Vulcan Foundry
This works was established by Charles Tayleur in 1830. With the opening of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway it was realised that a locomotive manufacturing works in Lancashire would obviate the cost involved in transporting locomotives from Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Robert Stephenson joined Tayleur in 1832, but left the partnership probably due to pressure from Stephenson's Tyneside associates.
The first locomotive was completed in 1833, the first of two 0-4-0s ordered by Hargreaves for the North Union Railway. This was similar to Stephenson's Planet design 'A' and was named Tayleur. The second one was Stephenson. In 1833 three 2-2-0s were built for the Warrington & Newton Railway and were similar to Stephenson's Planet design 'B', with two inside cylinders. Two 4-2-0s were built and sent to America for the Philadelphia & Colombia Railroad. followed by three more of the same type in 1835 for the South Carolina Railroad. They were the first bogie locomotives to be built in Britain but no details are available as to how the bogie was mounted or pivotted.
Eight 2-2-2s were built for the Paris & St Germain Railway (1835/6), one 0-4-2 for the Belgian State Railway (1835). two 0-4-0s for the Raleigh & Gaston Railroad. (1836). one 2-2-2 to Russia (1837) and two 0-4-2s to Vienna. These exports formed the beginning of an excellent export trade which the firm built up and maintained throughout. The Stephenson influence was strong and in the 1840s many 'long boilered' types were built.
In 1847 the firm's name changed from Charles Tayleur to the Vulcan Foundry and in 1864 it became a limited liability company. Limited was added to the title from 1 January 1898.
In 1852 the first locomotives to run in India were built. They were to the 5' 6" gauge for the Great Indian Peninsula Railway and comprised eight 2-4-0s. This order for India was to be the first of many spanning over a century, when average output over this period was one locomotive every fortnight.
The first Fairlie locomotives to be built by Vulcan were two for the Dunedin & Port Chalmers Railway (3ft 6in gauge) and two for the Peruvian Government Railway (2ft 6in. gauge). All were 0-4-4-0Ts built in 1872. Other Fairlie locomotives supplied included the single Fairlie Taliisin for the Festiniog Railway (1876), and the large 0-6-6-0Ts in 1910 for the Mexican Railways,
In 1870 the first locomotive to run in Japan was built: a 2-4-0T, with outside cylinders for the 3ft 6in gauge and weighed 14 tone cwt. An unusual 0-4-0ST was supplied in 1873 to the Tredegar Iron Company with 3ft diameter flangeless wheels, to run on angle iron rails..From1870 many of the well known Kirtley double frame 0-6-0 locomotives were supplied to the Midland Railway.
A steady flow of orders came from the home. railways, including Ireland,
and from Russia, Uruquay, Chile, Germany, New Zealand, Australia, Spain etc.,
but the dominating orders were from India and the Argentine. To indicate
how strong the Indian and Ceylon market was, out of 1032 locomotives built
between 1907 and 1918, 977 were exported to those countries in including
4-6-0, 0-6-0, 2-8-0, 0-6-4T, 4-4-0, 0-4-2, crane tanks and 4-4-2 types.
Following WW1 this pattern continued. Thirty eight 4-8-0s were supplied to the Kenya & Uganda Railway's metre gauge in 1922-4. Twenty standard LMS 0-6-0Ts were built in 1924 (LMS 7100-7119), followed in 1926/7 by one hundred more (LMS Nos. 16460-16509 and 16550-16599). An order was placed by the LMS for sixty-five compound 4-4-0s: LMS Nos 1160-1184, (built 1925); 1185-1199 and 900-924 in 1927.
Orders in the early 1930s were still mainly from India, with smaller orders from Tanganyika and the Argentine. The trade recession was felt in 1932/3 and in 1934 a large order. from the LMS for Stanier designed two cylinder 4-6-0s and 2-8-0s helped considerably in maintaining work in the shops. Twenty-four 4-8-0s were built In 1935 for the Chinese National Railway.
Few locomotives were built in the early years of WW2, but in 1943 work was concentrated on building Austerity 2-8-0s to the Ministry of Supply design of which 396 were built during 1943-;5 after which a batch of fifty 0-6-0ST of standard design were builtS. At the end of WW2 one hundred and twenty 2-8-0 Liberation class were built for UNRRA for service in Europe. These were large ;ocomotives with two outside cylinders of were 21 5/8in x 28in, boiler heating surface total 2933 ft2, grate area 44 ft2 and a boiler pressure of 227 psi. The maximum axleload was 18½ tons and the weight of locomotive and tender was 142+ tons. The tender was mounted on two bogies and carried 5500 gallbns of water and 10 tons of coal. For their wheel arrangement they were gigantic machines.
There was a severe shortage of locomotives in India due to the War, but the post Independence India either built these at home or obtained them from elsewhere.
The Vulcan Foun was re-equipped to manufacture diesel and electric locomotives and in March 1955 Vulcan Foundry became a member of English Electric group together with Robert Stephenson & Hawthorn. So ended a magnificent record of steam locomotive building with a total of 6210 units. Lowe
See also Harry Jack Clement Edwin Stretton, Rly Arch., 2008 (18), 66:Jack warns that Stretton's compilations of the locomotive output from the Vulcan Foundry are fictitious.
See also Rupert Peel Richards; Frederick Seymour Whalley.
Gudgin, D.S.E. Vulcan Foundry locomotives, 1832-1956. Truro:
Bradford Barton, 1976. 96pp.
Ottley 10536: KPJ has not inspected, but presume that is mainly
pictorial.
Dewhurst, P.C. and Holcroft,
Harold. The Fairlie locomotive - Part 2. Later designs
and productions. Trans. Newcomen Soc., 1966, 39,
1-34.
2008-05-09