Horwich Locomotive Works - The Last Stand
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- čas přidán 21. 02. 2020
- Horwich is a Town in the Northwest of England that was once a thriving railway town thanks to the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway company who built the Locomotive works in 1886 .
British Railways closed the works in 1983 and kept the foundry in operation for a few years with a reduced workforce .
In 2020 the erecting shop was opened for one last time before it will be demolished to make way for a new link road to the new Housing development .
This short video is of the last time we will see the former Erecting shop before its lost forever .
I worked there from 1969 to 1973 as an apprentice fabricator and welder, or plater - welder as we were known. Straight out of the training school, near the main gate, I was allocated to the Boiler shop. a year later I was, like all other platers, transfered to the Wagon Shop, which was originaly the Erecting Shop. It was an education for sure, with some great guys that had been there through the war years. I still remember seeing remnats of the L&Y on manhole covers and some of my spanners also had the L&Y cast into them.
Lot of memeories and so sad to see it silent like this.
Thanks for the comments , its sad to see the old works more or less gone now only the water tower and some offices remain and one shed which I think they are trying to make into a heritage hub eventually .
When we started walking around the old site during lockdown we found a couple of telephone insulators with L&Y on them which was nice to see .
I'm not sure where your from but Horwich Heritage have loads of information and photographs of the old works and loads of photographs of the apprentices maybe your on one of them .
They are definitely worth a visit if your local .
Thanks again and have a great weekend
David & Shell
@@walkinglosthistory I was living in Wigan at the time, but have noe spent the last 50 years in Cornwall. Be a bit of a yomp from here LOL, but if for any reason I find myself up that way I'll definately look in
It saddens me to see such sights. I visited Horwich Works on 20.09.1962 & have a photo. of a works shunter (ex LYR 0-6-0ST). I used. to visit the area ,my grand mother lived in Ainsworth, & I recall seeing the Horwich push-pull at Bolton station & the ex- works locos. running through.
Thanks for the comment its a sad place now , History wiped out ,it employed a lot of people ,I remember going to the last open day.
I have a few pictures my dad took .
I just hope they do what they say and put a heritage site in the old sheds that are left .
My uncle was on the Matilda tanks in 1940 - completed units were parked in alignment down Chorley New Road, past the Beehive pub and masked by trees.
The last steam loco built was a BR Standard 2-6-0 in 1955, sound engines but not as powerful as the 1926 Crab - 2-6-0 designed for heavy trains with frequent stops.
I had a cousin working there in the late 70s. The place was on its knees. He left to drive a truck.
Plenty of sound engineers trained there pre WW1. Oliver Bullied learned the craft of a decent boiler there and during WW2 produced the Merchant Navy class on the Southern Region.
Thanks for the comment ,its interesting to know about the tanks ,I saw some pics a while back of them lined up on old kin lane as well . I like the standards and smile when you see one built at Horwich 76079 always sounds good , The crabs are a nice loco hope the ELR can get there's back in steam soon .
There has been one or two famous engineers worked at Horwich and moved on .
It's sad it's gone forever now it gave employment to a lot of people just faint memories now of what it once was .
Thanks again 👍
and now we buy in from abroad to run on railways owned by other countries
Yes totally agree , short sighted ,we own nothing now it's a joke 👍
in the early seventies i spent some of my apprenticeship in Doncaster main works; a huge place employing thousands. Now all thats gone too.
@@walkinglosthistory Not short sighted but all planned, as per the events of today. See Klaus Schwab.
@@admiralcraddock464 went round Doncaster a few times on an open day with my dad ,then watched the deltics on the station 👍
@@maverick1243 thanks for watching, and I will check out Klaus Schwab and have a read.
Wonderful made video with amazing stills from the past, (for instance the woman on the locomotive ) and also beautiful recent photographs👌🏻
Thank you 😊 , glad you enjoyed the video and the photos
David & Michelle
Very good video to watch with nostalgia built in. Thank you.
Thanks for watching.
went round in1963 with 3 mates from school, brilliant day out.
Thanks for the comment ,I went with my Dad on the last open day they had ,it was a great place . Such a shame its all gone now
Remember that place well,passed it many a time 👍
It's sad to see it has all gone now , thanks for watching
David & Shell
I was here in the early 1950’s with an Ian Allen Railtour. Wren was working but not in the shiny pristine external condition you see at the NRM. Robin was derelict. As I recall at the time the Works was only carrying out heavy and light maintenance. There were some early DMUs there. We ignored those!
Hi Keith ,I went a couple of times with my dad ,when we visited they only seemed to be doing wagon repairs and electric units but the writing was on the wall for the place which is such a shame ,I hope they get the heritage centre up and running in the last surviving shed as it's been reported wren and the L&Y tank from the NRM will be on display ,we can but hope 😁
Thanks 😊
Thanks WLH, evocative and thought provoking. Well, what else did we expect from a Conservative Government?, skills, experience, Products for the world, all destroyed for ideology.
Exactly ,it's easy to wipe out history but not easy to replace the skills ,which is proven with the mess this country is in .
We were once a country that made everything but now we make nothing all outsourced from the UK and all those skills lost never to be replaced .
Greetings from.across the ocean in Milwaukee Wisconsin USA. Some nice preservations and a well assembled presentation. Sadly lost all traces of the Milwaukee Road shops 25+ years ago. where over 3000 people worked assembling cars and locomotives as well as maintaining them. Replaced by a generic office park I sure do.miss the shop whistle at shift change
Hi 👋 it's a shame that we are losing so much history now, they are supposed to be putting a heritage museum some were on the site , but it might not happen yet. Glad you enjoyed the video 🙂,
David & Michelle
Why do we in this country waste so many resources we once had, but I forgot you can buy anything from China. Brilliant video about Horwich Works.
Hi ,
Thanks for the comments ,I agree we are so quick to wipe away the past ,we were once the country that made anything now we are reliant on substandard goods from abroad . But that's so called progress .
Glad you liked the Horwich Works video .
David & Shell
Thank you
Thanks for watching,
David & Michelle
To quote the late great Fred Dibnah, all in the name of progress surly there could have been another way, me I’m from Wigan
I totally agree 100%,but it's all about greed 👍
I libe in the neighbourhood next to the woks last week they finally took it down
Hi, we had a walk past again today down the back streets and noticed the majority of the buildings are knocked down now .
David & Shell
My Dad' and his dad worked there .Great video..
Its sad that its all gone now , just hope they manage to save the last shed to use as a museum for Horwich Heritage .
@@walkinglosthistory yes,it is sad that its all been swept away .we seem to have lost to much . As you wrote, Here's hoping that they use the last shed as a museum. I was looking around it a couple of months ago ...
Great video keep up the great work can you please tell me the name of the music by purple planet
Hi 👋 thanks for watching, we are away this week but we will find out for you and let you know ,
David & Michelle
Thank you so much I really appreciate it as I said your videos are great and enjoy them very much many thanks
Best regards
Rob
what a waste
Yes totally agree ,another bit of local history gone .
So much of our industry was destroyed by idiot politicians, this is an example, instead of investment for the future leading to a world leader product, we close factories due No investment. Our country would have been so much better if we had invested.
Thanks for the comment,totally agree not much thought goes into ripping out industry , We import most of our stuff now how the tables have turned .
What a huge loss and waste purely to see industrial architecture removed. Could have been repurposed into wonder flats and shops. There isn't money to build with this quality of construction anymore.
I agree we don't have the quality that we once had , they are supposed to be saving one shed to make into a heritage museum and community centre lets hope it happens , not much left now to say Horwich was once a railway town to quick to wipe the past off the land its sad this happens hence why we try and film it before its all gone ,just wish id visited a lot earlier than we did .
@@walkinglosthistory they are erasing it on purpose so future generations don't get to see how great their towns and country's were.
Today they build to cost and quality no long matter.
@@jackcro8825 that’s true and why buildings such as these should’ve been repurposed
sad
Thanks for watching
David & Michelle
What a waste of a good building ain't we got enough houses and roads hate to see good railway buildings going to rubble hate it there should be a law against it.
Totally agree, another piece of history gone, thanks for watching
David & Michelle
Thanks for the video , I enjoy and equally don't enjoy watching these , if you know what I mean!
Hi , yeah we know what you mean, thanks for watching
David & Shell
@@walkinglosthistory I live near Swindon and only in the last few years have I realised how impressive the railway works were there. Now a shopping centre which does nothing for me. The steam museum is good though. At least some of the buildings survive to give you an idea of what it once was.
False modern man always wants to destroy the very best.
Totally agree it's too easy to destroy history and replace with houses 👍