Grant, Ritchie and Company was a Scottish engineering firm based in

Kilmarnock Kilmarnock ( ; ; , ), meaning "the church of Mernóc", is a town and former burgh in East Ayrshire situated in southwest Scotland. The town has served as the administrative centre of East Ayrshire Council since 1996 and is the region's main ...

, Scotland. The company's products included

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs Work (physics), mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a Cylinder (locomotive), cyl ...

s and

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 ...

History

In 1876, there was a disastrous fire at Andrew Barclay's Caledonia works in

. At this point, two employees of Andrew Barclay, Thomas Grant and William Ritchie, set up ''Grant, Ritchie and Company'' at Townholme Engine Works, Kilmarnock to manufacture steam locomotives. They took over an existing business called Grant Brothers but it is not known whether there was a family connection to Thomas Grant. Grant, Ritchie also built colliery winding engines and one of these is preserved at the National Mining Museum; a 2400 hp engine built for the Victoria Colliery in the 1890s. A Grant, Ritchie locomotive is preserved at the

Ribble Steam Railway The Ribble Steam Railway is a standard gauge preserved railway in Lancashire, in the United Kingdom. It was opened to the public on 17 September 2005, running along Preston Docks. The railway began by housing much of the collection from th ...

, currently on loan at York until April 2017.

References

External links

*{{citation, url=http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Grant,_Ritchie_and_Co, title= Grant, Ritchie and Co, work = gracesguide.co.uk Locomotive manufacturers of the United Kingdom Engineering companies of Scotland Kilmarnock 1876 establishments in Scotland Manufacturing companies established in 1876 British companies established in 1876