For the past seven months I have been cataloguing the GEC Traction archive – the most extensive collection held at the National Railway Museum. Included in the collection are thousands of drawings, which I have just finished cataloguing. There are 1013 boxes and folders; within the boxes are 824 separate drawing rolls ranging from 1 to 250 drawings per roll.
There are a huge variety of drawings ranging from export locomotives to anti-aircraft guns used by the Royal Navy in World War Two, hundreds of mechanical component and wiring diagrams and a few ‘holy grails’ of general arrangements for British Railways locomotives including the Class 22 and 84. I have picked out a few to whet your appetite.
(Ref: GEC/2/2/2/352)
(Ref: GEC/2/2/2/82)
(Ref: GEC/2/2/2/140)
(Ref: GEC/2/2/2/179)
(Ref: GEC/2/2/2/381)
(Ref: GEC/2/2/1/69)
Although the above drawings have been created by English Electric Company and GEC Alsthom Ltd, the archive contains many more by GEC Traction, Associated Electrical Industries, Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Company, Vulcan Foundry Ltd, Robert Stephenson & Hawthorns and Beyer Peacock to name a few.
The next stage of the project is to catalogue the 500 + boxes of the business and technical records. The project, funded by the National Archives Cataloguing Grant Scheme finishes at the end of September.
If you would like a copy of any of these drawings, please email Copy.Service@nrm.org.uk. All the drawings and the rest of the collection will be available to view in Search Engine when the catalogue goes live on AdLib later this year. For other queries on the archive you can email me on charlotte.dennard@nrm.org.uk
You can also explore more posts about the GEC archive here.
I have tried to trace a photo of my late father photographed at AEI Rugby Works in the late 1950’s fitting out the control gear of a class 24 and published in the AEI Topic.My mother had a copy of the photograph but was lost when she had water leak.Do you know of any copies of Topic are held in the archive please?.
Yours Bob Haddon
Hi Bob,
We have many photographs, negatives and loose photographs in the collection with many images of workers in factories. You can search the collection once it becomes live on the archive catalogue (http://archives.sciencemuseumgroup.ac.uk/search/simple) at the end of this year. I am currently cataloguing the images and I let you know if I find anything, please email me on charlotte.dennard@nrm.org.uk so I can personally reply to your enquiry.
Many thanks,
Charlotte
The English Electric (EE) diesel supplied to Rhodesia Railways (RR) were classified by RR as class DE 2 (NOT CLASS 40). The date of
1958 is also wrong the first loco of class DE 2 was handed over to RR by EE at Salisbury (now Harare/Zimbabwe) on 22/06/55 so
I presume drawing dates to 1954 (NOT 1958).
Hi Richard,
Many thanks for the correction of the RR Class DE2, however the date on this particular drawing is 1958.
Best wishes,
Charlotte
Charlotte,
Thank you for your reply. The first batch of 23 x DE2 were delivered to the RR in 1955/56 the second batch of 12 x DE2 were
delivered in 1958 (date of the drawing). There is a model of a DE2 in the warehouse at the NRM in the original livery of
crimson and cream the later livery of green and yellow is on a model of a RR DE3 also in the warehouse these locos are
also built by English Electric sixteen delivered in 1962.
Looking for drawings/any information on Wolseley (yes, the car people) 4w petrol loco produced 1903/4.
Nothing came up on searching GEC Traction archive.
The Wolseley Tool and Motor Car Co. was founded by Vickers, Sons and Maxim in 1901 to manufacture cars based on development work carried out 1899/1901 by the Wolseley Sheepsheering Co.
Vickers, Sons and Maxim became Metropolitan Vickers, who became GEC.
Not much hope, but might there be something amongst all those drawings?
Do you have any info or photographs drawings etc of Mauritiaus railways I wonder please?
HELLO I WRITE YOU FROM MONTEVIDEO URUGUAY WITH A CONSULTATION YOU WOULD HAVE IN YOUR FILES INFORMATION ABOUT THE TRAMS BUILT BY THE UNITED ELECTRIC CAR CO LIMITED FOR THE COMERCIAL SOCIETY OF MONTEVIDEO IN 1906, WHICH I WANT NEEDING PHOTOS OF THE MODELS, SOMETHING THAT INDICATES THE COMPONENTS WITH WHICH THEY WERE MADE … IN OTHER LIBRARIES THEY DERIVED ME OR BY MAIL COMPLETE ME EVERYTHING BY WALKING EVERYWHERE AND THEY DON’T HELP ME IN THE MINIMUM … THAT’S WHY I WOULD THANK YOU SO MUCH.
I have just discovered this archive, what a wonderful collection of drawings. I have been searching for English Electric Preston drawings of the Manchester Corporation Transport Department “Streamliner” bus (mid-1930s-1940s), as per your example showing destination box details, and would appreciate details of any other drawings on these vehicles in your archive. Crossley Motors also manufactured these bus chassis and bodies and I wonder if these are also included in the archive ?
Hi Brian, I’ve checked the GEC archive catalogue and cannot find anything for Manchester Corporation Buses – although there is a roll of drawings for some Trolleybuses. There are only a small number of Crossley drawings in the archive. It is best to contact the library & archive team at search.engine@railwaymuseum.org.uk if you have further questions (we don’t monitor comments on older blog posts so it is only by chance that I noticed your recent question) , Peter