Catalogue description Baguley-Drewry Ltd, Burton-On-Trent

This series of records is far from complete.

The minute books and other legal/administrative records of the firm have been retained by the present company, and many of the earlier engineering drawings have been deposited at the National Railway Museum at York. It also has to be admitted that some of the records deposited are very technical and require further explanation by an experienced railway engineer. Equally the relationship between the "registers of components", the car records and the engineering drawings requires further investigation.

This collection forms part of the business records of Baguley-Drewry Ltd., of Uxbridge Street, Burton-on-Trent, who manufactured a variety of railcars and railway locomotives between 1911 and 1984. The firm continues to trade, but not as a manufacturer of railway locomotives.

Baguley Cars was founded in 1902, developing from the earlier Burton railway engineering firm of Thornewill and Warham. In 1911 the firm begain the concentration of railcar and locomotive construction but in 1931 Baguley (Engineers) Ltd., failed. A new firm E. E. Baguley Ltd., was founded in 1933 to continue the work of the earlier firm, and this later became Baguley-Drewry Ltd.

Most of the early output of the firm was under the Drewry (headquarters at River Place House, London E.C.2) name and the variable link with Drewry is frequently confusing, as many "Drewry of London" vehicles were actually built at Baguleys in Burton.