GNR No. 1744 maker's plate
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Private | |
Industry | Rail transport |
Fate | Assets Liquidated Goodwill acquired by Andrew Barclay Sons & Co. |
Founded | 1903 |
Defunct | 1962 (in Liquidation) |
Headquarters | Springburn, Glasgow, Scotland |
Key people
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William Lorimer (Chairman) Sir Hugh Reid (Managing Director) |
Products | Locomotives |
Number of employees
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8000 (1907) 2658 (1960) |
The North British Locomotive Company (NBL, NB Loco or North British) was created in 1903 through the merger of three Glasgow locomotive manufacturing companies; Sharp, Stewart and Company (Atlas Works), Neilson, Reid and Company (Hyde Park Works) and Dübs and Company (Queens Park Works), creating the largest locomotive manufacturing company in Europe and the British Empire.
Its main factories were located at the neighbouring Atlas and Hyde Park Works in central Springburn, as well as the Queens Park Works in Polmadie. A new central Administration and Drawing Office for the combined company was completed across the road from the Hyde Park Works on Flemington Street by James Miller in 1909, later sold to Glasgow Corporation in 1961 to become the main campus of North Glasgow College (now Glasgow Kelvin College).
The two other Railway works in Springburn were St. Rollox railway works, owned by the Caledonian Railway and Cowlairs railway works, owned by the North British Railway. Latterly both works were operated by British Rail Engineering Limited after rail nationalisation in 1948.
In 1918 NBL produced the first prototype of the Anglo-American Mark VIII battlefield tank for the Allied armies, but with the Armistice it did not go into production.