Gloucester Railway Carriage & Wagon Company Band 1916

Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company (GRC&W) was a railway

rolling stock The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, freight and passenger cars (or coaches), and non-revenue cars. Passenger vehicles ca ...

manufacturer based in

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east o ...

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 ...

from 1860 until 1986. Products included

goods wagon Goods wagons or freight wagons (North America: freight cars), also known as goods carriages, goods trucks, freight carriages or freight trucks, are unpowered railway vehicles that are used for the transportation of cargo. A variety of wagon type ...

passenger coach A passenger railroad car or passenger car (United States), also called a passenger carriage, passenger coach (United Kingdom and International Union of Railways), or passenger bogie (India) is a railroad car that is designed to carry passenge ...

es,

diesel multiple unit A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple-unit train powered by on-board diesel engines. A DMU requires no separate locomotive, as the engines are incorporated into one or more of the carriages. Diesel-powered single-unit railcars are also ...

electric multiple unit An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a number ...

s and various special-purpose vehicles. The company supplied the original fleet of red trains for the

Toronto Subway The Toronto subway is a rapid transit system serving Toronto and the neighbouring city of Vaughan in Ontario, Canada, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). It is a multimodal rail network consisting of three heavy-capacity rail ...

, which were based upon similar vehicles to the

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The ...

. The company also produced pivoting sections for the Mulberry Harbour for the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

1944.

19th century

The company was formed at a meeting of 30 January 1860 with an initial capital of £100,000 in 10,000 shares of £10 each. The first general manager was Isaac Slater. A works was established in 1860, producing over 300 wagons in the first year. Through the latter part of the 19th century, the company manufactured wagons and carriages. In 1887 it was renamed the ''Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company'' from the ''Gloucester Wagon Company''. During the

Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sou ...

the company manufactured horse drawn ambulances, and during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

produced stretchers, ambulances, and shells as well as wagons.

20th century

Between the 1910s and 1930s, the company built various trains for the

: starting with the E Stock for the

District Railway The Metropolitan District Railway, also known as the District Railway, was a passenger railway that served London from 1868 to 1933. Established in 1864 to complete an " inner circle" of lines connecting railway termini in London, the first par ...

in the 1910s, followed by the G Stock (also for the District Railway) in the 1920s, then Standard Stock trains for the

Piccadilly line The Piccadilly line is a deep-level London Underground line running from the north to the west of London. It has two branches, which split at Acton Town, and serves 53 stations. The line serves Heathrow Airport, and some of its stations are ...

in the early 1930s, and O and P Stock trains for the

Hammersmith & City line The Hammersmith & City line is a London Underground line that runs between Hammersmith in west London and in east London. Printed in pink on the Tube map, it serves 29 stations over . Between and it skirts the City of London, the capital's fi ...

in the late 1930s, as well as the Q38 Stock for the

District line The District line is a London Underground line running from in the east and Edgware Road in the west to in west London, where it splits into multiple branches. One branch runs to in south-west London and a short branch, with a limited serv ...

in 1939. The firm began manufacturing all welded wagons in 1935, as well as manufacturing the bodyshells for

GWR railcars In 1933, the Great Western Railway introduced the first of what was to become a very successful series of diesel railcars, which survived in regular use into the 1960s, when they were replaced with the new British Rail "first generation" type ...

. In 1936 the firm won the contract to build a 68 feet long air-conditioned carriage for the Maharajah of Indore to be designed by a German architect and to include a kitchen, servants' quarters and a nursery. By 1937 the firm had a site including a 980 kW electricity generating station, and employed 2400 people. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

the company produced tank carrying wagons, shells, and other parts and equipment; by 1941 the company began producing

Churchill tank The Tank, Infantry, Mk IV (A22) Churchill was a British infantry tank used in the Second World War, best known for its heavy armour, large longitudinal chassis with all-around tracks with multiple bogies, its ability to climb steep slopes, ...

s, eventually making 764 units by 1945; parts for Mulberry harbours were also made. After the war, the company's leased wagon fleet of over 10,000 coal wagons was nationalised. Gloucester Foundry was acquired in 1950. After the war until the late 1950s the company manufactured more underground trains for London ( R Stock for the District line, as well as two prototype 1956 Stock tube trains), while the same period saw the company build the original G series trains for the

Toronto subway The Toronto subway is a rapid transit system serving Toronto and the neighbouring city of Vaughan in Ontario, Canada, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). It is a multimodal rail network consisting of three heavy-capacity rail ...

, electric passenger multiple units for

Victorian Railways The Victorian Railways (VR), trading from 1974 as VicRail, was the state-owned operator of most rail transport in the Australian state of Victoria from 1859 to 1983. The first railways in Victoria were private companies, but when these companie ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

, and diesel multiple units for the Australian

Commonwealth Railways The Commonwealth Railways were established in 1917 by the Government of Australia with the Commonwealth Railways Act to administer the Trans-Australia and Port Augusta to Darwin railways. It was absorbed into Australian National in 1975. O ...

. In 1961 the company was acquired by Wingets Ltd. (Kent), and renamed ''Gloucester Engineering Company Limited''. After 1960 much export work was lost to foreign competitors; the company then focused on wagon bogies and suspension. The last carriage was made in 1963 and the last complete wagon in 1968. The company was acquired by Babcock Industrial and Electrical Products in 1986. Powell Duffryn Rail acquired the remains of the company in 1986, but its operations ceased in 1993–1994.

People associated with the company

*James Platt of Fielding & Platt, former director."Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company" in ''The Birmingham Daily Post'', 17 August 1889, Issue 9718, p. 6. *

Robert Blinkhorn Robert Blinkhorn (c. 1814 – 31 October 1888) was a prominent Gloucester businessman and local political figure. Career Robert and his wife Eleanor were both born in Maidstone, Kent and moved to Gloucester later. He established the ''Blin ...

, Gloucester businessman, former director. * Sir Leslie Boyce, former chairman.

Records

The company's records are held at the

Gloucestershire Archives Gloucestershire Archives holds the archives for the county of Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire. The archives are held at Alvin Street in Gloucester and run by Gloucestershire County Council Gloucestershire County Council is a county co ...

under reference D4791."Carriage history should make us all very proud", by Kevin George, '' Weekend Citizen'', 27 August 2011, p. 16.

References

External links