Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Co
From Graces Guide
of Gloucester
- 1860 Company founded [1]. The Company was first incorporated as the Gloucester Wagon Co.
- 1888 Public company. The company was re-registered on 14 September, as Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Co.
- 1908 The company is also largely interested in steel works at Port Talbot.
- The company acquired various subsidiaries including the Gloucester Foundry, William Gardner and Sons, Joseph Kaye and Sons, Wright and Marvin (renamed Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company in 1961), Hatherley Works, and Gloucester Wagon Hiring Co. It was also a major shareholder in Wagon Repairs.
- 1914 Railway carriage and rolling stock builders. Employees 1,900. [2]
- 1961 Manufacturers of railway rolling stock and general engineers. 1,250 employees. [3]
- 1961 With effect from 29 December, Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Co was acquired by Winget of Rochester, Kent. The new parent company was called Winget Gloucester Ltd.
- The Gloucester subsidiary was renamed Gloucester Engineering Co and a new company called Winget Ltd was established at Rochester.
- 1962 On 1 April, the trading activities of William Gardner and Sons and E. Boydell and Co, a Winget subsidiary, which operated under the trading name of Muir Hill, were transferred to Gloucester Engineering Co.
- 1963 The trading activities of Moxey were similarly transferred from 1 April, following its acquisition by Winget Gloucester Ltd.
- 1964 An important reorganisation of the group's structure occurred with effect from 1 April, with the aim of making the Gloucester company the main operating company. Gloucester Engineering Company's name was changed to Winget Ltd, and it acquired the business and operating assets of the Rochester subsidiary, Winget Ltd, and simultaneously Winget Ltd's name was changed to Gloucester Engineering Co Ltd.
- Following these changes Winget Ltd operated with Gloucester and Rochester based divisions. To further integrate the activities of the manufacturing companies in the group, divisional boards of directors were set up responsible for the sales and engineering aspects of the operations.
- The contracts and industrial equipment division included Winget, William Gardner and Sons, Moxey, and Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Co.
- The cable and wire mill machinery equipment division included Winget, Hanson and Edwards, and Larmuth and Bulmer (acquired by Winget Gloucester Ltd, in 1962).
- The building and civil engineering construction equipment division included Winget, E. Boydell and Co, and Slater and England.
- Gloucester Foundry, Hatherley Works and a subsidiary of the original Winget Ltd, Moores Plant, remained outside this divisional structure.
- 1968 From 1 April, Winget Gloucester became a wholly owned subsidiary of Babcock and Wilcox.
- Perhaps because the existence of the records was not known even within the company, few books or articles have been published. A rather slight centenary history was produced in 1960 (A History of the Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company, pub. Weidenfeld and Nicolson); the authors remained anonymous.
- A useful account of the early history ("The Gloucester Wagon Co Ltd" by Mike Christenson) was published in nos. 6 and 7 of the British Railway Journal, 1985 and 1986.
- A selection of photographs from the magnificent series kept by the company was published in 1981, as Private Owner Wagons from the Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company Ltd, compiled by Keith Montague.
- Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Co had built bodies since the horse-drawn days.
- When the export orders ceased they built complete coaches.
- Built in 1933 - 1934 Gloucester Gardners were for Red and White Services of Chepstow.
- The vehicles had six-cylinder Gardner engines, five speed gearboxes and Kirkstall axles.
- These models were the first long distance diesel engined coaches that could cruise at 50mph.
- However the bodies were not durable, 'Red and White' fitted new Duple bodies within the next few years.
- Further PSV were not built due to a massive order for London Underground trains.
See Also
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Sources of Information
- ↑ The Stock Exchange Year Book 1908
- ↑ 1914 Whitakers Red Book
- ↑ 1961 Dun and Bradstreet KBE
- Ian Allan - British Buses Since 1900 - Aldridge and Morris
- [1] National Archives: A2A