Adlib Internet Server 5

Title
English Electric Company test specifications
Reference
GEC/3/11/3
Production date
1957 - 1957

Creator

English Electric Company Limited Biography Biography
The English Electric Company was formed on 14th December 1918 and over the following year acquired Dick, Kerr & Company of Preston, Willans & Robinson of Rugby, the Phoenix Dynamo Manufacturing Company of Bradford, and Coventry Ordnance Works. After the First World War the various German owned Siemens works were distributed to different UK companies and in November 1919 English Electric acquired the Siemens Brothers Dynamo Works at Stafford, which became the company headquarters in 1931. Coventry Ordnance, primary output naval guns, did not feature in the gradual product rationalisation which took place between the First World and Second world Wars. Willans & Robinson’s Rugby works specialised in prime movers, steam, hydro and internal combustion, and their Stafford works on power station and distribution electrics, including transformers and large electric machines for applications such as mining and steel works. Dick Kerr & Company continued building equipment and vehicles for bus, tram and railway applications with the Phoenix Dynamo Manufacturing Company concentrating on medium and small electrical machines. Involvement with aircraft continued a small scale. By 1929 the company was in financial trouble and an American syndicate fronted by Lazard Bros. put in new capital. In 1930 Westinghouse of Pittsburgh entered into an agreement with the company for the exchange of technical information relating to steam turbines and electrical apparatus. This cooperation continued into the 1950s. 1930 saw the closure of Preston West works and the transfer of traction electrical design and manufacture to the Phoenix Dynamo Manufacturing works. The Westinghouse influence included top management changes with Sir H Mensforth becoming chairman and George Nelson managing director. Both had been with British Westinghouse at Trafford Park. The early 1930s saw a remarkable improvement in the company’s finances and domestic appliance manufacture was started at Bradford and Stafford. In 1936 they began production of diesel locomotives at Preston and were later involved in the production of the Deltic locomotive for British Rail, presaging the end of steam traction in the UK. Extensive shadow factory building for war production commenced in the late 1930’s, including at Preston East works and Salmesbury for aircraft production and at East Lancashire Road, Liverpool for D. Napier aero engines. A large variety of military equipment built during the war included thousands of Cromwell tanks from Stafford and over 3000 Handley Page Hampden and Halifax bombers from Preston and Salmesbury. After the war manufacture of smaller products from Bradford and Stafford moved to the large Liverpool works. This included electrical distribution transformers, switchgear, fuse gear, fractional horsepower motors and domestic appliances. Napier’s continued engine manufacture with the development of the ’Deltic’ diesel engine, mainly for marine applications. The nearby Netherton works took over the manufacture of large hydro-electric turbines and generators from Willans and Stafford. In 1942 English Electric acquired D. Napier & Son Ltd and Marconi in 1946. The company went on to extend their railway interests with the acquisition of the Vulcan Foundry and Robert Stephenson and Hawthorn Ltd in 1955. The company tried to take over The General Electric Company (GEC) in 1960 but failed. Traction manufacture, but not the offices, moved back to Preston East works and ‘K’, ‘RK’ and ‘V’ engine design and manufacture moved from Willans to Preston West works which was now also used for locomotive building. Kidsgrove works in Stafford made industrial controls and for a while was a major player in the UK computer industry, merging with Leo Computers and then into ICL. Train performance calculations were an early user of the mid-fifties ‘Deuce’ computer. Preston also became a major player in the aircraft industry taking over the wartime RAF/USAF base at Warton aerodrome - major design and manufacture contracts included Canberra bombers and Lightning fighters. Rationalisation in the 1960s resulted in English Electric Aviation becoming 40% of the new British Aircraft Corporation. In 1961 English Electric took over Dorman Diesels Ltd which in turn had acquired W. G. Bagnall Ltd. In 1966 English Electric Diesels merged with Ruston and Hornsby which already included Paxmans. This company eventually became GEC Diesels. Elliott Automation was acquired in 1967. The following year GEC took over English Electric, ending its independent existence.

Scope and Content
The box contains 6 test specifications for Pakistan Eastern Railways, British Railways Eastern Region & North Eastern Region, British Railways 1000hp Type 1 diesel electric locomotive, Rhodesia Railways, Gold Coast Railways, British Railways 1000hp Type A diesel electric locomotives.
Extent
1 box
Level of description
FILE
Repository name
National Railway Museum, York

Associated people and organisations

Pakistan Eastern Railway Biography Biography
On 1st February 1961, Eastern Bengal Railway was renamed as the Pakistan Eastern Railway. Then in 1962, the control of Pakistan Eastern Railway was transferred from the Central Government to the Government of East Pakistan and placed under the management of a Railway Board. With the emergence of Bangladesh as an independent nation in 1971, it became the Bangladesh Railway.
British Rail: Eastern Region Biography Biography
Railways in Britain were nationalised under the terms of the Transport Act 1947 which came into effect on 1 January 1948. The Railway Executive, a corporate body subordinate to the British Transport Commission, was created to manage and operate the railways. It divided them into six geographical regions, largely based on the areas served by the pre-nationalisation railway companies. Between 1948 and 1952 the regional manager of the Eastern Region was responsible to the Railway Executive for day to day operations in his region. After the Railway Executive was abolished in 1952, he reported to the British Transport Commission (BTC). In 1963, BTC itself was abolished and replaced by British Railways Board (BRB). Between 1963 and 1968 the Eastern Region was a statutory board in accordance with the provisions of the Transport Act 1962, subordinate to and reporting to BRB. In 1957 the Eastern Region was divided into three lines – Great Eastern, Great Northern and London, Tilbury, and Southend (transferred in to the Eastern Region in 1949) each under a Line Traffic Manager. The lines were managed as the Great Northern (Kings Cross services) and the Great Eastern (Liverpool Street and Fenchurch Street services), with the regional headquarters at 55 Liverpool Street. The Chief Regional Officer in 1948 was Charles K. Bird. The Eastern region lines connected Liverpool Street in the City of London with destinations in east London and the east of England. The Northern lines include London King's Cross railway station to Stevenage in Hertfordshire and Peterborough in Cambridgeshire. Commuter services via the North London Line were also run into Broad Street station, but these were slowly run down and diverted to other destinations, with the station eventually being closed in 1986. In 1967 the North Eastern Region was absorbed into the Eastern Region and the region's headquarters in York became the new headquarters . By 1988 the Eastern Region had been divided again into the Eastern Region and the new Anglia Region, with the boundary points being between Peterborough and Whittlesea, and between Royston and Meldreth. The Eastern Region continued the London North Eastern Railway’s electrification programme as part of the 1955 Modernisation Plan. However, the British Transport Commission felt that many Eastern Region routes would not benefit from this; indeed, many of the rural lines proposed for electrification were in fact closed entirely by Dr Beeching. Instead, the Eastern Region had to content itself with being an early adopter of diesel-electric power, replacing steam at the earliest opportunity The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right in the 1980s and was wound up at the end of 1992. This was caused by British Rail reorganising the regional structure being abolished and replaced with business-led sectors. This process, known as ‘sectorisation’, led to far greater customer focus, this was cut short in 1994 when privatisation caused British Rail to split up.
British Railways: North Eastern Region Biography Biography
Railways in Britain were nationalised under the terms of the Transport Act 1947 which came into effect on 1 January 1948. The Railway Executive, a corporate body subordinate to the British Transport Commission, was created to manage and operate the railways. It divided them into six geographical regions, largely based on the areas served by the pre-nationalisation railway companies. Between 1948 and 1952 the regional manager of the North Eastern Region was responsible to the Railway Executive for day to day operations in his region. After the Railway Executive was abolished in 1952, he reported to the British Transport Commission (BTC). In 1963, BTC itself was abolished and replaced by British Railways Board (BRB). Between 1963 and 1968 was a statutory board in accordance with the provisions of the Transport Act 1962, subordinate to and reporting to BRB. The North Eastern Region was a near direct post-nationalisation descendant the London North Eastern Railway (LNER) and covered a similar geographic area . The former LNER lines in England were subdivided into the Eastern Region and the North Eastern Region. The North Eastern Region covered everything east of the Pennines from the Humber to the Scottish border including the northern section of the east coast main line (York, Newcastle and Berwick). The main lines included the northern LNER lines in England and all ex-LMS lines east of Skipton. With both Hull and the Tyne ports and the industrial areas of Yorkshire, Durham and Northumberland this region handled a considerable quantity of heavy freight. In 1958 in a major re-drawing of the region boundaries The North Eastern Region gained former London Midland Scottish (LMS) lines that lay in the present-day West and North Yorkshire. The North Eastern Region was disbanded and merged with the Eastern Region in 1967 and the region's headquarters in York became the new headquarters.
Rhodesia Railways Biography Biography
In 1947 the Rhodesian Government took over the private company Rhodesia Railways Co. Ltd. which owned the whole Zimbabwe and Zambia railway system, and in 1949 became known as the public body Rhodesia Railways. In 1967 Zambia Railways took over the lines north of Victoria Falls Bridge, known as Northern Rhodesia, and Rhodesia Railways continued to maintain the lines south of the bridge in Southern Rhodesia. In 1979 Rhodesia Railways became Zimbabwe Rhodesia Railways.
Gold Coast Government Railway Biography Biography
The construction of the Gold Coast Government Railway began in the Sekondi district in 1898, but protests to the Colonial Office, a shortage of labour and the breakout of the final Ashanti war meant progress was slow until 1900. The railway reached Tarkwa in 1901, Obuasi in 1902 and in 1903 Ashanti. In 1912 a line connecting the colony’s capital, and government seat, of Accra with Kumasi was commenced and completed in 1923, making the railway 362 miles. In 1928, Takoradi Harbour was opened which enabled the exportation of mangoase, mahogany, cocoa and timber brought by the railway from the interior of the Gold Coast Colony. With the exception of 39 mile journey between Accra and Mangoase, which was privately contracted, the whole Gold Coast Railway was built by government departments. The company headquarters were in Sekondi initially, but then moved to Takoradi in 1928 after the construction of the harbour. The railway was built using 16,000 native Africans, 12,000 of whom were Nigerian, after the Gold Coast government appealed to neighbouring colonies for labour, in addition the locomotives and rolling stock were imported. The main stations were Accra, Mangoase, Sekondi, Tarkwa, Obuasi, Takoradi and Kumasi. The workshops were situated two miles from Sekondi, though repairs were also carried out at Accra. In 1957, Gold Coast Railway became Ghana Railway after Ghana became an independent nation from the United Kingdom.
British Railways Biography Biography
“British Railways” is the expression commonly used to describe the business run by the following legal entities: • Railway Executive (1948 – 1952) • British Transport Commission (1952 – 1963) • British Railways Board (1963 – 1993) Railways were nationalised on 1st January 1948 when the assets of the railways in Great Britain were vested in the British Transport Commission (BTC), a state-owned corporation created by the Transport Act 1947. Between 1948 and 1952 the business of operating the railways was carried on by the Railway Executive, a state-owned corporation, subsidiary to BTC. The Railway Executive was abolished in 1952 and BTC took over direct responsibility for the railways. Before 1948 there was no brand that was identified with the whole of the railways of Great Britain, only the separate brands of the Group companies, Southern, Great Western, London, Midland and Scottish and London and North Eastern, and London Transport. The railways were run under the corporate identity “British Railways” from 1948 by both the Railway Executive and BTC. The public manifestations of this were the words themselves on vehicles and premises, quasi-heraldic devices on locomotives (the so-called “cycling lion” followed by the “ferret and dartboard”) and the lozenge shape adopted (and clearly inspired by London Transport’s very similar logo) for station names. When the nationalised transport industry was reorganised in 1963, BTC was itself abolished and a new statutory corporation created to run the railways. This was British Railways Board (BRB). The name most closely associated with the national railway system had now become part of the name of the corporate entity, (i.e. the legal person, entitled as a matter of law to own property, to enter into contracts, and to sue (or be sued) in the courts and be prosecuted for breaches of the criminal law) which owned the assets and business of the railways of Great Britain. As a result of the corporate rebranding carried out in 1965 the business name, or brand name (as it was now expressly recognised to be), was shortened to “British Rail”. However, BRB retained the full “British Railways” in its title until its eventual abolition under the provisions of the Transport Act 2000.
English Electric-AEI Traction Limited Biography Biography
The General Electric Company (GEC) merged AEI Traction Division and English Electric Traction in 1969 after acquiring both companies to create English Electric – AEI Traction Limited. The headquarters were located at Trafford Park in Manchester. This subsidiary company was renamed GEC Traction Limited in 1972.

Subject
Railways
locomotives
Manufacturing
Specifications
Exports