North British Locomotive Company
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The North British Locomotive Company of Scotland (NBL or North British) was created in 1903 through the merger of three Glasgow companies, Sharp Stewart, Neilson and Company and Dübs and Company, creating the largest locomotive building company in Europe. Its main factories were located at the neighbouring Atlas and Hyde Park Works in central Springburn. The new central Administration Block and Drawing Offices for the combined company were completed across the road from the Hyde Park Works in 1909 and is today the main campus of North Glasgow College. In 1918 the factory 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. 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.

Mainline Steam New Zealand locomotive, North British J 1211. Photo by Joseph Christianson

Steam locomotives

NBL built steam locomotives for countries as far afield as Australia, Malaysia and New Zealand. 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). In 1939 NB supplied 40 J class to the New Zealand Railways Department (NZR); some of which were later converted to J^B class oilburners and some to J^A class. In 1951 NB supplied another 16 J^A 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 Africa purchased over 100 engines from the company in the 2-8-4 layout 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 2000 locomotives from the North British Locomotive Company.

Locomotives made for Britain included the LMS Stanier Class 8F, the LMS Jubilee Class, and the LSWR N15 class, the Scotch Arthurs.

Diesel locomotives

North British Class 22, D6343, with Hymek D7072 at Old Oak Common, 1965.

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)[1]. 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).

Electric locomotives

Preserved North British AL4 / Class 84 84001, ex-E3036, on display at Crewe Works in 2005.

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.

Decline

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.

Preservation

•  Australia
  • Several industrial shunters have been preserved, including PVH1 by the Derwent Valley Railway (Tasmania), and number 27654 by the Llanelli & Mynydd Mawr Railway. A number of steam locomotives still exist in Australia, including, some operational Victorian Railways R class 4-6-4 engines, several Dübs engines and Pmr Class 4-6-2 locomotives of Western Australia, a Rx Class engine in South Australia.

•  New Zealand
  • Several older Sharp Stewart, Dubs and Neilson locomotives have also been preserved in New Zealand, the most famous being Neilson-built F13 and Dubs-built F163.
  • Three steam locomotives of NZR 4-8-2 classes J, J^A, and J^B are preserved by Mainline Steam.
  • Steam Incorporated in Paekakariki, New Zealand have a J
  • Glenbrook Vintage Railway outside Auckland has an A^B class Pacific built by North British.

•  South Africa
  • A 2-8-4 SAR Class 24, No. 3664 (North British build no. 26386/49), affectionately called Jo-Anna, still does regular tourist trips in and around Pretoria ¹
  • The Outeniqua Choo Tjoe uses the Class 24

•  United Kingdom
  • Around 21 North British diesel shunters are preserved, mostly by public museums or preservation societies in the UK, e.g. the Scottish Railway Preservation Society [2] (SRPS) Diesel Group [3] owns D2767 and returned this to working order on 25th June 2008. A list of these with information and photos can be found on the World of Preserved Shunters web site [4].
  • The only surviving North British main-line diesel or electric locomotive is Class 84 84001.
  • A 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) gauge North British 4-6-2 steam locomotive is preserved at the Phyllis Rampton Trust in Surrey, England.

References

• Reed, Brian (1974):Diesel Hydraulic Locomotives of the Western Region. David and Charles (London) ISBN 0-7153-6769-2
• Oberg, Leon. Locomotives of Australia, Reed, Sydney, 1975.
• ARHS, A Century Plus of Locomotives: New South Wales Railways 1855-1965, Sydney, 1965.

See also

• Category:NBL locomotives

External links

• "The AC Locomotive Group (caring for Class 84 84001)"
• "Mainline Steam" of New Zealand (caring for NZR J 1211 & JB 1236