Leeds Forge Company
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The Leeds Forge Company manufactured corrugated furnaces for
marine steam engine A marine steam engine is a steam engine that is used to power a ship or boat. This article deals mainly with marine steam engines of the reciprocating type, which were in use from the inception of the steamboat in the early 19th century to thei ...
boilers and pressed steel railway rolling stock.


Early history

The company was founded by
Samson Fox Samson Fox, Justice of the peace, JP (11 July 1838 – 24 October 1903) was an English engineer, industrialist and philanthropist. He was elected Mayor of Harrogate in Yorkshire and the building of the Royal College of Music in London was funded ...
, who was born in 1838 in
Bradford Bradford is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in West Yorkshire, England. It became a municipal borough in 1847, received a city charter in 1897 and, since the Local Government Act 1972, 1974 reform, the city status in the United Kingdo ...
, Yorkshire. Samson apprenticed with Smith, Beacock and Tannett of Victoria Foundry, Leeds, succeeded
Fenton, Murray and Jackson Fenton, Murray and Jackson was an engineering company at the Round Foundry off Water Lane in Holbeck, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Fenton, Murray and Wood Fenton Murray and Wood was founded in the 1790s by ironfounder Matthew Murray and t ...
, builders of rail locomotives. While at Smith, Beacock and Tannett, Fox became their travelling representative. During this time he was acquainted with
Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Limited, often referred to simply as Scotts, was a Scottish shipbuilding company based in Greenock on the River Clyde. In its time in Greenock, Scotts built over 1,250 ships. History John Scott f ...
of
Greenock Greenock (; ; , ) is a town in Inverclyde, Scotland, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. The town is the administrative centre of Inverclyde Council. It is a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, and forms ...
, who were major shipbuilders on the
Firth of Clyde The Firth of Clyde, is the estuary of the River Clyde, on the west coast of Scotland. The Firth has some of the deepest coastal waters of the British Isles. The Firth is sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean by the Kintyre, Kintyre Peninsula. The ...
. Scotts provided a large amount of the capital needed to establish the Leeds Forge at Castleton Field,
Armley Armley is a district in the west of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It starts less than from Leeds city centre. Like much of Leeds, Armley grew in the Industrial Revolution and had several mills, one of which now houses the Leeds Industrial ...
, Leeds in 1874, initially producing straight and cranked locomotive axles. The Leeds Forge Company started out making locomotive crank pins and axles, using hammer forging.


The Corrugated Furnace

Fox registered a patent for his Corrugated Furnace in 1877. The Corrugated Furnace consisted of an iron (later steel) tube that was heated and swaged (later rolled) under pressure to form corrugations, increasing the surface area of the tube and thus allowing a greater energy transfer from the heat source to the boiler while also providing additional resistance to boiler pressure. James Humphreys of
Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town and civil parish (as just "Barrow") in the Westmorland and Furness district of Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the county of Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borou ...
placed the initial order for six furnaces of diameter and long. The next year Fox succeeded in obtaining an order for two American ships and had secured U.S. patents by 1880. The German company Schulz, Knaudt of
Essen Essen () is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and Dortmund, as well as ...
began
Licensed production Licensed production is the production under license of technology developed elsewhere. The licensee provides the licensor of a specific product with legal production rights, technical information, process technology, and any other proprietary compo ...
of the Corrugated Furnace that same year. Leeds Forge rejected license applications from other companies including Taylor Bros, Clarence Ironworks, Leeds and
John Brown & Company John Brown and Company of Clydebank was a Scottish Naval architecture, marine engineering and shipbuilding firm. It built many notable and world-famous ships including , , , , , and ''Queen Elizabeth 2 (ship), Queen Elizabeth 2''. At its heig ...
, Atlas Works,
Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...
. In 18982 Fox introduced the rolling process which led to the commercial success of the furnace, which were routinely fitted to ships both in the United Kingdom and United States.


Pressed Steel Railway Vehicles

After the success of the corrugated furnace, Fox turned his attention to other products, and in 1887 exhibited in Newcastle his flanged frame plate for railway
rolling stock The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, Railroad car#Freight cars, freight and Passenger railroad car, passenger cars (or coaches) ...
. Traditional rolling stock was built of timber frames with a timber superstructure, producing a heavy vehicle that required considerable
tractive effort In railway engineering, the term tractive effort describes the pulling or pushing capability of a locomotive. The published tractive force value for any vehicle may be theoretical—that is, calculated from known or implied mechanical proper ...
from the locomotive. Pressed steel rolling stock was made from relatively lightweight flanged steel, giving it comparable strength to timber but considerable savings in dead weight. The construction technique, which used male and female dies in a
hydraulic press A hydraulic press is a machine press using a hydraulic cylinder to generate a compressive force. It uses the hydraulic equivalent of a mechanical lever, and was also known as a Bramah press after the inventor, Joseph Bramah, of England. He inven ...
, was very labor savings in comparison to hand-built timber cars. Fox found an ally in the promotion of his pressed steel vehicles in E R Calthrop, who promoted pressed steel rolling stock for his system of
narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...
railways, and used them on the
Barsi Light Railway Barsi Light Railway (BLR) was a long, narrow-gauge railway between Miraj and Latur in the state of Maharashtra in India. It was designed by British engineer Everard Calthrop, and regarded as having revolutionised narrow-gauge railway con ...
. The United States showed much more interested in pressed steel cars so in 1889 the Fox Solid Pressed Steel company was established in
Joliet, Illinois Joliet ( ) is a city in Will County, Illinois, Will and Kendall County, Illinois, Kendall counties in the U.S. state of Illinois, located southwest of Chicago. It is the county seat of Will County, Illinois, Will County. It had a population of ...
, south-west of Chicago. Clem Hackney, who had previously worked for the
Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad is a Railroad classes, Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United Stat ...
, was made general manager. By 1893 the works employed 400 men producing 80 tramcars and freight cars per day. A larger plant was built in Pittsburgh in 1896. In 1899 Fox sold his American operation to rival Charles T. Schoen, who went on to form the
Pressed Steel Car Company The Pressed Steel Car Company was a builder of railroad cars and equipment based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that was founded in 1899, and had facilities in Pittsburgh and Chicago. It operated until 1956. Before World War II The Pressed Stee ...
. The company stayed in business until it was purchased in 1923 by
Cammell Laird Cammell Laird is a British shipbuilding company. It was formed from the merger of Laird Brothers of Birkenhead and Johnson Cammell & Co of Sheffield at the turn of the twentieth century. The company also built railway rolling stock until 1929, ...
, which closed the Armley works in 1929. Leeds Forge successfully sued R.H.Clayton & Sons Ltd over patent infringement for an improved boiler flue. In 1924 the Leeds Forge Company built 50 electric carriages for the
New South Wales Government Railways New South Wales Government Railways (NSWGR) was an agency of the Government of New South Wales that administered rail transport in the colony, and then the state, of New South Wales, Australia, between 1855 and 1932. History The NSWGR built ...
, Australia. The bodies were shipped to Sydney in knocked-down form and assembled at
Eveleigh Railway Workshops The Eveleigh Railway Workshops (also known as is a heritage-listed former railway workshop and yard for the New South Wales Government Railways, located in Redfern in Sydney's Inner West. It was designed by George Cowdery and built from 18 ...
and
Clyde Engineering Clyde Engineering was an Australian manufacturer of locomotives, rolling stock, and other industrial products. It was founded in September 1898 by a syndicate of Sydney businessmen buying the Granville factory of timber merchants Huds ...
. They were the first all-steel carriages in Australia. In 1922 they supplied new all steel sleeping cars for the blue trains operating from Calais to French Riviera.''The Times'' 14 December 1922


Railway Locomotives

In 1928 Leeds Forge manufactured three
Bo-Bo B-B and Bo-Bo are the AAR wheel arrangement, Association of American Railroads (AAR) and British classifications of wheel arrangement for railway locomotives with four axles in two individual bogies. They are equivalent to the B′B′ and Bo′B ...
electric
hopper car A hopper car () or hopper wagon () is a type of railroad freight car that has opening doors or gates on the underside or on the sides to discharge its cargo. They are used to transport loose solid bulk commodities such as coal, ore, grain, a ...
s on behalf of
English Electric The English Electric Company Limited (EE) was a British industrial manufacturer formed after World War I by amalgamating five businesses which, during the war, made munitions, armaments and aeroplanes. It initially specialised in industrial el ...
. They were supplied to British Portland Cement,
Greenhithe Greenhithe may refer to: *Greenhithe, Kent Greenhithe is a village in the Borough of Dartford in Kent, England, and the civil parish of Swanscombe and Greenhithe. It is located east of Dartford and west of Gravesend. Area In the past, Gree ...
, Kent.


See also

*
List of rolling stock manufacturers Throughout railroad history, many manufacturing companies have come and gone. This is a list of companies that manufactured railroad cars and other rolling stock. Most of these companies built both passenger and freight equipment and no distinct ...
* Internally rifled boiler tubes


References


External links

{{Commons category, Leeds Forge Company
Pressed Steel Car CoThe Engineer 1887 06 10
Boilers Defunct manufacturing companies of the United Kingdom Locomotive manufacturers of the United Kingdom Manufacturing companies based in Leeds Defunct companies based in Leeds Manufacturing companies established in 1874 Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1929 1874 establishments in England 1929 disestablishments in England British companies established in 1874 British companies disestablished in 1929