The drawing office at the London & North Western Railway's Crewe works employed draughtsmen to deisgn locomotives and carriages. Crewe was one of the most important railway works in Britain and manufactured a huge range of railway equipment, turning raw materials into finished articles. Opened in 1843, the works constructed locomotives, carriages and signalling equipment, and even made soap for cleaning oil stains. After 1935 the Crewe drawing office took a subsidiary part in locomotive design to the headquarters office at Derby.
Crewe Locomotive Works was built in 1843 for the Grand Junction Railway, and was taken over by the London & North Western Railway (LNWR) three years later. The largest railway owned works in the world at the time, it was at the forefront of new technology, one of the first to introduce machine tools and a pioneer of the Bessemer steel process. In 1888 a world record had been established there, when the 0-6-0 freight locomotive No 2153 was assembled in only 25½ hours.
In 1862 the LNWR's Northern and Southern locomotive divisions were amalgamated under the control of one superintendent with headquarters at Crewe. For most of the period locomotive running of LNWR was under charge of the locomotive superintendent or chief mechanical engineer although the internal divisions changed.
To facilitate more locomotive repair capacity at Crewe after the amalgamation of the Northern and North Eastern division, coach building was transferred to Saltley, Birmingham in 1859, following this it was concentrated at Wolverton. Gradually the coaching shop at Crewe was given over to locomotive work and all Wolverton’s locomotive building and repair were moved to Crewe.
On grouping in 1923 Crewe Works was taken over by the London, Midland & Scottish Railway, building Stanier engines such as the prestigious Coronation Pacifics in the 1930s. Principal activities were locomotive building and repairing including: all new boilers for standard London Midland & Scottish Railway (LMSR) locomotives; steel castings, drop stampings and heavy forgings for all LMSR works; chair castings and points and crossing manufacture for the Chief Civil Engineer’s Department; manufacture of signals, locking frames and crossing-gate work for the Signal and Telegraph Department. The Works had its own 18” gauge railway using engines such as Billy and Dicky for transporting items around the main workshops.
In 1989 the works was privatised, as part of British Rail Engineering Ltd.
The Grand Junction Railway gained an Act of parliament in 1833. The engineers were George Stephenson with Joseph Locke as his deputy, with Locke taking control of the work in 1834. It ran from Curzon Street, Birmingham to the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, Lancashire. It passed close to Wolverhampton and through Stafford and Warrington. The Grand Junction Railway opened in 1837 and was the first trunk line in Europe. The Grand Junction Railway amalgamated with the Liverpool Manchester Railway in 1845 and the Trent Valley Railway in 1846 and in the same year the three were joined to form the London and North Western Railway.
The London & North Western Railway Co (LNWR) was established in 1846 following the amalgamation of the London & Birmingham, Manchester & Birmingham and Grand Junction Railways. The new company was the largest joint stock company in Britain, and initially had a network of approximately 350 miles (560 km) connecting London with Birmingham, Crewe, Chester, Liverpool and Manchester.
The LNWR continued to expand and by 1868 the company had added links to Oxford, Cambridge, Leeds, Swansea and Cardiff. However, attempts to amalgamate with Midland Railway ended in failure. By 1871 the London & North Western Railway employed 15,000 people. As part of the 1923 Grouping the LNWR became a constituent of the London, Midland and Scottish (LMS) Railway.
During the First World War the government had taken control of the railways to co-ordinate the war effort. After the war ended it was decided that the railway companies could not competitively return to their prior state, and so the 120 existing railway companies were combined into four companies, which became known as the ‘Big Four’’.
The London Midland and Scottish Railway, also known as the LMS, was founded on 1 January 1923. The London and North Western Railway (LNWR), Midland Railway (MR), Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (LYR), North Staffordshire Railway (NSR), Highland Railway (HR), Furness Railway (FR), Glasgow and South Western Railway (G&SWR) and Caledonian Railway (CR) were merged. These eight large constituent companies were joined by 27 other smaller subsidiary railways. The LMS covered the Western half of the country, stretching from the London and the Midlands, through Yorkshire, Lancashire, and up to Scotland. In all the LMS had a total of 7,790 miles of track, which made it the largest railway of the Big Four.
The London termini of the LMS were St. Pancras and Euston stations and it had works at Crewe, Horwich, Wolverton and Derby amongst other locations. In 1934 the LMS moved into a new headquarters at Euston House on Seymour Street (later renamed Eversholt Street) in London.
Charles Napier Lawrence, 1st Baron Lawrence of Kingsgate was the first appointed chairman of LMS, he had previously been the chairman of the LNWR between 1921-1923. He was chairman of the LMS for one year, and was succeeded by Sir Guy Granet. The management structure was headed by a chairman and a deputy chairman, there was a board of directors that had initially had 20 members, made of men who previously worked for the constituent companies. The first General Manager was Arthur Watson from the LYR. There was a Deputy General Manager for Scotland, a post first held by D.A. Matthieson, formerly of the CR. J.H. Follows, from the Midland Railway, was the first Chief General Superintendent and S.H. Hunt, formerly of the LNWR, was the first Chief Goods Manager. The post of Chief Engineer was initially held by E.F.C. Trench, formerly employed by the LNWR. The first Chief Mechanical Engineer was G. Hughes from the LYR and his deputy was Sir Henry Fowler, from the Midland Railway. The management structure was re-organised from January 1926 and an Executive was set up, Sir Josiah Stamp was the first President of the Executive. From January 1927 four Vice-Presidents were appointed to replace the general managers on the Executive committee. The line was divided up for operational management into three geographical divisions, which were called Western, Midland and Northern. Each division was overseen by a General Superintendent who reported to the Chief General Superintendent.
The main line of the LMS ran from London Euston to Wick over 729 miles. The LMS ran a number of joint railways with the London & North Eastern Railway and the Southern Railway. It ran the Cheshire Lines Committee, the Midland and Great Northern line between Peterborough, the Norwich and Lowestoft and the Manchester, South Junction and Altrincham suburban line with the London & North Eastern Railway. It also joined forces with the Southern Railway to run the Somerset and Dorset line between Bath, Burnham and Bournemouth.
The LMS undertook a limited programme of electrification, mainly focusing on suburban lines in London and Manchester. The LMS owned many hotels, including the Queen’s Hotel in Leeds and the iconic Art Deco Midland Hotel at Morecombe Bay. The LMS also ran passenger steamers from Holyhead, Heysham and Stranraer over the Irish Sea to Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Following the 1947 Transport Act which nationalised the railways, the concerns of the LMS were taken over by the Railway Executive as part of the British Transport Committee. Within the Railway Executive, British Rail: London Midland Region assumed responsibility for the LMS’s former area of operations.
Railways in Britain were nationalised under the terms of the Transport Act 1947 which came into effect on 1 January 1948. The Railway Executive, a corporate body subordinate to the British Transport Commission, was created to manage and operate the railways. It divided them into six geographical regions, largely based on the areas served by the pre-nationalisation railway companies.
London Midland Region (LMR) was one of those territories. It comprised the railway operations in England and Wales of the former London, Midland and Scottish Railway Company (LMS) with the exception of the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway which was placed in Eastern Region and lines in central and south Wales which passed to Western Region. Subsequently, the area of operations was adjusted by the transfer of “penetrating lines” between regions
Between 1948 and 1952 the regional manager was responsible to the Railway Executive for day to day operations in his region. After the Railway Executive was abolished in 1952, he reported to the British Transport Commission (BTC). In 1963, BTC itself was abolished and replaced by British Railways Board (BRB). Between 1963 and 1968 LMR was a statutory board in accordance with the provisions of the Transport Act 1962, subordinate to and reporting to BRB. It ceased to be a statutory board in 1968, following reorganisation of the railways’ business along sectoral or functional lines. The name survived until 1992 when the railways were privatised.
There were two principal routes in the region. The first was the former Midland mainline which had several components: London St Pancras to Sheffield via Leicester and Nottingham, Rugby through Derby to West Yorkshire and Leeds and continuing over the Settle-Carlisle route, Derby to Manchester, and Birmingham to Derby. The other was the West Coast Mainline (WCML) from Euston to Carlisle, via Birmingham and Manchester with its branch to Liverpool.
There was one major “penetrating line”, the former Great Central London Extension from Annesley in Nottinghamshire to London Marylebone, via Leicester, and Rugby. Originally in Eastern Region, this line was transferred to London Midland Region in 1958.
The WCML which formed part of the major route from London to Scotland was electrified in stages between 1959 and 1974. Only the southern end of the Midland Mainline from Bedford to London Moorgate was electrified during the period that London Midland Region existed.
Like other regions London Midland experienced withdrawal of services and closures, especially following the Beeching report. The most notable casualty was the Great Central line, which, because it largely duplicated the Midland Main Line from Nottingham to London, was closed almost in its entirety. The line through the Derbyshire Dales between Matlock and Buxton was also closed thus severing the route from St Pancras to Manchester. Many branch lines and industrial lines were also closed
Date
13 March 1845-15 May 1989
Scope and ContentThe drawings relate to the period when the Crewe Locomotive works was engaged in the construction and repair of steam locomotives. As well as a selection from the main series of drawings as listed in the drawing registers, the collection includes many drawings that were not allocated numbers. These have been allocated artificial numbers for ease of access.
There are also selections of drawings from the Second World War period relating to 2-8-0 locomotives built for the War Department, drawings from the supplier William Beardmore & Company, and a small series of drawings from the former Lancaster & Carlisle Railway Company.
A full listing can be found on the National Railway Museum website under 'Drawing Lists' at https://www.railwaymuseum.org.uk/research-and-archive/further-resources/catalogues.
Extent188 boxes
Physical descriptionThe majority of the drawings are on wax linen and are in good condition for their age. A small minority are on untreated paper or tracing paper and are therefore fragile. Care must be taken when handling these items.
The London & North Western Railway Co (LNWR) was established in 1846 following the amalgamation of the London & Birmingham, Manchester & Birmingham and Grand Junction Railways. The new company was the largest joint stock company in Britain, and initially had a network of approximately 350 miles (560 km) connecting London with Birmingham, Crewe, Chester, Liverpool and Manchester.
The LNWR continued to expand and by 1868 the company had added links to Oxford, Cambridge, Leeds, Swansea and Cardiff. However, attempts to amalgamate with Midland Railway ended in failure. By 1871 the London & North Western Railway employed 15,000 people. As part of the 1923 Grouping the LNWR became a constituent of the London, Midland and Scottish (LMS) Railway.
British Rail Engineering Ltd (BREL) was a wholly-owned subsidiary of the British Railways Board. Created through the Transport Act 1968, BREL began trading in 1970 under managing director A.E. Robson.
The company was created to manage British Rail’s thirteen workshops, replacing the British Rail Workshops Division. The works managed by BREL were Ashford, Crewe, Derby Locomotive Works, Derby Litchurch Lane, Doncaster, Eastleigh, Glasgow (formerly St Rollox), Horwich Foundry, Shildon, Swindon, Temple Mills, Wolverton, and York.
The primary object of BREL was to provide a construction, maintenance, and repair service to Britain’s railways. BREL produced most of British Rail’s new locomotives and carriages. These included the Class 141, 142 and 144 Railbuses, as well as the Mark III coach, used on all BR’s 125mph trains for inter-city travel. The company also overhauled BR’s fleet of locomotives and rolling stock, including passenger coaches. At one time, it was also the principal UK manufacturer of wagons for coal and freight.
In addition to carrying out work for BR, the Transport Act 1968 allowed BREL to use the spare capacity of its main works to manufacture for outside industry. In 1971, BREL formed BRE-Metro Ltd, a joint company with Metro-Cammell Ltd. This was to promote export sales of locomotives and rolling stock. Export contracts included the manufacture of coaches for the Northern Ireland Railway and Coras Iompair Eirann, and wagons for railways in Sweden, Malaysia, Yugoslavia and Bangladesh. BREL also supplied components and general engineering equipment to a wide range of non-railway customers, including the British Steel Corporation.
During the 1980s, BREL began a major project of rationalisation. Ashford Works, which had been gradually run down throughout the 1970s, was closed in 1981. Temple Mills Works, which mainly carried out wagon maintenance, was closed in 1983, and its work transferred to Doncaster. Shildon Works was closed in 1984, with Swindon following in 1986. In May 1987, the wagon department at Doncaster was separated from the rest of the works, and was sold to RFS Industries as Doncaster Wagon Works Ltd.
In 1987, the remaining BREL workshops were split into three distinct groups. Eastleigh, Wolverton, Doncaster and Glasgow were formed into BR Maintenance Ltd, a new British Railways Board subsidiary. Horwich Foundry was transferred to a new, separate subsidiary company, and was sold in 1988. Crewe, York, and the two works in Derby became BREL (1988) Ltd. In April 1989, BREL (1988) Ltd was sold to a consortium of BREL management and employees, the Swiss-Swedish conglomerate Asea Brown Boveri, and Trafalgar House. Asea Brown Boveri later bought out Trafalgar House, and in 1992 the company was renamed ABB Transportation Ltd.
The Grand Junction Railway gained an Act of parliament in 1833. The engineers were George Stephenson with Joseph Locke as his deputy, with Locke taking control of the work in 1834. It ran from Curzon Street, Birmingham to the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, Lancashire. It passed close to Wolverhampton and through Stafford and Warrington. The Grand Junction Railway opened in 1837 and was the first trunk line in Europe. The Grand Junction Railway amalgamated with the Liverpool Manchester Railway in 1845 and the Trent Valley Railway in 1846 and in the same year the three were joined to form the London and North Western Railway.
The Lancaster and Carlisle Railway was authorised on 6 June 1844. It originated when in 1839 government commissioners were appointed to choose between east and west coast routes to Scotland and advocated both. Between Lancaster and Carlisle was the most easterly of three alternatives was selected, the four existing west coast companies made substantial contributions to the Lancaster and Carlisle’s capital of £900, 000. The Lancaster and Carlisle Railway was engineered by Joseph Locke with Thomas Brassey as Contactor. In 1859 the company leased itself to the London North Western Railway and in 1879 it was acquired outright by them.
Conditions governing accessAccess is given in accordance with the NRM access policy. Material from this collection is available to researchers through Search Engine.
Conditions governing ReproductionCopying of material from this archive is permissible as long as material is in a good general state and able to withstand the copying process without causing damage or compromising the document’s continued survival. The provision of copies is subject to NRM terms and conditions for the supply and reproduction of copies and in accordance with any relevant copyright legislation.
AppraisalThere has been no appraisal of this collection.
System of arrangementThe drawings have been listed in six separate sequences:
• Main Series: numbered drawings as per the company drawing register
• Un-Numbered drawings for which the NRM has provided an artificial number
• Folded drawings, mainly historical
• War Department 2-8-0 Drawings
• William Beardmore & Company drawings
• Lancaster & Carlisle Railway Company drawings