Bury, Curtis, and Kennedy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bury, Curtis, and Kennedy was a Locomotive manufacturer in Liverpool, England.

Edward Bury set up his works some time around 1823, under the name of Edward Bury and Company. He employed James Kennedy, who had gained experience of locomotive production under Robert Stephenson, to be his works foreman, later becoming a partner.

Their first engine was built in 1830. Called Dreadnought, it ran on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. It proved too heavy for the track and was very unsteady. The second, the four-coupled Liverpool, later in 1830, used a cranked driving axle, which also caused problems.

However, they refined their designs and the resulting 2-2-0 locomotives quickly became a standard which was emulated by many other manufacturers, becoming known as the "Bury type". It no doubt helped that Bury was also the Locomotive Superintendent of the London and Birmingham Railway, to which they sold over a hundred machines. Thirteen were supplied to the Great Northern Railway (six of them being sub-contracted to William Fairbairn & Sons), and they became the standard classes on the Eastern Counties Railway, the Midland Counties Railway, the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Railway, the Lancaster and Preston Railway and the North Union Railway. They were notable for their round topped "haystack"" fireboxes, the innovative forged-iron bar frames, and a high boiler pressure for the time of 120 psi. The main problem with them were those experienced by other engines of the time with the crank axles associated with the inside cylinders.

In 1842, he took Kennedy as a partner, and the company changed its name to Bury, Curtis, and Kennedy.

By 1846, much larger engines were being requested by the railway companies and though, sales continued, the company had fallen behind in its designs and was wound up in 1851.