London Engineering and Iron Ship Building Co
of London
1856-7 Robert Baillie and Joseph Westwood set up in business as shipbuilders, boilermakers and ironworkers, in partnership with James Campbell, in a new yard, London Yard, at Cubitt Town. [1]
1865-72: Along with many other local firms, Westwood, Baillie and Co had difficulty surviving the decline in Thames shipbuilding. Production at the London Yard continued with James Westwood and Robert Baillie acting as managers for the London Engineering and Iron Ship Building Co.
1865 Sub-contractors for Fairbairn Engineering Co who had the contract to build a large railway bridge to cross the Connecticut River in USA. "In about a year the bridge was shipped from Liverpool and London, and in June 1865, work upon its erection was begun"[2]
1868 Description of a new type of coupling for cast iron tubular screw piles, designed by Messrs Westwood and Baillie, having intermittent dovetailed lugs and corresponding female recesses. The advantages were proved in comparative tests against the 'usual Mitchell screw' type and the bolted flange type at company's yard at Poplar. The company had large orders for iron bridges, including about 2000 Warren girders for the Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway.[3]
1869 Constructed the iron roof for the new station of the Great Northern Railway at King's Cross.
1869 A device had been invented by Mr. Westwood, jun., for forming the joints of wrought iron piles.
1869 Developed a method for ascertaining the profile of the entrance to a dock which it is intended to close by a caisson.[4]
1870 'BRIDGES FOR CHINA.- We understand the contract for the Yang-Torr-Foo and other bridges for the Municipal Council of Shanghai has been let to the London Engineering and Iron Shipbuilding Company, Limited (late Westwood and Baillie) by Mr. Alfred Stansfield Rake, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, whom the Council have retained in their interests for the preparation and shipment of these works.'[5]
1872 Westwood, Baillie and Co regained nominal control of London Yard. The work was mainly for civil engineering projects. [6]