Virgin Trains’ “steam team” lays new foundations at world’s first commercial railway Staff have taken time out from working on the transformation of Virgin Trains’ east coast route to volunteer at the world’s first commercial railway. As Virgin Trains prepares to revolutionise train travel with the introduction of its Azuma trains from next year, 29 volunteers from the company have helped to drive steam trains and worked as “navvies” at Middleton Railway in Leeds...  External link to this item of news

The Grand National - plus previous news items.

122 years ago on this day in 1895. The inaugural run of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's Royal Blue from Washington, D.C., to New York, New York, the first U.S. passenger train to use electric locomotives

"engine (n): a machine with moving parts that converts power in to motion." Oxford English Dictionary

England's Biggest Locomotive Building City

Engine making in Leeds goes back to the late 18th century and in 1812 the first commercial use of steam locomotives began with Murray, Fenton and Wood built locomotives hauling coal on the Middleton Railway. Leeds is proud to have built more railway engines than any other place in England, including the big engine building cities of Swindon, Doncaster and Crewe. This is a surprise to many as the Leeds built locomotives were largely for export or for un-glamourous working lives in industry or even down mines.

A Diverse Range of Products

Local engineering firms manufactured a variety of products including stationary engines, all varients of steam road locomotives, rollers and lorries.Leeds was an important centre of steam crane production. Local firms also made planes, trams, buses, machine tools and a varied selection of other ancillary products. Going by the definition above we have tried to include anything that converts power into motion.

With these pages it is hoped to provide plenty of information about the several firms that operated in the Leeds area and details of what sights you can see today from our engine building past. Click on the links at the top of the page to visit our series of histories of the engine makers, our database of Leeds built engines, picture galleries, walking tours of the sites today and all sorts of features about our engine making heritage.

If you have any extra information about the Leeds engine builders please E Mail us your contributions will help us develop this site

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