Derby Litchurch Lane Works
Derby works originally commenced production of rolling stock on behalf of its owner, the Midland Railway, during the mid 1840s as the direction of Matthew Kirtley, the company's first Locomotive and Carriage Superintendent.
After the closure of Alstom's Washwood Heath plant in 2005, Derby works became the only passenger rolling stock manufacturer in the UK.
When the three merged in 1844 to form the Midland Railway its first Locomotive and Carriage Superintendent Matthew Kirtley set out to organise their activities and persuaded the directors to build their own rolling stock, rather than buying it in (see Derby Works).
This was completed by his successor Samuel Waite Johnson, under the control of Thomas Gethin Clayton[3] The Derby Carriage and Wagon works were built in 1876.
[citation needed] Production had begun in 1873, at the original loco works, of carriages from kits supplied by the Pullman Company of Detroit in United States.
These were followed by Clayton's own design of 54-foot-long (16 m) coaches, which incorporated both first- and third-class accommodation, and ran on four- or six-wheeled bogies.
[citation needed] Ten- and twelve-ton wagons were produced in quantity, starting with a set of components in the morning, each would be assembled for painting by the end of the day.
Reid and E.J.H.Lemon studied American mass production methods and introduced them around 1919, raising output to 200 wagons and ten coaches per week.
[7] The sawmill was recognised as the most modern and largest in Europe, with over 2,000 miles (3,200 km) of timber being seasoned, of nearly 60 different varieties, from pine to lignum vitae.
[citation needed] Around 1929, the compartment doors, however, were replaced by two fixed lights, and later with single large windows while all-wood construction gave way to steel panels.
With the loco works, wings and fuselages were repaired and sent to a private contractor at Nottingham for assembly, initially of Hampden bombers but later of other aircraft including Lancasters.
[9] Although towards the end of the 1930s, a complete 'Coronation Scot' train was built for an exhibition tour in America and a streamlined all-welded three coach railcar, most of the all-steel carriages were made by outside manufacturers.
[4][21] In 2004, the plant was retained as part of Bombardier's manufacturing capacity in Europe after restructuring by the company led to closure of seven of its European facilities.
[1][2] Around this time, there was a nationwide drought in rolling stock orders, raising questions for the future of British train manufacturing.
[31] After Siemens was named preferred bidder in June 2011 to construct the new rolling stock for Thameslink services through London,[32] Bombardier announced it was to cut 1,400 out of the 3,000 jobs at Derby.
[37][38] In November 2019, Bombardier announced the creation of 400 new jobs at the plant for the production of hundreds of Aventra vehicles for Greater Anglia, South Western Railway and West Midlands Trains.
[39] In January 2021, Alstom acquired Bombardier Transportation in exchange for €5.1 billion; accordingly, it took over operations of the Derby site and its rolling stock designs, such as the Aventra and Electrostar.
[40][41] In December 2021, Alstom, in joint venture with Hitachi, successfully gained a landmark contract to build the High Speed Two Phase One rolling stock, capable of 225 mph (362 km/h).
