Stratford Works
The locomotives were maintained at a roundhouse called the Polygon which was built between July and September 1840 to a design by Robert Stephenson (a surviving example of which can be seen at Derby).
[2] It was not until 1850 that the Eastern Counties Railway under Gooch built a locomotive at the then newly opened Stratford Works.
Fog signals which contained gunpowder were manufactured at the works with a special reinforced building being provided c. 1855.
In the 1870s land was acquired to the north and west of Stratford station and new locomotive sheds were built.
[7] In 1891 the works set a new time record for building locomotives – a Class Y14 tender engine was built in 9 hours 47 minutes from the time the frames were stamped out to the completed and fully functional locomotive leaving the works.
[14] With a predicted up-turn in rail traffic likely, this request clearly resonated with the authorities and the Engine Repair Shed, situated on the far western side of Stratford TMD, was opened in 1915.
[15] One of the more unusual tasks the works undertook in the war was the construction of henhouses for the GER farm at Bentley, Suffolk.
As well as housing administrative and managerial staff there were draughtsmen working under the Chief Mechanical Engineer.
Whilst the principal gassing point was at Stratford suburban outposts such as Wood Street, Enfield and Alexandra Palace all had equipment to allow carriages to be supplied by gas.
The gas itself was moved in tank wagons from the plant at Stratford and then attached to distribution pipes at those locations.
The GER was keen to convert main line stock and during 1890/1891 the gas works was further extended with Parkeston Quay becoming the first location outside the suburban area to have gassing facilities.
Gas continued to light suburban and branch line carriages and be used in kitchen and restaurant cars until the 1950s with the plant closing in 1960.
[27] The locomotive superintendents of the Great Eastern Railway were:[5] The Works Manager between 1881 and 1898 was George Macallan (15 December 1837 -28 May 1913) who had first been employed by the Eastern Counties Railway in 1854 and with the exception of a six-year posting in Cambridge had worked in a succession of posts at Stratford.
He invented the Macallan blastpipe with an associate Charles Adams, which was patented in 1888 and fitted to around 700 GER locomotives.
[29] During World War II artillery parts and aircraft components were manufactured by the works.
[22] During the Second World War eight US Army Class S160 2-8-0s were accepted into service on the works (couplings fitted, motion attached, wheels reprofiled) during 1943.
The diesel repair shop finally closed on 31 March 1991 and the preserved L77 (LNER N7) 0-6-2T, the last locomotive built at Stratford, was on site during the final week of operation along with a Class 40 diesel (which worked on the Great Eastern Main line in the late 1950s and early 1960s).
In the 1970s, part of the site became the Stratford London International Freight Terminal with a number of large warehouses some of which were rail connected.
