The LNER Encyclopedia

Evening all,

Following an interesting article in my local paper (Burton Mail), a feature on local South Derbyshire/Burton-on-Trent aerial photo's from the 1920s, a website was mentioned...

I've just come across a very interesting pic or two of Doncaster and The Plant from 1925...

http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/imag ... ter&ref=29

Happy browsing.

Regards,

Marcus.

Ay up!

Makes you realise just how BIG the Plant was!

Ay up Blink Bonny!

Hope all is well?

It's amazing how big Donny was... but I must admit to having a quick peek at the other lot in Crewe... That looked on equal terms in the 1920s.

Regards,

Marcus.

...the other lot in Crewe... That looked on equal terms in the 1920s

I'm sorry to disagree Ladas, and I don't want to cast any aspersions against Doncaster but Crewe was much bigger maybe as much as twice the size. At one time it was the largest railway owned workshops in the world.

On a side note;

Someone was asking about the Doncaster Race Day platforms on this forum. Well you can just see part of them at the bottom of the shot if you follow the link given above.

Brian.

G'Day Gents

Fantastic photos. I went for a wander around the site, and found some pictures of Edgware (1925) showing the other side of the goods shed, wonderful news.

manna

Ay up!

Crewe was BIGGER? Ye Gods - that's one big factory!

All is, well, to quote our Aussie friends, no worries Ladas! In fact, I'm about to go on my holliers to Welsh Wales.

There's lovely!

The photograph of the station and works shows only part of the works complex. When assessing relative sizes it should be borne in mind that from the top half of the left hand side of the print for a distance of maybe a quarter of a mile towards Hexthorpe would be found the following: Paint Shop; Weigh House; extensive open yard between the Paint shop and Crimpsall; Crimpsall Erecting Shop; Stripping Shop and Scrap Yard.
DG
69999

In 1948 Crewe had the largest covered area (44.0 acres) but was (just) second to Swindon in total area, having 137.0 areas compared with Swindon's 140.2 acres (but only 35.2 acres covered).

Doncaster comes 4th in total area, Horwich being third (61.0 and 81.0 acres respectively) but in covered area Doncaster's 13.0 acres comes behind Horwich (17.0), Darlington (15.0 on two sites), Gorton (14.7) and Derby (14.0), as well as Crewe and Swindon, placing Doncaster 6th.

It is interesting to compare these figures with the respective loco stocks of the pre-Grouping owners and the proportion constructed by the Works in question . For instance, so far as I am aware, the LNWR built virtually everything at Crewe while the Midland made extensive use of outside contractors, as did the GCR, whose Gorton Works were half the size of Doncaster in total area. On the other hand the GER mostly built their own locos though Stratford was only slightly larger than Gorton overall, with a smaller covered area. The GNR, GCR and GER were virtually identical in numbers of locos in 1923, though it has to be said the GE's were smaller. (How many J69's is an O4 worth?) If we bring the NER into the comparison we also need to include Gateshead, but unfortunately I have no figures other than being zero in 1948.

Source for Works areas: Larkin An Illustrated History of British Railways' Workshops OPC 1992

Kudu

Interesting figures, kudu.

I had the good fortune to visit Horwich once, I was impressed by the size of the erecting shop, it went on and on, a very long building. I am not sure where the L&Y lies in the league table of pre-grouping companies, but certainly no where near as big as the NER, but there again, as you note, apart from Darlington, the NER had Gateshead and York.

It all depends what goes on in the works though. Doncaster & Swindon, for instance, built carriages & wagons. Crewe only built locos ( and maybe signaling equipment), but Crewe had a full blown steel works (which I guess supplied steel to Wolverton and elsewhere). The LNWR could produce virtually anything required for running a railway.

I visited Horwich after the end of railway use when it was being used as industrial units and noted that the upright columns that supported roof and crane track were identical to parts of Crewe works. An LMS standard column perhaps.

Solario wrote:Interesting figures, kudu.

I had the good fortune to visit Horwich once, I was impressed by the size of the erecting shop, it went on and on, a very long building. I am not sure where the L&Y lies in the league table of pre-grouping companies, but certainly no where near as big as the NER, but there again, as you note, apart from Darlington, the NER had Gateshead and York.

It all depends what goes on in the works though. Doncaster & Swindon, for instance, built carriages & wagons. Crewe only built locos ( and maybe signaling equipment), but Crewe had a full blown steel works (which I guess supplied steel to Wolverton and elsewhere). The LNWR could produce virtually anything required for running a railway.

My figures come from a table headed "General Particulars of the Main Locomotive Works" [my emphasis] - make of that what you will.

The NER ranks fourth with 2151 steam locos, 138 ex-H&BR, absorbed in 1921. The L&Y merged with the LNW in 1921, but 1651 of their steam locos survived to 1923, placing the L&Y fifth and not so far behind the NER. I find it surprising that the L&Y had more steam than the GN, GC and GE (1361, 1358 & 1343 respectively in 6th-8th positions). (Figures include standard gauge departmentals.)

I should amend what I posted above on Gateshead. This is categorised as a Subsidiary Works in the reference I gave, but it is not clear whether this is official or not. It seems it closed in 1932 but re-opened in 1939 for repairs, finally closing in 1959.

You can still see the Horwich erecting shop from the M61 - at least, you could last time I drove on it.

Kudu

Ay up!

Still there in Nov 2011. Under threat of demolition.