THE BRITISH OVERSEAS RAILWAYS HISTORICAL TRUST   A UK Registered Educational Charity

Kevin Jones' Steam Index

Andrew Barclay & Sons etc

Kilmarnock is the home of Johnnie Walker, a famous brand of whisky and of Andrew Barclay, locomotive builders. Lowe stated that there is a Life of Andrew Barclay published in 1879, but this is not in Ottley. The Caledonia Works opened in 1840 and started locomotive manufacture in 1859 with four-coupled saddle tanks for Scottish collieries, ironworks and contractors. Lowe called them prim looking with their cast iron wheels and square saddle tanks which later evolved into an ogee shape resembling a thistle from the front.

An unusual 2-2-2 was built for the Caledonian Railway in 1871 to test a John Miller Ure patent wherein the driving wheels could be lifted off the track whilst the locomotive was coasting. In 1881 a four-coupled crane tank was supplied to John Orr Ewing of Alexandria. 38 further crane tanks were constructed, the last in 1947. Fireless locomotives were an important product: manufacture began in 1917 according to Backtrack, 1996, 10, 334 letter by N. Kelly. Lowe states that some articulated locomotives were supplied to New Zealand. In 1905 two steam railmotor (railcar) units were supplied to the GNoSR.

25 0-6-0WTs were built in 1917 for the War Office for use on 60cm tracks. 25 class 4F 0-6-0 tender locomotives were manufactured for the LMS in 1927. Ten 2ft 6in gauge 4-8-0 locomotives were built for the Sierra Leone Government Railway in 1943. Fifteen Austerity 0-6-0STs were constructed between 1944 and 1946. WN 2377, an 0-6-2 for Indonesia was the last steam locomotive to be built in September 1962 (this was an order transferred from Bagnall). Lowe estimated that 2052 locomotives were constructed, but it is not clear whether this inluded the 124 (Lowe estimate) constructed by Barclays & Co. at the River Bank Engine Works. This business was created for Andrew Barclay's four sons and brother, John, but these works were sold in 1888.

Books about firm

Wear, R. The locomotive builders of Kilmarnock. London: Industrial Railway Society Publications. 1977.
Moss, M.S. and Hume, J.R. Workshop of the British Empire: engineering and shipbuilding in the West of Scotland. London: Heinemann, 1977. 192pp.
Includes Andrew Barclay. Ottley 10538
Wear, Russell. Barclay 150: a brief history of Andrew Barclay & Sons and Hunslet-Barclay Ltd., Kilmarnock from 1840 to 1990. Kilmarnock: Hunslet-Barclay Ltd., 1990. 96pp.
Ottley 15741