Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company

52°30′19″N 1°57′39″W / 52.50528°N 1.96083°W / 52.50528; -1.96083

BRCW makers plate, on display in Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum

The Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company (BRC&W) was a railway locomotive and carriage builder, founded in Birmingham, England and, for most of its existence, located at nearby Smethwick, with the factory divided by the boundary between the two places. The company was established in 1854.[1]

Production

Compartment of luxury saloon coach built for Palestine Railways in 1922, now preserved at the Israel Railway Museum in Haifa
British Rail Class 33 at Swanage

BRC&W made not only carriages and wagons, but a range of vehicles, from aeroplanes and military gliders to buses, trolleybuses and tanks. Nevertheless, it is as a builder of railway rolling stock that the company is best remembered, exporting to most parts of the new and old worlds. It supplied vehicles to all four of the pre-nationalisation "big four" railway companies (LMS, SR, LNER and GWR), British Rail, Pullman (some of which are still in use) and Wagons-Lits, plus overseas railways with diverse requirement including Egypt, India, Iraq, Malaya, Mandate Palestine, South Africa and Nigeria. The company even built, in 1910, Argentina's presidential coach, which still survives, and once carried Eva Perón. Before World War II, the company had built steam-, petrol- and diesel-powered railcars for overseas customers, not to mention bus bodies for Midland Red, and afterwards developed more motive power products, including BR's Class 26, Class 33 (both diesel) and Class 81 (electric) locomotives. Examples of all three types are preserved.

Wartime production

The company built hospital trains during the Second Boer War. Handley Page Type O bombers and Airco DH.10 Amiens were built during World War I.

During World War II, the company had a major impact on tank production as one of the many companies building the A10 Cruiser, Valentine, Churchill, Cromwell and Challenger tanks.[2] They led the design and production of the Cromwell tank in liaison with Rolls-Royce and Rover on the Meteor engine.

The company also built Hamilcar gliders in 1939–1945.

Locomotives

Some of the locomotives and multiple units built by the company are listed below:

Diesel Locomotives

Electric Locomotives

Diesel Multiple Units

DMU on the Belgrano Sur Line in Buenos Aires, Argentina (1966)

Electric Multiple Units

Closure

In the years before 1963, the company had built an extensive number of locomotives, diesel multiple unit trains, and Underground cars, but it then became apparent that fewer rolling stock orders were to be expected, and the company restructured itself as an industrial landlord and financing business.[4] The self-funded main line locomotive prototype Lion was a particular disappointment. Powered by a Sulzer 2,750 hp (2,050 kW) diesel engine, it was pitted against another self-funded prototype, Falcon, built by Brush at Loughborough, which had twin 1,400 hp (1,000 kW) Maybach engines. After trials, British Railways preferred the BRCW approach, but ordered them to be built by Brush Traction, and they became British Rail Class 47.

Preserved BRCW locomotive and units

Australia

The Commonwealth Railway used a large number of A1A-A1A NSU Class locomotives built by the Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company, several are preserved.

Built in Number Now located at
1954 NSU51 Pichi Richi Railway at Quorn, South Australia
1954 NSU52 Pichi Richi Railway at Quorn, South Australia
1954 NSU53 The Ghan Preservation Society at Alice Springs, Northern Territory
1954 NSU54 Pichi Richi Railway at Quorn, South Australia
1954 NSU55 Steamtown at Peterborough, South Australia
1954 NSU56 at Maree, South Australia
1954 NSU57 at Maree, South Australia
1954 NSU58 The Ghan Preservation Society at Alice Springs, Northern Territory
1954 NSU59 The Ghan Preservation Society at Alice Springs, Northern Territory
1954 NSU60 at Maree, South Australia
1954 NSU61 National Railway Museum at Port Adelaide, South Australia
1954 NSU62 Steamtown at Peterborough, South Australia
1954 NSU63 at Adelaide River, Northern Territory
1954 NSU64 The Ghan Preservation Society at Alice Springs, Northern Territory

Ireland

Railway Class Wheel arrangement Built in Number Now located at
Córas Iompair Éireann 101 class A1A-A1A 1956 103 Irish Traction Group at Carrick-on-Suir

United Kingdom

Several ex-British Rail Bo-Bo locomotives are preserved.

Class Built in Number Now located at
Class 26 1958 D5300 / 26007 Barrow Hill Engine Shed
Class 26 1958 D5301 / 26001 - Eastfield Caledonian Railway (Brechin)
Class 26 1958 D5302 / 26002 Strathspey Railway
Class 26 1958 D5304 / 26004 Nemesis Rail, Burton upon Trent[5]
Class 26 1958 D5310 / 26010 Llangollen Railway
Class 26 1958 D5311 / 26011 Nemesis Rail, Burton upon Trent[5]
Class 26 1958 D5314 / 26014 Caledonian Railway (Brechin)
Class 26 1958 D5324 / 26024 Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway
Class 26 1958 D5325 / 26025 Strathspey Railway
Class 26 1958 D5335 / 26035 Caledonian Railway (Brechin)
Class 26 1958 D5338 / 26038 Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway[5]
Class 26 1958 D5340 / 26040 Waverley Route Heritage Association[5]
Class 26 1958 D5343 / 26043 Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway
Class 27 1960 D5347 / 27001 Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway
Class 27 1960 D5351 / 27005 Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway
Class 27 1960 D5353 / 27007 Caledonian Railway (Brechin)[5]
Class 27 1960 D5370 / 27024 Caledonian Railway (Brechin)[5]
Class 27 1960 D5394 / 27050 Strathspey Railway
Class 27 1960 D5401 / 27056 Great Central Railway
Class 27 1960 D5410 / 27059 UK Rail Leasing, Leicester[5]
Class 27 1960 D5386 / 27066 Barrow Hill Engine Shed[5]
Class 33 1960 D6501 / 33002 - Sea King South Devon Railway
Class 33 1960 D6508 / 33008 - Eastleigh Battlefield Line
Class 33 1960 D6515 / 33012 Swanage Railway
Class 33 1960 D6518 / 33018 Midland Railway
Class 33 1960 D6534 / 33019 - Griffon Battlefield Line Railway
Class 33 1960 D6552 / 33034 Swanage Railway
Class 33 1960 D6553 / 33035 Barrow Hill Engine Shed
Class 33 1960 D6564 / 33046 - Merlin Midland Railway
Class 33 1960 D6566 / 33047 West Somerset Railway
Class 33 1960 D6570 / 33052 - Ashford Bluebell Railway
Class 33 1960 D6571 / 33053 Mid-Hants Railway
Class 33 1960 D6575 / 33057 - Seagull West Somerset Railway
Class 33 1960 D6583 / 33063 - RJ Mitchell Spa Valley Railway
Class 33 1960 D6585 / 33065 - Sealion Spa Valley Railway
Class 33 1960 D6513 / 33102 Churnet Valley Railway
Class 33 1960 D6514 / 33103 Swordfish Swanage Railway
Class 33 1960 D6521 / 33108 Barrow Hill Engine Shed
Class 33 1960 D6525 / 33109 Captain Bill Smith RNR East Lancshire Railway
Class 33 1960 D6527 / 33110 Bodmin and Wenford Railway
Class 33 1960 D6528 / 33111 Swanage Railway
Class 33 1960 D6535 / 33116 Hertfordshire Rail Tours Great Central Railway
Class 33 1960 D6536 / 33117 East Lancashire Railway
Class 33 1960 D6586 / 33201 Midland Railway
Class 33 1960 D6587 / 33202 The Burma Star Mangapps Railway Museum
Class 33 1960 D6593 / 33208 Battlefield Line Railway
Class 81 1959 E3003 / 81002 Barrow Hill Engine Shed

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company.
  1. ^ White, Henry Patrick; Thomas, David St. John (1963). A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain. Phoenix House. p. 252.
  2. ^ Fletcher, David (1993). The Universal Tank. HMSO, for REME Museum. pp. 87–89. ISBN 0-11-290534-X., p.88
  3. ^ Connor, Piers (1983). The 'R' Stock Story. Hemel Hempstead: London Underground Railway Society. ISBN 0-9508793-0-4.
  4. ^ Hypher, John; Wheeler, Colin; Wheeler, Stephen (1996). Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company - A Century of Achievement,1855-1963. Runpast.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Preserved Locomotives of British Railways 2023, p. 118.