Компания Beyer, Peacock & Co.: История локомотивостроения.

Railway locomotive manufacturer

Beyer, Peacock and Company was an English general engineering company and railway locomotive manufacturer with a factory in Openshaw, Manchester. Charles Beyer, Richard Peacock and Henry Robertson founded the company in 1854. The company closed its railway operations in the early 1960s. It retained its stock market listing until 1976, when it was bought and absorbed by National Chemical Industries of Saudi Arabia.

German born Charles Beyer had undertaken engineering training related to cotton milling in Dresden before moving to England in 1831 aged 21. He became draughtsman at Sharp, Roberts and Company's Atlas works in central Manchester, which manufactured cotton mill machinery and had just started building locomotives for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. There he was mentored by head engineer and prolific inventor of cotton mill machinery Richard Roberts. By the time he resigned 22 years later he was well established as the company's head engineer; he had been involved in producing more than 600 locomotives. Richard Peacock had been chief engineer of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway's locomotive works in Gorton when he resigned in 1854, confident in his ability to secure orders to build locomotives. Beyer's resignation presented Peacock with a partnership opportunity. However, the business at the outset (Beyer, Peacock & Co.) was a legal partnership and the partners were therefore liable for debts should the business fail; in a mid Victorian economic climate of boom and bust, it was a risky venture. Beyer could raise £9,524 (nearly £900,000 in 2015) and Peacock £5,500, but they still required a loan from Charles Geach (founder of the Midland Bank and first treasurer to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, of which Beyer and Peacock had been founding members). Soon afterwards, however, Geach died, the loan was recalled, and the whole project nearly collapsed. Thomas Brassey came to the rescue, persuading Henry Robertson to provide a £4,000 loan in return for being the third (sleeping) partner. It was not until 1883 that the company was incorporated as a private limited company and renamed Beyer, Peacock & Co. Ltd. In 1902 it took on its final form as a public limited company. During the Great Depression, faced with competition from tramways and electric railways, the company began to look for alternatives so that they were not dependent on one product. In 1932 they acquired their first company and in 1949 formed a joint company with Metropolitan Vickers to build locomotives other than steam. By 1953 Beyer, Peacock had acquired more than five subsidiary companies; two others followed five years later. In 1958 Beyer, Peacock (Hymek) Ltd was formed. The site was chosen because land was cheaper than in the city, allowing ample room to expand, and there was a good water supply from an MS&LR reservoir. At the Foundry, Beyer designed and manufactured machine tools needed to build the locomotives, and oversaw locomotive design and production. Peacock dealt with the business side, often travelling to continental Europe to secure orders. In July 1855 the first locomotive, built for the Great Western Railway, left Gorton Foundry. Between 1854 and 1868 the company built 844 locomotives, of which 476 were exported. The company sold mainly to the British colonies, Southern Africa and South America. The London and North Western Railway had commissioned Beyer, Peacock to build a single copy of its Dreadnought Class for the Pennsylvania Railroad, as the former railway's shops were not legally permitted to sell their locomotives. the company remained out of the North American market. During the First World War Beyer, Peacock manufactured artillery; in August 1915 Gorton Works was put under government control with production switching almost entirely to the war effort, especially heavy field artillery. During the Second World War, the company was again brought under government control but continued to build locomotives throughout the war. locomotive design for London's first underground railway – the Metropolitan Railway A Class 4 4 0 tank engine. Between 1864 and 1886, 148 were built for various railways; most operated until the lines' electrification in 1905. The locomotives' main designer, Hermann Ludwig Lange (1837–92), was a native of Beyer's home town, Plauen, Saxony (now Germany) who had undertaken an apprenticeship followed by engineering training. Beyer had invited him to England in 1861 and employed him for the first year in the company workshops, then as a draughtsman under his direction. He became chief draughtsman in 1864 or 1865. After Beyer's death in 1876, he became chief engineer and co manager of the company.

In the decade following 1954, the company built four types of diesel powered locomotives and two electric types, listed below.

Locomotive manufacturing transformed rapidly in the late 1950s. In 1955 British Railways decided to switch from steam to diesel traction and by then overseas railways had done the same. A major problem the company soon faced was that it had chosen to make diesel hydraulic locomotives when the Western Region had opted for lightweight locomotives with hydraulic transmission under the British Railways Modernisation Plan of 1955; but British Railways opted for diesel electrics. The company all but closed down the Gorton Foundry at the end of 1958. Space Deck and Beyer Peacock International were praised in 1982 for having achieved increased profitability. National Chemical Industries itself went bust in the early to mid 1980s. As of 2012 the building that housed the former boiler shop, tender shop and boiler mounting shop – 550 feet (167 metres) in length – remained in use as part of the Hammerstone Road Depot of Manchester City Council. Beyer, Peacock & Company Ltd last filed accounts to Companies House in 1989. Since then it has been compulsorily struck off several times, but restored on the request of creditors. No activity has been registered since 2015. Companies House also lists another company called Beyer, Peacock & Company that was founded it 1998, and is now dormant. It is not clear what connection there is between the two firms.

Click "Show" to display. Preserved steam locomotives built by Beyer, Peacock BP No. Built Company built for Locomotive number Class Wheel arrangement Preserved at 33 1856 Statens Järnvägar 3 (43) Prins August B On display at Swedish Railway Museum, Gävle 239 1861 Statens Järnvägar 22 (506) Thor Ä(Qä) On display at Swedish Railway Museum, Gävle 295 1863 T. B./later NORTE 29 Basconia On display at Abando Station, Bilbao 533 1865 Maatschappij tot Exploitatie van Staatsspoorwegen 13 (NS 705) 9 16 On display at Dutch Railway Museum, Utrecht 710 1866 Metropolitan Railway 23 A London Transport Museum, at Covent Garden 627 1866 Statens järnvägar 75 Göta A(Aa) On display at Swedish Railway Museum, Gävle 809 1867 Statens järnvägar 93 Jernsida G(Gc) Nynäs, Swedish Railway Museum, Gävle, see 1442 846 1868 St. Petersburg & Helsingfors Railway 9 B1 Finnish Railway Museum, Hyvinkää 992 1870 Norwegian State Railways 21 Alf III Norwegian Railway Museum, Hamar 1253 1873 Isle of Man Railway 1 Sutherland Stored pending rebuild (Isle of Man Railway) 1255 1873 Isle of Man Railway 3 Pender On display at the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry (sectioned exhibit) 1412 1874 London and South Western Railway 30587 LSWR 0298 Class On display at the Locomotion Museum 1414 1874 London and South Western Railway 30585 LSWR 0298 Class On display at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre 1416 1874 Isle of Man Railway 4 Loch In service (Isle of Man Steam Railway) 1417 1874 Isle of Man Railway 5 Mona Stored (Isle of Man Railway) 1442 1874 Statens järnvägar 161 Wik G(Gc) Nynäs, Swedish Railway Museum, Gävle marked Gc 93 1524 1875 Isle of Man Railway 6 Peveril On display at the Port Erin Railway Museum 1647 1877 NSW Government Railways 1905 Z19 NSW Rail Museum 1767 1878 NSW Government Railways 120(1210 after 1924) Z12 class Canberra Railway Museum 1827 1879 Beyer, Peacock and Company 1827 Operational at Foxfield Railway 1933 1880 Bergslagernas Järnvägar 27 K Nynäs, Swedish Railway Museum, Gävle 1950 1880 Manx Northern Railway 3 Thornhill Privately preserved (Isle of Man) 1958 1880 Isle of Man Railway 7 Tynwald Dismantled for spares. Frames moved to Southwold Railway 1989 1881 Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway 752 L&YR Class 23 Keighley & Worth Valley Railway 2101 1881 Maatschappij tot Exploitatie van Staatsspoorwegen 326 (NS 1326) 301 475 On display at Dutch Railway Museum, Utrecht 2237 1883 Ferrocarril del Sud 46 ? Mar del Plata railway station on static display 2464 1885 47 John Bull National Tramway Museum 2601 1886 Mersey Railway/J. & A. Brown 1 The Major I NSW Rail Museum, Thirlmere, NSW, Australia 2605 1886 Mersey Railway 5 Cecil Raikes I Museum of Liverpool 2711 1886 Western Australian Government Railways A11 A Meredith, Victoria, Australia? 2734 1886 131 84 National Tramway Museum 2840 1887 Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway 957 L&YR Class 25 Keighley & Worth Valley Railway 3276 1890 Ferrocarril Alcoy Gandia 2 Villalonga On display at Al Azraq Square, Alcoi, Spain 3282 1891 Ferrocarril Alcoy Gandia 7 Cocentaina On display at Gandia station, Spain 3402 1891 NSW Government Railways 3203 C32 NSW Rail Museum 3413 1892 NSW Government Railways 3214 C32 Valley Heights Locomotive Depot Heritage Museum 3436 1892 NSW Government Railways 3237 C32 Operational, Lachlan Valley Railway 3610 1894 Isle of Man Railway 8 Fenella In service (Isle of Man Railway) 3641 1894 Nippon Railway, Japan B104 B10 > Kominato Railway, Ichihara, Chiba, Japan 3815 1896 Isle of Man Railway 9 Douglas Stored (Isle of Man Railway) 3824 1896 Companhia Mogiana de Estradas de Ferro 302 Stored, awaiting rebuild in Campinas, Brazil 3911 1897 Nippon Railway, Japan 5540 5500 Ome Railway Park, Ome, Tokyo, Japan 4028 1898 Tobu Railway, Japan 5 B1 Tobu Museum, Sumida, Tokyo, Japan 1961 British Railways E3054, 82008 BR Class 82 Bo Bo Barrow Hill Engine Shed