- TitleGEC Traction Limited manuals
- ReferenceGEC/3/6/83
- Production date1957 - 1982
- GEC Traction LimitedBiographyBiographyGEC Traction (GECT) was formed in 1972 as part of the GEC Power Engineering Group following earlier amalgamations of the traction divisions of the General Electric Company (GEC), the English Electric Company (EE) and Associated Electrical Industries (AEI). A wholly owned subsidiary company of GEC, the company had offices and works, located at Trafford Park in Manchester, at Strand Road in Preston, and at Attercliffe Common, Sheffield. The headquarters of GEC Traction was Trafford Park, Manchester (previously the headquarters of English Electric-AEI Traction) with design of rotating machines at Preston and Sheffield, and manufacturing activities for control equipment at Manchester and Preston. GEC Traction designed and manufactured a full range of traction machines and control equipment for electric vehicles, including electric locomotives and multiple unit trains for main-line and mass-transit railway systems (dc up to 3,000 volts, and ac up to 50,000 volts), diesel-electric locomotives and trains, mining and industrial locomotives, tramcars and trolleybuses. GEC Traction was the leading supplier of traction equipment in the UK and had a wide market around the world, particularly in South Africa, Australasia, Hong Kong, South Korea, South America and Pakistan. In 1979 the Industrial Locomotive Division of the former English Electric which was based at Vulcan Works, Newton-le-Willows was merged into GEC Traction, which later became a separate company, GEC Industrial Locomotives Ltd. During the late 1980s and 1990s the firm underwent major rationalisation, involving closure of several sites including Attercliffe Common in Sheffield in 1985 and the company’s headquarters at Trafford Park in Manchester in 1998. The company name GEC Traction endured until a merger with the French Alsthom group in 1989, which created GEC Alsthom Traction, which was still a branch of the main company GEC Alsthom.
- Scope and ContentThe box contains 20 GEC Traction Limited manuals including workshop instructions, maintenance schedules, service bulletins, British Steel Corporation, National Coal Board, GEC-General Signal Limited, GEC Industrial Locomotives Ltd, Chilean State Railways, Taiwan Railway Administration, Davey, Paxman & Company Limited and driver's manuals for electric underground locomotive and diesel-electric shunting locomotive.
- Extent1 box
- Level of descriptionFILE
- Repository nameNational Railway Museum, York
- British Steel CorporationBiographyBiographyBritish Steel Corporation (BSC) was a government-owned corporation established by the Iron and Steel Act of March 22, 1967 incorporating the ownership of 14 major steel companies in the United Kingdom: Colvilles Limited; Consett Iron Company Limited; Dorman, Long & Co., Limited; English Steel Corporation Limited; G.K.N. Steel Company Limited; John Summers & Sons Limited; The Lancashire Steel Corporation Limited; The Park Gate Iron and Steel Company, Limited; Richard Thomas & Baldwins Limited; Round Oak Steel Works Limited; South Durham Steel and Iron Company Limited; The Steel Company of Wales Limited; Stewarts and Lloyds, Limited; and The United Steel Companies Limited. The organisation was converted to a limited company, British Steel PLC, and privatised in 1988. It later merged and is now owned by Corus, a Tata Steel company.
- National Coal BoardBiographyBiographyThe Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946 provided for the complete nationalisation of the coal industry and on 12 July 1946 established the National Coal Board (NCB). This body, appointed on 15 July 1946, was made solely responsible for managing the industry and running it on business lines, except that the Minister of Fuel and Power, after consulting with the board, might give it directions of a general character. The minister appointed the members of the board, numbering nine in 1946, raised to a maximum of eleven of which eight should be full-time in 1949 and to a maximum of fourteen in 1973, and he presented the NCB's reports to Parliament. In October 1969 these general powers passed to the Ministry of Technology, in October 1970 to the Department of Trade and Industry, and in January 1974 to the Department of Energy. The eight departments of the National Coal Board headquarters - Production, Marketing, Finance, Labour Relations, Manpower and Welfare, Scientific, Legal and Secretary's - made up the National Board and formed the top tier of a four tier system. At the lowest level were the coalfields (each colliery had its own manager) which were divided into 48 geographical areas under the control of an area manager. The areas were grouped into 8 geographical divisions under a divisional board which reported to the National Board. On the vesting date, 1 January 1947, the productive assets of the 800 or more private colliery undertakings and the service contracts of their employees were transferred to the National Coal Board, as were the coal deposits and other assets of the Coal Commission and the functions and staff of the district selling schemes. Subsequently the board acquired other responsibilities, notably that for the coal survey from the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in August 1947, and that for miners' hostels from the Ministry of Labour and National Service in the same year. In 1951 it took over some of the functions of the Miners' Welfare Commission, and in April 1952 it acquired responsibility for opencast coal mining from the Ministry of Fuel and Power. In 1973 it formed two holding companies, NCB (Coal Products) Ltd. and NCB (Ancillaries) Ltd. to handle two major aspects of its work not directly related to deep and opencast mining. The Coal Industry Act 1977 gave the board new powers in respect of the acquisition, treatment and sale of petroleum and of working minerals other than coal or petroleum which were discovered in the course of prospecting for or working coal and petroleum. The NCB was headed by a chairman and deputy chairman; each of the other members took charge of an executive department or research establishment. The main functions of the board as a whole were to decide and set objectives for the industry, to lay down policy directives and the limits within which management must work, to hold management to account and to provide for the future by means of research and development, and the recruitment and training of staff. It was also responsible for promoting the safety, health and welfare of employees. Many of these functions were exercised at the area and colliery level, a chain of command which replaced the previous five-tier system in 1967. The board itself continued to settle national policy, conduct national negotiations, obtain capital and provide common services such as scientific research. Before 1967 the divisional boards also exercised wide discretion in the forming of policy and applying it at area and colliery level. The headquarters departments advised the board on general policy and objectives, provided information and executed policy, and they also operated certain national services, including central workshops and the rescue service; and regional services in non-coalfield areas. On 1 January 1987, the NCB became the British Coal Corporation, which was wound up in 1997.
- GEC Industrial Locomotives LtdBiographyBiographyIn 1979 the Industrial Locomotive Division of the former English Electric Company which was based at Vulcan Works, Newton-le-Willows was merged into GEC Traction, it later became a separate company, GEC Industrial Locomotives Ltd.
- Antofagasta (Chili) & Bolivia Railway Company plcBiographyBiographyThe Antofagasta (Chili) and Bolivia Railway Company plc was incorporated in London in 1888. The company raised money on the London Stock Exchange to build and operate a railway from Antofagasta, a port on the Pacific Coast of Northern Chile, to La Paz, the capital of Bolivia. The company diversified into mining and other sectors, following acquisition of control by the Luksic Group in 1980.
- Polish State RailwaysBiographyBiographyIn 1918 Polish State Railways (Polish name: Polskie Koleje Państwowe or PKP) was formed following the First World War after Poland gained independence and took over 2,627 miles of railway lines in the territory formerly under Prussian rule, 2,707 miles from the former Austrian territory and 4,575 miles from the Russians. In 1922 the entire railway network in Poland was divided into 9 districts: Warsaw, Radom, Vilnius, Kraków, Lviv, Stanyslaviv, Katowice, Poznań and Gdańsk. During the interwar period from 1931 to 1939 the construction of the Warsaw Main Railway Station was completed. PKP electrified more than 6,214 miles (10,000 km) of lines from 1936 to 1987. In 1939 PKP was divided into eight regions; Warsaw, Torun, Poznan, Katowice, Cracow, Radom, Lwow and Wilno, with the headquarters of PKP located in Warsaw. During the Second World War the railway was subjected to widespread bombing WW2 as it was a crucial part of the German war effort and in 1945 PKP began rebuilding the railway under Soviet occupation. Repairs were performed by the main workshops in Brest, Bydgoszcz, Lviv, Łapy, Nowy Sącz, Ostrów Wielkopolski, Piotrowice Śląskie, Poznań, Radom, Pruszków, Stanyslaviv, Stryi, Tarnów, Tczew, Warsaw-Praga and Eastern Warsaw. The 139 mile route built in 1971 to 1977 between Silesia – Zawiercie – Włoszczowa – Idzikowice – Grodzisk Mazowiecki – Warsaw, known as the Central Mainline (CMK), was the largest investment of Polish State Railways after the war. After 1990, infrastructural investments were abandoned, with the exception of replacement work. The Polish railway network shortened from 14,292 miles to 11,806 miles of which 7,418 miles were electrified. From 1991 the number of passengers using PKP decreased with the closure of some secondary lines and narrow gauge sections. The Polish State Railways Joint Stock Company (Polish name: Polskie Koleje Państwowe Spółka Akcyjna (PKP S.A.) was established on 1 January 2001 as a result of this commercialisation of the Polish State Railways state enterprise.
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- contains 4 partsTOPGEC GEC Traction Archive
- contains 11 partsSUB-FONDSGEC/3 Engineering records
- contains 84 partsSERIESGEC/3/6 Manuals