Manning Wardle

The city of Leeds was one of the earliest centres of locomotive building; Matthew Murray built the first commercially successful steam locomotive, Salamanca, in Holbeck, Leeds, in 1812. By 1856, a number of manufacturers had sprung up in the city, including Kitson and Company, the Railway Foundry, and E. B. Wilson and Company.

Ayresome No 12 by Manning Wardle & Co. Ltd

E.B.Wilson and Company operated in Leeds from 1838 to 1858. The company's designs were purchased by Manning Wardle & Company, who located their Boyne Engine Works (established in 1840) in Jack Lane in the Hunslet district of the city. Within the next few years, two other companies, the Hunslet Engine Company and Hudswell, Clarke & Company also opened premises in Jack Lane. There was a good deal of staff movement between the three firms, leading to similar designs leaving all three works. Whilst Hudswell Clarke and Hunslet Engine Company built a wide variety of locomotive types, Manning Wardle concentrated on specialised locomotives for contractor's use, building up a range of locomotives suitable for all types of contracting work.

Many Manning Wardle locomotives – of standard gauge and various narrow gauges – were exported to Europe, Africa, the Middle East (e.g. the Palestine Railways Class M), the Indian sub-continent, Australasia (e.g. NZR Wh class) and South America.

During the First World War, Manning Wardle produced a petrol engined standard gauge shunter for the War Office. This had a 180HP Thornycroft 6-cylinder marine type reversing engine, and had coupled 0-4-0 layout, weighing 27 tons.[2] Ten of these were ordered initially, with armour-plated superstructures for heavy hauage of rail-mounted guns. The first was delivered to the Longmoor Military Railway in October 1915, the last to France in May 1916. They proved 'wholly' unsuccessful and were soon relegated to shunting work.[3]

The company employed traditional construction throughout its existence, and failed to take advantage of the more efficient mass production techniques becoming available. As a result, Manning Wardle became more uncompetitive. The company ceased trading in 1927, after producing more than 2,000 steam locomotives.

The last complete locomotive was No. 2047, a standard gauge 0-6-0ST delivered to Rugby Cement Works in August 1926. This locomotive was preserved at the Severn Valley Railway and last steamed in 1977 when the boiler was condemned. After some years on static display at Kidderminster Railway Museum, restoration began in 2010 and as of 2021 is in progress at Bewdley. The design for a new boiler has been approved.[4]

Following closure in 1926, the company's drawings, designs, equipment and customers were acquired by Kitsons who made twenty three locos of Manning Wardle designs until they also closed in 1938. The patterns were passed to Robert Stephenson and Hawthorne who built a further five locos of Manning Wardle design. Today the Manning Wardle designs are owned by the Hunslet-Barclay, who are still a provider of services to the rail industry, based in Kilmarnock, Scotland. The intellectual property rights for historic locomotive designs are held by the Hunslet Engine Company.

The trademark name Manning Wardle is owned by a company formed in 1999 to preserve the name for the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway, which from 1898 to 1935 operated what have become some of the company's most famous products, narrow gauge 2-6-2T engines: Exe, Taw, Yeo and later Lew.

Many locomotives of the company have been preserved, as listed below

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Manning, Wardle and Company.

• Hunslet-Barclay
• Hunslet Engine Co
• Mystery of Lew
• An 1863 locomotive for New Zealand
• Restored locomotive 1795 of 1912