Metro-Cammell Collection

MS 99

Metro-Cammell Collection

19th-20th Century

Metro-Cammell Collection

Original accessions are listed as gifts but it's suspected that copyright may still belong to Alstom.

Indexes to drawings are currently only available in paper form, and are arranged in alphabetical order by the name of the firm ordering the rolling stock.

Note that the Historical Model Railway Society hold an extensive collection of original drawings.

27.43 Cubic metres

In 1966 the Library acquired a large collection of engineering drawings, plans, specifications and volumes of photographs from the firm of Metropolitan Cammell Carriage & Wagon Works Co. Ltd. Saltley, Birmingham. The material ranged over the period 1845 to early 1960s, covering the greater part of the history of Metropolitan - Cammell's output of railway carriages and other rolling stock.

The origins of the company begin with Joseph Wright, a London coachbuilder who in the early part of the 19th century was a contractor for the Royal Mails and the owner of most of the stagecoaches running between London and Birmingham. He was a man of vision and realised that the era of the stagecoach was drawing to a close and in the early 1840s devoted his energies to producing railway carriages at his London Works.

In 1844 he obtained a wide patent for improvements to railway carriages and in March 1845 he leased six acres of land in Saltley, Birmingham in order to accommodate his expanding business and so the Saltley Works was born. He traded as Joseph Wright and Sons, Railway Carriage and Wagon Builders and Contractors of Saltley Works, Birmingham with his sons Henry and Joseph. The Saltley site expanded in 1847 and in 1853 the original site (known as Saltley Old Works) was leased to the London & North Western Railway Company whilst the Wrights continued business on the site adjoining. In the next few years the firm successfully built stock for all the home railways and many places further afield.

Joseph Wright died in 1859 and the business continued under his son Joseph until 1862 when the Metropolitan Railway Carriage & Wagon Co. Ltd. was formed. The 'Old Works' was still occupied by London & North Western until 1870 when the Metropolitan Company bought the leasehold and absorbed Wright's original works.

In 1902 the rationalisation of the rolling stock industry began when the Metropolitan Amalgamated Railway Carriage & Wagon Co. Ltd. was formed to take over the Metropolitan Company and amalgamate with the following:The Ashbury Railway & Iron Co. Ltd.Brown & Marshall's Company Ltd.The Lancaster Railway Carriage & Wagon Co. Ltd.The Oldbury Railway Carriage & Wagon Co. Ltd.

In the same year the Amalgamated Company acquired the Patent Shaft & Axeltree Co. Ltd. of Wednesbury, iron and steel manufacturers with their own rolling mills etc, in order to resource their own supplies of rolling stock materials. In 1919 Vickers Ltd acquired the shares of the Metropolitan Company.

In the same year Cammell - Laird & Company Ltd. of Sheffield and Birkenhead began the manufacture of railway rolling stock at the National Ordnance factory in Nottingham, which they had managed during the Great War for the government and subsequently purchased. The Nottingham works made rolling stock until 1931 when the business was transferred to Saltley and the works sold. Also in 1919 Cammell - Laird acquired a controlling interest in the Midland Railway Carriage & Wagon Company Ltd. of Washwood Heath, Birmingham. This company was the oldest of the companies within the Cammell - Laird group and was formed in 1853 to purchase railway wagons and let them out on hire to private owners. It began to build rolling stock itself in 1864 when works were acquired in Landor Street, Birmingham. In 1877 the Abbey Works at Shrewsbury were purchased and production on both sites continued. In 1907 the Company purchased land in Washwood Heath, Birmingham to build a new works to cope with demand. The building started in 1909 and was completed in 1912. The businesses at Landor Street and Shrewsbury were transferred to the new premises and this constituted the Midland Works.

Four years later in 1923 Cammell - Laird acquired the Leeds Forge Company Ltd. of Armley, Leeds with its subsidiaries the Newlay Wheel Company Ltd. and the Bristol Wagon & Carriage Works Company Ltd.

In 1927 the Metropolitan Company purchased the Blake Boiler Wagon & Engineering Company Ltd of Darlington and transferred it to Saltley.

In 1929 Vickers Ltd. and Cammell - Laird & Company merged to form the Metropolitan - Cammell Carriage & Wagon Company Ltd. with its head office at Saltley. Shortly after the merger a decision was made to go into production with omnibus bodies and Metro-Cammell became the pioneers of the modern all metal omnibus body.

During the Second World War years Metro-Cammell was turned over to armament production and the company became the largest supplier of tanks in the country. In 1962, due to international industrial development and a reduction of orders in the home market, Saltley Works was closed and the firm became based at the Midland Works in Washwood Heath. In 1965 the company became Metropolitan-Cammell Ltd. and in 1967 the head office was transferred to Washwood Heath. There was a radical restructuring during the 1980s moving the company away from manufacturing to final assembly. In 1989 the parent Laird group sold the company and Metro- Cammell became part of the Anglo-French group GEC Alsthom. Still using the Metro-Cammell name, the company continued through the 1990s until in June 1998 GEC Alsthom was floated on the stock market and ownership changed to 100% French. The name was changed to Alstom Transport Ltd and the name Metro-Cammell disappeared. The Washwood Heath plant became Alstom UK Assembly Facility and the business in Washwood Heath was finally wound up in 2005.

In the original deposit of records in 1966 (Acc 022), there are over approximately 100,000 rolling stock drawings and these have been microfilmed and transferred onto aperture cards. The stock covers railways built for the home market and many countries world wide from 1845 until mid 1960s. A separate index is available arranged by the name of the railway for which the stock was produced in order to provide access to the drawings.

There are approximately over 100 photographic albums dating from the early 20th century providing a fascinating photographic history of the rolling stock produced by the firm and its amalgamated companies. Again, there is a separate index arranged by the name of the railway to provide access to the photographs.

Other records include printed specifications, catalogues, a small amount of correspondence and indexes and lists produced by the firm.

The collection is catalogued as follows:

/1 Rolling Stock Drawings/2 Photographic Albums/3 Printed Material/4 Indexes/5 Miscellaneous The second major deposit in 2006 (Acc 024,082 and100) again consists of a quantity of rolling stock drawings and photographs, but also it includes minute books and other business records from early merged and constituent firms as well as the main concern of Metro-Cammell. Records date from 19th to 20th century and there is a temporary box list available to access records.

Note that the Historical Model Railway Society hold an extensive collection of original drawings.