Nasmyth, Gaskell and Company, originally called The Bridgewater Foundry, specialised in the production of heavy machine tools and locomotives. It was located in

Patricroft Patricroft is a suburb near Eccles, Greater Manchester, England. History Patricroft may derive its name from 'Pear-tree croft', or more likely, 'Patrick's Croft'. In 1836, Scottish engineer James Nasmyth, in partnership with Holbrook Gaskell, bu ...

, in

Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...

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 ...

, close to the

Liverpool and Manchester Railway The Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR) was the first inter-city railway in the world. It opened on 15 September 1830 between the Lancashire towns of Liverpool and Manchester in England. It was also the first railway to rely exclusively ...

, the

Bridgewater Canal The Bridgewater Canal connects Runcorn, Manchester and Leigh, in North West England. It was commissioned by Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, to transport coal from his mines in Worsley to Manchester. It was opened in 1761 from Wor ...

and the Manchester Ship Canal. The company was founded in 1836 and dissolved in 1940.

Nasmyth

The company was founded in 1836 by

James Nasmyth James Hall Nasmyth (sometimes spelled Naesmyth, Nasmith, or Nesmyth) (19 August 1808 – 7 May 1890) was a Scottish engineer, philosopher, artist and inventor famous for his development of the steam hammer. He was the co-founder of Nasmyth, ...

and

Holbrook Gaskell Holbrook Gaskell (5 March 1813 – 8 March 1909) was a British industrialist, and an art and plant collector. Early life Gaskell was born in Wavertree, Liverpool. He was the eldest son of Roger Gaskell, a sailcloth manufacturer, from his mar ...

. Nasmyth had previously been employed in

Henry Maudslay Henry Maudslay ( pronunciation and spelling) (22 August 1771 – 14 February 1831) was an English machine tool innovator, tool and die maker, and inventor. He is considered a founding father of machine tool technology. His inventions were ...

's workshop in Lambeth and his interest was mainly, but not limited to, specialist machine tools.

Modern materials handling

The Bridgewater Foundry is an example of modern materials handling that was part of the evolution of the

assembly line An assembly line is a manufacturing process (often called a ''progressive assembly'') in which parts (usually interchangeable parts) are added as the semi-finished assembly moves from workstation to workstation where the parts are added in se ...

. The buildings were arranged in a line with a railway for carrying the work going through the buildings. Cranes were used for lifting the heavy work, which sometimes weighed in the tens of tons. The work passed sequentially through to the erection of the framework and final assembly.

Locomotives

The company produced nine locomotives in 1839, thirteen in 1840, eight in 1841 and sixteen in 1842. These were sub-contracted from other makers such as

Edward Bury Edward Bury (22 October 1794 – 25 November 1858) was an English locomotive manufacturer. Born in Salford, Lancashire, he was the son of a timber merchant and was educated at Chester. Career By 1823 he was a partner in Gregson and Bury's ste ...

, and produced to their designs. Those for the Midland Counties and London and Southampton Railways were

2-2-0 Under Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 2-2-0 represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, two powered driving wheels on one axle, and no trailing wheels. This configuration, which became very ...

with driving wheels and cylinders, similar to those railway's Bury machines. (One Midland Counties locomotive was

2-2-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 2-2-2 represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, two powered driving wheels on one axle, and two trailing wheels on one axle. The wheel arrangement bo ...

, and had smaller drivers, with and cylinders.) In 1841 the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway had found some American Norris

4-2-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles, two powered driving wheels on one axle and no trailing wheels. This type of locomotive is often called a ...

locomotives very successful, especially on the notorious

Lickey Incline The Lickey Incline, south of Birmingham, is the steepest sustained main-line railway incline in Great Britain. The climb is a gradient of 1 in 37.7 (2.65% or 26.5‰ or 1.52°) for a continuous distance of two miles (3.2 km). Constructed ...

, and the company built six similar ones for the line.

Expansion

In 1850 the name of the firm was changed to James Nasmyth and Company, then in 1857 to Patricroft Ironworks. In 1867 Robert Wilson and Henry Garnett became the principal partners and the company's name changed again to Nasmyth, Wilson and Company. From about 1873 the demand for locomotives from overseas increased. By 1938 over locomotives had been produced, over one thousand of which were exported. In 1883, Nasmyth Wilson and Co. produced the very first design of Prairie or 2-6-2 locomotives in the world, for the

New Zealand Railways Department The New Zealand Railways Department, NZR or NZGR (New Zealand Government Railways) and often known as the "Railways", was a government department charged with owning and maintaining New Zealand's railway infrastructure and operating the railway ...

. These locomotives entered traffic between 1885 and 1890 after a somewhat rough start. several were dumped in rivers as flood protection in the 1920s, and have since been exhumed for preservation.

Decline and closure

During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

the factory was mainly engaged in munitions work, but it built twenty 2-8-0 locomotives for the French ''

Chemin de fer de l'État Chemin or Le Chemin may refer to: Arts and media * ''Le chemin'' (Emmanuel Moire album), 2013 album by French singer Emmanuel Moire * ''Le chemin'' (Kyo album), 2003 album by French band Kyo ** "Le Chemin" (song), title song from same-titled Kyo ...

'' ( 140-251 to 140-270) and 32 for

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, along with a hundred small petrol driven locomotives. Sales continued after the end of the war but by the early 1930s orders had begun to dwindle. In 1934 the works supplied four standard gauge N class 0-6-0T shunters to

Palestine Railways {{Infobox rail , railroad_name = Palestine Railway , logo_filename = , logo_size = , system_map = , map_caption = , map_size = , marks = , image = AwmB00283.Samakh.jpg , image_size ...

. These were evidently satisfactory as Palestine Railways bought four more in 1935, two in 1936 and a final pair in 1938. The last locomotive order was for two

2-6-4T Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, a locomotive has two leading wheels, six coupled driving wheels and four trailing wheels. This arrangement is commonly called Adriatic. Overview With only a few known excep ...

metre gauge

tank locomotive A tank locomotive or tank engine is a steam locomotive that carries its water in one or more on-board water tanks, instead of a more traditional tender. Most tank engines also have bunkers (or fuel tanks) to hold fuel; in a tender-tank locom ...

s, Works No. 1649 and 1650, dispatched in 1938 to the South Indian Railways. Only two other locomotives were produced in 1938; these were the last pair of N class 0-6-0Ts for Palestine Railways, Works No. 1651 and 1652. As part of a planned reorganisation of the industry, the company ceased manufacture of locomotives and handed over all its drawings and

pattern A pattern is a regularity in the world, in human-made design, or in abstract ideas. As such, the elements of a pattern repeat in a predictable manner. A geometric pattern is a kind of pattern formed of geometric shapes and typically repeated li ...

s to the British Locomotive Manufacturers Association. The company continued to make steam hammers and machine tools. On 1 June 1940 the Ministry of Supply took over the factory and it became an engineering Royal Ordnance Factory,

ROF Patricroft The Royal Ordnance Factory, ROF Patricroft, was an engineering factory was classified as a Medium Machine Shop. It was located in Patricroft, near the town of Eccles, in the City of Salford, Greater Manchester, England, adjacent to both the Li ...

. The company, however, was formally wound up on 7 November 1940, having reported a loss of £2,663 for 1939.Cantrell (2005) pp.107 In 1987, the Royal Ordnance Factories were bought by

British Aerospace British Aerospace plc (BAe) was a British aircraft, munitions and defence-systems manufacturer. Its head office was at Warwick House in the Farnborough Aerospace Centre in Farnborough, Hampshire. Formed in 1977, in 1999 it purchased Marcon ...

and in 1989 the Patricroft engineering works was closed down. The site, including some of the original buildings, is now used as a business and technology centre. By 2009, a large section (the central building) had been demolished.

Locomotive production list

References

Bibliography

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