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Title
Carriage & wagon drawings
Reference
WOLV/3/2
Production date
1831 - 1876

Creator

Wolverton Works Biography Biography
Wolverton Works was established in 1838 by the London and Birmingham Railway. The London and Birmingham Railway amalgamated with the Grand Junction Railway in 1846 to become the London North Western Railway (LNWR). Initially the works built and repaired locomotives. In 1877 locomotive work ceased and was transferred to Crewe Works. Wolverton Works became the LNWR Carriage Works. By 1907 it was the largest carriage building and repair works in Britain employing some 4500 staff at any one time in the period 1900 – 1924. After Grouping in 1923 Wolverton Works became the London Midland and Scottish Railway Company’s Carriage and Wagon Works, building and maintaining both carriages and wagons. During World War Two Wolverton Works repaired Whitley bombers, produced sections of Horsa gliders, and converted nearly 700 commercial motor vans into armoured vehicles. Following nationalisation Wolverton Works operated as a major works until 1962. It then became a carriage repair works only on part of the original site. From 1970 onwards the Wolverton Works was operated by British Rail Engineering Limited (BREL). Upon the re-organisation of BREL in 1986 Wolverton Works passed to British Rail Maintenance Ltd. Subsequently, the site was owned by Alstom, and then by Railcare Ltd. In 2013 the Knorr-Bremse group of companies acquired the site from Railcare Ltd (in administration). As at February 2014 Knorr-Bremse Railservices (UK) Ltd occupies it.

Scope and Content
These drawings span the London & North Western Railway (LNWR), London, Midland & Scottish Railway (LMS) and British Rail (BR) periods and cover a vast range of subjects. These are differentiated from early locomotive drawings because they are of different format, follow different numbering systems and relate to carriages, whilst earlier drawings relate to engines and related equipment. Some are not technical drawings but copies of letters, charts and other information that has been transferred onto waxed linen. A full listing can be found on the National Railway Museum website under 'Drawing Lists' at https://www.railwaymuseum.org.uk/research-and-archive/further-resources/catalogues.
Extent
89 boxes
Level of description
SERIES
Repository name
National Railway Museum, York
System of arrangement
Drawings are not currently arranged in any clear order. Drawings have been mixed up during the transfer from Wolverton to the National Railway Museum and in subsequent moves, as there are still drawings waiting to be processed it is not yet possible to arrange them in any logical order. See Design sub fonds description (WOLV/3) for more information on drawing numbers. Drawing numbers Drawings can however be interpreted using their drawing number, drawings follow several different numbering systems demonstrated in the drawing registers (WOLV/3/4) The numbering system designed by Works Superintendent C.A. Park 1886-1912. This was a system that ran sequentially from the number one onwards, with each drawing produced being given the next number in the register. This system did not use codes/prefixes to differentiate size of drawings. In 1912 a new numbering system was introduced by Works Superintendent Henry Earl. Drawing numbers are prefixed with a number 1-8 that indicates the size of the drawing. These range from 1-8 and indicate the sizes as follows. 1 - 53" x 30" 2 - 40" x 27" 3 - 27" x 20" 4 - 20" x 13 1/2" 5 - 13 1/2" x 10" 6 - 13 1/2" x 8" 7 - 8" x any length 8 - Drawings of ‘odd’ sizes The main drawing number began at one again and the numbers increased sequentially. In the 1960s drawing numbers start to begin with a combination of WN (Wolverton), DE (Derby) and SC (Standard Carriage) but maintain the Earl system of sizing. After this a new system of sizing was introduced that did not use prefixes, instead certain number ranges related to certain sizes.