Peckett and Sons was a

locomotive A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the Power (physics), motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, Motor coach (rail), motor ...

manufacturer at the Atlas Locomotive Works on Deep Pit Road between

Fishponds Fishponds is a large suburb in the north-east of the English city of Bristol, about from the city centre. It has two large Victorian-era parks: Eastville Park and Vassall's Park (once the Vassall Family estate, also known as Oldbury Court). T ...

and

St. George Saint George (Greek: Γεώργιος (Geórgios), Latin: Georgius, Arabic: القديس جرجس; died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was a Christian who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to tradition he was a soldier ...

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Fox, Walker and Company

The company began trading in 1864 at the Atlas Engine Works, St. George, Bristol, as Fox, Walker and Company, building four and six-coupled saddle tank engines for industrial use. They also built stationary engines and pioneered steam tramcars, the first being tested in Bristol in 1877. Much of their output was exported, mostly , with some , and . In 1878 they produced six gauge trench engines for the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

at Chatham using Henry Handyside's steep gradient apparatus. They also produced

nine 9 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 9 or nine may also refer to: Dates * AD 9, the ninth year of the AD era * 9 BC, the ninth year before the AD era * 9, numerical symbol for the month of September Places * Nine, Portugal, a parish in the ...

s for the Somerset and Dorset Railway.

Peckett and Sons

They were taken over by Thomas Peckett in 1880, becoming Peckett and Sons, Atlas Engine Works, Bristol. The company acquired limited liability some years later. By 1900 the two companies had built over 400 locomotives. The company continued producing a variety of small industrial and shunting engines at their factory located between

and Kingswood in Bristol. They became specialists in the field, with very precise specifications and standardisation of parts. The largest engine was an built in 1931 for the Christmas Island Phosphate Company. The works were served by a branch line starting just south west of Kingswood junction on the Midland line and ran for about in a generally eastward direction. It also served some collieries in the Speedwell area. The only evidence remaining of this line is a bridge abutment on Whitefield Road. During the two

World War A world war is an international conflict which involves all or most of the world's major powers. Conventionally, the term is reserved for two major international conflicts that occurred during the first half of the 20th century, World WarI (1914 ...

s, the works were especially busy, but by 1950 trade had largely dried up. Although in 1956 an attempt had been made to enter the diesel-mechanical market, the last steam engine was produced in 1958 and the company was taken over by Reed Crane & Hoist Co Ltd on 23 October 1961, which itself later went into liquidation.

Production and preservation

Despite hard work and poor maintenance, the engines were long-lasting. Many Peckett locomotives survive working on today's

heritage railway A heritage railway or heritage railroad (US usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) i ...

s around the world. * The last Peckett steam locomotive built, 2165 of 1958, is preserved at

Sandstone Estates Sandstone Estates (Pty) Ltd is a large commercial agricultural enterprise covering over , located on the border with Lesotho in South Africa's Eastern Free State province, close to the Maluti Mountains. The nearest town is Ficksburg, away on th ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

* The oldest surviving Fox Walker locomotive is "Karlskoga", an of 1873 and the first locomotive of the

Nora Bergslags Railway Nora, NORA, or Norah may refer to: * Nora (name), a feminine given name People with the surname * Arlind Nora (born 1980), Albanian footballer * Pierre Nora (born 1931), French historian Places Australia * Norah Head, New South Wales, headland ...

in Sweden. It was steamed at

Nora, Sweden Nora is a locality and the seat of Nora Municipality, Örebro County, Sweden with 6,526 inhabitants in 2010. History Nora received its charter in 1643. The government had requested the inhabitants of both Nora and the adjacent town Lindesberg to m ...

in 1982.

References

* Lowe, J.W., (1989) ''British Steam Locomotive Builders,'' Guild Publishing

External links

The industrial railway Record, A brief memoir of Peckett & Sons LTDGloucestershire LXXII.SW, Revised: 1938, Published: ca. 1945
OS 6-inch maps showing ''Atlas Locomotive Works''
Peckett & Sons Archive
National Railway Museum {{coord, 51, 28, 13.24, N, 2, 32, 28.9, W, region:GB, display=title Locomotive manufacturers of the United Kingdom Companies established in 1864 Defunct companies based in Bristol 1864 establishments in England Manufacturing companies of England