellectual property rights for historic locomotive designs are held by the Hunslet Engine Company.
The trademark name Manning Wardle is owned by a company formed in 1999 to preserve the name for the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway, which from 1898 to 1935 operated what have become some of the company's most famous products, narrow gauge 2-6-2 Tank engines: Exe, Taw, Yeo and later Lew.
