Derby Carriage and Wagon Works

Derby Litchurch Lane Works (formerly Derby Carriage and Wagon Works) was built by the Midland Railway in Derby, England, in the 19th century. The plant has produced rolling stock under the ownership of the Midland Railway, the LMS, British Railways, British Rail Engineering Limited (BREL), ABB, Adtranz and Bombardier Transportation.

Railway building began at Derby Works in 1840, when the North Midland Railway, the Midland Counties Railway and the Birmingham and Derby Railway set up engine sheds as part of their Tri Junct Station. When the three merged in 1844 to form the Midland Railway its first Locomotive and Carriage Superintendent Matthew Kirtley set out to organise their activities and persuaded the directors to build their own rolling stock, rather than buying it in (see Derby Works).

By the 1860s the works had expanded to such an extent that he was considering reorganising it and, in 1873, it separated into the Midland Railway Locomotive Works, known locally as "The Loco", and a new Carriage and Wagon Works further south, off Litchurch Lane, locally known as the "Carriage and Wagon". This was completed by his successor Samuel W. Johnson, under the control of Thomas Gethin Clayton The Derby Carriage and Wagon works were built in 1876.

The carriages of the time were generally less than 50 feet long but, possibly because the Midland had just taken delivery of its first Pullman car 56 feet 5 inches long, Clayton had the foresight to design the works to deal with vehicles up to 70 feet. This meant, for instance, that the traversers at the end of each shed were still in use a century later.

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