Manning, Wardle and Co
of Boyne Engine Works, Jack Lane, Leeds.
Manning Wardle was a steam locomotive manufacturer based in Hunslett, Leeds.
1858 E. B. Wilson and Co foundered. The company’s designs and a large part of the works were purchased by Manning, Wardle and Co, who located their Boyne Engine Works on a portion of the same site in Jack Lane in the Hunslet district of the city.
Within the next few years, two other companies, the Hunslet Engine Co and Hudswell, Clarke and Co also opened premises in Jack Lane, in ex-Wilson premises on the opposite side of Jack-lane, retaining the name Railway Foundry. There was a good deal of staff movement between the three firms, leading to similar designs leaving all three works. Whilst Hudswell Clarke and Hunslet built a wide variety of locomotive types, Manning Wardle concentrated on specialised locomotives for contractor’s use, building up a range of locomotives suitable for all types of contracting work.
1859 Company formed when John Manning became a partner of Charles Wetherell Wardle and Alexander Campbell, establishing the Boyne Engine Works.
1870 Made a self-acting punching machine to Macintyre and Manning's patent for Clayton and Shuttleworth.[1]. See illustration.
1872 Trial of Fell railway system at Whitby [2]
1872 Expiration of the Partnership between John Manning, Charles Wetherell Wardle, and Alexander Campbell, as Engineers, at the Boyne Engine Works, at Hunslet, in the borough of Leeds, in the county of York, under the firm of Manning, Wardle, and Co.[3] Wardle continued the business.
1881 Employing 390 workmen. Charles W. Wardle and son Edwin Wardle are involved. [4]
1900 The company had built more than 1,500 locomotives. The company employed traditional construction throughout its existence, and failed to take advantage of the more efficient mass production techniques becoming available. As a result, Manning Wardle became more uncompetitive.
1905 The company, Manning, Wardle and Co was registered on 17 February, to acquire the business of manufacturers of locomotive engines, and general engineers of the firm of the same name. [5]
1911 Manufacturer of Locomotives for the Railways.[6]
1914 Locomotive engineers. Employees 30. [7]
1927 The company ceased trading in 1927, after producing more than 2,000 steam locomotives.
1926 The last complete locomotive was No. 2047 (standard gauge 0-6-0ST) delivered to Rugby Cement Works in August 1926. This locomotive still survives at Kidderminster Railway Museum on static display.
1927 See Aberconway for information on the company and its history
Following closure in 1926 after building 2,004 locomotives, the company's drawings, designs, equipment and customers were acquired by Kitson and Co who made twenty three locos of Manning Wardle designs until they also closed in 1938. The patterns were passed to Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns who built a further five locos of Manning Wardle design.
Today the Manning Wardle designs are owned by the Hunslet-Barclay, who are still a provider of services to the rail industry, based in Kilmarnock, Scotland. The intellectual property rights for historic locomotive designs are held by the Hunslet Engine Co.
The trademark name Manning Wardle is owned by a company formed in 1999 to preserve the name for the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway, which from 1898 to 1935 operated what have become some of the company's most famous products, narrow gauge 2-6-2 Tank engines: Exe, Taw, Yeo and later Lew.
See Also
Sources of Information
- [2] Wikipedia
- British Steam Locomotive Builders by James W. Lowe. Published in 1975. ISBN 0-905100-816