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Title
Stoke Works Drawings
Reference
STOKE
Production date
1868 - 1927

Creator

Stoke Works Drawing Office Biography Biography
The North Staffordshire Railway Co (NSR) opened its own works at Stoke on Trent in 1864. The locomotive stock continued to include both contractor and local built stock, and this mixture is reflected in the surviving collection of engineering drawings from the Stoke Works Drawing Office. The North Staffordshire Railway also worked and maintained the Leek & Manifold Valley Light Railway, a 2’6” narrow gauge line opened in 1904. Among the more unusual drawings produced at the Stoke Works are vehicles for this 9-mile line. In common with many railway works the Stoke drawing office was employed to produce drawings for machinery, buildings and other developments as demanded by the company. During the 1914-1918 war they also produced drawings for shells and fuses as part of the war effort, examples of which have survived into the collection. The Works were officially closed in 1926, finally running down by 1927 when most of the employees transferred to Crewe Locomotive Works. As a consequence it is also possible to find drawings of locomotives originating with the North Staffordshire Railway and the Stoke Works among the Crewe Works collection. Some have also found their way into the Derby Works collection as a result of subsequent rationalisation by the LMS.
Stoke Works Biography Biography
The North Staffordshire Railway Co (NSR) opened its own works at Stoke on Trent in 1864. They occupied a 12-acre site near the main line at Stoke Junction, between the canal and the company roundhouse. The location was cramped and difficult to access off the Leek branch line, becoming more difficult as the Works were expanded and developed. At first they were only able to complete repairs and heavy rebuilding. Facilities for new building were completed in 1868. By 1901 the locomotive works employed 450 men and the carriage and wagon works a further 400. Figures for 1914 were 483 and 391 respectively. The locomotive stock continued to include both contractor and local built stock, and this mixture is reflected in the surviving collection of engineering drawings from the Stoke Works Drawing Office. The North Staffordshire Railway also worked and maintained the Leek & Manifold Valley Light Railway, a 2’6” narrow gauge line opened in 1904. Among the more unusual drawings produced at the Stoke Works are vehicles for this 9-mile line. The Works were officially closed in 1926, finally running down by 1927 when most of the employees transferred to Crewe Locomotive Works.

Scope and Content
The collection consists mainly of engineering drawings relating to locomotives, carriages and wagons maintained or built at the Stoke Works of the North Staffordshire Railway. There are other drawings from the output of the drawing office relating to machinery, civil engineering and the production of munitions during the First World War. 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
122 boxes
Physical description
The vast majority of the drawings are wax linen copies in variable condition, with occasional paper copies and blueprints. Some have been subject to water damage in the past and several drawings have been damaged by oil stains and mould. In these latter instances copying will be virtually impossible and handling will be restricted.
Language
English
Level of description
TOP
Repository name
National Railway Museum, York

Associated people and organisations

North Staffordshire Railway Co Biography Biography
The North Staffordshire Railway (NSR) came into being in April 1845. The earliest locomotives were built by outside contractors, among them Sharpe Brothers & Co, Robert Stephenson & Co, Vulcan Foundry, Hudswell Clarke, Kitson’s and Neilson & Co. The NSR opened its own works at Stoke on Trent in 1864. They occupied a 12-acre site near the main line at Stoke Junction, between the canal and the company roundhouse. The location was cramped and difficult to access off the Leek branch line, becoming more difficult as the Works were expanded and developed. At first they were only able to complete repairs and heavy rebuilding. Facilities for new building were completed in 1868. By 1901 the locomotive works employed 450 men and the carriage and wagon works a further 400. Figures for 1914 were 483 and 391 respectively. No new locomotives were built after 1923, when the North Staffordshire Railway was absorbed into the London, Midland & Scottish Railway (LMS). The last Works Manager (1919-1927) was H G Ivatt, who later became the CMEE of the LMS.
London Midland & Scottish Railway Co Biography Biography
During the First World War the government had taken control of the railways to co-ordinate the war effort. After the war ended it was decided that the railway companies could not competitively return to their prior state, and so the 120 existing railway companies were combined into four companies, which became known as the ‘Big Four’’. The London Midland and Scottish Railway, also known as the LMS, was founded on 1 January 1923. The London and North Western Railway (LNWR), Midland Railway (MR), Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (LYR), North Staffordshire Railway (NSR), Highland Railway (HR), Furness Railway (FR), Glasgow and South Western Railway (G&SWR) and Caledonian Railway (CR) were merged. These eight large constituent companies were joined by 27 other smaller subsidiary railways. The LMS covered the Western half of the country, stretching from the London and the Midlands, through Yorkshire, Lancashire, and up to Scotland. In all the LMS had a total of 7,790 miles of track, which made it the largest railway of the Big Four. The London termini of the LMS were St. Pancras and Euston stations and it had works at Crewe, Horwich, Wolverton and Derby amongst other locations. In 1934 the LMS moved into a new headquarters at Euston House on Seymour Street (later renamed Eversholt Street) in London. Charles Napier Lawrence, 1st Baron Lawrence of Kingsgate was the first appointed chairman of LMS, he had previously been the chairman of the LNWR between 1921-1923. He was chairman of the LMS for one year, and was succeeded by Sir Guy Granet. The management structure was headed by a chairman and a deputy chairman, there was a board of directors that had initially had 20 members, made of men who previously worked for the constituent companies. The first General Manager was Arthur Watson from the LYR. There was a Deputy General Manager for Scotland, a post first held by D.A. Matthieson, formerly of the CR. J.H. Follows, from the Midland Railway, was the first Chief General Superintendent and S.H. Hunt, formerly of the LNWR, was the first Chief Goods Manager. The post of Chief Engineer was initially held by E.F.C. Trench, formerly employed by the LNWR. The first Chief Mechanical Engineer was G. Hughes from the LYR and his deputy was Sir Henry Fowler, from the Midland Railway. The management structure was re-organised from January 1926 and an Executive was set up, Sir Josiah Stamp was the first President of the Executive. From January 1927 four Vice-Presidents were appointed to replace the general managers on the Executive committee. The line was divided up for operational management into three geographical divisions, which were called Western, Midland and Northern. Each division was overseen by a General Superintendent who reported to the Chief General Superintendent. The main line of the LMS ran from London Euston to Wick over 729 miles. The LMS ran a number of joint railways with the London & North Eastern Railway and the Southern Railway. It ran the Cheshire Lines Committee, the Midland and Great Northern line between Peterborough, the Norwich and Lowestoft and the Manchester, South Junction and Altrincham suburban line with the London & North Eastern Railway. It also joined forces with the Southern Railway to run the Somerset and Dorset line between Bath, Burnham and Bournemouth. The LMS undertook a limited programme of electrification, mainly focusing on suburban lines in London and Manchester. The LMS owned many hotels, including the Queen’s Hotel in Leeds and the iconic Art Deco Midland Hotel at Morecombe Bay. The LMS also ran passenger steamers from Holyhead, Heysham and Stranraer over the Irish Sea to Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Following the 1947 Transport Act which nationalised the railways, the concerns of the LMS were taken over by the Railway Executive as part of the British Transport Committee. Within the Railway Executive, British Rail: London Midland Region assumed responsibility for the LMS’s former area of operations.
Leek & Manifold Valley Light Railway Co

Subject
Engineering drawings
Locomotive engineers
Railway carriage and wagon manufacturers
Railways
Transport infrastructure
Works
World War One, 1914-1918
Conditions governing access
Access is given in accordance with the NRM access policy. Material from this collection is available to researchers through Search Engine.
Conditions governing Reproduction
Copies may be supplied of items in the collection, provided that the copying process used does not damage the item or is not detrimental to its preservation. Copies will be supplied in accordance with the NRM’s terms and conditions for the supply and reproduction of copies, and the provisions of any relevant copyright legislation.
External document
List of carriage and wagon drawings
List of locomotive drawings
List of microfilm drawings
List of sketches

Related object

Crewe Locomotive Works Drawings Notes Notes
Stoke Works was closed in 1926-1927 and most of the employees were transferred to Crewe Locomotive Works

Appraisal
No appraisal of this collection has been undertaken.
System of arrangement
The original order of the collection has been difficult to ascertain due to the lack of any specific records of drawing office practice. However, during the course of listing the contents it has become clear that there are three distinct groups of drawings. The Locomotive Works and the Carriage & Wagon Works maintained their own separate numerical sequences for their drawings. This has been restored and the two main sets of drawings sorted into numerical order within these two divisions and listed according to this convention. In each case sequences of previously un-numbered drawings have been added. These have the additional prefix UN and have been allocated artificial numbers by the National Railway Museum in series from 50001 and 60001 respectively. There is a third group of mainly small drawings known as ‘sketches’ and with a single numerical sequence and a ‘SK’ prefix. These have also been separately sorted. Within the Carriage and Wagon sequence there are three further small sets of drawings, but the numbers do not seem to interfere with the normal numbering pattern. To identify these drawings they have been allocated the prefix ‘MC’ for those drawings originating with Metro-Cammell of Saltley and ‘N’ for those originating with J Stone & Co. The third sequence of three drawings only have the prefix RCD and appear to be related to War Office production during the Great War. All three sets have been allocated to separate boxes for storage and retrieval purposes, as it is not clear whether the numbering sequence is proper to the Stoke Works.