Gorton Works

Gorton Locomotive Works, known locally as Gorton Tank, was in Openshaw near Manchester, England and was completed in 1848 by the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway. Even in the 1960s the number of men who worked there was large enough to support nine public houses in the nearby Ogden Lane.

The original workshops of the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway were in Newton near Hyde in Cheshire but were inconveniently situated, cramped and makeshift. In 1845 the railway asked their locomotive superintendent, Richard Peacock, to find a more suitable site for a locomotive and carriage and wagon works. The site selected was two and a half miles east of Manchester at the side of the railway line between the Manchester to Guide Bridge. Peacock was responsible for the planning and design of the works, which at the time of completion covered about 20 acres (81,000 m²), and eventually growing to 30 acres (120,000 m²). By the time the works were completed in 1848 the railway had become the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway.

The original motive power depot at Gorton, in the form of a roundhouse was unique in that it had two roads instead of the customary one with a pillar in the centre supporting the glazed roof. It was later replaced by a larger facility but was converted to a smithy. The locomotive workshops were adjacent to the roundhouse on its Western side, with the carriage and wagon shops and a paint shop on the other side of the loco shops. A reservoir was constructed adjacent to the nearby Ashton Canal.

Richard Peacock left the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway in 1854 and with Charles Beyer founded the Beyer Peacock locomotive company at Gorton Foundry directly opposite Gorton Works on the Southern side of the railway line. He was replaced by William Grindley Craig, who served until 1859, and thence by Charles Sacré until 1886. Between 1871 and 1880 the works was unable to keep pace with new construction and repairs and so Gorton manufactured new parts for locomotives that were constructed or renewed at the Sheffield running shed.

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