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British Rail Workshops |
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RAILWAY BRITAIN |
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Contemporarily with the Beeching Report in 1962 came a plan by the BRB Deputy Chairman to reorganise BR workshops and a new organisation was formed - British Railway Workshops. The Transport Act of 1968 allowed the railway to seek outside contracts and in 1970 the Workshops Division was renamed British Rail Engineering Limited (BREL). By this time its workshops had been reduced to 14, with assets of approximately £60 million and an annual turnover of approximately £100 million. From nationalisation, design responsibility had passed from the various constituent railways to the Central Executive. In 1962 this became the British Rail Board. Its technical staff were under the control of the Chief Mechanical and Electrical Engineer, later renamed Director of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering. They, along with the headquarters staff of BREL, moved into purpose built accommodation at the Railway Technical Centre in Derby. At the same time, the new British Rail Research Division was formed as a separate entity, reporting directly to the BR Board. By 1982 twelve workshops remained, and then the communities around Temple Mills, Shildon, Swindon and Horwich heard the news that their livelihoods were also to be lost, with only Horwich Foundry to remain as a symbol of former skills. In January 1986 the BRB outlined its plans to split BREL into two groups - the Maintenance Group, which was to remain with BR, formed from the workshops at Glasgow, Wolverton, Doncaster and Eastleigh, and the New Build and Repair Group based on the workshops at Crewe, Derby, York and Horwich Foundry. The first move towards privatisation came on 16th October 1987, when Doncaster Wagon Works was sold to a management buyout team - RFS Industries. RFS Industries went into receivership in 1993. It continued to trade and eventually a large portion of the business was sold to Bombardier ProRail, but the work and much of the equipment moved to the company's site at Horbury in West Yorkshire. The residual business and assets of RFS Industries in Doncaster were acquired by a management buyout as RFS(E) Ltd. In 1998 this was sold to WABCO (Westinghouse Air Brake Company), now known as Wabtec Corporation. As a result RFS(E) Ltd now trades as Wabtec Rail Ltd. The rest of Doncaster Works was retained by British Rail Maintenance Ltd. Horwich Foundry, which had been established earlier as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the BRB, was sold on 15th August 1988 to Parkfield Group plc. They demolished the site and it is now an industrial park. This left just Glasgow, Wolverton and Eastleigh Works as maintenance works and Crewe, Derby and York as full new build and repair heavy engineering works. On 1st April 1988 a holding company, BREL (1988) Ltd, was formed, composed of the works at Crewe, Derby and York. In 1988 it was split into British Rail Maintenance Ltd (BRML), whose ownership was retained by British Rail, and British Rail Engineering (1988) Ltd which was prepared for privatisation. Wabtec Rail Ltd - Doncaster Works www.wabtecrail.co.uk Parkfield Group plc www.parkfieldgroup.com British Rail Engineering (1988) Ltd: BREL was sold on 18th April 1989 to a consortium comprising the management and employees of BREL (1988) Ltd who had 20 per cent of the shares, with Trafalgar House and a Swedish/Swiss company, Asea Brown Boveri, as the dominant partners having 40 per cent each. With a healthy order book, net assets of £72.5 million and potential land assets estimated at between £50-£100 million, BREL was sold for £13.6 million. In March 1992, after having made a loss of £41 million in the previous financial year, Asea Brown Boveri acquired the 40 per cent of shares owned by Trafalgar House, to become ABB Transportation Ltd. Just before privatisation BREL had employed approximately 8,500 staff. With less than 5,000 remaining with ABB Rail Vehicles Ltd and ABB Customer Support Ltd, the prospect of a merger between ABB and Daimler Benz came on 16th March 1995. Approval was given by the European Commission on 18th October, offering the prospect of a marketing and engineering base within 40 countries. Unfortunately, with privatisation of the railways in the offing, the Government failed to place orders for the new rolling stock that was required and on 11th May the company announced that its York works, which had employed over 10,000 people in the 1950s, would close at the end of the year with the loss of 750 jobs. Now called Adtranz the long, slow destruction of British train-building continued and jobs were lost during 1995 and 1996 at Crewe, Derby and Doncaster. In 1999 Daimler Chyrsler bought ABB's shares and renamed it Adtranz DaimlerChrysler Rail Systems. Bombardier Transportation acquired the company in 2001, making Bombardier the largest rail equipment manufacturer in the world. At the time of its purchase, Adtranz was the world's second largest manufacturer of such equipment. Today Crewe and Derby are their sole remaining works sites. Bombardier Transportation www.bombardier.com British Rail Maintenance Ltd: Meanwhile British Rail Maintenance Ltd was retained in British Rail ownership until 1996 when it too was privatised. In preparation for this the The British Railways Board undertook a review of options for the future of the British Rail Maintenance Ltd. and Level 5 Group which carries out maintenance of trains. This report recommended that the British Rail Maintenance Ltd. depots at Eastleigh, Doncaster, Wolverton and Glasgow, and the Level 5 Group depots at Chart Leacon and Ilford together with the electronic repair centres at Swindon and Eastleigh should be offered for sale and privatisation as soon as possible. British Rail Maintenance Ltd was then sold off individually as follows: Swindon Electronics Services Centre Ltd (Company sold to ABB Customer Support Services Ltd) Chart Leacon Rail Maintenance Ltd (Company sold to ABB Customer Support Services Ltd) Doncaster Rail Maintenance Ltd (Company sold to ABB Customer Support Services Ltd) Ilford Rail Maintenance Ltd (Company sold to ABB Customer Support Services Ltd) Glasgow Rail Maintenance Ltd (Company sold to Railcare, a joint venture of Babcock International Group plc and Siemens plc) Wolverton Rail Maintenance Ltd (Company sold to Railcare, a joint venture of Babcock International Group plc and Siemens plc) Eastleigh Rail Maintenance Ltd (Company sold to Wessex Traincare Ltd, management team buyout) In 1999 Daimler Chyrsler bought ABB's shares and renamed ABB Customer Support Services Ltd and ABB Rail Vehicles Ltd as Adtranz DaimlerChrysler Rail Systems. Bombardier Transportation acquired the company in 2001, making Bombardier the largest rail equipment manufacturer in the world. At the time of its purchase, Adtranz was the world's second largest manufacturer of such equipment. In 2004 Bombardier closed their Doncaster Works site. Later Railcare Ltd (Glasgow St Rollox and Wolverton Works) and Wessex Traincare Ltd (Eastleigh Works) were sold to Alstom to become Alstom Railcare and Alstom Traincare respectively. Sadly Alstom closed Eastleigh Works in 2006. Bombardier Transportation www.bombardier.com Alstom Transport www.alstom.com |