Robert Stephenson and Company
The company was set up in 1823 in Forth Street, Newcastle upon Tyne in England by George Stephenson, his son Robert, with Edward Pease and Thomas Richardson.
[2] The company's first engine was Locomotion No 1, which opened the Stockton and Darlington Railway, followed by three more: Hope, Black Diamond, and Diligence.
Their vertical cylinders meant these locomotives rocked excessively and at the Hetton colliery railway Stephenson had introduced "steam springs" which had proved unsatisfactory.
In 1830 came the Planet class with the cylinders inside the frames, followed by the Patentee, which added a pair of trailing wheels for greater stability with a larger boiler.
It survives and is now in the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., and is claimed to be the oldest still functional self-propelled vehicle.
[citation needed] The increased distance travelled by many trains highlighted corrosion problems on fireboxes and chimneys.
With the co-operation of the North Midland Railway at their Derby works, Robert Stephenson measured the temperature of the exhaust gases, and decided to lengthen the boilers on future engines.
At Kafr el-Zayyat the line between Cairo and Alexandria originally crossed the Nile with an 80 ft (24 m) car float.
[6] However, on 15 May 1858 a special train conveying Sa'id's heir presumptive Ahmad Rifaat Pasha fell off the float into the river drowned.
[7][8][9] In the 1880s, the company purchased the Hebburn shipbuilding yard of Messrs. M'Intyre & Co. (Limited), which had closed after building four ships.
[10] Over the remainder of the century, the company prospered in the face of increasing competition, supplying railways at home and abroad.
However, between 1917 and 1920, a large batch of ROD 2-8-0 and SNCV type 18 0-6-0 tram locomotives were ordered by the War Office for use on the continent.
In 1936 and 1937, only forty six were built, including eleven B17 class ("Sandringham") 4-6-0s for the LNER, and seven 2-6-4 passenger tank locomotives for the South Indian Railway Company.
During World War II, the plant was fully occupied building 0-4-0 and 0-6-0 saddle tanks for industrial use, although they did manufacture four PC class 4-6-2s for the Iraqi State Railways in 1940 (one of which was lost at sea en route).
In 1944, the Vulcan Foundry, which had been formed by Robert Stephenson and Charles Tayleur in 1830, acquired a substantial stock holding, and they became part of the English Electric Company.
[14] As part of their commitment to the area's heritage, they hosted a once monthly opening of the South Street buildings housing a music, food and drink festival branded as the Boiler Shop Steamer.
[16] A website for Stephenson Quarter maintained by Clouston Group indicates the first phase of the project was completed in 2018, while the "remainder of the site awaits development".
