| Former type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Rail transport |
| Fate | Assets Liquidated Goodwill acquired by Andrew Barclay Sons & Co. |
| Founded | 1903 |
| Defunct | 1962 |
| Headquarters | Springburn, Glasgow, UK |
| Key people | William Lorimer (Chairman) Hugh Reid (Managing Director) |
| Products | Locomotives |
| Employees | 8000 (1907) 2658 (1960) |
The North British Locomotive Company (NBL or North British) was created in 1903 through the merger of three Glasgow locomotive manufacturing companies; Sharp Stewart and Company (Atlas Works), Neilson, Reid and Company (Hyde Park Works) and Dübs and Company (Queens Park Works), creating the largest locomotive manufacturing company in Europe.
Its main factories were located at the neighbouring Atlas and Hyde Park Works in central Springburn, as well as the Queens Park Works in Polmadie. A new central Administration and Drawing Office for the combined company was completed across the road from the Hyde Park Works on Flemington Street by James Miller in 1909, later becoming the main campus of North Glasgow College.
The two other Railway works in Springburn were St. Rollox railway works, owned by the Caledonian Railway and Cowlairs railway works, owned by the North British Railway.
In 1918 NBL produced the first prototype of the Anglo-American Mark VIII battlefield tank for the Allied armies, but with the Armistice it did not go into production.
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NBL built steam locomotives for countries as far afield as Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Palestine and South Africa.
The Colony of New South Wales purchased numerous North British locomotives, as did the State of Victoria as late as 1951 (Oberg, Locomotives of Australia). Western Australia also purchased many North British Locomotives, such as the WAGR P Class.
Between 1903 and 1959 NB supplied many locomotives of various classes to Egyptian State Railways. They included 40 of the 545 class 2-6-0 in 1928.
Between 1921 and 1925, NBL supplied New Zealand Government Railways with 85 AB class locomotives. The whole fleet of Ab class engines numbered 143, as built, of which 141 entered service. Two were lost at sea (see below).
In 1935 NB supplied six Palestine Railways P class 4-6-0 locomotives to haul main line trains between Haifa and the Suez Canal.
In 1939 NB supplied 40 J class to the New Zealand Railways Department (NZR); some of which were later converted to JB class oilburners. In 1951 NB supplied another 16 JA class, though these did not have the American-style streamlining of the J class. Together with the NB predecessor firms, North British supplied about a quarter of the steam locomotives used by the NZR.
In 1949 South African Railways bought more than 100 2-8-4 locomotives from NBL and these became the Class 24; some operated tourist trains on the George-Knysna line until 2000. Additionally South Africa also purchased some of its Class 25, 4-8-4 engines from the company between 1953-55. These successful engines with various in-service modifications survived until the end of steam in South Africa in 1992. NB also introduced the Modified Fairlie locomotive in 1924. In total South Africa purchased over 2,000 locomotives from the North British Locomotive Company.
As of January 2010, Umgeni Steam Railway operates NBL Class 3BR engine 1486, built in Glasgow in 1912 and now named "Maureen", on the line between Kloof and Inchanga, a distance of about 40 kilometres (25 mi). She hauls vintage sightseeing trains some coaches of which date back to 1908.
Locomotives made for Britain included the LMS Stanier Class 8F, the LMS Jubilee Class, and the LSWR N15 class, the Scotch Arthurs.
In 1922 the New Zealand Railways Department ordered a batch of its very successful AB class pacifics from NBL, to be built and shipped as soon as possible. The trio 22878, 22879 and 22880 were built amidst this batch. 22878 and 22879 were loaded aboard SS Wiltshire and she sailed for Auckland, New Zealand, but she got into difficulty at Rosalie Bay, on the east coast of Great Barrier Island and sank.
22880 was dispatched on a subsequent sailing and was put into service in New Zealand as AB class number 745. This locomotive was in service for more than 30 years but then hit a washout near Hawera. It was then left in the mud for nearly 50 years but has now been exhumed with the intention of restoration. It is currently located in the nearby town of Stratford, New Zealand.
Whilst highly successful as designers and builders of steam locomotives for both its domestic market and abroad, North British failed to make the jump to diesel locomotive production. It did build a Paxman engined diesel locomotive, British Rail 10800, originally ordered for the London, Midland and Scottish Railway before the 1948 nationalisation of British Railways, but not delivered until 1950. Another Paxman engined locomotive was PVH1, built in 1953 as 'Paxman Voith Hydraulic 1' (hence the identity) for the Emu Bay Railway, Tasmania, and survives today preserved at the Derwent Valley Railway (Tasmania)Derwent Valley Railway (Tasmania). Its wheel formation is -D- being a hydraulic transmission locomotive, so in appearance it looks like an 0-8-0. It also built 8 Paxman engined shunters British Rail Class D2/1. Later in the 1950s it signed a deal with the German company MAN to construct further diesel engines under licence. These power units appeared in the late 1950s' British Railways (BR) designs pre-TOPS British Rail Class D3/1 (later D3/4), and later designated Class 21, Class 22, Class 41, Class 43 (Warship) and Class 251 (Blue Pullman) None of these were particularly successful: constructional shortcomings with the MAN engines made them far less reliable than German-built examples. A typical example of this was the grade of steel used for exhaust manifolds in the Class 43s - frequent manifold failures led to loss of turbocharger drive gas pressure and hence loss of power. More importantly, the driving cabs of the locomotives would fill with poisonous exhaust fumes. BR returned many North British diesel locomotives to their builder for repair under warranty and they also insisted on a three-month guarantee on all repairs (a requirement not levied on its own workshops).
North British was involved in the construction of early 25 kV AC electric locomotives for the West Coast Main Line (WCML) electrification project of the early 1960s. The General Electric Company won a contract for ten locomotives and sub-contracted the mechanical design and construction to North British: Class AL4 E3036-E3045 (later Class 84 84001-84010) entered traffic in 1960-61. As with its diesel locomotives, the class suffered poor reliability and spent long periods out of service. A partial reprieve came when money was made available to extend the electrification of the WCML north to Glasgow but no immediate funds were available for more electric locomotives. The Class 84s were refurbished in 1972 and pressed back into service, being finally withdrawn between 1978 to 1980 following delivery of Class 87 locomotives.
Perhaps unwisely, North British supplied many of its diesel and electric locomotives to BR at a loss, hoping to make up for this on massive future orders that never came. This and the continuing stream of warranty claims to cure design and workmanship faults proved fatal - North British declared bankruptcy on 19 April 1962. Because of the unreliability of its UK diesel and electric locomotives, all were withdrawn after comparatively short lifespans. The Atlas works site is now an industrial estate and the Hyde Park works site is now the campus of North Glasgow College.
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