Metro-Cammell, formally the Metropolitan Cammell Carriage and Wagon Company (MCCW), was an English manufacturer of railway carriages,

locomotive A locomotive is a rail transport, rail vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. Traditionally, locomotives pulled trains from the front. However, Push–pull train, push–pull operation has become common, and in the pursuit for ...

s and railway wagons, based in

Saltley Saltley is an inner-city area of Birmingham, England, east of the city centre. The area is part of the Washwood Heath ward, and was previously part of the Nechells ward. It is part of the Ladywood constituency in the city. History Saltley was ...

, and subsequently

Washwood Heath Washwood Heath is a ward in Birmingham, within the formal district of Hodge Hill, roughly two miles north-east of Birmingham city centre, England. Washwood Heath covers the areas of Birmingham that lie between Nechells, Bordesley Green, Stec ...

, in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

. The company was purchased by

GEC Alsthom GEC or Gec may refer to: Education * Gedo Education Committee, in Somalia * Glen Eira College, in Caulfield East, Victoria, Australia * Goa Engineering College, India * Government Engineering College (disambiguation) * Guild for Exceptiona ...

in May 1989; the Washwood Heath factory closed in 2005 and was demolished in early 2019. The company designed and built rolling stock for the railways in the United Kingdom and overseas, including the Mass Transit Railway of Hong Kong,

Kowloon–Canton Railway The Kowloon–Canton Railway (KCR; ) was a railway network in Hong Kong.Legislative Council information paper CB(1)357/07-08(0 THB(T) CR 8/986/00, CB(1)1749/07-08(0/ref> It was owned and operated by the Kowloon–Canton Railway Corporation (KC ...

(now

East Rail line The East Rail line () is one of the ten lines that form MTR, the rapid transit, mass transit system in Hong Kong. The railway line starts at Lo Wu station, Lo Wu or Lok Ma Chau station, Lok Ma Chau, both of which are Border checkpoint, b ...

), the

Channel Tunnel The Channel Tunnel (), sometimes referred to by the Portmanteau, portmanteau Chunnel, is a undersea railway tunnel, opened in 1994, that connects Folkestone (Kent, England) with Coquelles (Pas-de-Calais, France) beneath the English Channel at ...

, and the

Tyne and Wear Metro The Tyne and Wear Metro is an overground and underground light rail rapid transit system serving Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, and the City of Sunderland (together forming Tyne and Wear). The owners Nexus have ...

, and locomotives for Malaysia's

Keretapi Tanah Melayu Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB) (; Jawi: ) or colloquially referred to simply as KTM, is the main rail operator in Peninsular Malaysia. The railway system dates back to the British colonial era, when it was first built to transport tin. ...

. Diesel and electric locomotives were manufactured for

South African Railways Transnet Freight Rail is a Rail transport in South Africa, South African rail transport company, formerly known as Spoornet. It was part of the South African Railways and Harbours Administration, a state-controlled organisation that employed h ...

, Nyasaland Railways, Malawi, Nigeria, Trans-Zambezi Railway and Pakistan. DMUs were supplied to Jamaica Railway Corporation and the National Railways of Mexico. The vast majority of

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or as the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent home counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The Undergro ...

rolling stock manufactured in the mid-20th century was produced by the company, which also designed and built the Blue Pullman for

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commis ...

History

Metropolitan Railway Carriage and Wagon Company

The company was formed in 1863 as the Metropolitan Railway Carriage and Wagon Company , successors to Messrs. Joseph Wright and Sons. Joseph Wright built coaches for the

London and Southampton Railway London is the capital and largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Western Europe, with a population of 14.9 million. London stands on the River Tha ...

in 1837 and the

London and Birmingham Railway The London and Birmingham Railway (L&BR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom, in operation from 1833 to 1846, when it became part of the London and North Western Railway (L&NWR). The railway line which the company opened in 1838, betw ...

in 1838. In 1845, he moved the carriage works from London to Birmingham, where he purchased of meadowland in Saltley, adjacent to the

Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway The Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway (B&DJR) was a Great Britain, British railway company. From Birmingham it connected at Derby with the North Midland Railway and the Midland Counties Railway at what became known as the Derby Midland Sta ...

line. In 1854, the company built the first 12 carriages for the Sydney to Parramatta line, New South Wales, the first public railway in Australia, which opened in 1855. Several of those are now in the

Powerhouse Museum The Powerhouse Museum, formerly known as the Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences (MAAS), is a collection of 4 museums in Sydney, owned by the Government of New South Wales. Powerhouse is a contemporary museum of applied arts and sciences, explori ...

in Sydney.

Metropolitan Amalgamated Railway Carriage and Wagon Company

In 1902, it merged with four other carriage and wagon builders: Ashbury Railway Carriage and Iron Company Ltd., Brown, Marshalls and Company Ltd., Lancaster Railway Carriage and Wagon Company Ltd., and Oldbury Railway Carriage and Wagon Company Ltd., and became the Metropolitan Amalgamated Railway Carriage and Wagon Company . Water carrier for Mesopotamia

Metropolitan was contracted as a builder of the new tanks for the British Army during the First World War. It built all 400 of the

Mark V tank The British Mark V tank was an upgraded version of the Mark IV tank. The tank was improved in several aspects over the Mark IV, chiefly the new steering system, transmission and 150 bhp engine, but it fell short in other areas, particular ...

and 700 improved Mark V* tanks. These were the most developed heavy tank designs to see service in the war. In 1917, Metropolitan Railway Carriage and Wagon Company and

Vickers Limited Vickers Limited was a British engineering conglomerate. The business began in Sheffield in 1828 as a steel foundry and became known for its church bells, going on to make shafts and propellers for ships, armour plate and then artillery. Entir ...

took joint control of

British Westinghouse British Westinghouse Electrical and Manufacturing Company was a subsidiary of the Pittsburgh, US-based Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company. British Westinghouse would become a subsidiary of Metropolitan-Vickers in 1919; and after Metr ...

. In 1919, Vickers bought out the Metropolitan shares and renamed the company

Metropolitan-Vickers Metropolitan-Vickers, Metrovick, or Metrovicks, was a British heavy electrical engineering company of the early-to-mid 20th century formerly known as British Westinghouse. Highly diversified, it was particularly well known for its industrial el ...

. By 1926, the company had changed its name again to Metropolitan Carriage, Wagon and Finance Company. In 1929, the railway rolling stock business of Cammell Laird and Company was merged as Metropolitan-Cammell Carriage and Wagon Company , the resulting company being part owned by Vickers and the Cammell Laird group. MCCW also built bus bodies. In 1932,

Metro Cammell Weymann Metro Cammell Weymann Ltd. (MCW) was a British bus manufacturer and bus body builder based at Washwood Heath in Birmingham, England. MCW was established in 1932 by Metro-Cammell's bus bodybuilding division and Weymann Motor Bodies to prod ...

was formed by the MCCW's bus bodybuilding business and Weymann Motor Bodies. In 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 ...

, Metro again built tanks, including the

Valentine tank The Tank, Infantry, Mk III, Valentine was an infantry tank produced in the United Kingdom during World War II. More than 8,000 Valentines were produced in eleven marks, plus specialised variants, accounting for about a quarter of wartime Britis ...

and Light Tank Mk VIII. The Saltley works was closed in 1962 and group administration concentrated at Washwood Heath in 1967.

Closure by Alstom

In May 1989, the railway business was sold to

(now

Alstom Alstom SA () is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer which operates worldwide in rail transport markets. It is active in the fields of passenger transportation, signaling, and locomotives, producing high-speed, suburban, regional ...

). The last trains to be built at the

plant before its closure in 2005 were the Class 390 ''Pendolino''

tilting train A tilting train is a train that has a mechanism enabling increased speed on regular rail tracks. As a train (or other vehicle) rounds a curve at speed, objects inside the train experience centrifugal force. This can cause packages to slide about ...

s for the

West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...

modernisation.

Products

Heavy rail

* Southern Railway "Brighton Belle" EMU * Southern Railway "Crystal Palace" EMU * Southern Railway "Coulsdon North & Sutton stock" EMU * LNER Tyneside electric units * LNER Shenfield line electric units (driving motors and intermediate trailers only) * LNER Glossop line electric units (driving motors and intermediate trailers only) * The Blue Pullman * Metro-Cammell Lightweight "Heritage" diesel multiple unit *

British Rail Class 101 The British Rail Classes 101 and 102 diesel-mechanical multiple units were built by Metro-Cammell at Washwood Heath in Birmingham, England, from 1956 to 1959, following construction of a series of prototype units. These classes proved to be ...

"Heritage" diesel multiple unit *

British Rail Class 111 The Class 111 DMUs were based on Class 101/2s, but with different engines. The only external body difference was on the final batch of cars where a four character headcode box was fitted above the front cab windows, with the destination indi ...

"Heritage" diesel multiple unit *

British Rail Class 151 The British Rail Class 151 was a prototype class of diesel multiple unit (DMU) developed and constructed by the British railway equipment manufacturer Metro Cammell. It was designed primarily to serve as a successor to the earlier first-gener ...

diesel multiple unit *

British Rail Class 156 The British Rail Class 156 ''Super Sprinter'' is a diesel multiple unit#diesel–hydraulic, diesel-hydraulic multiple unit passenger train. A total of 114 sets were built between 1987 and 1989 for British Rail by Metro-Cammell's Washwood Heath ...

"Super Sprinter" diesel multiple unit *

British Rail Class 373 The British Rail Class 373, known in France as the TGV TMST and branded by Eurostar as the Eurostar e300, is a French designed and Anglo-French built electric multiple unit train that is used for Eurostar international high-speed rail services f ...

"TGV" electric multiple unit *

British Rail Class 465 The British Rail Class 465 ''Networker (train), Networker'' are electric multiple unit passenger trains that were built by Metro-Cammell, British Rail Engineering Limited (BREL) and ABB, ABB Rail between 1991 and 1994. Originally operated by Ne ...

/2/9 "Networker" electric multiple unit *

British Rail Class 466 The British Rail Class 466 ''Networker (train), Networker'' are electric multiple unit passenger trains that were built by Metro-Cammell between 1993 and 1994. The units are currently operated by Southeastern (train operating company), Southeast ...

"Networker" electric multiple unit *

British Rail Class 483 The British Rail Class 483 electric multiple units were originally built as London Underground 1938 Stock, 1938 tube stock units for London Underground. They were extensively refurbished between 1989 and 1992 by Eastleigh Works, for use on servi ...

electric multiple unit (Originally constructed as

London Underground 1938 Stock The London Underground 1938 Stock is a London Underground tube stock design. A total of 1,121 cars were built by Metro-Cammell and Birmingham RC&W. An additional 173 cars were added to the fleet by the end of 1953, comprising 91 new bui ...

) *

British Rail Class 503 British Rail Class 503 passenger trains were electric multiple units. They were introduced in two batches: the first were in 1938, by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS), with a further batch (built to a similar design) in 1956 by ...

electric multiple unit *

British Rail Mark 4 The British Rail Mark 4 is a class of Passenger car (rail), passenger carriages built for use in InterCity 225 sets on the East Coast Main Line between London King's Cross railway station, King's Cross, Leeds railway station, Leeds and Edinburg ...

coaching stock *

Arlanda Express Arlanda Express is an airport rail link connecting Stockholm Central Station with the Stockholm Arlanda Airport, located outside Stockholm, Sweden. Operated by A-Train AB, the trip takes 18 minutes and runs three to six times per hour using seve ...

( X3) electric multiple unit *

Via Rail Via Rail Canada Inc. (), operating as Via Rail or Via (stylized as VIA Rail), is a Canadian Crown corporation that operates intercity passenger rail service in Canada. As of December 2023, Via Rail operates 406 trains per week across eight ...

Renaissance Fleet *

MTR Metro Cammell EMU (AC) The East Rail line Metro Cammell EMU (also known as Mid-Life Refurbishment Train, ; or MLR Train) were a model of electric multiple unit built in 1980–1990 by Metro-Cammell for the original Kowloon–Canton Railway (now the East Rail line) ...

(

, Hong Kong – formerly operated by

, leased to MTR post-merger)

Rapid transit

London Underground

London Underground Standard Stock The Standard Stock title was applied to a variety of Tube stock built between 1923 and 1934, all of which shared the same basic characteristics, but with some detailed differences. This design is sometimes referred to as 1923 Tube Stock, 1923 S ...

(Bakerloo, Central, Piccadilly, Northern lines) * London Underground 1935 Stock (Central line) *

(Northern, Bakerloo, Piccadilly, East London and Central lines) * London Underground R49 & R59 Stock (District line) * London Underground 1959 Stock (Piccadilly line, then Bakerloo and Northern line) * London Underground 1962 Stock (Central line) * London Underground 1967 Stock (Victoria line) * London Underground C69 and C77 Stock (Circle, District and Hammersmith & City Lines) *

London Underground 1972 Stock The London Underground 1972 Stock is a type of rolling stock used on the London Underground. The 1972 Stock was originally ordered to make up the shortfall in trains on the Northern line's 1959 Tube Stock fleet, but are now used on the Bakerlo ...

(Bakerloo line) *

London Underground 1973 Stock The London Underground 1973 Stock is a type of rolling stock used on the Piccadilly line of the London Underground. It was introduced into service in 1975 with the extension of the line to Hatton Cross, followed by a further extension to Heath ...

(Piccadilly line) *

London Underground D78 Stock The London Underground D78 Stock, commonly referred to as D Stock, was a type of sub-surface rolling stock which operated on the District line of the London Underground, except on the Wimbledon station, Wimbledon to Edgware Road tube station (C ...

(District line) *

London Underground 1983 Stock The London Underground 1983 Stock was a class of electric multiple unit built by Metro-Cammell for use on London Underground's Jubilee line. The 1983 Stock was the last train to be designed in-house by London Underground; it was the last conve ...

(Jubilee line) *

London Underground 1986 Stock The London Underground 1986 Tube Stock consisted of three prototype electric multiple units built for the London Underground in 1986/87 that led to the development of the 1992 Stock. History In 1984, London Transport ordered three different ...

(Central line) * London Underground 1995 Stock (Northern line) *

London Underground 1996 Stock The London Underground 1996 Stock is a type of rolling stock used on the Jubilee line of the London Underground. The trains were built by GEC Alstom- Metro-Cammell and entered service in 1997. They are externally similar to the 1995 Stock use ...

(Jubilee line) *

London Underground battery-electric locomotives London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

Other systems

* Second generation Glasgow Subway rolling stock ( Glasgow Subway, Scotland) *

Tyne and Wear Metrocar The Tyne and Wear Metrocars are a fleet of light rail vehicles manufactured by Metro-Cammell for the Tyne and Wear Metro in North East England between 1978 and 1981. For operation on Network Rail controlled tracks between Pelaw Junction and S ...

s (

, England) *

MTR Metro Cammell EMU (DC) The Metro-Cammell EMU (also known as M-Train or Modernisation Train, ) is the oldest type of electric multiple unit that operates on the MTR rapid transit railway system in Hong Kong. A total of 768 cars were built by Metro-Cammell in England ...

(

Kwun Tong line The Kwun Tong line () is a rapid transit line of the MTR network in Hong Kong. Starting at Whampoa station, Whampoa in Hung Hom and ending at Tiu Keng Leng station, Tiu Keng Leng in Tseung Kwan O, Sai Kung Town, Sai Kung, the route has 1 ...

Tsuen Wan line The Tsuen Wan line () is one of the ten lines of the rapid transit, metro network in Hong Kong's MTR. It is indicated in on the MTR map. There are 16 stations on the line. The southern terminus is Central station (MTR), Central statio ...

, Island line,

Tseung Kwan O line The Tseung Kwan O line () is one of the ten lines of the MTR system in Hong Kong. It is currently long, taking 15 minutes to travel throughout the entire line. It is indicated in on the MTR map. The line runs from North Point on the ...

Disneyland Resort line The Disneyland Resort line () is a rapid transit line connecting Sunny Bay to the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, coloured pink on the network diagram. It is the seventh line of the former MTR network before the MTR–KCR merger, merger o ...

, Hong Kong – operated by

MTR The Mass Transit Railway system, known locally by the initialism MTR, is a rapid transit system in Hong Kong and the territory's principal mode of Rail transport in Hong Kong, railway transportation. Operated by the MTR Corporation (MTRCL), ...

) * Birmingham Maglev ( Birmingham International Airport – 3 carriages built, in service from 1984–1995)

References

Bibliography

* * * * {{Cite book , title=The 'R' Stock Story , last=Connor , first=Piers , year=1983 , publisher=London Underground Railway Society , location=Hemel Hempstead , isbn=0-9508793-0-4

External links

MCW archives at the Historical Model Railway Society, at Butterley in Derbyshire

Metro-Cammell website
Locomotive manufacturers of the United Kingdom Defunct manufacturing companies of England Former defence companies of the United Kingdom Defunct bus manufacturers of the United Kingdom Rolling stock manufacturers of the United Kingdom 1925 establishments in England 2005 disestablishments in England Manufacturing companies based in Birmingham, West Midlands Defunct companies based in Birmingham, West Midlands United Kingdom in World War I History of the tank United Kingdom in World War II British companies disestablished in 2005 British companies established in 1925 1989 mergers and acquisitions