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.
