North British Locomotive Co.

About

The North British Locomotive Company (NBL or NB Loco) was a major Glasgow-based locomotive builder formed on 1 April 1903 by the amalgamation of three of the principal Scottish locomotive builders, Neilson, Reid & Co. (Hyde Park Works, Springburn), Dübs & Co. (Polmadie) and Sharp, Stewart & Co. (Atlas Works, Springburn). Three works in Glasgow, Hyde Park, Atlas and Queens Park (Polmadie), operated together under the new corporate name. At formation NBL was the largest locomotive builder in the British Empire and Europe.

NBL supplied locomotives to British and overseas customers, with a particular concentration on export work to India, Egypt, Argentina and the Australian states. It was a major contractor for the ROD 2-8-0 in the First World War (a Robinson design) and the WD Austerity 2-8-0 in the Second World War (a Riddles design).

The post-war collapse of the British steam locomotive export market and NBL's poor performance on early diesel-electric and diesel-hydraulic contracts (BR Class 21, 22 and 29) bankrupted the firm in 1962. The Springburn site was demolished; only the headquarters offices on Flemington Street survive today.

Locomotives built here

BR Class 84 — BR Class 84 (originally AL4) Bo-Bo electric locomotives — built 1960 by GEC Traction. 10 built. Most withdrawn 1980–82. 84001 preserved at Barrow Hill.
LMS Royal Scot Class — Three-cylinder express 4-6-0 designed for the LMS in 1927 by Sir Henry Fowler with North British Locomotive Company collaboration, a rapid response to the urgent post-Grouping need for heavier West Coast main-line motive power. Seventy-one engines were built in 1927–1930. Most were progressively rebuilt by H. G. Ivatt from 1943 onwards with new tapered Stanier-pattern boilers, double chimneys, and smoke deflectors, a reconstruction so thorough that the rebuilt engines became effectively a different class. Two are preserved.
LNER Peppercorn K1 Class — Peppercorn's 1949 LNER/BR K1 class 2-6-0 — Peppercorn's improvement of Thompson's K1/1, postwar two-cylinder 2-6-0. 70 built 1949–1950. K1 No. 62005 "Lord of the Isles" is preserved on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway in working order, regular performer on the Jacobite mainline tour.
LNER Thompson B1 Class — Edward Thompson's standardised mixed-traffic 4-6-0 for the LNER, designed in 1942 to a single-class brief that would replace the company's many ageing pre-Grouping 4-6-0s. 410 were built between 1942 and 1952 and they became the LNER's and Eastern Region's general-purpose engine, the LNER equivalent of the LMS Black Five.
ROD — Robinson's GCR 8K class 2-8-0 — adopted by the Railway Operating Division (ROD) of the British Army during World War I as the standard British military 2-8-0. 521 built between 1911 and 1919 by Robinson and various contractors. After the war the surplus engines were sold to British and overseas railways; the ROD designation refers to the wartime locomotives. LNER class O4. One LNER O4 (No. 63601) is preserved at the National Railway Museum.

Location	Springburn, Glasgow
Founded	1 April 1903
Closed	1 April 1962