Bury, Curtis and Kennedy was a

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, Fuel oil, oil or, rarely, Wood fuel, wood) to heat ...

manufacturer in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

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 stea ...

established the works in 1826, under the name Edward Bury and Company. He employed James Kennedy as foreman; Kennedy later became a partner. About 1828, the firm moved to bigger premises in Love Lane, Liverpool, known as the Clarence Foundry.

Locomotives

Their first engine was built in 1830. Called ''Dreadnought'', it ran on the

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

. It was objected to because it was on six wheels and was sold to the

Bolton and Leigh Railway The Bolton and Leigh Railway (B&LR) was the first public railway in Lancashire. It opened for goods on 1 August 1828, and thus preceded the Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR) by two years. Passengers were carried from 1831. The railway oper ...

. The second, the four-coupled ''Liverpool'', later in 1830, used a cranked driving axle, and was also objected to (by

George Stephenson George Stephenson (9 June 1781 – 12 August 1848) was an English civil engineer and Mechanical engineering, mechanical engineer during the Industrial Revolution. Renowned as the "Father of Railways", Stephenson was considered by the Victoria ...

) because the 6 ft diameter wheels were too big.

The Bury type

However, they refined their designs and the resulting and locomotives quickly became a standard which was emulated by many other manufacturers, becoming known as the "Bury type". Distinguishing features of these engines were inside horizontal (or near-horizontal) cylinders, inside wrought-iron

bar frame A locomotive frame is the structure that forms the backbone of the railway locomotive, giving it strength and supporting the superstructure elements such as a Cab (locomotive), cab, locomotive boiler, boiler or bodywork. The vast majority of loc ...

, which gave them a light appearance, and the round firebox (D-shaped in plan), with a large domed top surmounted by a safety valve.

Railways supplied

Thirteen were supplied to the Great Northern Railway (six of them being sub-contracted to

William Fairbairn & Sons William Fairbairn and Sons, was an engineering works in Manchester, England. History William Fairbairn opened an iron foundry in 1816 and was joined the following year by a Mr. Lillie, and the firm became known as Fairbairn and Lillie Engine M ...

), and they became the standard classes on the

London and Birmingham Railway The London and Birmingham Railway (L&BR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom, in operation from 1833 to 1846, when it became part of the London and North Western Railway (L&NWR). The railway line which the company opened in 1838, betw ...

, the

Eastern Counties Railway The Eastern Counties Railway (ECR) was an English railway company incorporated in 1836 intended to link London with Ipswich via Colchester, and then extend to Norwich and Yarmouth. Construction began in 1837 on the first at the London end. Co ...

, the

Midland Counties Railway The Midland Counties' Railway (MCR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom which existed between 1839 and 1844, connecting Nottingham, Leicester and Derby with Rugby, Warwickshire, Rugby and thence, via the London and Birmingham Railway, t ...

, the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal Navigation and Railway Company, the Lancaster and Preston Railway and the

North Union Railway The North Union Railway was an early British railway company, operating two main routes, from to and from to , all in Lancashire. The northerly part of the routes sharing the line from Euxton to Preston. The company was created in 1834 wit ...

. Several were exported to the US, more than from any other British company except R. Stephenson & Co., and where Bury's "bar-frames" became standard. The firm had a reputation for good workmanship, cheapness and reliability.

Train operating contract

In 1836 Edward Bury was contracted to run the trains of the

at a cost of one farthing per mile per passenger, and a speed not exceeding , with the L&BR providing locomotives to Bury's specification. This contract was annulled in July 1839 because of the unexpected growth in traffic and the increased speed required, and Bury acted thereafter as Locomotive Superintendent of the L&BR in the normal way. The engines he had specified were built by seven different firms, Bury's firm providing 45 of the original stock of 90.

Formation of partnership

In 1842, Bury took Kennedy, Timothy Abraham Curtis and John Vernon as partners, and the company changed its name to Bury, Curtis and Kennedy. Bury continued as Locomotive Superintendent of the London and Birmingham Railway but a few months after it had become part of the

London and North Western Railway The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the LNWR was the largest joint stock company in the world. Dubbed the "Premier Line", the LNWR's main line connec ...

he resigned in March 1847. In February 1848 he was appointed Locomotive Superintendent of the Great Northern Railway, and in June 1849 became also its general manager. Meanwhile, the firm of Bury, Curtis & Kennedy continued building locomotives, some of advanced design which had a great influence on subsequent practice, such as the s for the L&NWR which led directly to the ''Bloomers'', as well as one-offs such as the gigantic Crampton ''Liverpool'' for the L&NWR, the most powerful locomotive in the world in 1848. Six locomotives were built in 1848 for the LNWR (Southern Division) with 16 in. x 20 in. cylinders, 5 ft. driving wheels, and 3 ft. trailing wheels.

Production

In all Bury, Curtis and Kennedy's Clarence Foundry built about 415 locomotives, but they produced much else besides, from

church bells A church bell is a bell in a church building designed to be heard outside the building. It can be a single bell, or part of a set of bells. Their main function is to call worshippers to the church for a service of worship, but are also rung o ...

to iron ships. At its height, the firm employed 1,600 men.

Closure

The firm lost heavily in making components for the large

bascule A bascule is a counterbalanced structure (i.e. a lever) having one end that rises as the other lowers. It may also refer to: * Bascule bridge, a moveable bridge with a counterweight that continuously balances the span in providing clearance for b ...

Blagoveshchensky Bridge The Annunciation Bridge ( - ''Blagoveshchensky most''; from 1855 to 1918 Nikolaevsky Bridge, ; from 1918 to 2007 called Lieutenant Schmidt Bridge, ) is the first permanent bridge built across the Neva River in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It connec ...

over the

River Neva The Neva ( , ; , ) is a river in northwestern Russia flowing from Lake Ladoga through the western part of Leningrad Oblast (historical region of Ingria) to the Neva Bay of the Gulf of Finland. Despite its modest length of , it is the fourth-l ...

St Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

— for which the

Imperial Russian Government The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

never paid, according to Bury's widow. This, plus a serious decline in the shipbuilding trade in

led to the firm's closing down in 1851.

Preservation

Two of the firm's locomotives have been preserved, Furness Railway 0-4-0 No. 3 (nicknamed "Old Coppernob" or " Coppernob"), built in 1846, now in the

National Railway Museum The National Railway Museum (NRM) is a museum in York, England, forming part of the Science Museum Group. The museum tells the story of rail transport in Britain and its impact on society. It is the home of the national collection of historical ...

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

and

Great Southern and Western Railway The Great Southern and Western Railway (GS&WR) was an Irish gauge () railway company in Ireland from 1844 until 1924. The grew by building lines and making a series of takeovers, until in the late 19th and early 20th centuries it was the larges ...

No. 36, built in 1847, now at

Cork Kent railway station Kent Station () is an Iarnród Éireann railway station in Cork, Ireland. Originally opened in 1893, the station operates as a hub for Intercity services to Dublin and Tralee and commuter services to Mallow, Cobh and Midleton. In 2016, Kent St ...

Cork "Cork" or "CORK" may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Stopper (plug), or "cork", a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container *** Wine cork an item to seal or reseal wine Places Ireland * ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

External links

Cork Kent Museum

, 1794 – 1858
Cork Kent Museum

Great Southern & Western Railway The Great Southern and Western Railway (GS&WR) was an Irish gauge () railway company in Ireland from 1844 until 1924. The grew by building lines and making a series of takeovers, until in the late 19th and early 20th centuries it was the larges ...

Express Passenger Locomotive No. 36

References

* * Jack, Harry (2001). ''Locomotives of the LNWR Southern Division - London & Birmingham Railway, L&NWR and Wolverton Works.'' Sawtry: RCTS. . {{Reflist Locomotive manufacturers of the United Kingdom Manufacturing companies based in Liverpool Defunct companies based in Liverpool