GEC 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.
Date
1976-1978
Scope and ContentThe roll contains c 100 paper drawings of mechanical details of the Union Carriage & Wagon company ISCOR locomotive. Drawing number range T3138 - 3193.
Extent1 roll
Archival historyThis roll of drawings was compiled by GEC Traction Limited
The South African Iron and Steel Corporation (ISCOR) was established in 1942 to meet the increasing demand for steel in South Africa. In 1943 a new heavy plate mill was completed and went into production and ISCOR began trading in 1947. In 1953 ISCOR started a new open pit ore mining operation in Sishen and in 1955 the company acquired the Durban Navigation Collieries to provide its own source of fuel, coking coal. In the 1960’s ISCOR became dominated by Afrikaner nationalist sentiment and the Apartheid Regime. In the 1970s ISCOR restructured and adopted a more corporate style of business; however it was still state owned until the late 1980s. ISCOR was privatised in 1989 as a result of the end of apartheid and became ISCOR Ltd.
In 1910 the state-owned South African Railways and Harbours (SAR&H) organisation was created, after the four colonies of the Cape, Natal, Transvaal and the Orange Free State were amalgamated into the new Union of South Africa. In 1916, SAR&H took over the activities of the Central South African Railways, the Cape Government Railways and the Natal Government Railways. In 1924 the last privately owned railway line in South Africa was taken over by SAR&H; the New Cape Central Railway between Worcester and Voor Bay. In 1920 electrification of South Africa’s railways was completed, and in 1924 the first electric test train ran between Ladysmith and Chieveley in Natal. In 1950 the first portion of the new Johannesburg station was opened and construction was completed on the huge workshops complex at Koedoespoort. In 1960, diesel locomotives were introduced on a large scale to SAR&H. In 1981, SAR&H changed its name to South African Transport Services (SATS) and took on South Africa’s railway, harbour, road transport, and aviation and pipeline operations.
Union Carriage & Wagon (UCW) are a rolling stock company based in Nigel, South Africa and were founded in 1957. Their workshops are based in nearby Johannesburg. In 1964, Union Carriage & Wagon supplied locomotives to South African Railways. In 2013, Commuter Transport Engineering acquired UCW, however the name did not change.
