2000-8056 ENGINEERING DRAWINGS from the STOKE WORKS of the NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE RAILWAY COMPANY Trustees of the National Museum of Science & Industry Version 1.0 June 2005
Reference Code(s): GB 0756 2000-8056 Title: Engineering Drawings from the Stoke Works of the North Staffordshire Railway Company Dates: 1868-1927 Level of Description: Fonds Extent & Medium of the unit of description: This collection consists of 2973 drawings and sketches. There are 420 sketches, 1746 drawings from the locomotive works and 807 drawings from the carriage and wagon works. Name of creators: The drawing offices of the Stoke Works, North Staffordshire Railway Company, Stoke-on-Trent Administrative/Biographical History: The North Staffordshire Railway (NSR) came into being in April 1845. The earliest locomotives were built by outside contractors, among them Sharpe Brothers & Co, Robert Stephenson & Co, Vulcan Foundry, Hudswell Clarke, Kitson s and Neilson & Co. The NSR opened its own works at Stoke on Trent in 1864. They occupied a 12-acre site near the main line at Stoke Junction, between the canal and the company roundhouse. The location was cramped and difficult to access off the Leek branch line, becoming more difficult as the Works were expanded and developed. At first they were only able to complete repairs and heavy rebuilding. Facilities for new building were completed in 1868. By 1901 the locomotive works employed 450 men and the carriage and wagon works a further 400. Figures for 1914 were 483 and 391 respectively. The locomotive stock continued to include both contractor and local built stock, and this mixture is reflected in the surviving collection of engineering drawings from the Stoke Works Drawing Office. The North Staffordshire Railway also worked and maintained the Leek & Manifold Valley Light Railway, a 2 6 narrow gauge line opened in 1904. Among the more unusual drawings produced at the Stoke Works are vehicles for this 9-mile line. In common with many railway works the Stoke drawing office was employed to produce drawings for machinery, buildings and other developments as demanded by the company. During the 1914-1918 war they also produced drawings for shells and fuses as part of the war effort, examples of which have survived into the collection. Responsibility for engineering and the works passed through several hands from 1848 to closure in 1927. The following table lists the names of the men in overall control, but there were separate and subordinate managers for the Locomotive Works and for the Carriage & Wagon Works. Period Title Manager 1848-1865 Engineer J C Forsyth 1865-1870 Engineer J Johnson 1870-1874 Locomotive Superintendent T W Dodds 1874-1875 Locomotive Superintendent R N Angus
1876-1882 Locomotive Superintendent C Clare 1882-1902 Locomotive, Carriage & Wagon Superintendent L Longbottom 1902-1915 Locomotive, Carriage & Wagon Superintendent J H Adams 1915-1923 Locomotive, Carriage & Wagon Superintendent J A Hookham No new locomotives were built after 1923, when the North Staffordshire Railway was absorbed into the London, Midland & Scottish Railway (LMS). The last Works Manager (1919-1927) was H G Ivatt, who later became the CMEE of the LMS. The Works were officially closed in 1926, finally running down by 1927 when most of the employees transferred to Crewe Locomotive Works. As a consequence it is also possible to find drawings of locomotives originating with the North Staffordshire Railway and the Stoke Works among the Crewe Works collection. Some have also found their way into the Derby Works collection as a result of subsequent rationalisation by the LMS. Immediate source of acquisition or transfer: Claimed from British Rail by the British Transport Commission Museum at Clapham and transferred to the National Railway Museum at York when the latter was established in 1975. Scope & content: The collection consists mainly of engineering drawings relating to locomotives, carriages and wagons maintained or built at the Stoke Works of the North Staffordshire Railway. There are other drawings from the output of the drawing office relating to machinery, civil engineering and the production of munitions during the First World War. Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information: No appraisal of this collection has been undertaken. Accruals: No accruals are expected. System of arrangement: The original order of the collection has been difficult to ascertain due to the lack of any specific records of drawing office practice. However, during the course of listing the contents it has become clear that there are three distinct groups of drawings. The Locomotive Works and the Carriage & Wagon Works maintained their own separate numerical sequences for their drawings. This has been restored and the two main sets of drawings sorted into numerical order within these two divisions and listed according to this convention. In each case sequences of previously unnumbered drawings have been added. These have the additional prefix UN and have been allocated artificial numbers by the National Railway Museum in series from 50001 and 60001 respectively. There is a third group of mainly small drawings known as sketches and with a single numerical sequence and a SK prefix. These have also been separately sorted.
Within the Carriage and Wagon sequence there are three further small sets of drawings, but the numbers do not seem to interfere with the normal numbering pattern. To identify these drawings they have been allocated the prefix MC for those drawings originating with Metro-Cammell of Saltley and N for those originating with J Stone & Co. The third sequence of three drawings only have the prefix RCD and appear to be related to War Office production during the Great War. All three sets have been allocated to separate boxes for storage and retrieval purposes, as it is not clear whether the numbering sequence is proper to the Stoke Works. Conditions governing access: Access is given in accordance with the National Railway Museum access policy. Material from this collection is available to researchers through the Research Centre and is fully open to researchers. A small number of drawings have been set to one side for appraisal with a view to their condition and the need for conservation. Conditions governing reproduction: Copies may be supplied of items in this collection, provided that the copying process does not damage the item or is not detrimental to its preservation. Copies will be supplied in accordance with the NRM s terms and conditions for the supply and reproduction of copies, and the provisions of any relevant copyright legislation. Language: English Physical Characteristics & technical requirements: The vast majority of the drawings are wax linen copies in variable condition, with occasional paper copies and blueprints. Some have been subject to water damage in the past and several drawings have been damaged by oil stains and mould. In these latter instances copying will be virtually impossible and handling will be restricted. Finding aids: A list of the drawings is available, prepared by volunteers Mark Smith, David Jolley and Mark Sherratt and developed by NRM archive assistant Martin Bashforth. Existence and location of originals: Not applicable Existence and location of copies: Not applicable
Related units of description held at the National Railway Museum: 2000-8057 Drawing lists and index, no date, 1 volume, Stoke Works Drawing Office (Locomotives only) 2000-8058 Alphabetical index of drawings, no date, 1 volume, Stoke Works Drawing Office (Locomotives only) 1978-7032 Steam locomotive 0-6-2T designed by JH Adams for NSR, built 1922 1978-7004 Battery-electric locomotive built for NSR by T Botton & Sons, 1917 1977-7311 Portrait of John Curphey Forsyth, Engineer NSR 1848-1865 1978-8093 Wagon solebar plate NSR Builders Stoke 1921 1997-7893 Wagon solebar plate NSR Builders Stoke 1911 1997-7764 Locomotive worksplate North Staffordshire Railway Builders Stoke Works 1921, ex-nsr New L Class 0-6-2T 1962-132/62 1:8 scale coloured general arrangement drawing of 0-6-0 locomotive T294 built by Neilson & Co 1962-132/64 1:8 scale coloured general arrangement drawing of 0-6-0 locomotive E294 built by Neilson & Co 1999-8056 Side elevation drawing of 2-2-2 locomotive by C Clare, Locomotive Superintendent, NSR 1875-1882 1999-7443 The photographic collection of H B Oliver 2004-7697 Framed photograph of NSR 4-4-0 Locomotive no 38 2004-7699 Framed photograph of NSR 4-4-0 Locomotive no 87 2004-7700 Framed photograph of NSR 4-4-2T, 2-4-0T locomotives no 8 Related units of description held at other repositories: The National Archives RAIL 532 Papers of the North Staffordshire Railway Company 1845-1957 The National Archives RAIL 358 Papers of the Leek & Manifold Valley Light Railway Company 1898-1923 Publication note: No secondary sources have yet been published using this collection. Archivists Note: Archive assistant Martin Bashforth compiled the catalogue in 2005 from the initial inventory listing developed by volunteers Mark Smith, David Jolley and Mark Sherratt. At the same time the drawings were re-arranged into numerical sequence, separated for the different works and for the run of sketches. Rules or conventions: Catalogue created in accordance with ISAD (G): General International Standard Archival Description (Second Edition), International Council on Archives, Ottawa 2000. Date of descriptions/revisions: The inventory was compiled 2001-2004 and the final catalogue was compiled in 2005.
Useful Publications relating to this archive: Manifold : The North Staffordshire Railway (Ashbourne, 1952) Manifold : The Leek & Manifold Valley Light Railway (Ashbourne, 1956) Christiansen, R & Miller, RW: The North Staffordshire Railway (Newton Abbot, 1971) Christiansen, R: Portrait of the North Staffordshire Railway (Shepperton 1997) Dow, G: The North Staffordshire Album (London, 1970) Jeuda, B: The Knotty (Lydney, 1996) Turner, K: The Leek & Manifold Valley Light Railway (Newton Abbot 1980) Hopkins, K: North Staffordshire Locomotives (Burton on Trent 1986) Lowe, JW: British Steam Locomotive Builders (Cambridge, 1975) Larkin, EJ & JG: The Railway Workshops of Britain 1823-1986 (Basingstoke 1988)