Brush Traction

1943. From The Engineer’s Year Book.

Brush Traction is a manufacturer and maintainer of railway locomotives, based at Loughborough in Leicestershire

• In 1865, Henry Hughes, who was a timber merchant engineer, began building horse-drawn tramcars and railway rolling stock, being known as Henry Hughes and Co. Records are very sparse, but it seems that he began producing steam locomotives about 1867 for the Paris Exhibition. His main business, however, was tram engines, lightweight steam engines (usually with condensers) which drew passenger cars, made possible by the Tramways Act 1870. Among these was "The Pioneer" for the Swansea and Mumbles Railway. These were distinct from those tramcars where the boiler and mechanism was integral with the passenger car.

• In 1883, due to a trade recession, the company was taken over by Norman Scott Russell and renamed the Falcon Railway Plant Works. Again there are few records, but the factory remained busy with both railway and tramway locomotives and rolling stock. Among these were tank locomotives for Ireland, Spain and the Azores. Some were subcontracts from other firms, such as Kerr Stuart and Co, at that time in Glasgow.

• In 1889 the assets were taken over by the Anglo-American Brush Electric Light Corporation, which had been set up as the British arm of Charles Francis Brush's Brush Electric Company in America. It then became known as the Brush Electrical Engineering Co.

• In all, about 250 steam locomotives were built in addition to the tram engines.

• Production finished after the 1914-18 War and the company concentrated on transport-related electrical equipment, including tramcars, trolleybuses and battery-operated vehicles.

• The coachworks continued with, after World War II, omnibus bodies mounted on Daimler chassis using Gardner five-cylinder diesel engines and Daimler preselector gearboxes.

• 1947 Close to Derby and its railway workshops, it retained its contacts with the railway and in 1947 joined with W. G. Bagnall to produce diesel locomotives. When British Railways began to replace its fleet of steam engines, Brush entered the market for main line diesel-electric locomotives.

• 1991 It became known as Brush Traction in 1991 and is now part of FKI Energy Technologies.

Sources of Information

[1] Wikipedia