Horbury Horbury is a town in the City of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is situated north of the River Calder, West Yorkshire, River Calder about three miles (5 k ...

, near

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 109,766 in the 2021 census, up from 99,251 in the 2011 census. The city is the administrative centre of the wider Metropolit ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a Metropolitan counties of England, metropolitan and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and east, South Yorkshire and De ...

, England was the site of two wagon works constructed during the Victorian period of industrialisation. Charles Roberts & Company's wagon works was located at Horbury Junction southeast of

, England. It became part of the

Procor Procor is a Canadian company producing railway shipping cars. It is Canada's largest private rail car rental fleet, with more than 30,000 conventional and special-purpose tank and freight cars. Linked to Sparling Tank Car of Toronto, Procor w ...

group in the 1970s as Procor Engineering Ltd. and, subsequently, part of

Bombardier Inc. Bombardier Inc. () is a Canadian aerospace manufacturer that produces business jets. Headquartered in Montreal, the company was founded in 1942 by Joseph-Armand Bombardier to market his snowmobiles, and it later became one of the world's big ...

's European railway businesses in 1990 as Bombardier Prorail (Horbury), closing in 2005. The Yorkshire Railway Wagon Company was based near Horbury Bridge west of Horbury.

Yorkshire Railway Wagon Co.

The Yorkshire Railway Wagon Company was incorporated in 1862, by 1869 it had produced over 2000 wagons. The factory was located to the west of Horbury railway station to the north of the

Manchester and Leeds Railway The Manchester and Leeds Railway was a British railway company that built a line from Manchester to Normanton, West Yorkshire, Normanton where it made a junction with the North Midland Railway, over which it relied on running powers to access L ...

line. The factory closed in the second half of the twentieth century and the site is used as ''Quarry Hill Industrial Estate''.

Charles Roberts & Co.

Charles Roberts & Co. Ltd. was established in 1856 in Wakefield and moved to Horbury Junction in 1873 and registered in 1899 as a wagon building business located at the junction of routes of the

(present ''

Caldervale Line The Calder Valley line (also previously known as the Caldervale line) is a railway route in Northern England between the cities of Leeds and Manchester as well as the seaside resort of Blackpool. It is the slower of the two main rail routes ...

'') and the Sheffield, Rotherham, Barnsley, Wakefield, Huddersfield and Goole Railway Company (leased and later transferred to the

Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) was a major History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company before the Railways Act 1921, 1923 Grouping. It was Incorporation (business)#Incorporation in the United Kingdom, incorpo ...

) (present ''

Hallam Line The Hallam Line is a railway connecting Leeds and Sheffield via Castleford in the West Yorkshire Metro area of northern England. It is a slower route from Leeds to Sheffield than the Wakefield line. Services on this line are operated by Nort ...

''). The company produced a variety of railway wagons,

tank wagon A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engine; t ...

s and

components Component may refer to: In engineering, science, and technology Generic systems *System components, an entity with discrete structure, such as an assembly or software module, within a system considered at a particular level of analysis * Lumped e ...

. The plant was acquired by

of Canada in 1974, becoming Procor Engineering Limited. Procor Engineering Ltd. was acquired by

in 1990, after which it became part of ''Bombardier Prorail''. Bombardier closed the plant in 2005, as part of number of closures due to overcapacity throughout Europe and North America in its transportation division.

Products

In addition to freight rolling stock, the plant produced bodyshells for the Class 60 during the Procor period, and Class 92 during Bombardier's ownership. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

the factory was involved in the production of the

Churchill Tank The Tank, Infantry, Mk IV (A22) Churchill was a British infantry tank used in the Second World War, best known for its heavy armour, large longitudinal chassis with all-around tracks with multiple Bogie#Tracked vehicles, bogies, its ability to ...

. The plant was involved in the passenger vehicle construction and refurbishment. In the 1950s tram bodies were constructed for Blackpool Tramways 'Coronation Cars', and

Sheffield Tramway Sheffield Tramway was an extensive tramway network serving the England, English city of Sheffield and its suburbs. The first tramway line, horse-drawn, opened in 1873 between Lady's Bridge and Attercliffe, subsequently extended to Brightside, ...

s. In the early 2000s

Bombardier Voyager The Bombardier Voyager is a family of high speed train, high-speed 125 mph diesel-electric multiple units built in Belgium by Bombardier Transportation, for service on the railway network of the United Kingdom. Construction of the Voyager famil ...

trains were built at Horbury and at Bombardier's BN plant in Bruges, Belgium. Refurbishment of GNER's Mark 4 coach fleet took place at Horbury in the mid-2000s.

After closure

After closure part of the plant was taken over by the engineering company

Eddison & Wanless Eddison is a given name and a surname. Notable people with the name include: *Alfred Eddison Hutton (1865–1947), British Liberal politician and manufacturer Surname Eddison: *E. R. Eddison (1882–1945), English author * Nicole Eddison character ...

, and part of the site has been named the ''Charles Roberts Office Park''.

References

Bibliography

External links

;Images *{{cite web, url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/thanoz/3394866438/, title= Horbury: Yorkshire Wagon Works. 1963., work = www.flickr.com, author = jb303 Rolling stock manufacturers of the United Kingdom Companies based in Wakefield Railway workshops in Great Britain