Catalogue description Gorton Locomotive Works, Openshaw, photographs

This collection is in two parts, (covering c1890-1930 and c1947-1963). There are about 280 negatives covering the Great Central and LNER period, featuring posed views of locomotives and a small number of carriages built at the works. The later material includes photographs of the workshops, locomotives, detailed views of components and instructional material.

Early material is listed with reference prints available for consultation in the Reading Room. There are no finding aids for the later photographs.

Gorton Locomotive Works, Openshaw

• Railway transport
• Transport engineering

Gorton Works at Openshaw near Manchester was constructed in 1848 to service the engines of the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway. The first locomotive was built in 1858, on a site that also had facilities for carriage and wagon production. The workshops were extended in 1880, but thirty years later responsibility for the production of rolling stock was transferred to the new works at Dukinfield. In 1897 the M, S & L was renamed the Great Central Railway and by the time of the grouping in 1923, when the company was taken over by the newly-formed LNER, Gorton works has built over 900 locomotives. Under LNER ownership Gorton never worked to full capacity, concentrating on repair work as new engines were manufactured at Doncaster and Darlington. The last steam engine built at Gorton was a B1 4-6-0, completed for British Railways in 1950. The works then produced electric locomotives for the Manchester, Sheffield and Wath line, including EM1 No 26001 which became part of the national collection. Gorton Locomotive Works closed in 1963 and is now the site of Manchester's wholesale fruit and vegetable market.