Catalogue description Horwich Locomotive Works collection of official photographs

This collection represents the work of official company photographers employed by the Lancashire & Yorkshire and its successors, the LNWR, LMS and British Railways. The bulk of the photographs were taken pre-grouping, and they include images of the works at Horwich and at nearby Earlestown and Newton Heath with scenes of locomotive, carriage and wagon construction and maintenance. There are views of locomotives and rolling stock on completion and in service, and photographs of early electric trains and generating plant. Also featured are stations in the North West, engine sheds, the innovative L& YR iron foundry, docks, some bridges, signalling equipment, royal visits, personalities and special occasions. First World War photographs show ambulance trains and armaments constructed by the L& YR with images of women at work in the munitions factories established at Horwich Works.

The post-grouping period is mainly represented by photographs of LMS advertising material on stations and in streets, while the operations of the works under British Railways' ownership between 1952 and 1979 are featured in about 525 negatives.

The majority of these photographs were taken on glass plates and considering their age are generally of high quality, making this one of the most significant archives of industrial photography held by the NRM.

The collection is listed, in eleven handwritten registers compiled by the photographers and ordered broadly chronologically in numerical sequence.

No subject index is available yet, but large numbers of reference prints are available for consultation in the Reading Room, ordered by themes.

Horwich Locomotive Works, Bolton, Lancashire

• Transport engineering
• Railway transport
• First World War, 1914-1918

Construction of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway's Horwich Locomotive Works near Bolton was completed in 1887 and the following year the first locomotive, the Aspinall 2-4-2 tank engine No 1008, left the workshops. Over 1,800 steam locomotives were to be built at the works, including Hughes' 'Crabs', the Kitson 'Pugs' and British Railways 'Standard' engines. During the First World War munitions were manufactured at Horwich, and weapons production recommenced during the Second World War, when tanks were also built on the site. Horwich's last steam locomotive a Class 4 2-6-0 No 76099, was built in 1957 and it was followed by nearly 170 diesel shunters. Some 3,000 workers were employed at the works in the 1950s, but the workforce declined in the next decade when production of new vehicles ceased. Horwich then concentrated on locomotive repairs and, finally, wagon maintenance, before its closure in 1983.