Nasmyth, Gaskell and Company

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Nasmyth, Gaskell and Company

Nasmyth, Gaskell and Company, originally called The Bridgewater Foundry, specialised in the production of locomotives

Locomotive

A locomotive is a Rail transport vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin language loco - "from a place", Ablative case of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine,....
and heavy machine tools. It was located in Patricroft

Patricroft

Patricroft is an area of Eccles, Greater Manchester in the metropolitan borough of City of Salford, Greater Manchester, England.It was administered by the municipal borough of Eccles in the Administrative counties of England of Lancashire until both were abolished in 1974....
, close to the Liverpool and Manchester Railway

Liverpool and Manchester Railway

The Liverpool and Manchester Railway was the world's first inter-city passenger railway in which all the trains were timetabled and were hauled for most of the distance solely by steam locomotives....
, the Bridgewater Canal

Bridgewater Canal

The Bridgewater Canal is a canal in North West England that connects Runcorn, Manchester, and Leigh, Greater Manchester. It was commissioned by Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, to transport coal from his mines in Worsley to Manchester....
and the Manchester Ship Canal

Manchester Ship Canal

The Manchester Ship Canal is a long river navigation in North West England. Built to give the city of Manchester direct access to the sea, it was built between 1887 and 1894 at a cost of about ?15M, and in its day was the largest navigation canal in the world....
. The company was founded in 1836 and dissolved in 1940.

company was founded in 1836 by James Nasmyth

James Nasmyth

James Hall Nasmyth was a Scotland engineer and inventor famous for his development of the steam hammer....
and Holbrook Gaskell

Holbrook Gaskell

Holbrook Gaskell was a British industrialist, art and plant collector....
. Nasmyth had previously been employed in Henry Maudslay

Henry Maudslay

Henry Maudslay was a United Kingdom machine tool innovator, tool and die maker, and inventor. He is considered a founding father of machine tool technology....
's workshop in Lambeth

Lambeth

Lambeth is a place in the London Borough of Lambeth, although the area is now more commonly known as Waterloo, after the railway station whose viaduct separates the former centre of the village from the River Thames....
and his interest was mainly, but not limited to, specialist machine tools.

The company produced nine locomotives in 1839, thirteen in 1840, eight in 1841 and sixteen in 1842.

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Encyclopedia

Nasmyth, Gaskell and Company, originally called The Bridgewater Foundry, specialised in the production of locomotives

Locomotive

Patricroft

Liverpool and Manchester Railway

Bridgewater Canal

Manchester Ship Canal

Nasmyth

The company was founded in 1836 by James Nasmyth

James Nasmyth

James Hall Nasmyth was a Scotland engineer and inventor famous for his development of the steam hammer....
and Holbrook Gaskell

Holbrook Gaskell

Holbrook Gaskell was a British industrialist, art and plant collector....
. Nasmyth had previously been employed in Henry Maudslay

Henry Maudslay

Henry Maudslay was a United Kingdom machine tool innovator, tool and die maker, and inventor. He is considered a founding father of machine tool technology....
's workshop in Lambeth

Lambeth

Midland Counties Railway

The Midland Counties Railway was a railway company in the United Kingdom which existed between 1832 and 1844, connecting Nottingham, Leicester and Derby with Rugby, Warwickshire and thence, via the London and Birmingham Railway, to London....
were 2-2-0

2-2-0

A 2-2-0, in the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement, has one unpowered leading axle and one powered driving axle....
with 5'6" driving wheels and 12"x18" cylinders, probably similar to that railway's Bury machines, apart from one which was 2-2-2

2-2-2

Under the Whyte notation for the classification of locomotive#Steam, a 2-2-2 locomotive has two leading wheels, two driving wheels and two trailing wheels....
, and had smaller drivers, with 5'0" and 14"x18" cylinders. In 1841 the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway

Birmingham and Gloucester Railway

The Birmingham and Gloucester Railway is a railway route linking Birmingham to Gloucester in England.It is one of the world's oldest main line railways and includes the famous Lickey Incline, a dead-straight stretch of track running up the 1-in-37 gradient of the Lickey Ridge....
had found some American Norris

Norris Locomotive Works

The Norris Locomotive Works was a steam locomotive manufacturing company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that produced about a thousand engines between 1836 and 1860....
4-2-0

4-2-0

In the Whyte notation, a 4-2-0 is a railroad steam locomotive that consists of a 4-wheel leading truck followed by a single driving axle. This type of locomotive, often called a Jervis type, was common on United States railroads from the 1830s through the 1850s....
locomotives very successful, especially on the notorious Lickey Incline

Lickey Incline

The Lickey Incline is the steepest sustained main-line railway incline in Great Britain. Situated just south of Birmingham in England the climb is two miles at 1 in 37.7 ....
, and the company built six similar ones for the line.

Expansion

In 1850 the name of the firm was changed to James Nasmyth and Company, then in 1857 to Patricroft Ironworks. In 1867 Robert Wilson and Henry Garnett became the principal partners and the company's name changed again to Nasmyth Wilson and Company.

From about 1873 the demand for locomotives from overseas increased. By 1938 over locomotives had been produced, over one thousand of which were exported.

Decline and closure

During World War I

World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
the factory was mainly engaged in munitions work, but it built 20 2-8-0

2-8-0

In the Whyte notation, a 2-8-0 is a railroad steam locomotive that has a single-axle leading truck followed by four powered driving axles. In the US, this wheel arrangement is commonly called a Consolidation....
locomotives for the Chemin de Fer de l'État

Chemin de Fer de l'État

The Chemins de fer de l'?tat , often referred to in France as the r?seau de l'?tat , was an early France railway....
in France

France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
and 32 for India

India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
, along with a hundred small petrol driven locomotives.

Sales continued after the end of the war but by the early 1930s orders had begun to dry up. The last locomotive order was for two 2-6-4T

2-6-4

Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, a 2-6-4 locomotive has two leading wheels, six coupled driving wheels and four trailing wheels....
metre gauge tank locomotive

Tank locomotive

A tank locomotive is a steam locomotive that carries its own fuel and water on it, instead of pulling it behind it in a tender locomotive....
s, Works No. 1649 and 1650, dispatched in 1938 to the South Indian Railways. Only two other locomotives, Works No. 1651 and 1652, were produced in 1938; both were 0-6-0

0-6-0

The term 0-6-0 is the Whyte notation for the wheel arrangement of a locomotive with six powered driving wheels , and neither leading nor trailing wheels....
standard gauge

Standard gauge

The standard gauge is a widely-used rail gauge. Approximately 60% of the world's existing railway lines are built to this gauge . The distance between the inside edges of the rails of standard gauge track is ....
locomotives for the Palestine

Palestine

Palestine is a name which has been widely used since Roman times to refer to the region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. It is derived from a name used already much earlier for a narrower geographical region, mainly along the coastal region....
Railway.

As part of a planned reorganisation of the industry, the company ceased manufacture of locomotives and handed over all its drawing

Drawing

Drawing is a visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoals, chalk, pastels, marker pens, stylus, or various metals like silverpoint....
s and pattern

Pattern

A pattern, from the French language patron, is a type of theme of recurring events of or objects, sometimes referred to as elements of a set....
s to the British Locomotive Manufacturers Association. The company continued to make steam hammers and machine tools.

On 1 June1940 the Ministry of Supply took over the factory and it became an engineering Royal Ordnance Factory

Royal Ordnance Factory

Royal Ordnance Factories was the collective name of the United Kingdom government's munitions factories in and after World War II. Until privatisation in 1987 they were the responsibility of the Ministry of Supply and later the Ministry of Defence ....
, ROF Patricroft

ROF Patricroft

The Royal Ordnance Factory, ROF Patricroft, was an Engineering ROF was classified as a Medium Machine Shop. It was located in Patricroft, near the town of Eccles, Greater Manchester, in the City of Salford, Greater Manchester, England, adjacent to both the Liverpool and Manchester Railway and the Bridgewater Canal....
. The company, however, was formally wound up on 7 November 1940, having reported a loss of £2,663 for 1939.

In 1987, the Royal Ordnance Factories were bought by British Aerospace

British Aerospace

British Aerospace was a United Kingdom aircraft manufacturer, munitions and defence-systems manufacturer. In 1999 it purchased Marconi Electronic Systems, the defence electronics and naval shipbuilding subsidiary of the General Electric Company plc to form BAE Systems....
; and in 1989 the Patricroft engineering works was closed down. The site, including some of the original buildings, is now used as a business and technology centre.

Bibliography

Lowe, J.W., (1989) British Steam Locomotive Builders, Guild Publishing.