Gorton Locomotive Works - Locomotive Construction at Gorton

Locomotive Construction At Gorton

Locomotive building began at Gorton under Craig in 1858 with the completion of 0-6-0 No. 6 Archimedes. Over the next sixty years the works constructed many of the MS & LR and GCR locomotives including Parker and Sacre 2-4-0 and 0-6-0 freight classes and several of the Robinson 4-6-0 and 4-4-0 express passenger and mixed traffic classes. The 500th locomotive was GCR Class 11A (LNER Class D6) 4-4-0 No.858.

From 1911, the works constructed 130 of Robinson's GCR Class 8K (later O4) 2-8-0 heavy freight locomotives. During the First World War the design was adopted by the War Department's Railway Operating Division (ROD) for use in continental Europe. Six of the ROD 2-8-0s were built at Gorton in 1918 and 1919, with the remainder of the 521 engines being built by private locomotive manufacturers including 369 from the North British Locomotive Company in Glasgow.

By the end of Great Central Railway ownership in December 1922, 921 steam locomotives had been built at Gorton. This figure had reached 1006 by 1951, when the last steam locomotive, a LNER Thompson Class B1 4-6-0 61349 was completed.

Following the nationalisation of British Railways (BR) in 1948, Gorton was used for the construction of sixty four electric locomotives of Class 76 and Class 77, between 1950 and 1954, which were required for the newly electrified Woodhead Line from Manchester London Road to Sheffield Victoria.