Richard Garrett & Sons
Encyclopedia
Steam engine
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...
s and trolleybus
Trolleybus
A trolleybus is an electric bus that draws its electricity from overhead wires using spring-loaded trolley poles. Two wires and poles are required to complete the electrical circuit...
es. Their factory was Leiston Works, in Leiston
Leiston
Leiston is a town in eastern Suffolk, England. It is situated near Saxmundham and Aldeburgh, about from the North Sea coast and is northeast of Ipswich and northeast from London...
, Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
.
The company was active under its original ownership between 1778 and 1932.
In the late 1840s, after cultivating a successful agricultural machine and implement business, the company began producing portable steam engines
Portable engine
A portable engine is a small steam engine, mounted on wheels or skids, which is used for driving machinery using a belt from its flywheel. It is not self-propelled and is towed to the work site by horses or bullocks, or even a traction engine. Portable engines were used mainly for driving...
. The company grew to a major business employing around 2,500 people. Richard Garrett III, grandson of the company's founder, visited The Great Exhibition of 1851
The Great Exhibition
The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations or The Great Exhibition, sometimes referred to as the Crystal Palace Exhibition in reference to the temporary structure in which it was held, was an international exhibition that took place in Hyde Park, London, from 1 May to 15 October...
in London, where he saw some new American manufacturing ideas. Richard Garrett III introduced flow line production - a very early assembly line
Assembly line
An assembly line is a manufacturing process in which parts are added to a product in a sequential manner using optimally planned logistics to create a finished product much faster than with handcrafting-type methods...
- and constructed a new workshop for the purpose in 1852. This was known as 'The Long Shop' on account of its length. A machine would start at one end of the Long Shop and as it progressed through the building it would stop at various stages where new parts would be added. There was also an upper level where other parts were made; they would be lowered over a balcony and then fixed onto the machine on the ground level. When the machine reached the end of the shop, it would be complete.
In 1914, following a major fire at the works, it was decided to build a new factory on land that had been owned as a demonstration farm next to the station. From then on the sites were always known as the "Old Works" and the "New Works".
The company joined the Agricultural & General Engineers
Agricultural & General Engineers
Agricultural & General Engineers was a combine of British engineering companies formed in 1919. The constituent companies were assigned sectors of the market to reduce competition within the group. The group headquarters were located in Aldwych, London, but most of the member companies were in...
(AGE) combine in 1919, and the combine entered receivership in 1932.
The company was purchased by Beyer Peacock in 1932 after the collapse of AGE. The business continued as Richard Garrett Engineering Works until the works finally closed in 1981.
Today, part of the old works is preserved as the Long Shop Museum. Some of the offices are used as flats but the rest of that site has been demolished and the land used for housing. Some of the New Works is still used as industrial units while the offices have been converted to flats and more built on the site, known as Colonial House.
Portable engines
The majority of the steam engines produced by Garrett were portable enginePortable engine
A portable engine is a small steam engine, mounted on wheels or skids, which is used for driving machinery using a belt from its flywheel. It is not self-propelled and is towed to the work site by horses or bullocks, or even a traction engine. Portable engines were used mainly for driving...
s – combined with their fixed steam engines and semi-portables, they represented 89% of the works' output.
Traction engines
Traction engine
A traction engine is a self-propelled steam engine used to move heavy loads on roads, plough ground or to provide power at a chosen location. The name derives from the Latin tractus, meaning 'drawn', since the prime function of any traction engine is to draw a load behind it...
s and ploughing engines, 49% of which were exported.
Steam rollers
The construction of steam rollers was generally apportioned to Aveling & Porter by the AGE combine, limiting the production of these engines by Garrett. 90% of the rollers produced by Garrett were exported. Garrett rollers were produced under license under the name "Ansaldo-Garrett" by Gio. Ansaldo & C.Gio. Ansaldo & C.
Ansaldo was one of Italy's oldest and most important engineering companies, existing for 140 years from 1853 to 1993.-From foundation to World War I:...
of Italy.
Steam tractors
Richard Garrett and Sons are perhaps best known for their steam tractors, the most popular design of which was the Number 4 compoundCompound locomotive
A compound engine unit is a type of steam engine where steam is expanded in two or more stages.A typical arrangement for a compound engine is that the steam is first expanded in a high-pressure cylinder, then having given up heat and losing pressure, it exhausts directly into one or more larger...
tractor, commonly referred to as the "4CD".
Steam wagons
Steam wagon
A steam wagon is a steam-powered road vehicle for carrying freight. It was the earliest form of lorry and came in two basic forms: overtype and undertype – the distinction being the position of the engine relative to the boiler...
s of both the undertype and overtype configurations. Their first steam wagons were three relatively unsuccessful undertypes constructed between 1904 and 1908.
The failed undertype wagons were followed by a relatively successful line of overtypes, the first being constructed in 1909. These wagons were developed using the experience Garrett's designers had gained producing the tractors. The majority of these wagons were fitted with superheater
Superheater
A superheater is a device used to convert saturated steam or wet steam into dry steam used for power generation or processes. There are three types of superheaters namely: radiant, convection, and separately fired...
s, a feature used as a marketing point against the un-superheated Foden
Foden
Foden may refer to:* Ben Foden , English rugby union player* Giles Foden , British author* Wendy Foden, South African conservation biologist- See also :* Edwin Foden, Sons & Co., a former British truck and bus manufacturer...
wagons. The overtype wagons were initially produced in a 5-ton capacity, with a 3-ton design following in 1911. By the early 1920s, the overtype wagon market was declining in the face of competition from undertype steam wagons and petrol wagons. In 1926 a last-ditch attempt was made to produce an updated design of 6-ton capacity using components from the new undertype designs, but only 8 were produced. Overall, 693 overtypes were produced to the firm's designs.
The final Aveling & Porter overtype wagons were assembled by Garrett, under the arrangements made at the formation of AGE.
By 1920 the success of the Sentinel
Sentinel Waggon Works
Sentinel Waggon Works Ltd was a British company based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire that made steam-powered lorries, railway locomotives, and later, diesel engined lorries and locomotives.-Alley & MacLellan, Sentinel Works, Jessie Street Glasgow:...
undertypes was evident, and Garretts decided to re-enter the undertype wagon market. Their first prototype was produced in 1921, driven by a two-cylinder engine with piston valves actuated by Joy valve gear
Joy Valve Gear
Joy valve gear is a type of locomotive valve gear, patented in 1870, where the movement is derived from a vertical link connected to the connecting rod. The vertical movement is translated into the horizontal movement required by the valve spindle by a die block moving in a slide which can be...
. Unusually for the time, the wagon was fitted with Timken
Timken Company
The Timken Company is a global manufacturer of bearings, alloy steels, and related components and assemblies.- History :The company was founded by Henry Timken in St. Louis, Missouri in 1899 and incorporated as The Timken Roller Bearing Axle Company. A year earlier, in 1898, Timken got a patent...
roller bearings
Rolling-element bearing
A rolling-element bearing, also known as a rolling bearing, is a bearing which carries a load by placing round elements between the two pieces...
on the crankshaft
Crankshaft
The crankshaft, sometimes casually abbreviated to crank, is the part of an engine which translates reciprocating linear piston motion into rotation...
, countershaft and axles. This design was built under license as the "Adamov-Garrett" by Adamov of Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
from 1925. In 1926 a prototype rigid six-wheeled wagon was produced. In 1927 a poppet valve
Poppet valve
A poppet valve is a valve consisting of a hole, usually round or oval, and a tapered plug, usually a disk shape on the end of a shaft also called a valve stem. The shaft guides the plug portion by sliding through a valve guide...
engine replaced the earlier design, this being used until the end of production in 1932. 310 wagons were produced in this second phase of undertype construction.
Electric vehicles
From 1916 Garrett produced a range of electric vehicles. Their first foray into the market was with a 3½ ton battery-powered vehicle, intended for local deliveries. They later produced trolleybuses and refuse collection vehicles. Notably was the GTZ, 60 of which were made for Glasgow.Diesel wagons
Garrett were a pioneer in the construction of diesel-engined road vehicles, and their two 1928-built experimental Crude Oil Wagons, known as COWS in the works, are believed to be the first British-built wagons fitted with diesel engines from new. These vehicles were constructed using the chassis and running gear from the undertype wagon designs, one a four-wheeler and the other a six-wheeler, both fitted with a McLaren BenzJ&H McLaren & Co.
J&H McLaren was a British engineering company in Hunslet, Leeds, England, that manufactured traction engines, stationary engines and later, diesel engines....
engine.
The COWS proved the concept of a diesel wagon, and in 1930 the company embarked on designing a production vehicle. Due to the company being part of the AGE
Agricultural & General Engineers
Agricultural & General Engineers was a combine of British engineering companies formed in 1919. The constituent companies were assigned sectors of the market to reduce competition within the group. The group headquarters were located in Aldwych, London, but most of the member companies were in...
combine, the engine chosen for the design was a Blackstone's
Blackstone & Co
Blackstone & Co. was a farm implement maker at Stamford, Lincolnshire, England. In 1896 they built lamp start oil engines. By 1912 they had developed a new diesel engine that ran on vaporizing oil and was fired by a spark...
design, the BHV6. The first vehicle, designated the GB6, was completed in 1931 and a test programme was initiated. The venture was not successful, primarily due to the unreliability of the Blackstone engine, and the perilous economic state of the works at that time. After the company was bought by Beyer Peacock, a half-hearted attempt was made to market the design with a Gardner
L. Gardner and Sons Ltd.
L. Gardner and Sons Ltd was a well-known British builder of diesel engines for stationary, marine, road and rail applications. The company was founded in Hulme Manchester England in 1868. They started building engines around 1895. The firm of L...
engine fitted, but no wagon was ever produced.