General Engineering Works and Boilermakers
The idea of having a factory which took in orders for machines, and which made the parts it could not buy, dates back to Watt & Boulton in the 1790's. The production of machine tools, with which machines could be made, soon followed and by the 1890's most towns boasted at least one engineering works. It is worth noting the difference between 'technology' and 'engineering', the former is mainly concerned with proof of concept, the latter with scaling up to industrial production. The British have traditionally been rather good at technology, inventing liquid crystal displays, the computer modem and the mag lev train. Other countries however have engineering skills, so the Japanese made a fortune from LCD watches and computer screens, the Americans made a bundle from developing the modem and the Germans lead the world in mag-lev technology. Every industry has its specialist engineers, on whom the success of the company depends, but this section discusses the supporting industries where polymath engineers build and repair the machines and equipment the factories need.
The range in size of engineering works makes this a difficult area to summarise, some works occupied more land than their associated town, others were little more than a shed in a side street (in Japan in the 1980s the majority of engineering work was farmed out to these small 'back street' firms). A larger works would almost certainly be built close by a railway line for delivery of materials and many featured their own railway siding or even an internal railway system.
One bit of kit you might see in such a factory would be a heavy horse drawn trolley, the railways owned a few of these as well. They can be modelled using a set of Peco wagon wheels trimmed down (see Wagon Loads & Materials Handling - Road vehicles and Farm Equipment for a details and illustrations of a removals van made using these wheels). Rather than the single pole two-horse arrangement this has two sets of shafts and was pulled by giant shire horses. By the 1930s some were fitted with a tow bar for a traction engine or (more likely) a heavy petrol engined tug of the type produced by Scammel.
To reinforce the sense of 'heavy engineering' adding a crane helps, heavier industries found that a mobile crane was often useful, the steam example shown below left is typical for a larger works. By the later 1930s petrol cranes were commonplace, one popular machine born in the 1930s which served well into the 1970s was the Chaseside crane, a modified tractor fitted with a fixed jib. Even a small works might have one of these smaller petrol cranes.
Fig ___ Steam mobile crane and Chaseside petrol crane
The presence of a hefty gantry crane would suggest they offer some heavyweight gear. The example sketched below is based on one in a country implement works yard, the photo was not very clear but it appears the crane is manually operated so it is probably in the three ton class. The sketch on the right shows a typical hand winch, this example would be in the one ton class I believe.
Early engineering works built machines to order, often of their own design, and most would turn their hand to any project that offered the prospect of a profit. By the end of the nineteenth century there were many specialised engineering works, those in the country were producing farm machinery whilst others were building machines for local industries such as mills. Near the coasts large works were making parts to be sold to ship builders and there were many firms making stationary and mobile steam and internal combustion engines of various kinds. There were as many designs of factory as there were products produced, although some elements were common to most. The various elements of a larger engineering works would often be housed in separate buildings.
Quite a few works, particularly those in more rural locations, had a limited foundry or forging capability and the combination of foundry, forge and larger engineering works was a sensible arrangement, making the works almost self sufficient (it would still buy-in nuts and bolts, hacksaw blades and the like from specialist suppliers). The illustration below is based on an engineering works in Manchester, note the stubby chimney on the left, which I understand was the works forge. Forges used charcoal and did not produce much smoke so they often had short chimneys. One odd point to note is the gantry crane giving access to the opening on the upper floor.
Fig ___ Former engineering works with a forge in Manchester
The company name is not always an accurate guide to their product range either, a notable example being the Vulcan Foundry of Newton le Willows. This firm was set up in 1832 as Charles Tayleur and Company (the name changed in 1847) to produce metal work for the Liverpool and Manchester railway (girders for bridges, railway line etc). By the later 1830s they were building steam locomotives for both the UK and export markets, in later years they built engines for the Midland Railway and the LMS and WD 2-8-0 engines. The built a fleet of electric locomotives for India in the 1920s and built numerous diesel locomotives as well as rolling stock (much of it for export). After the war there were a series of take-over's and the works closed in 2002. The works were rail-connected and there were some truly splendid machines produced there, the example below is a steam tractor on caterpillar tracks, built for the Klondike Gold Rush in the Yukon (Canada) in the 1890s and would make a rather different load for a drop centre wagon (for more on this machine see also 'Lineside Industries - Industrial and agricultural vehicles and equipment').
Fig___ Steam traction engine (1890s)
A typical large rural factory, producing say farm machinery and equipment for local industries, would include stores for both bought-in materials and its own produce, the foundry would be a moderately large building with the chimneys of one or two cupolas sticking out of the roof. Associated with this would be the pattern shop and possibly a store. The forge would require a chimney and was often an open-fronted building for ease of access and to allow the air drawn in to keep the workers reasonably cool. Where the forge was dealing with large lumps of metal a powerful steam hammer was often used. There would be a large 'machine shop' in which the parts of the machines were finished, this would house the lathes, drilling and milling machines, plate bending machines and what have you. Possibly incorporated in the machine shop would be the erection shop where the machines to be sold were put together for testing (in many cases they would then be dismantled for ease of shipping). A boiler house or two would be used to generate steam for the machines and somewhere there would be the firms offices, usually in a separate building generally located some distance from the dirty parts of the works such as the foundry and typically very small (many large works and ship yards had offices about the size of a large detached house).
Fortunately in the present context much of the factory can be represented by low relief structures on the back scene, with the railway siding and associated loading bank to the front. As mentioned in Railway Company Goods Facilities - Prototype Goods Yards and wharfs these industrial sidings were sometimes combined with a 'public wharf', this was usually where the factory was in a rural area and was often a condition laid down by the railway company when the industrial siding was being arranged. Two examples of these combined factory and public wharf sidings I know of, both on the North Staffordshire Railway, were the Vulcan Foundry and the Foden commercial vehicle works.
Fig ___ Rural Engineering works with 'public wharf'
Typical inward traffic might include pig iron and occasional wagon loads of moulding sand for the foundry and metal bar and girder sections for building up chassis and the like.
Outgoing would be finished machines and items such as bridge girders and prefabricated items for industry (any odd shaped bit of plastic can be painted up and chained to a wagon for these).
Also outgoing would be the waste being shipped to a scrap merchant, where holes for rivets were punched there would be a lot of rivet punchings, where machine tools are used there is the 'swarf' produced by the cutting of the metal and where a forge is used there is a lot of 'hammerscale'.
In towns the situation was rather different with many smaller firms offering limited facilities such as forges and foundries as well as specialist machined products such as nuts and bolts. There would be larger industries, for example a motor car works (discussed separately under 'Manufacturing of Motor Cars and Commercial Vehicles'), but these would be surrounded by many smaller engineering works, some consisting of a small shed no larger than a domestic garage. There were also quite a few 'cottage industries', notably those associated with iron and steel, such as chain makers.
The example shown below is a small engineering works on a side street (the photograph was taken standing on the high street). The squat chimney suggests they had a forge in the larger building and the steel girder overhead conveyor suggests they dealt with some heavy equipment that was lifted on and off lorries. There again a firm making bolts from metal rod might employ such a crane to bring in the bundles of rod and once installed it would remain even if the firm using the building changed to one dealing with lighter engineering projects.
Fig___ Small engineering firm in a town
A small one-building firm would be unlikely to have a railway siding, although if they produced something substantial such as large electric motors they might justify the expense. Where a larger firm was operating, with a cluster of buildings offering a range of facilities a rail connection would be more likely.
The demand for engineering works lead to standard buildings being produced, although used for widely differing purposes. The example below is now in the landscaped grounds of Manchester University but was once on a side street, and there is an identical building about a mile away, both were used for various enterprises during their lifetime.
Fig___ Standard design small engineering factory building
In the photo on the right you can see bricked-in arches along the upper sides above rectangular bricked-up window openings. On the other example of this building the arches were open as the firm there had a forge or foundry in the building and needed the ventilation. Open arched vents of this type were quite often seen in buildings associated with gas works and the like where ventilation was an issue.
This particular building was used by a firm building large electric motors prior to being taken over by the University and there was a separate stores and office building across the yard. Incoming traffic would include wire and small cable (small cable drums about three foot in diameter might be used for these), crates and cases of bearings and major sub assemblies, drums (possibly a tank wagon) of varnish, oil and de-greasing agents (methanol or alcohol).
Fig___ Stores and offices building
The corner of the building on the left of the above photo is the old back-street school building, this was a typical in-town built-up area with the factories intermingled with the houses. The school building is now home to some form of civic body.
Fig___ School opposite the factory
A larger works can be suggested by having a low relief building on the backscene fronted by a cobbled yard containing a gantry crane, the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry has such a building, once an engineering works now the 'power hall' of the museum, the crane and the two lines of inset tracks remain in place in the yard area.
Fig___ Large gantry crane in a factory yard
Boilermakers and Engine makers
One firm you would be likely to find in and near most industrial towns and which might well have such a yard would be a boiler maker. These not only produced steam boilers but also a range of other goods involving curved plates welded or (more commonly) riveted together. They also produced curved, cut and shaped girders and the like with the necessary holes punched for the rivets or bolts used to hold the structure together. Prior to the development of large machine tools in the early 20th century problems were encountered in punching the holes for rivets so they would line up during assembly and a common tool was the 'drift' a tapered rod used to bring holes into alignment (this caused stresses in the metal and was responsible for many boiler explosions). The solution was to bore the rivet holes, although prior to the introduction of machine tools this meant a man with brace and bit working on chalk marks. For girders and the like the punched holes, not being under such great stress, remained common. Where pipes needed to be joined that would be under pressure a specialist worker (called an angle ironsmith) was employed to form a flared end or flange (this was not made a right angles but in a curve for greater strength). At larger works, by the early 20th century, a heavy hydraulic press was used to form these flanges. The introduction of mild steel in place of wrought iron made everything more difficult as steel is more liable to crack under such treatment. Riveting was done by teams of two men, one on one side with a block, the other on the other side with a hammer, by the early 20th century the hammer was usually hydraulic or pneumatic, but the noise of riveting remained a characteristic feature. By the 1920s boilermakers often concentrated on a limited range of goods, enabling them to invest in specialised machinery. One firm might specialise in making steam boilers whist another opted for bridge girders etc. Smaller firms, especially in more rural areas, continued turning out a wide range of goods as the demand for any single product was not sufficient to sustain them.
Fig___ Typical Lancashire and Cornish boilers
These boilers could get very large, the example below is nearly six feet in diameter, so it could still (just) be transported on a long wheelbase or bogie flat wagon. Note the fact that the riveted plates form layers, you cannot just use a plain tube, you need to add rectangles of card to represent the plates. The illustration is based on a photo found in Wikipedia, cleaned up and altered slightly for use as a potential wagon load.
Fig___ Rather large Lancashire boiler
One job for such a firm would be the repair of older boilers, replacing the fire tubes and re-riveting the joints or replacing sections of shell plate. Traffic in would include regular shipments of col and coke as well as sections of plate, angle (girders) and bar on plate and flat wagons as well as materials in open wagons and (to a lesser extent) vans. Boilers are (in the main) big and would be shipped out on flat wagons, smaller items would likely be crated (see also Wagon Loads & Materials Handling - Wagon Loads - Introduction).
The boiler maker worked with plate, curving these to shape and riveting or welding them to make things, hence they might also make tanks of various kinds (for example the 'boilers' used in tar distillers). The structure below was taken from a photograph, the structure was actually in the way of the thing being photographed and so its purpose was not explained but I believe it was used for final assembly. However in the yard there were a number of large curved plates which would be the sort of thing seen in a boilermaker's yard. Note the lower sides are not vertical (although the roof trussing is supported on vertical posts), this is because the gantry supports angle outwards from the top rail down to the ground and the sides have to follow this line.
Fig___ Interesting structure for a boilermaker's yard
One unusual load for a boilermakers yard would be the boiler for a railway engine or steam road locomotive. These were usually built by the firm making the whole thing, however a smaller railway might order a new boiler for one of their engines, and it makes a nice wagon load. The sketch is based on a row of wagons all carrying similar boilers at a Great Eastern Railway works.
Fig___ Interesting wagon load for a boilermaker's yard
By the early 20th century the oil engine was in widespread production, these internal combustion engines used petrol and a spark or diesel and compression for ignition. A related type was the gas engine, which used gas as a fuel. Smaller engines of this type would be shipped out in cases and crates but larger 'portable' engines (mounted on wheels and towed about to provide power for farm and other machinery) would be shipped out on flat wagons, probably with a tarpaulin cover. An example of a towed oil engine is illustrated under Wagon Loads & Materials Handling - Wagon Loads - Road vehicles and Farm Equipment and an example of a large gas engine that would have been shipped in a crate (and hence visible) is illustrated under Lineside Industries - Builders and Wood Yards.
One application for multi-cylinder oil engines was in powering tractors, aircraft and private and commercial motor vehicles. These engines would normally be shipped out in wooden cases.
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