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Question about a locomotive shop

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pcrail

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Anybody an idea, which factory we see here? What locomotives are built? In the front, there seems to be a diesel locomotive. Maybe, the pic is not taken in UK, could be also US. I guess it is from the 1930s.

shop floor.png
 
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Peter C

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Anybody an idea, which factory we see here? What locomotives are built? In the front, there seems to be a diesel locomotive. Maybe, the pic is not taken in UK, could be also US. I guess it is from the 1930s.

View attachment 99606
Are you looking at the thing to the right, just above the lowest steam engine, when you mention a diesel? That looks to me to be a steam engine firebox - but I can see why it looks like a diesel given the lack of a boiler in shot!

-Peter
 

30907

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Fairly certain those are not locos for UK railways - the large cab with single window opening looks more US to me.
 

DerekC

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They might very well be WD 2-8-0s or even 2-10-0s. The boilers on the upper right look very long and the firebox casings look more like the 2-10-0 - in which case it's the North British works in Springburn.
 
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pcrail

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Thanks for the responses. Not yet found a locomotive having that striking round cab shape and a single dome on the long boiler. Was first thinking on the locomotives delivered to China, but it does not really fit.
 

pcrail

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From another source I received also NBL. The locomotives are Class Rs for the Victorian Railways in Australia. Therefore, the image must be from 1951 or 1952.
Thanks anyway!
 

Taunton

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The completed loco :

R707-loco-victorian-railways - Victorian Railways R class - Wikipedia

Notable that Victorian Railways found that the locos when shipped over had not been well prepared for the deck cargo voyage, plus had a string of manufacturing errors that needed correction before service. It is common to document that North British, long the pre-eminent British loco manufacturer, had poor manufacturing standards of their diesels before they went bankrupt in 1962, put down to not making the transition to diesels well, but the rot seems to have set in somewhat earlier in steam days. Certainly that erecting shop looks somewhat casually organised.
 

Gloster

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A photo of North British’s Hyde Park Works in 1948 in Lowe’s British Steam Locomotive Builders appears to have an identical background.
 

Taunton

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Here on YouTube is a lengthy documentary about the North British works at the time, including shots (at 2 min 20 sec and elsewhere) of the erecting shop which seem taken from the same elevated position as the photo above. Notably the Victorian Railways R Class order for 50 locos is shown on the order board.

North British - YouTube
 

lincolnshire

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In the days of the picture above and still in latter years they was never usually called factories but always called railway works.
These days new trains are produced in railway factories or is it just the experience of the journalists who just don,t know what railways works was as against factories?

Flying Scotsman was made in a railway works or should we have said years ago that it was produced in a railway factory? I know what sound correct to me.
 

Irascible

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In the days of the picture above and still in latter years they was never usually called factories but always called railway works.
These days new trains are produced in railway factories or is it just the experience of the journalists who just don,t know what railways works was as against factories?

Flying Scotsman was made in a railway works or should we have said years ago that it was produced in a railway factory? I know what sound correct to me.

I'd hazard a guess ( given I don't 100% know ) but Works is probably just a contraction of workshop, which is an obvious progression. Maybe it's just new facilities using new language? if you talked about the works in Newton Aycliffe I suspect anyone who has any idea of railways would know what you meant, and anyone who doesn't would have the same confusion over Derby.
 

Pigeon

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Calling them factories is the older usage. Works came later, some time after Alfred Williams wrote "Life in a Railway Factory".
 

Taunton

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Flying Scotsman was made in a railway works or should we have said years ago that it was produced in a railway factory? I know what sound correct to me.
Surely Flying Scotsman was built at "The Plant". Not only railway usage but everyone else in Doncaster called it the same :)

Bear in mind that the traditional railway Works was much more that a locomotive building facility; the majority of the effort was in periodic maintenance and overhaul (and indeed final scrapping), new build being confined to a small area. In contrast these new places only build new stock.

For some reason the minor repairs facility on the GWR at Old Oak Common was always known as "The Factory", in distinguishing it from the running shed. Though it never built a new loco.
 
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