Sharp Brothers (Manchester)

Sharp Brothers was a Manchester locomotive builder operating the Atlas Works at Great Bridgewater Street, Manchester, from 1828 until 1843. The firm was founded by Thomas and John Sharp as a successor to Sharp, Roberts & Co., the firm having lost its locomotive business when Richard Roberts (the engineer) preferred to concentrate on machine tools.

Sharp Brothers built locomotives for many of the early British and Continental railways, particularly to the firm's standardised 'Sharp's Patent' types. The firm's distinctive locomotive house style, outside cylinders, plain frames and a graceful boiler outline, made Sharp engines recognisable wherever they ran. In 1843 the firm reorganised as Sharp Brothers & Co., and after the death of Thomas Sharp in 1844 the firm was renamed Sharp, Stewart & Co..