Drewry Car Co.

The Drewry Car Co was a railway locomotive and railcar sales organisation for most of its life. Only at the start and the end of its life did it build its own products, relying on sub-contractors for the rest of its time. It was quite separate from the lorry-builder, Shelvoke and Drewry, but it is believed that James Sidney Drewry was involved with both companies.

History

Drewry railcar used in Argentine Comodoro Rivadavia Railway in the 1940s.

A Baguley-Drewry inspection car (right) on the 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) gauge Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway in Wales

NZR RM class (88 seater) under restoration

Drewry & Sons ran a motor and cycle repair business in Herne Hill, London, and started building BSA engined inspection railcars. A ready market was found in South America, Africa, and India. Drewry Car Co Ltd was registered on 27 November 1906. In 1908 BSA (of motor-cycle fame) took over building the railcars in Small Heath, Birmingham. In 1911 building was taken over by Baguley Cars, Burton-on-Trent. From 1930 a lot of Drewry locomotives were built by English Electric companies.

In 1962 Drewry acquired a controlling interest in what had become E E Baguley Ltd, and formed Baguley-Drewry Ltd in 1962, thus once again building its own locomotives, in Burton-on-Trent. The company closed in 1984.

Output

Shunting locomotives

• 29 TR class for the New Zealand Railways Department
• 1 LMS diesel shunter 7050
• 142 British Rail Class 04s
• 16 DS class for the New Zealand Railways Department
• 19 DSA class for the New Zealand Railways Department
• 25 DSB class for the New Zealand Railways Department
• 1 0-6-0 shunter for the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company[1]
• 18 Western Australian Government Railways Y class[2]
• 6 Western Australian Government Railways Z class[3]

Railcars

• Tasmanian Government Railways DP class[4][5]
• 35 RM class for the New Zealand Railways Department
• 1 for the Christmas Island Phosphate Co.'s Railway[6]
• 1 for the Southern Railway[7] It was tested on various branch lines in Southern England but found to be too small for most purposes. It was sold to the Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Railway in 1934 and broken up in 1940 when that railway was sold to the Great Western Railway.

References

1. Here & There Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin issue 307 May 1963 page 4
2. WAGR Takes Delivery of First Diesels for Shunting: Road Engines to Come Railway Transportation January 1954 page 16
3. Here & There Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin issue 701 March 1996 page 96
4. Tasmanian Government Railways 75HP Bogie Rail Motor Locomotive, Railway Carriage & Wagon Review issue 410 October 1926 page 326
5. Tasmania's New Diesel Railcars Port Pirie Recorder 26 September 1939 page 2
6. Christmas Island Light Railways issue 29 Spring 1969 pages 6
7. Locomotives of the Southern Railway. Part 1, Railway Corresponce and Travel Society, 1975.

Sources

• "The Drewry Car Company:1906-1970". Industrial Railway Record. Industrial Railway Society (40). 1972.
• Marsden, Colin J., (2003) The Diesel Shunter, Oxford Publishing, ISBN 0-86093-579-5
• The Railway Products of Baguley-Drewry Ltd and Its Predecessors, Civil, A, and Etherington, R, (2008), The Industrial Railway Society, ISBN 978-1-901556-44-5

External links

• Photo of the First Drewry Railcar
• James Sidney Drewry
• Specifications and photos of NZR Drewry Railcar
• Restored NZR Drewry Railcar
• Classic Car Restoration Guide