Crewe Locomotive Works and its Men - Brian Reed

Crewe, the largest locomotive and allied product factory associated with British Railways, and the largest railway-owned works during 140 years, turned out in its time on a large scale apart from several thousand locomotive at least 60 non-locomotive produce exclusive of armaments and armoured fighting vehicles. It grew up with attached legends and falsities worthy of Barn Munchausen, and which still cling to it like barnacles, largely because four out of its five successive owners published them as ‘official’ through sheer carelessness and disinterest.

In unravelling fact from fiction this book not only gives salient historical facts from contemporary inside and outside records, but provides an account of works and town development (for Crewe was the ‘railway town’ above all others) from the original staff of 160 to a maximum of 10,0-00 and from 9000 to 550,000 man-hours of attendance a week, and from 200 inhabitants of the town to 45,000. The works growth is traced from seven to 148 acres, and its life taken through two world wars, one bitter town – railway war, a general strike, at least three major reorganisations, and innumerable depressions and progressions.

Well over 100,000 men have passed through Crewe works since 1843, some of them in five successive generations; and the extraordinary men who have directed and managed the plant include over a dozen chief mechanical engineers, more than 20 works managers and a dozen chief draughtmens; and many other railway and locomotive ‘giants’, such as Sir John Aspinall, Sir Nigel Gresley and Robert A Riddles, have worked there as a premium apprentices or pupils on a 58 to 54 hours week at anything from five shillings (25p) to £1 a week remuneration.

Running through the Crewe story like a thread are the locomotive types designed, built and repaired in the Old Works and the Steelworks, composed of well over a hundred steam classes totalling around 7350 engines built new and about 125,000 given general repairs, plus the thousands of diesel-electric, diesel-hydraulic and straight electric repairs and new construction over the last 25 years. The works has handled locomotives on nine different principles, weighing from 3 to 150 tons, with maximum speeds of 4 to 150mph, and with outputs of 10 to 3000hp (steam) and up to 5000hp (electric).