Ashbury Carriage and Iron Company
Later known as The Ashbury Railway Carriage and Iron Company Ltd.
The Ashbury Works at Manchester were founded by John Ashbury in 1837 at Knott Mill in Manchester, England, near the original terminus of the Sheffield, Ashton-Under-Lyne and Manchester Railway. It moved to Openshaw in 1847[1] and became a limited company in 1862 as The Ashbury Railway Carriage and Iron Company Ltd. The company were builders of rolling stock at Openshaw, Manchester, and iron manufacturers at Ardwick, Manchester. The works were extremely well known and were fully employed until 1902[2] when the business was merged with Brown Marshalls, Oldbury, Lancaster and Metropolitan Railway Carriage and Wagon Co. to create the Metropolitan Amalgamated Railway Carriage and Wagon Company Ltd. The Openshaw factory was later closed and the work transferred to Saltley in Birmingham. [3]
After later mergers Metropolitan Amalgamated became the Metropolitan-Cammell Carriage and Wagon Co Ltd, then Metro-Cammell, GEC-Alsthom and finally Alstom Transport Ltd.
Examples of Ashbury rolling stock survive to this day on preserved railways all over the world.
The company name, however, was recently revived by a group within the Gelerts Farm community, in order to recreate some of the carriages that it built. More recently this has been incorporated into a larger group, the Welsh Highland Railway Heritage Train Project. So far, under either banner, over £20,000 has been raised towards the rebuilding of Ashbury carriage 25. See WHR Ltd
References[edit]
- ^ https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/John_Ashbury
- ^ Beddoes, Wheeler & Wheeler: Metro-Cammell - 150 Years of Craftsmanship, Runpast Publishing 1999
- ^ http://metcam.co.uk.nstempintl.com/ashbury.htm C G Wallace, Metro Cammell Company History June 1945
See also[edit]
- the WHR Train Project page.
- Main WHHR site