Private | |
Industry | Engineering |
Fate | Merger |
Successor | European Gas Turbines, Siemens |
Founded | 1918 (1857 and 1840 as Ruston Proctor) |
Defunct | 1966 (bought by English Electric), and 2003 (bought by Siemens) |
Headquarters | Waterside South, Lincoln, England |
Products | Diesel engines, Locomotives, Steam engines, Gas turbines |
Parent | English Electric (1966–68) GEC (1968–2003) Siemens (2003–) |
Subsidiaries | Ruston-Bucyrus |
Ruston & Hornsby, later known as Ruston, was an industrial equipment manufacturer in Lincoln, England, the company's history going back to 1840. The company is best known as a manufacturer of narrow and standard gauge diesel locomotives and also of steam shovels. Other products included cars, steam locomotives and a range of internal combustion engines, and later gas turbines. The company is now part of the Siemens group of Germany.
The original company was Proctor and Burton established in 1840, operating as millwrights and engineers. They became Ruston, Proctor and Company in 1857 when Joseph Ruston joined them, acquiring limited liability status in 1899. From 1866 they built a number of four and six-coupled tank locomotives, one of which was sent to the Paris Exhibition in 1867. In 1868 they built five 0-6-0 tank engines for the Great Eastern Railway to the design of Samuel W. Johnson. Three of these were converted to crane tanks, two of which lasted until 1952, aged eighty-four. Among the company's output were sixteen for Argentina and some for T. A. Walker, the contractor building the Manchester Ship Canal.
During the First World War, Ruston assisted in the war effort, producing some of the very first tanks and a number of aircraft, notably the Sopwith Camel.