North British Locomotive Company

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Mainline Steam New Zealand locomotive, North British J 1211. Photo by Joseph Christianson

The North British Locomotive Company of Scotland (NBL or North British) was created in 1903 through the merger of three Glasgow companies, Sharp Stewart, Neilson and Company and Dübs and Company, creating the largest locomotive building company in Europe. In 1918 the factory produced the first prototype of the Anglo-American Mark VIII battlefield tank for the Allied armies, but with the Armistice it did not go into production.

1 Steam locomotives
2 Diesel locomotives
3 Electric locomotives
4 Decline
5 Preservation
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Steam locomotives

NBL built steam locomotives for countries as far afield as Malaysia and New Zealand. The Colony of New South Wales purchased numerous North British locomotives, as did the State of Victoria as late as 1951 (Oberg, Locomotives of Australia), and in 1939 it supplied the NZR J class (1939) to New Zealand Railways, some of which were later converted to JB class and some to JA class. In 1949, South Africa purchased over 100 engines from the company in the 2-8-4 layout and these became the Class 24; some still operate tourist trains on the George-Kynsa line. Additionally South Africa also purchased some of its Class 25, 4-8-4 engines from the company between 1953-55. These successful engines with various in-service modifications survived until the end of steam in South Africa in 1990. NBL also introduced the Modified Fairlie locomotive in 1924.

[edit] Diesel locomotives

Whilst highly successful as designers and builders of steam locomotives for both its domestic market and abroad, North British failed to make the jump to diesel locomotive production. In the 1950s it signed a deal with the German company MAN to construct diesel engines under licence. These power units appeared in the late 1950s' British Railways (BR) designs later designated Class 21, Class 22, Class 41, Class 43 (Warship) and Class 251 (Blue Pullman) None of these were particularly successful: constructional shortcomings with the MAN engines made them far less reliable than German-built examples. A typical example of this was the grade of steel used for exhaust manifolds in the Class 43s - frequent manifold failures led to loss of turbocharger drive gas pressure and hence loss of power. More importantly, the driving cabs of the locomotives would fill with poisonous exhaust fumes. BR returned many North British diesel locomotives to their builder for repair under warranty and they also insisted on a three-month guarantee on all repairs (a requirement not levied on its own workshops).

[edit] Electric locomotives

North British was involved in the construction of early 25 kV AC electric locomotives for the West Coast Main Line (WCML) electrification project of the early 1960s. The General Electric Company won a contract for ten locomotives and sub-contracted the mechanical design and construction to North British: Class AL4 E3036-E3045 (later Class 84 84001-84010) entered traffic in 1960-61. As with its diesel locomotives, the class suffered poor reliability and spent long periods out of service. A partial reprieve came when money was made available to extend the electrification of the WCML north to Glasgow but no immediate funds were available for more electric locomotives. The Class 84s were refurbished in 1972 and pressed back into service, being finally withdrawn between 1978 to 1980 following delivery of Class 87 locomotives.

[edit] Decline

Perhaps unwisely, North British supplied many of its diesel and electric locomotives to BR at a loss, hoping to make up for this on massive future orders that never came. This and the continuing stream of warranty claims to cure design and workmanship faults proved fatal - North British declared bankruptcy on April 19, 1962. Because of the unreliability of its UK diesel and electric locomotives, all were withdrawn after comparatively short lifespans.

[edit] Preservation

The only surviving North British main-line diesel or electric locomotive is Class 84 84001. Two steam locomotives, NZR Classes J & JB, are preserved by Mainline Steam, New Zealand. Several industrial shunters have been preserved, including number 27654 by the Llanelli & Mynydd Mawr Railway. A number of steam locomotives still exist in Australia, including, some operational Victorian 4-6-4 R Class engines, several Dübs engines and Pmr Class 4-6-2 locomotives of Western Australia, an Rx Class engine in South Australia.