Hurst Nelson & Co Ltd photograph album

The Glasgow Rolling Stock and Plant Works was renamed Hurst Nelson and Company in 1893 led by John J. Hurst and Andrew S. Nelson. Charles de Neuville Forman invested heavily in shares, and took over John Hurst’s holdings on his retirement in 1896. The company was relocated in 1893 with the opening of a new works in Motherwell; the company retained its offices in Glasgow. It became a limited company in 1909, when the company was reformed using the same name. Alexander Grahame joined the company in 1901 and became managing director in 1913 on Nelson’s death in 1913. He served alongside Thomas Jackson and Sir Thomas Mason. The company was owned by the descendants of the Nelson and Forman families.

The mainstay of Hurst Nelson’s business was the production of railway wagons of all descriptions, electric tramcars and passenger rolling stock, as well as lorry bodies in its final years. It worked on the Glasgow Subway and Metropolitan District Railway.

Hurst, Nelson had subsidiary companies that oversaw different facets of the business. Wagon Repairs Ltd. oversaw the repairs and on 13 June 1946 the Hurst Nelson Wagon Hiring Co. Ltd. oversaw the hire service until the nationalisation of the railways in 1948.

As the financial fortunes of Hurst Nelson started to wane after the Second World War, it was taken over in 1959 by Charles Roberts Co. Ltd. another major producer of railway wagons. As a consequence the company ceased existing in 1960.