Dick, Kerr & Co.
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Dick, Kerr and Company was a locomotive manufacturer based in Kilmarnock, Scotland and Preston, England.
Having previously been known as W.B.Dick and Company the company had built all kinds of tramway equipment and rolling stock. From 1883 the company joined with John Kerr and under its new name, it built around fifty locomotives up to 1919. The company faciities in Preston were acquired in 1893 along with the railway and tramway plant activities of Hartley, Arnoux and Fanning who had been bought out by Kerr Stuart and Company.
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[edit] The First World War
During the First World War the company was converted to a munitions factory. The company also made aircraft, to designs from the Seaplane Experimental Station, Felixstowe, and petrol-electric locomotives for the War Department Light Railways.
To improve morale, some of the women employees of this era formed the nationally renowned ladies football team, The Dick, Kerr's Ladies.
From 1904 to 1912, the company supplied tram cars to Hong Kong Tramways.
[edit] Post War
In 1919 the Kilmarnock works were sold to the Kilmarnock Engineering Company, and the company was taken over by English Electric. In 1968 English Electric merged with GEC.
[edit] Surviving locomotives
At least one Dick Kerr locomotive is known to survive:
- 600 mm (1 ft 11⅝ in) gauge 4wDE from 1918 at the Phyllis Rampton Trust
[edit] References
- Lowe, J.W., (1989) British Steam Locomotive Builders, Guild Publishing
[edit] See Also
www.dickkerrladies.com
