Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company

52°30′19″N 1°57′39″W

BRCW makers plate, on display in Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum

The Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company (BRC&W) was a railway locomotive and carriage builder, founded in Birmingham, England and, for most of its existence, located at nearby Smethwick, with the factory divided by the boundary between the two places. The company was established in 1854.^[1]

Production

Compartment of luxury saloon coach built for Palestine Railways in 1922, now preserved at the Israel Railway Museum in Haifa

British Rail Class 33 at Swanage

BRC&W made not only carriages and wagons, but a range of vehicles, from aeroplanes and military gliders to buses, trolleybuses and tanks. Nevertheless, it is as a builder of railway rolling stock that the company is best remembered, exporting to most parts of the new and old worlds. It supplied vehicles to all four of the pre-nationalisation "big four" railway companies (LMS, SR, LNER and GWR), British Rail, Pullman (some of which are still in use) and Wagons-Lits, plus overseas railways with diverse requirement including Egypt, India, Iraq, Malaya, Mandate Palestine, South Africa and Nigeria. The company even built, in 1910, Argentina's presidential coach, which still survives, and once carried Eva Perón. Before World War II, the company had built steam-, petrol- and diesel-powered railcars for overseas customers, not to mention bus bodies for Midland Red, and afterwards developed more motive power products, including BR's Class 26, Class 33 (both diesel) and Class 81 (electric) locomotives. Examples of all three types are preserved.

Wartime production

The company built hospital trains during the Second Boer War. Handley Page Type O bombers and Airco DH.10 Amiens were built during World War I.

During World War II, the company had a major impact on tank production as one of the many companies building the A10 Cruiser, Valentine, Churchill, Cromwell and Challenger tanks.^[2] They led the design and production of the Cromwell tank in liaison with Rolls-Royce and Rover on the Meteor engine.

The company also built Hamilcar gliders in 1939–1945.

Locomotives

Some of the locomotives and multiple units built by the company are listed below:

Diesel Locomotives

• 14 Commonwealth Railways NSU class in 1954. Works numbers DEL1–14
• 5 similar locos for Sierra Leone Development Corporation in 1954 (works numbers DEL 15–19), plus one more in 1962 (works number DEL259)
• 12 Córas Iompair Éireann 101 class in 1956–1957 (works numbers DEL20–31)
• 13 locos for Ghana Railway And Harbours Administration (works numbers DEL32–44)
• 47 British Rail Class 26 in 1958–1959 (works numbers DEL45–91)
• 98 British Rail Class 33 in 1960–1962 (works numbers DEL92–189)
• 69 British Rail Class 27 in 1961–1962 (works numbers DEL190–258)
• 1 British Rail D0260 Lion in 1962 (works number DEL260)

Electric Locomotives

• British Rail Class 81

Diesel Multiple Units

DMU on the Belgrano Sur Line in Buenos Aires, Argentina (1966)

• British Rail Class 104
• British Rail Class 110 (with Drewry Car Co.)
• British Rail Class 118
• Egypt State Railways 3 & 5 Car Railcars

Electric Multiple Units

• London Underground 1923 Tube Stock
• London Underground 1938 Tube Stock
• London Underground 1956 Tube Stock
• London Underground 1962 Tube Stock The order was transferred to Metro-Cammell owing to the financial problems at BRCW.
• London Underground CO/CP Stock
• London Underground R47 Stock^[3]
• London Underground T Stock
• LMS/BR Wirral & Mersey Class 503

Closure

In the years before 1963, the company had built an extensive number of locomotives, diesel multiple unit trains, and Underground cars, but it then became apparent that fewer rolling stock orders were to be expected, and the company restructured itself as an industrial landlord and financing business.^[4] The self-funded main line locomotive prototype Lion was a particular disappointment. Powered by a Sulzer 2,750 hp (2,050 kW) diesel engine, it was pitted against another self-funded prototype, Falcon, built by Brush at Loughborough, which had twin 1,400 hp (1,000 kW) Maybach engines. After trials, British Railways preferred the BRCW approach, but ordered them to be built by Brush Traction, and they became British Rail Class 47.

Preserved BRCW locomotive and units

Australia

The Commonwealth Railway used a large number of A1A-A1A NSU Class locomotives built by the Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company, several are preserved.

Built in	Number	Now located at
1954	NSU51	Pichi Richi Railway at Quorn, South Australia
1954	NSU52	Pichi Richi Railway at Quorn, South Australia
1954	NSU53	The Ghan Preservation Society at Alice Springs, Northern Territory
1954	NSU54	Pichi Richi Railway at Quorn, South Australia
1954	NSU55	Steamtown at Peterborough, South Australia
1954	NSU56	at Maree, South Australia
1954	NSU57	at Maree, South Australia
1954	NSU58	The Ghan Preservation Society at Alice Springs, Northern Territory
1954	NSU59	The Ghan Preservation Society at Alice Springs, Northern Territory
1954	NSU60	at Maree, South Australia
1954	NSU61	National Railway Museum at Port Adelaide, South Australia
1954	NSU62	Steamtown at Peterborough, South Australia
1954	NSU63	at Adelaide River, Northern Territory
1954	NSU64	The Ghan Preservation Society at Alice Springs, Northern Territory

Ireland

Railway	Class	Wheel arrangement	Built in	Number	Now located at
Córas Iompair Éireann	101 class	A1A-A1A	1956	103	Irish Traction Group at Carrick-on-Suir

United Kingdom

Several ex-British Rail Bo-Bo locomotives are preserved.

Class	Built in	Number	Now located at
Class 26	1958	D5300 / 26007	Barrow Hill Engine Shed
Class 26	1958	D5301 / 26001 - Eastfield	Caledonian Railway (Brechin)
Class 26	1958	D5302 / 26002	Strathspey Railway
Class 26	1958	D5304 / 26004	Nemesis Rail, Burton upon Trent[5]
Class 26	1958	D5310 / 26010	Llangollen Railway
Class 26	1958	D5311 / 26011	Nemesis Rail, Burton upon Trent[5]
Class 26	1958	D5314 / 26014	Caledonian Railway (Brechin)
Class 26	1958	D5324 / 26024	Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway
Class 26	1958	D5325 / 26025	Strathspey Railway
Class 26	1958	D5335 / 26035	Caledonian Railway (Brechin)
Class 26	1958	D5338 / 26038	Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway[5]
Class 26	1958	D5340 / 26040	Waverley Route Heritage Association[5]
Class 26	1958	D5343 / 26043	Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway
Class 27	1960	D5347 / 27001	Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway
Class 27	1960	D5351 / 27005	Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway
Class 27	1960	D5353 / 27007	Caledonian Railway (Brechin)[5]
Class 27	1960	D5370 / 27024	Caledonian Railway (Brechin)[5]
Class 27	1960	D5394 / 27050	Strathspey Railway
Class 27	1960	D5401 / 27056	Great Central Railway
Class 27	1960	D5410 / 27059	UK Rail Leasing, Leicester[5]
Class 27	1960	D5386 / 27066	Barrow Hill Engine Shed[5]
Class 33	1960	D6501 / 33002 - Sea King	South Devon Railway
Class 33	1960	D6508 / 33008 - Eastleigh	Battlefield Line
Class 33	1960	D6515 / 33012	Swanage Railway
Class 33	1960	D6518 / 33018	Midland Railway
Class 33	1960	D6534 / 33019 - Griffon	Battlefield Line Railway
Class 33	1960	D6552 / 33034	Swanage Railway
Class 33	1960	D6553 / 33035	Barrow Hill Engine Shed
Class 33	1960	D6564 / 33046 - Merlin	Midland Railway
Class 33	1960	D6566 / 33047	West Somerset Railway
Class 33	1960	D6570 / 33052 - Ashford	Bluebell Railway
Class 33	1960	D6571 / 33053	Mid-Hants Railway
Class 33	1960	D6575 / 33057 - Seagull	West Somerset Railway
Class 33	1960	D6583 / 33063 - RJ Mitchell	Spa Valley Railway
Class 33	1960	D6585 / 33065 - Sealion	Spa Valley Railway
Class 33	1960	D6513 / 33102	Churnet Valley Railway
Class 33	1960	D6514 / 33103 Swordfish	Swanage Railway
Class 33	1960	D6521 / 33108	Barrow Hill Engine Shed
Class 33	1960	D6525 / 33109 Captain Bill Smith RNR	East Lancshire Railway
Class 33	1960	D6527 / 33110	Bodmin and Wenford Railway
Class 33	1960	D6528 / 33111	Swanage Railway
Class 33	1960	D6535 / 33116 Hertfordshire Rail Tours	Great Central Railway
Class 33	1960	D6536 / 33117	East Lancashire Railway
Class 33	1960	D6586 / 33201	Midland Railway
Class 33	1960	D6587 / 33202 The Burma Star	Mangapps Railway Museum
Class 33	1960	D6593 / 33208	Battlefield Line Railway
Class 81	1959	E3003 / 81002	Barrow Hill Engine Shed

References

1. White, Henry Patrick; Thomas, David St. John (1963). A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain. Phoenix House. p. 252.
2. Fletcher, David (1993). The Universal Tank. HMSO, for REME Museum. pp. 87–89. ISBN 0-11-290534-X., p.88
3. Connor, Piers (1983). The 'R' Stock Story. Hemel Hempstead: London Underground Railway Society. ISBN 0-9508793-0-4.
4. Hypher, John; Wheeler, Colin; Wheeler, Stephen (1996). Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company - A Century of Achievement,1855-1963. Runpast.
5. Preserved Locomotives of British Railways 2023, p. 118.