Hunslet Engine Company


The Hunslet Engine Company was founded in 1864 in Hunslet, Leeds, England. The company manufactured steam-powered shunting locomotives for over 100 years, and currently manufactures diesel-engined shunting locomotives.
As of 2012 the company is part of the LH Group, a subsidiary The Hunslet Steam Company maintains and manufactures build steam locomotives.

History

The early years 1864–1901

The Hunslet Engine Company was founded in 1864 at Jack Lane, Hunslet, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England by John Towlerton Leather, a civil engineering contractor, who appointed James Campbell as his Works Manager.
The first engine built in 1865 was Linden, a standard gauge delivered to Brassey and Ballard, a railway civil engineering contractor as were several of the firm's early customers. Other customers included collieries. This basic standard gauge shunting and short haul 'industrial' engine was to be the main-stay of Hunslet production for many years.
In 1871, James Campbell bought the company for £25,000 and the firm remained in the Campbell family ownership for many years. Between 1865 and 1870, production had averaged less than ten engines per year, but in 1871 this had risen to seventeen and was set to rise over the next thirty years to a modest maximum of thirty-four.
In 1870, Hunslet constructed their first narrow gauge engine Dinorwic, a diminutive gauge for the Dinorwic Slate Quarry at Llanberis. This engine later renamed Charlie was the first of twenty similar engines built for this quarry and did much to establish Hunslet as a major builder of quarry engines. This quarry was linked to Port Dinorwic by a gauge line for which Hunslet built three engines Dinorwic, Padarn and Velinheli. Much larger than the normal quarry type, gauge engines Charles, Blanche and Linda were built in 1882/3 for use on the Penrhyn Quarry Railway 'main line' between Bethesda and Port Penrhyn in North Wales.
Many short wheelbase tank locomotives were supplied to the Manchester Ship Canal Company in 1881.
The first Hunslet engine built for export was their No. 10, an shipped via Hull and Rotterdam to Java. By 1902, Hunslet had supplied engines to over thirty countries worldwide, often opening up new markets. In Ireland, Hunslet supplied engines to several of the newly opened narrow gauge lines and also in 1887 built the three unorthodox engines for the Lartigue Monorail system used by the Listowel & Ballybunion Railway.
From 1873 onwards many Hunslet locomotives were exported to Australia for use on both main line and lesser lines.

1901–1939

In 1901, James Campbell was still in charge as proprietor and James's four sons were, by then all working for the company including the eldest son Alexander III who had taken over as Works Manager on the death of his Uncle George in 1890. In 1902, the company was reorganised as a private limited company with the name Hunslet Engine Company Ltd. but was still a family business. Following the death of James Campbell in 1905, the chairmanship passed to Alexander III and brother Robert became works manager, whilst brother Will retained the role of secretary and traveller with a seat on the board.
About this time Hunslet was building a series of s for the Sierra Leone Government Railway design elements of which were included in the construction of the famous Russell a gauge engine built for the Portmadoc, Beddgelert and South Snowdon Railway.
Following family disagreements both Will and the youngest brother Gordon soon left the company and a serious injury left Robert disabled and unable to continue as works manager. The post of works manager was advertised and Edgar Alcock, then assistant works manager at the Gorton Foundry of Beyer-Peacock, was appointed in 1912. Alcock came to Hunslet at a time of change when the industry was being asked for far larger and more powerful locomotives than had ever been required in the past. This was true at Hunslet which found its overseas customers asking for very large engines. One example was an order for two 86 ton s from the Antofagasta, Chile & Bolivia Railway.
During the First World War overseas orders dried up. The company, like many others, found itself employing women on the shop floor and engaged in the manufacture of munitions. It continued to produce limited numbers of locomotives, significant examples being lightweight narrow gauge designs for the War Department Light Railways.
After the First World War Hunslet were once more able to attract overseas orders and they also received a series of repeat orders from the London, Midland and Scottish Railway for 90 LMS Fowler Class 3F 'Jinty' shunting engines. It was during the 1930s that Hunslet built their largest locomotives; two engines, built for a special train-ferry loading job in China – they were at that date the largest and most powerful tank engines ever built. A year or so later the same design formed the basis for an 0-8-0 tender engine for India. Many other 'large-engine' orders were received in these inter-war years.
Other independent British manufacturers failed to survive the depression of the 1920s and 30s and Hunslet acquired the patterns, rights and designs of other builders including Kerr Stuart and the Avonside Engine Co..

1930–2000

John Alcock, who, following in his father's footsteps, became Managing Director of Hunslet in 1958, recalled his father telling him circa 1920, when he was still a schoolboy, that his main endeavour for the company would be in the application of the internal combustion engine to railway locomotion. Throughout the 1930s, Hunslet worked on the perfecting of the diesel locomotive.
During the second world war, the company again served the country well in the manufacture of munitions, but they also built engines, both steam and diesel for the war effort. Noteworthy is their role in the production of the "Austerity" shunting locomotive. It was an austerity revision of the 50550 shunter design, itself a development of the Hunslet 48150 shunter design, of which 16 had been built pre-war. Hunslet produced 149 Austeritys during the hostilities, and sub-contracted construction of almost 200 more. A total of 485 Austerities were built by Hunslet and other builders between 1943 and 1964, of which over 70 examples have entered preservation.
Locomotive construction resumed after the war. Important in post-war production was the Hunslet flame-proof diesel engine for use in the coal mines, as well as further batches of Austerity shunters for the National Coal Board and the Army, and rebuilding of some older Austeritys, work which continued into the early 1960s. The last three Austeritys were sold in 1970: one directly to preservation, one for scrap and one to the NCB.
The last industrial steam engine built in Britain was built at Hunslet in 1971 for export to Trangkil sugar mill in Central Java, Indonesia.
The "Jack Lane, Hunslet, Leeds" works was closed in 1995, the last order being a batch of narrow gauge diesel locomotives for tunnelling on the Jubilee Line Extension of the London Underground.

2000– present

In 2004 the Hunslet Engine Company was acquired by the LH Group – production was moved to Barton under Needwood; whilst other operations remained in Leeds.
In 2006 the company manufactured remote-controlled diesel electric shunters for John M. Henderson & Co. Ltd. to be supplied to POSCO's coking plant in South Korea. The same year saw the completion of several orders for underground and mining diesel locomotives.
In 2007 Hunslet began developing a new family of locomotives ranging from shunters to vehicles weighing up to 100 tons. The first locomotive of the new class, the DH60C, a 3 axle C diesel hydraulic shunting locomotive, was unveiled in July 2010.
The company also operated a locomotive hire business, mainly of industrial shunting locomotives.
In 2012 LH Group was sold to the Wabtec Corporation for US$48 million. The company owns the right to the names and designs of a number of former British locomotive manufacturers including Andrew Barclay, Avonside Engine Company, North British Locomotive Company, Greenwood and Batley, Hudswell Clarke, John Fowler & Co., Kerr Stuart, Kitson & Co., and Manning Wardle – it also maintains, and supplies spare parts for those brands.
;The Hunslet Steam Co.
The Hunslet Steam Co. is part of the LH Group. The company is involved in new-build steam locomotives, boiler making and locomotive maintenance.

Related companies

Hunslet-Barclay Ltd

was acquired by the Hunslet group in 1972, it chiefly undertook maintenance and refurbishment of diesel multiple unit passenger trains at the Andrew Barclay Caledonia Works in Kilmarnock. In 2003 the LH Group acquired the locomotive interests of the company. In October 2007 Hunslet-Barclay went into receivership and in November was purchased by FKI and renamed Brush-Barclay. In 2011 Brush Traction and Brush-Barclay were purchased by the Wabtec Corporation.

Preserved locomotives

Preserved examples

Hunslet Engine Co locomotives can be seen operating on heritage railways across Britain including:
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