THE BRITISH OVERSEAS RAILWAYS HISTORICAL TRUST
 
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Yorkshire Engine Co., Meadowhall Works, Sheffield

Established in 1865. (Lowe). Manufactured haulage engines for collieries and quarries. Locomotive manufacture started in 1866. The first order was for three inside cylinder 2-4-0s with 7ft driving wheels for GNR, and this was followed in 1868 by ten similar locomotives, but with 6ft 7in driving wheels. Much of the company's output was exported, especially to India: Great Indian Peninsula and East Indian Railways. The first industrial locomotive was an 0-4-0ST for the Earl Fitzwilliam Colliery in 1869. Ten 0-6-6-0 Fairlies were constructed for the Mexican Railways. The total output of Fairlies between 1872 and 1906 was: 35 0-6-6-0; 3 0-4-4-0; and two 2-6-6-2. Ten 4-6-0s were constructed for the 3ft 6in gauge Queensland Government Railways. Fifteen 0-6-0s were supplied to the Hull, Barnsley & West Riding Junction Railway & Docks Co.. 4-4-2Ts were supplied to the North British Railway. In 1925 the Company obtained the rights to the Poultney patent and these weere applied to the conversion of Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway River Esk into a 2-8-2+0-8-0. In 1930 25 0-6-0PTs were supplied to the GWR. The company developed a standard range of industrial locomotives. The Company suffered severely during the years of depression. in 1949 fifty 0-6-0PTs were ordered by the Western Region and this order was completed in 1956 with WN 2584/1956, service number 3409. Lowe estimated overall output of steam locomotives at 800. The company was acquired by the United Steel Companies post-WW2.
See also letter from R.A.S. Hennessey (Backtrack, 2005, 19, 124) concerning 0-6-4Ts built for the Poti-Tiflis Railway in 1869/70..Harley, C.B. Some notes on the Yorkshire Engine Company. J. Stephenson Loco. Soc., 1976, 52, 70-84 (
via Atkins).
Vernon, Tony.Yorkshire Engine Company: Sheffield's locomotive manufacturer. History Press.,
Reviewed by Phil Atkins in Backtrack, 2009, 23, 382: most of review is quoted as follows: Yorkshire Engine Company flourished from 1866 until 1965; among its founding fathers were Charles Sacre of the MSLR and Archibald Sturrock of the GNR, who was also the author's great-great-grandfather.
Although only a modest concern, building more than seven hundred steam locomotives between 1866 and 1956, but no fewer than 377 diesels between 1951 and 1965, the Yorkshire Engine Company was remarkably innovative, diversifying into motor car manufacture albeit unsuccessfully in 1907, and also building mining machinery. The largest locomotives built for the home market were fifteen imposing 0-8-0s for the Hull & Barnsley Railway in 1907 and four superheated 0-6-4Ts for the Metropolitan Railway a few years later. However, the Meadowhall Works also built large 4-8-2 tender and 4-8-4 tank engines for South America and twice was effectively kept in business by obtaining substantial orders for 0-6-0 pannier tanks from Swindon, in 1929 and 1948. For the most part it appears to have been very much a hand to mouth existence, for an order for no fewer than 30 4-4-2 tank engines from the North British Railway in 1911 also brought with it major financial problems, which were evidently exacerbated by the NBR furnishing the cylinder castings which did not even comply with its own specifications!
There are other intriguing little asides. In May 1908 the company received a surprisingly polite letter from Sam Fay, the General Manager of the Great Central Railway, pointing out that it had been using the stretch of the GC which passed the works for testing new locomotives without permission. Curiously Fay's concern was simply that the drivers and firemen involved were properly qualified; nothing was said at all about possible interaction with the GCR's own operations in that part of Sheffield!
Initially the YE Co. seemed to make a remarkably smooth transition from steam to diesel locomotive manufacture in the later 1950s, but the impact of the subsequent curtailment of the British Railways network, which was not perhaps quite so instantaneous as appears to be implied, and the rapid disappearance of industrial sidings seriously reduced demand for industrial diesel locomotives. A speculative venture was a 600hp 0-8-0 with centre cab named Taurus, given trials by British Railways in 1961, which it was hoped would be suitable for both heavy shunting and trip working. As the author points out, this role was largely filled by the BR Class 14 (0-6-0DH locomotives built at Swindon during 1964-5), but notfor very long as these were probably the shortest-lived locomotives in any category in history. The end of the firm finally came in 1965, but remarkably the original buildings still remain in use close to the M1 motorway which, following the very recent demolition of the former Vulcan Foundry, make these a rare survival from the once extensive private British steam locomotive industry.
This book is extensively illustrated and replete with works lists for both steam and diesel locomotives. Highly recommended.
Dewhurst, P.C. and Holcroft, Harold. The Fairlie locomotive - Part 2. Later designs and productions. Trans. Newcomen Soc., 1966, 39, 1-34.
Hunt, David. Locomotive builders to the Midland Railway. Midland Record, (21), 111-26.
The Yorkshire Engine Co. supplied some Midland Railway locomotives, but Hunt did not cite his sources.
See also biographies of Sydney Dennis Jenkinson, Arthur Hewitt Gilling and Harold Arthur Akroyd.


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