During the 19th century one of the largest manufacturing industries in Britain was locomotive building. Here the author, Dr Michael R. Bailey MBE, turns away from the main line railway companies and follows the story of the independent locomotive manufacturing industry. Prior to the mid-1840s independent firms were manufacturing nearly all locomotives built for the British, Irish and overseas markets. In the 1850s the trend turned to the larger British railway companies developing their own workshops, with the smaller railways still relying on the independent firms; however a growth in the demand for small industrial locomotives, used on the internal railway systems of large industrial sites, helped to keep the industry buoyant and several firms chose to specialise in this area. Dr Bailey provides an overview of the challenges, successes, and failures which the owners had to deal with throughout the political and economic background of the nineteenth century. The appendix lists the 100 or so workshops and companies covered in this book, along with their locations, it also gives details of any histories known to have been produced about any of them.
The subject was originally presented as a thesis for the Institute of Railway Studies in York, but has been re-written for a wider audience of business, railway and engineering historians. It retains the bibliography, together with citations and references. The sources range from academic books and papers to serious histories of railway technology and business practice.
Dr Bailey is an historian and archaeologist of early railway and locomotive technology and he has written many books and learned papers on the subject. He is the President of the Stephenson Locomotive Society, and of the British Overseas Railways Historical Trust, and is a Past-President of the Newcomen Society for the History of Engineering and Technology.
197 illustrations. Hardback. 224 pages.