Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company

52°30′19″N 1°57′39″W

BRCW makers plate, on display in Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum

The Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company (BRC&W) was a railway locomotive and carriage builder, founded in Birmingham, England and, for most of its existence, located at nearby Smethwick, with the factory divided by the boundary between the two places. The company was established in 1854.[1]

Production

Compartment of luxury saloon coach built for Palestine Railways in 1922, now preserved at the Israel Railway Museum in Haifa

BRC&W made not only carriages and wagons, but a range of vehicles, from aeroplanes and military gliders to buses, trolleybuses and tanks. Nevertheless, it is as a builder of railway rolling stock that the company is best remembered, exporting to most parts of the new and old worlds. It supplied vehicles to all four of the pre-nationalisation "big four" railway companies (LMS, SR, LNER and GWR), British Rail, Pullman (some of which are still in use) and Wagons-Lits, plus overseas railways with diverse requirement including Egypt, India, Iraq, Malaya, Mandate Palestine, South Africa and Nigeria. The company even built, in 1910, Argentina's presidential coach, which still survives, and once carried Eva Perón. Before World War II, the company had built steam-, petrol- and diesel-powered railcars for overseas customers, not to mention bus bodies for Midland Red, and afterwards developed more motive power products, including BR's Class 26, Class 33 (both diesel) and Class 81 (electric) locomotives. Examples of all three types are preserved.

Wartime production

The company built hospital trains during the Second Boer War. Handley Page Type O bombers and Airco DH.10 Amienss were built in World War I.

During World War 2, the company had a major impact on tank production as one of the many companies building the A10 Cruiser tank, Valentine tank, Churchill tank, Cromwell tank and Challenger tank).[2] They led the design and production of the Cromwell tank in liaison with Rolls-Royce and Rover on the Meteor engine.

The company also built Hamilcar gliders in 1939-1945.

Locomotives

Some of the locomotives and multiple units built by the company are listed below:

Diesel Locomotives

Electric Locomotives

Diesel Multiple Units

DMU on the Belgrano Sur Line in Buenos Aires, Argentina (1966)

Electric Multiple Units

Closure

In the years before 1963, the company had built an extensive number of locomotives, diesel multiple unit trains, and Underground cars, but it then became apparent that fewer rolling stock orders were to be expected, and the company restructured itself as an industrial landlord and financing business.[4] The self-funded main line locomotive prototype Lion was a particular disappointment. Powered by a Sulzer 2,750 hp (2,050 kW) diesel engine, it was pitted against another self-funded prototype, Falcon, built by Brush at Loughborough, which had twin 1,400 hp (1,000 kW) Maybach engines. After trials, British Railways preferred the BRCW approach, but ordered them to be built by Brush Traction, and they became British Rail Class 47.

Preserved BRCW Locomotive + Units

Country/RailwayClassWheel arrangementBuilt inNumbernow located at
Australia/Commonwealth RailwayNSU ClassA1A-A1A1954NSU51Pichi Richi Railway at Quorn, South Australia
Australia/Commonwealth RailwayNSU ClassA1A-A1A1954NSU52Pichi Richi Railway at Quorn, South Australia
Australia/Commonwealth RailwayNSU ClassA1A-A1A1954NSU53The Ghan Preservation Society at Alice Springs, Northern Territory
Australia/Commonwealth RailwayNSU ClassA1A-A1A1954NSU54Pichi Richi Railway at Quorn, South Australia
Australia/Commonwealth RailwayNSU ClassA1A-A1A1954NSU55Steamtown at Peterborough, South Australia
Australia/Commonwealth RailwayNSU ClassA1A-A1A1954NSU56at Maree, South Australia
Australia/Commonwealth RailwayNSU ClassA1A-A1A1954NSU57at Maree, South Australia
Australia/Commonwealth RailwayNSU ClassA1A-A1A1954NSU58The Ghan Preservation Society at Alice Springs, Northern Territory
Australia/Commonwealth RailwayNSU ClassA1A-A1A1954NSU59The Ghan Preservation Society at Alice Springs, Northern Territory
Australia/Commonwealth RailwayNSU ClassA1A-A1A1954NSU60at Maree, South Australia
Australia/Commonwealth RailwayNSU ClassA1A-A1A1954NSU61National Railway Museum at Port Adelaide, South Australia
Australia/Commonwealth RailwayNSU ClassA1A-A1A1954NSU62Steamtown at Peterborough, South Australia
Australia/Commonwealth RailwayNSU ClassA1A-A1A1954NSU63at Adelaide River, Northern Territory
Australia/Commonwealth RailwayNSU ClassA1A-A1A1954NSU64The Ghan Preservation Society at Alice Springs, Northern Territory
Ireland/Córas Iompair Éireann101 classA1A-A1A1956103Irish Traction Group at Carrick-on-Suir
UK/BRClass 26Bo-Bo1958D5300 / 26007Barrow Hill Engine Shed
UK/BRClass 26Bo-Bo1958D5301 / 26001 - EastfieldCaledonian Railway
UK/BRClass 26Bo-Bo1958D5302 / 26002Strathspey Railway
UK/BRClass 26Bo-Bo1958D5304 / 26004Bo'ness & Kinneil Railway
UK/BRClass 26Bo-Bo1958D5310 / 26010Llangollen Railway
UK/BRClass 26Bo-Bo1958D5311 / 26011Barrow Hill Engine Shed
UK/BRClass 26Bo-Bo1958D5314 / 26014Caledonian Railway
UK/BRClass 26Bo-Bo1958D5324 / 26024Bo'ness & Kinneil Railway
UK/BRClass 26Bo-Bo1958D5325 / 26025Strathspey Railway
UK/BRClass 26Bo-Bo1958D5335 / 26035Caledonian Railway
UK/BRClass 26Bo-Bo1958D5338 / 26038private owned at Cardiff Canton
UK/BRClass 26Bo-Bo1958D5340 / 26040private owned at Methil
UK/BRClass 26Bo-Bo1958D5343 / 26043Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway
UK/BRClass 27Bo-Bo1960D5347 / 27001Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway
UK/BRClass 27Bo-Bo1960D5351 / 27005Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway
UK/BRClass 27Bo-Bo1960D5353 / 27007Mid-Hants Railway
UK/BRClass 27Bo-Bo1960D5370 / 27024Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway
UK/BRClass 27Bo-Bo1960D5394 / 27050Strathspey Railway
UK/BRClass 27Bo-Bo1960D5401 / 27056Great Central Railway
UK/BRClass 27Bo-Bo1960D5410 / 27059Severn Valley Railway
UK/BRClass 27Bo-Bo1960D5386 / 27066Dean Forest Railway
UK/BRClass 33Bo-Bo1960D6501 / 33002 - Sea KingSouth Devon Railway
UK/BRClass 33Bo-Bo1960D6508 / 33008 - EastleighBattlefield Line
UK/BRClass 33Bo-Bo1960D6515 / 33012Swanage Railway
UK/BRClass 33Bo-Bo1960D6518 / 33018Midland Railway
UK/BRClass 33Bo-Bo1960D6534 / 33019 - GriffonBattlefield Line Railway
UK/BRClass 33Bo-Bo1960D6552 / 33034Swanage Railway
UK/BRClass 33Bo-Bo1960D6553 / 33035Barrow Hill Engine Shed
UK/BRClass 33Bo-Bo1960D6564 / 33046 - MerlinMidland Railway
UK/BRClass 33Bo-Bo1960D6566 / 33047West Somerset Railway
UK/BRClass 33Bo-Bo1960D6570 / 33052 - AshfordKent and East Sussex Railway
UK/BRClass 33Bo-Bo1960D6571 / 33053Mid-Hants Railway
UK/BRClass 33Bo-Bo1960D6575 / 33057 - SeagullWest Somerset Railway
UK/BRClass 33Bo-Bo1960D6583 / 33063 - RJ MitchellSpa Valley Railway
UK/BRClass 33Bo-Bo1960D6585 / 33065 - SealionSpa Valley Railway
UK/BRClass 33Bo-Bo1960D6513 / 33102Churnet Valley Railway
UK/BRClass 33Bo-Bo1960D6514 / 33103 SwordfishSwanage Railway
UK/BRClass 33Bo-Bo1960D6521 / 33108Barrow Hill Engine Shed
UK/BRClass 33Bo-Bo1960D6525 / 33109 Captain Bill Smith RNREast Lancshire Railway
UK/BRClass 33Bo-Bo1960D6527 / 33110Bodmin and Wenford Railway
UK/BRClass 33Bo-Bo1960D6528 / 33111Swanage Railway
UK/BRClass 33Bo-Bo1960D6535 / 33116 Hertfordshire Rail ToursGreat Central Railway
UK/BRClass 33Bo-Bo1960D6536 / 33117East Lancashire Railway
UK/BRClass 33Bo-Bo1960D6586 / 33201Midland Railway
UK/BRClass 33Bo-Bo1960D6587 / 33202 The Burma StarMangapps Railway Museum
UK/BRClass 33Bo-Bo1960D6593 / 33208Battlefield Line Railway
UK/BRClass 81Bo-Bo1959E3003 / 81002Barrow Hill Engine Shed

References

  1. White, Henry Patrick; Thomas, David St. John (1963). A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain. Phoenix House. p. 252.
  2. Fletcher, David (1993). The Universal Tank. HMSO, for REME Museum. pp. 87–89. ISBN 0-11-290534-X., p.88
  3. Connor, Piers (1983). The 'R' Stock Story. Hemel Hempstead: London Underground Railway Society. ISBN 0-9508793-0-4.
  4. Hypher, John; Wheeler, Colin; Wheeler, Stephen (1996). Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company - A Century of Achievement,1855-1963. Runpast.
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